Your princess is in another castle.

Call this my "fat majorette" blog if you want...

Wind ensemble auditions are like playing Super Mario Brothers on the old school nintendo. You can work hard and prepare and focus your efforts toward a certain goal, only to find out that what you are in search of simply isn't there. That has happened three times now with Wind Ensemble auditions. During the fall, we as a concert band were told by a certain director of bands that we would ALL have the opportunity to challenge into the Wind Ensemble for the spring Semester. Those auditions, according to said band director, would occur shortly before the end of the fall semester 2005. So I prepared. After all, when I auditioned for the Fall, I had only known for maybe 2 weeks that I would even be picking my trombone up again, after about a four or five year hiatus. I obvoiously would play better after practicing 2 hours a day for a semester.

So the end of Fall 2005 comes, no auditions. I ask the band director when they will be and I am told they'll be the first day that we're back in class for the spring. Postponement number one.

So I practice over the break. A lot. I prepare for that audition. First day of class, it is posted that auditions will be held Monday, January 30 (today.) Postponement number 2.

So today rolls around. All last week we are told in Concert band that in fact, the auditions will be monday. She even set up a time for Mr. Bubsey (trombone teacher) to be in there with us during auditions. That time is 3:00 PM (notice the time of this post. My computer currently says 3:05) She came up to me in the hallway ONE HOUR AGO to tell me she was moving them to an arbitrary "sometime later in the week," and tells me to look for postings on the bulletin board. Postponement number 3.

Note to the kiddies out there: If you plan on being in college band, look at ETSU. and if the "director of bands" hasn't changed since about 2003, DON'T COME HERE, WHATEVER YOU DO!

I dislike being lied to, very much. And there is an individual (read "director of bands") whom I have very little respect for. After all, it is quite difficult to give respect to someone who time and time again shows a complete disregard for your own worth. My entire life schedule should not revolve around one person's inability to make a schedule and stick to it. I have trombone lessons to teach. I have other classes. I have a wife. I have a job.

I am half tempted to just give up and not audition, but today's events have emboldened me. I get the feeling that she doesn't want to audition the trombones, and by God, I will NOT give her that satisfaction.

Just a reminder: This is MY place on the internet to say what I want to say. It is not a literary journal, nor is it meant to be pleasant. If you don't like my griping, then you don't have to read it.

Jim