This is the first year the Midwest Clinic was held at McCormack Place. Before this it was held at the Hilton, which provided a festive atmosphere, but was too small and cramped for the conference. McCormack Place was more sterile, but had plenty of room for everything the Clinic offered.

This is the tallest escalator I’ve ever been on; two full stories. I wanted to go up and down a couple of times but there wasn’t time in between sessions.

One of the best things about the Midwest Clinic is the exhibit area. Every year I look forward to picking up freebies, collecting complimentary military band CDs and shopping!

When you enter the exhibit area your senses are assaulted by a dizzying display of colors, sounds and smells. The entire area is jam-packed with vendor booths designed to attract your attention, and hopefully your money too. The scent of fresh-baked pizza and cookie samples provided by fund-raising companies teases your nose and invites sampling. That’s my sweetie, front and center with the green bag on his back. Hey, wait for me!

Yesterday this guy was dressed head-to toe in a green velour elf costume, complete with jingle bells on his hat and the tips of his pointy elf shoes. I was disappointed to see that today’s costume was just a hat and vest. Either way that booth attracted lots of attention!

The hubbub of hundreds of voices blend with the cacophony of sound coming from the instruments in the instrument manufacturer’s booths.

Students are especially eager to “strut their stuff” on the display instruments. Teachers will check out the range of an instrument but students show off their most complicated drum riff or the highest note they can squeeze out of a trumpet. There’s my honey again!

If you’re easily distracted like I am you’ll find yourself wandering from booth to booth without any idea of what you’ve seen before and what you haven’t. I was totally distracted by this line of cymbals. I love percussion, but best of all they’re shiny! I suffer from an acute case of “ADOS: Attention Deficit… Oh Shiny!” Lucky for me Teacher is used to me getting sidetracked, and made sure we saw everything anyway.

I had to take a picture of the internet cafe – all those people lined up in pairs facing the same way staring at computer monitors was hilarious.

This was my favorite booth! The artwork of Karen Cannon is so impressive. Not only is she talented, her paintings capture the essence of kids and music in a whimsical, humorous way. We ended up getting note cards – no pun intended – for in the big kids’ stockings. Shhh, don’t tell – they still believe in Santa Claus.

This adorable gingerbread house stood in the middle of the floor on the way out of the exhibit hall. Unlike the Hilton which is lavishly decorated for Christmas every year, McCormack Place had very few Christmas decorations, so the gingerbread house was even more special.

I’m terrible, I know. I promised to write more about the Midwest Clinic. And I haven’t done it yet, but what can I say? First there was Christmas, and New Years, and new children in the daycare, and puke, and… and… OK, no more excuses, time to write.
Teacher and I had two FANTASTIC days in Chicago at the Midwest Clinic! We planned to leave early Thursday morning, but first we had to stop at the gas station, then we had to go back home to drop off the car seats we’d forgotten to take out of the car, then we went through McDonald’s drive through for breakfast Cinnamon Melts, hash browns and Diet Coke – Yummy! we ended up leaving Appleton almost an hour later than we’d planned.

Since we’ve always lived at least an eight-hour drive away from family we’re used to long car trips so the four-hour drive to Chicago flew by. At least for me it did; I was reading the Glamour magazines that had piled up unread over the past few months while Teacher did all the driving. Even if he would let me drive on a trip there’s NO WAY I would drive in Chicago – those people are nuts! They have no fear; cutting in right and left, slamming on their brakes right in front of you, zipping across three lanes to take an exit… I find myself holding my breath and clutching the edges of the seats whenever we’re driving in Chicago.

Teacher got us safely to the Palmer House where we paid the extra $8.00 for valet parking. I thought it was totally worth it to unload our bags right at the curb and let someone else worry about where to park. After checking in and dumping our bags and stuff in the room I was starved. The first time we went to Midwest Clinic we made the mistake of buying lunch at the Clinic: $15.00 for a sandwich, chips and a soda – Ouch! This time we were smarter and decided to walk “up the block” to find lunch. I’d left my coat in the room because I didn’t want to be bothered with it at the Clinic, but it was a “balmy” 32 degrees so I figured I’d be OK for a couple of blocks. Six long blocks later I was wishing I had my coat, but we’d finally found an affordable place to eat – good old McDonalds again!

The wind was in our faces on the way back to the Palmer House but I was brave and didn’t whine – too much. We got back to the hotel and hopped on the shuttle to the Hilton, where the conference was being held. Once we arrived there we and hit our first snag: we hadn’t pre-registered and the computer systems went down right in the middle of registering Teacher. Because we didn’t have our Official Name Badges we couldn’t go to any workshops or browse the exhibits, so we stood around for almost half an hour waiting for the system to get back online. I started to think that they should just hand-write the name badges and take all the information to input later when the system came back up again. Finally we could do some Clinic stuff!

First up – a workshop entitled “The Wind Band Sound: ‘A Definitive Guide to Ensemble Intonation’ Practical Performance Applications”. Now, isn’t THAT a mouthful?!

To be continued…
(I promise!)

I am SO proud of “my” band!

I’ve directed one of the Fox Valley Lutheran Middle School Bands on Saturday mornings for the past 5 years. I started out with the beginners, but have had the intermediate band the past two years. Every May the band competes in a judged Festival, for a rating of I, II, or III. It’s not a competition against other bands, just against a standard.

Directors can choose to be competitive or just receive comments from the judges. I’ve chosen to be judged each year that I’ve directed, and each year we’ve received a First rating. Today we were just 1 point short of a “Perfect” First rating! I am SO incredibly proud of my students! They worked so hard all year and gave 110% today.

Next year we’ll start over with a new band – some students will move up to the advanced band, and students from this year’s beginning band will be in “my” band. It’s always exciting to see how the students grow and develop throughout the year. Hopefully next year we’ll earn that “Perfect” First rating!