This One Time...At Band Camp.. NO, THAT NEVER HAPPENED, PEOPLE! That was a MOVIE.

Man I have a raging case of PMS and I'm sitting here eating 2% cottage cheese? WTF is my problem? Oh right, there is a side of chocolate chip cookies. Heavy on the chocolate.

Yeah, so I was a band geek...guess that cat shot it's ass out of the bag in last night's post. What am I gonna do - lie and say I was a super duper cheerleader? Pullllease. I'm sure there were a great many perky and friendly cheerleaders out there...but at my school...well let's say the movie Mean Girls is pretty accurate. And I'd rather be remembered as a nice Band Geek than an uptight mean slut. Ooops?! Did I say that in my outside voice??

Details...I started playing the flute in 4th grade. It stunk until about 8th grade when dum dee dum dum - I joined the junior high band. Don't get me wrong - there was NOTHING worse than junior high band because #1 we sucked, and #2 our director was geekier and nastier than any other teachers in the school.

I swear I almost quit in junior high but my mother guilted me into keeping up with it. "Oh so you want to be a quitter?" And my private lesson teacher was really good and got me hooked up with the high school band in 9th grade even though I was still in junior high.

I was pretty nerdy anyway. I had some physical difference with my hands (discussed here) that isolated me from the cool kids. Cause, as you know, being different doesn't fly with kids. And so in looking for an identity, music found me making some friends. I was a little brainy too back then (not sure what happened??) so it was pretty much nerds-ville for me anyway... and I had some friends in the honors classes too.

Only problem is I stopped being quite so smart and most of those friends didn't, so we parted ways in high school where the only subject that still made me look good was English. Probably couldn't tell that by my grammar! I swear to God knowing what I know now - I probably wasn't that far away from ADD - I have an infinitely hard time focusing on one thing for too long. But I think the teachers said it was my inability to "apply myself." Yeah those progress reports caused some painful after-dinner "discussions" about parents being disappointed and me applying myself more.

Anyway, the band geekiness. In high school I got some mentors through the music program and eventually I really came out of my shell because there I was accepted 100%. No one ever even asked me about my hands or my differences. Or snubbed me. The differences didn't matter. And that rocked.

I would say that once I got into that environment, I started focusing in more on my music talent and I got pretty good around my junior year and was first chair in my senior year. Um for those of you NOT in the KNOW regarding orchestra - First Chair = The Shit. The Princess Flutist. The Best On that Instrument. Soloist. Taking bows and crap. It was sweet.

So yeah, be a little nervous if your kid becomes a band geek...but know they will make GREAT friends. And STILL do stupid ass shit like toilet paper houses, drink (oops!), and break curfew.

Geeks can be rebels too!