day numero tres...
geez i can't remember how to exactly spell these spanish words lol. well day number three has come and gone and you know i'm noticing this trend where everyday something funny occurs with an insect. like the first day (i may have forgotten to mention it) austin found this praying mantis in the grass during a water break and he tried to pick it up. and then it took off and we were chasing it all around the field and stuff and it flew at kassie and tried to land on her head and she freaked out and screamed so it changed direction and decided to land on kristin's shorts. and kristin didn't know what was going on or why kassie was screaming and pointing at her until she looked down and saw this insect the size of a b-52 bomber on her pants and she screamed and brushed it off and then we chased around some more. the funny thing was that you could spot it flying around from like 50 feet away because it was so large.

then the second day there was the wasp incident where we were chasing wasps around and swatting at them and stuff with our shoes and today was more of that and this time i actually killed 2 of them (however swopey pointed out that the one didn't count because it's wings weren't working). and then later in the day while we were setting charts and stuff out on the field, there were these large grasshoppers hopping around and stuff and john janson caught one and was holding it and he took it and threw it right at kristi and it landed right on her chest (*cough *cough) and so she was running around and it was pretty funny.

so who knows what might happen tomorrow. the band might be attacked by a swarm of angry locusts or something worse. time will tell. it may actually rain tomorrow though too. oh and austin and i have this cool secret hand shake which involves a lot of crazy stuff that we invented and we're gonna have to add more to it tomorrow. it's pretty funny actually. we always do a run through of everything from the beginning to the final charts that we have learned that day. and we ended today at austin's solo and after he did the solo, he did the secret handshake thing and it was so funny.

we made it to chart 36 today and that puts us about 10 charts further from yesterday. so we're averaging about 10-12 charts per day which is good progress. today was mainly spent cleaning up the beginning part of the show and then learning a few new moves. see there's this one time where we have to do a slow horn lift during an about turn and then we do a 360 degree turn real fast for 4 counts with the horn lift, drop the horn life, and then the trumpets (which is the group i am in) has to move backwards into a circle in about 8 counts. sounds complicated? try doing it without music. lol. that's right. we had to actually do without music up to chart like 26 or something and that wasn't too bad. and also we have to a free form move that's 16 counts to a far away position during laura's solo and you have to really listen to her and the music so you know when exactly to come into position because you're going freeform and that means that no one is in step. so that's sort of awkward and we have to walk around each other and i think david tries on purpose to mow me down lol.

and speaking of mowing down another person. earlier in the morning we were doing our marching basics and stuff and we have to get in our groups according to our instrument played. and then our student leader of that group will help us practice marching around and stuff and they give us commands. in this case, lindsay is our student leader and we have about 5 or 6 in our section group. and we were marching and minding our own business and suddenly here comes the trombone section and their leader, john janson, and they were headed straight for us and i could see that laughing look in john's eyes which was a bad thing lol. so lindsay changes our direction and then john changes the trombone's direction and they are still heading towards us. so we change again and move backwards and then forwards again but they are still inches away and then suddenly we all collide. but a few minutes later, lindsay and all of us spot the trombones talking to the saxaphones a ways away. so lindsay puts us into rank and then she says that we'll be practicing our slow 8 count step and then change to our fast 8 count step. and so we're off headed straight for the unsuspecting trombones and saxaphones and suddenly we're about 10 feet away and lindsay orders a double quick 8 count step and we charge into them and i knock into david and we're all clashing again. but our excuse was that we were only following orders to "seek and destroy" lol. so tomorrow there will be more of that and next year, i want to be a student leader and attack the clarinets with a double quick 8 count step lol.

ziggy