I am sitting here at my laptop, with lots to do on my to-do list. It seems that May and June are getting just as busy each year as September - December normally is. At least that is how it feels this year. I am not complaining though, at least about May...the busy feelings kept my mind pre-occupied and off of things that would take me down dark roads for several weeks.
Back story: my dad died by suicide in November 2012. I thought that over time, the grief would be easier to manage, and day-to-day life would become more manageable overall. For the most part it has. Except for May. For some reason over the last several years, it has become harder for me to get through May than it used to. My birthday is at the end of May, and when my dad was alive he would always call me around my birthday, and we would have the most amazing, absurd, dumb conversations. Like what he had for breakfast or lunch the day I was born, how much gas or bread cost about that timeframe, etc. However for some reason, my brain still expects a phone call from him each year. When I finally realize that there is not going to ever be a call from him again, it usually causes me to spiral into a deep depression - even though I already knew he wasn't going to call, it still somehow surprises me every year.
The last few years I was down for almost a month, and considered just getting out of bed a victory for the day. Things would usually get worse as I was not mentally ready or capable of handling my regular to-do list of concert planning items, silent auction tasks, weekly emails to the band, etc. So, I'd get even more depressed because I was falling behind on regular (band) work. I was able to get my regular tasks at my job outsourced to teammates, so it wasn't that bad at work during this time.
This year, I started planning early.
We were invited back to the City of Sugar Land's Memorial Day Celebration, so in April I started copying our Music Director on all correspondence with the contact at the City of Sugar Land. That way, if he had any planning/logistics questions he could ask the contact directly instead of waiting for me to reach out, get a response, and report back to him. It actually worked out quite well - they met, worked out musical logistics, he picked up parking passes for me, and it went fairly smoothly. I still had a lot of work to do coordinating rehearsal time information to the band, letting them know where and when to park, where and when to perform, what the dress code was going to be, publicizing the performance on social media, etc. But, the Music Director took a lot off my plate this time around. It was an unexpected surprise, and I was very thankful for the assistance!
The main area of concern has been getting the silent auction baskets prepared and ready, and also setting up the silent auction website in time before the silent auction begins. In early May, I realized I had most of what was going to come in for our silent auction in June. I decided to go ahead and start grouping everything together, adding a basket, cellophane bag, ribbon, and shredded paper to each basket (making each basket easier and simpler to assemble). I figured if any additional items came in, I'd either just add to an existing basket, or create a new basket as the items came in. After grouping everything together the first week of May, I decided to go ahead and start organizing the items in the baskets, wrapping them, and getting the ribbons tied around the tops of all the baskets. The baskets were essentially done by the end of the second week of May. I then spent a few days setting up the silent auction website, building the virtual baskets in there, so people could bid on them once the site went live. By June, the baskets were completely done, and the website completely set up. This was a first for me, and it was such a relief knowing that was not hanging over my head!
As soon as we got the music for the Memorial Day performance (which was mostly doubling at the Patriotic Concert), I went ahead and started writing program notes for all the pieces. So, in addition to working with the Music Director on Memorial Day logistics with the contact at the City of Sugar Land, and wrapping silent auction baskets, and designing the silent auction website...I was also writing program notes and working on the initial design of our concert program! Thankfully, we repeat several pieces every year, as they have become annual favorites of our patrons. This means the program notes have already mostly been written (minus any new pieces we might have in our folders) - I just have to drop them into the program notes pages that I build for each concert program.
The only real tasks I have to do for the patriotic concert program each year is update the roster for the band (which is really done for each concert, based on who can play and who cannot), update the chorus roster, update the American Legion / VFW roster, dropping in the performance order, dropping in the program notes, adding any guest conductor bios to the program, and adding any restaurant spirit fundraiser information we have for an event shortly after the concert. This only really gets busy over one weekend - the weekend two weeks before the concert - the program items are due at that time so I can send it off to print.
I set up all weekly emails to the band in the email software we use at the beginning of May, and added weekly emails for the chorus starting the end of May. With the emails already set up, all I had to do each week is just populate the emails with any information they need to know for that week. Made it so much easier with the emails already designed and ready to be populated! I also set up all concert notices to go out, along with all silent auction notice emails and the spirit fundraiser emails.
Normally I set up everything with the chorus, doing announcements for them at the beginning of their rehearsals, taking attendance, etc. This year, I passed it off to one of the other band members, who is also singing in the chorus...this has really helped as well.
Although it has been super busy these past two months, it has actually been easier this year than in past years. I felt more prepared, tackled things on my to-do list earlier so I didn't get overwhelmed when I was already struggling. I got others involved to help out so I didn't feel like I was the only one doing all the work.
And on my actual birthday, there was a huge issue with our main customer chain not turning in their orders on time, so I was super involved in meetings starting at 4:30 am, all the way through 4:30 pm...making sure we got the orders in the system, routed, and notifications sent out to the warehouses and transportation so they would be prepared. I didn't have time to think about anything other than making it through the day at work that day, and ended up not spiraling into a deep depression after all this year. I am super grateful for that!
