Seagulls in the Mountains: Honors Clinic In a Town That Doesn't Exist

Last year, I thought it would be a good experience for Rylee to be in the musical play at the middle school so I talked to principal Mr. Cazier who was totally down with that. So, from March to May, Rylee would go to the choir class first thing in the a.m. and then come home. This year, she asked if she could take the actual choir class. (The teacher is not doing a musical this year.) She gets up and out the door at 7:30, catching a ride with a friend whose grandparents take her to school.

One morning when I picked her up she was uber excited because she was selected to be in a group to go to an Honors Clinic. So, this is like, the best of the best of the best, SIR! This group met the bus at 6:00 on a Sat. morning and conglomerated with groups from other schools at the Mountain View High School a couple hours away. I opted NOT to go at 6 a.m.

The kids spent all day working on different pieces with a critically acclaimed (for this region, at least) conductor dude. They were fed pizza for dinner and hung out til showtime.

After struggling with my GPS to even FIND Mountain View, WY (which it never did! it only found one in California), I did the old-fashioned thing and printed a map. GASP! I actually forgot there even existed such things as atlases. There's something really wrong with me.

Anyway, I did manage to show up at the school before showtime. I got to hang out with the awkward middle-schoolers for about 45 minutes. I don't even want to write about that...

The choir concert was really enjoyable. My tiny phone didn't have the capability to film (store) all the songs so I only got the first one which was an African song. They also did Shanandoa, and a couple of others that I really enjoyed but cannot think of the name.

As a side-note: Band members were also there for the same thing- Honors Clinic- and OH MY! I have endured many a middle-school-band concert and then understood what my parents had to go through. But, THIS... THIS group sounded SOOO good. Which proves my belief that when a person really CARES and has PASSION about what they do they will excel because they contain their own motivation to work on it, to do what's required to become better. The band conductor picked a Western theme and it was extremely fun.

Oh yeah, Rylee said that on the drive down, the bus hit a deer. It cracked the windshield, broke a head-light, sent kids and skittles flying all over the place. But everyone's okay.