Workday Walk

I did something today that I've always wanted to do.  I took a deliberate midday walk in the middle of my workday.  I should add that it was outside, which is what elevated it to the "never before" novelty.  I often take midday walks out of necessity but they're typically to the copy room or more urgently, the restroom.      

It's the first official week back for teachers and today's meeting was divided up to include a lunch break so I seized the moment.  It was beautiful out, I've been feeling lethargic without my sprints up and down hallways, and I was feeling rebellious against the arbitrary lunch time suggested in the day's schedule.  

But there was more.  We live on a street right across from a high school.  We can literally see and hear all things 'Friday Night Lights', 5Ks, parades, and general adolescence buzz.  Since schools shut down in March, things have obviously been...quiet.  But today, just before I would decide that my back could use a stretch, I could have sworn I was hearing something in some offset universe.  Driving, patterned rhythms, accented, with definitive starts and stops, repeating every so often.  Sandals on! 

Two-tenths of a mile north of our piano room's window, sure enough:  a DRUM LINE!  Seven high school students, all masked, standing in the familiar parking lot arc, spaced out so everyone was not only safely distanced but also in ample shade opportunity, playing away.  No instructor.  No other signs of the rest of the band, just these seven kids.  Playing a simple double-stroke warmup.  Center snare gently accelerating the tempo every fifth repetition or so.  All seven marking time with heels to asphalt.  Echoes of cutoff notes bouncing in delay between the brick walls of the high school and middle school buildings.  I was immersed in memories of this very thing from so many Augusts.  

It was beautiful.  I stood there awkwardly from a distance for about ten minutes and became teary at it all.  It looked so...normal.  It sounded so...hopeful.  

I also passed an adorable line of tiny preschoolers walking like baby ducks in a line in between their teachers.  I wondered if they walked at this time every day.  Guess I'll try to find out tomorrow.