Sunday, October 16, 2005

   Yes! Awesome competition!!!
Note: The post below this one does not concern me anymore. I have, however, decided to try to ask someone else.

Note: I can't give away the location of this competition here, as it could give away my location :P I will use a handful of first names, because they are important to me and not important to you.

Note: If some of this information seems irrelevant to you, it's because this will be a good journal entry for me to refer back to later.

I had the best competition since finals yesterday. It was AWESOME. So, first we got there in the bus. On the way there, Padfoot and I decided that we'd write marauders letters on the next bus rides.

Then we had a snack break, in which a friend and I recalled fond moments from last year involving rolling down a hill, and a trombone player (Kristi) introced LarryTrombonesRuleKingTutTheNinth, a little dinosaur finger puppet/discarded clarinet sectional gift. We got it to "eat" a grape!

Then, we changed into uniform. As always, that was pretty uneventful.

Apparently, we had changed into uniform a little early, so we stretched out in uniform. When we were doing the calf stretch, I thought we should have taken a picture and put it up for our flamingo flocking advertisement (if you live near us, the band will flock someone's lawn with flamingoes for around $30).

Then we had 1/2 an hour of sectionals. Mellophones were put with trumpets, and nobody goofed off (much), which was good. We went through all the visuals in the show.

Then we did marching things, hinging with the horns and 8's & 8's (which are not important if you don't know what they are). I got to be center a couple of times.

Then we did music warm-up. I don't really remember much of that.

Then we did zap (once again, unimportant unless you already know what it is). I was next to Vanessa and Tuba Steve (aka Robert). I hugged Moony and Padfoot, as well as others (I don't exactly remember who).

We got our instuments and went to go compete. It was a long wait. We waited through two entire band shows (about 15-20 minutes), including the one band that we were competing against in AAA. They were playing Led Zepplin, which was cool. I was so happy before we were competing. I love to perform.

Then we did our show. Luckily, we got to perform on astro-turf. That's always really cool, and, unlike the last time I performed on astro-turf, I didn't feel like I was part of some elaborate toy-box. The performance was really fun. I didn't miss any visuals (including my exploding-hamster box snap), but I didn't quite make my last set (but then again, it's 3+1/2 to 5 stride backwards). After the performance, Lisa and I decided to work on it sometime (because sometimes we collide on it).

The instructors told us that we did an awesome job for where we were in the season (second competition), and that we were musically stable, but of course we can (and will work to) improve.

Brandon dismissed us, and we walked back to the buses to change out of uniform. Somehow, even equipped with a flashlight, I took a really long time (I have never taken this long before). Then I had dinner (lasangne and noodles). Then we celebrated 8 people's birthdays (October birthdays). We got party bags, which Padfoot and I had a lot of fun with (a flamingo twizzle stick, some candy, one orange and one black balloon, and a party blower thing that doesn't make noise).

Then we saw a few other bands perform. They were AWESOME. Then we had awards.

Padfoot and I had been talking about our favorite marching bands, and were having an all around good time. When awards came around, I asked Padfoot: "Even if we only get 2nd place out of 2, we just had the time of our lives, don't you agree?" Padfoot agreed.

Then we went through A and AA. We were only against one other band in AAA, so the worst we could get was 2nd place. We got a lot (if not all) captions awards, but we weren't announced as 2nd place, and the other band won 1st. Then we got sweepstakes!!!!!!!!!!!

Sweepstakes means we were the best out of the A, AA, and AAA categories (there is a different sweepstakes for the huge AAAA and AAAAA categories). Nobody we know in the band remembers ever getting sweeptakes before. We were so excited. We were screaming and hugging each other. It was the best thing that has happened in band since finals last year (we got into finals, which hasn't happened as far as anyone can remember).

We went home, and I fell asleep listening to Clay Aiken. Then we went back to the school and the band room.

Hurray! I'm still so excited. And I can't wait until we perform our field show for the school on Friday.
Comments (0)