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I got word on Friday–I made it! If you’ve been following my Minnesota Brass adventure, you know I had official auditions for the color guard 2–1/2 weeks ago. Thank you to all of you who have been encouraging me over the past few months as I’ve struggled with this new activity. You’ve made me feel

Minnesota Brass auditions were Wednesday night. You know how on So You Think You Can Dance, there are always dancers that do really well with their routine they’ve been perfecting for ages? And then Nigel and Mia and Adam send them on to choreography to see how well they can pick up new stuff? And you

I’ve been sharing my Minnesota Brass adventure with you, and here’s a quick update. Last Wednesday night, I went to rehearsal and practiced for 2–1/2 hours. Then I got up at 2:30 a.m. Thursday to head to New York City for a week with my husband. For the past week, I have ridden subways and eaten cheesecake and cannolis. We walked a lot,

I already knew that perfectionism had no place in my Minnesota Brass adventure. As a first-time spinner, I have no hope nor expection of perfection, and I’m not a perfectionist, anyway, in any areas of my life. I’m a pretty-darn-goodist at best.  But, when I know I need to improve in something, I will practice it fairly

As the next step in sharing my Minnesota Brass adventure, I promised to get a bit of video so that you can see what I’m working on if you’ve never seen a color guard before. Also, I’m tired of text, text, text. So one day as the temp hovered around 6 degrees, I took my phone during my driveway

News flash: Making your body do stuff it’s not used to causes soreness. OK, I know that’s no surprise, but I’m being reminded of it now. It’s been 7 or 8 weeks of learning across-the-floors and flag spins and tosses for my Minnesota Brass adventure, and my body is feeling it. I’ve been black and blue from hitting myself

Whenever I want to learn how to do something, I get a book. Replace the kitchen faucet? Get a book. Make a latch-hook rug? Get a book. Write a book? Get a book. But sadly, there’s no book of instructions for the dance and spinning routines I need to learn for the color guard. And

Time for another Minnesota Brass update. Ever since I started this adventure about six weeks ago, I’ve felt out of place. I still do. And that’s one of the reasons I think I have to keep doing it. Last week the entire color guard was supposed to come. The veterans haven’t been coming to practice because

Several weeks into my adventures with Minnesota Brass, I’ve realized that where I stand during practice really matters. When we do across-the-floors, my first instinct was to get at the end of the line. Then I realized that when my turn came, I was passe-ing and chasse-ing and jazz-running across the floor right toward a line of

That’s the question you always have to ask yourself when you say you want to do something–whether that something is writing a book or joining a color guard. Older Daughter bailed on practice this past week at the last minute. Why? Because she was going out to dinner with a friend: “We’ve been trying to

Maybe you saw my post last week on joining the color guard of an all-ages drum corps. I’m going to post each week, I think, on my (possibly brief) adventure there. I need a name for this series of posts–something to make them sound funnier and more relevant than they really are. Any thoughts? Anyhow,

One of the things I really want to do in my writing is take risks. I want to be knowledgeable about the marketplace and the “accepted” topics and approaches in kids’ writing, and I want to have a career as a children’s writer, but I also want to risk foolishness and non-publication by continuing to