Back in the 'Burg & the (School) Building

Even though the past two days haven't been occupied by crossing state lines or watching live music, they've ended up being fairly eventful. I got my turn signal taken care of, for starters. Big thanks to Scott from AutoZone for hooking me up with a new bulb. Not only did he sell a replacement to me... he installed it for me!

I shared with him that my friends and I had been in Connecticut for a music festival this past weekend and confided that I'd been without a right turn signal since right before crossing into Connecticut. I said, "I only got honked at once, but I've been feeling very reckless these past couple days." He thought that was quite humorous!

Anyway, the signal is once again working and the folks behind me are being made aware of future right-hand turns.

In other news, I returned to school and had so much fun with my students! I had much to share with them, seeing as they'd heard absolutely nothing about Old Crow Medicine Show or Sound on Sound. I filled them in on all the bands, shared some clips from the concerts, and got the scoop on the Homecoming Parade (which I missed this year).

Many of my students do not listen to folk music, so it came as no surprise to me that there were several comments along the lines of, "How do you dance to this, Ms. Meeson?" and "How much did you spend on this ticket? Sixty dollars?! You could get, like, so many Big Macs with that!"

I don't eat Big Macs and I'd rather see Old Crow any day than consume McDonald's... but that's just me, I guess.

The fun part was watching the kids who weren't complaining appreciate a type of music they wouldn't normally listen to. I've got this one student (we'll call him Mr. Personality) who bopped his head to Caamp and determined, "Now this right here? This stuff is catchy." He then proceeded to stand up and play an invisible guitar, suggesting that next time I allow him to accompany me to the concert so he can climb up on stage and perform alongside the musicians.

While listening to "Wagon Wheel" in fourth period, quite a few students sang along. These guys were also really proud of me for distributing so many business cards over the weekend. I gave them a sneak peek at the map on my website and it's obvious that my efforts are paying off. We are international, folks, and New England is lighting up blue! Later this week, I've gotta get with Mr. Read Aloud and the gang to come up with a "Christmas Goal." (This is, as the name suggests, a goal that should be accomplished by Christmas and has something to do with blue dots on the map.)

I had a lot of fun recounting my weekend to fourth period -- especially because my one student, Poseidon Jr., was so into hearing about the different bands. Even though I don't play a musical instrument, I sure do like to talk about music with people! And Poseidon Jr. is a fun person to talk to about music!

Agent B is in my sixth-period class and she's recruited an assistant agent: Agent S. Both agents are going to give me a TikTok tutorial on Thursday, which should be eye-opening. I feel as though I haven't a clue what I'm doing on that particular platform.

Regarding the music, however... I confessed to my sixth-period students (among other classes of students) that I have such a crush on Cory Younts of Old Crow Medicine Show. Agent B told me that had she been in the venue, she would have gotten his number for me. I was like, "He's a rockstar, Agent B. It's not like you can just approach him and say, 'My teacher thinks you're cute.' He was on the stage." Agent B has a lot of faith in herself, though, so if Cory's still single when Agent B graduates from high school, I'm taking her to an Old Crow Medicine Show show.

Period seven was perhaps the biggest surprise of the day! In general, this class is very quiet. Conversing with them is sometimes very similar to conversing with a chalkboard... or a wooden chair... or any other inanimate object, really. But today was a completely different story! When I confided the truth -- that a man holding a guitar is approximately 100,000 times more attractive than a man not holding a guitar -- Doodlebug threw his hands in the air and exclaimed, "Right?! I know!!!" Flower Child and Boots McTalkin' shared that they find Taylor Meier from Caamp to be pretty cute and I admitted that I think this too. The more I listen to Caamp, the cuter he gets...

So that was my day with students. A bit of schoolwork was also completed -- it is school, after all -- but so much bonding occurred! I loved every minute of it and I'm looking forward to going back tomorrow. We'll be reading a bit more of Something Wicked This Way Comes, which I'm sure the kids will grumble about, but they grumbled about Old Crow and Trampled By Turtles and Caamp and The Lumineers too, remember? And then they ended up bobbing their heads, tapping their feet, and singing along. A few even played imaginary fiddles! It makes me think Ray Bradbury stands a chance.