?Que hiciste el fin de semana?
Mood:  caffeinated
Topic: latest news
hmmm ?que hiciste tu pidiste? fui al District Auditions. El District Auditions son de Dallastown, PA. Fueron mal porque fui trenta de cuarenta y ocho. Se?or Forney me hablo que hice bien pero soy no muy contento. fue mi primer hora tambien, tan esto es bueno para mi primer hora. tambien, hice muy diveritido porque conoci muchas personas nuevas y los hable.

okay time to stop practicing spanish and talk in english. i just said (or tried my best to say) that i went to District auditions and it didn't go too well because i was 30th chair out of 48 (they only took the top 19) but i had a lot of fun because i met a lot of new people and talked to them. it was really cool because suddenly, i was surrounded by a lot of other people who actually took band seriously. i hung out with austin and ryan (the other two trumpets trying out) all day and we met some cool people.

the day began when i had to wake up at 4:00 am to get ready and be at school by 5:15. i arrived early at like 5:05 and then it was like a two hour bus ride to the dallastown school.

it was really cold and we had to stand outside for a minute or two and half froze and then it was time to go inside. and this school was freakin huge. no i really mean FREAKIN HUGE. the lobby looked like one of those airport terminal things and there were all these hallways. and there like several main entrances and the auditiorium was twice the size of the one we have and had this cool light box and a balcony with all the lights and a big screen that pulled down one which movies were playing all day (dvds to be exact). and the cafeteria was enormous as well with huge skylights.

anyways, we all took our instruments (there was 15 of us auditioning that day) and went into this one corridor and set our stuff down and had to search for the restrooms and then hung out for maybe an hour. at 8:00 the auditions officially started. someone came down the corridor we were camped out in and told us to go our audition rooms. the rooms for the trumpets was rooms 303, 305, and 307. the first room you played your scales in, the second room you played part 1 of your solo. the third room you played your 2nd part of your solo. there were around 48 trumpets trying out.

austin and ryan and i arrived outside the rooms and hung around in the hallway for what seemed like forever (it was probably another hour or so) and then more trumpets began arriving. and more and more and more. i had never seen so many trumpets at one time. and most of the players had this bach stradivarius silver plated works of art that sounded like the voice of god or something. i had my yamaha with me (slightly tarnished and quite a few years old). so we all chatted and i talked to a few people. one guy i talked to was pretty nice and he seemed as nervous as i was. you could feel the tension building.

then they called all 48 of us into the first room to give us our instructions and then we all went back out into the hall. everyone sort of stood in a group and ryan and austin and i moved to the back of the "line" and then we figured it would be better to go and get it over with so we cut in near the front. and this was when you get so nervous that you start getting really jumpy about everything.

then it was time. the trumpets in front of us went. then ryan went into the first room and i waited. then ryan came out and waited to go into the second room and i waited a little longer to go into the first room. and then the guy came out and told me to go in. so i went in and all it was was dead silence with these two judges with there backs facing you in the back. and i had to play my e scale, a flat, and chromatic. and i played the e scale great and then the a flat was terrible and the chromatic wasn't too great. and i think that really ruined the audition.

so then i came out and stood behind ryan who was waiting to go into the second room. he went in and came out and then i went in. i played the part fairly well. and then i came out and went down a ways to the third and final room. the part i had to play then was very difficult but i did really well on it and then i left and it was all over. scores would be given out at 1:00 pm.

so it was only around maybe 10:00 am by then so we had a butt load of time to just do whatever. we decided to return to the hallway with all of our stuff and we stood a while there and then i realized that i had a hacky sack with me. so then we were hacking for a while or so and we'd randomly ask people who walked by (it was a slightly busy corridor) to play with us. hardly anyone really wanted too except for one fellow who came and asked us if he could play. we let him because there was no one else to hack with and we found out his name was cody or something and he was from northeastern or central dauphin or somewhere. and he was really good with the hacky sack so we played for like an hour and then the corridor became to busy.

so we moved to this other corridor for a long while to play but the problem was it was right near these flutes who were practicing . they sounded really good (and i mean really good) except it was just really loud and a bit obnoxious. so we then austin, cody, ryan, ryan and i walked back to the main lobby to hack because we figured that would be a big enough place to hack. and on the way we stumbled upon the most horrid sight any brass player would throw up on when they saw it.

we were suddenly surrounded by oboes.

not just a few but like 50 or so and it seemed like a million to me. everywhere you looked, there was an oboe. now in case you don't know, a lot of band people would agree that the oboe is their least favorite instrument because of the oboe's sound. it's really high pitched and buzzy if not played well and that is what most of us are used to hearing. we finally made it through the oboes and out into the main terminal of the airport i mean the lobby and ryan turns and points to this group of kids trying to hack with a piece of paper.

there were 3 of them: a girl, and two guys. we went up to them and decided to help them out and let them use our hacky sack (which was mine) and so we all stood in a big circle and hacked forever: ryan, cody, austin, the girl, the two guys, and me. we learned the girl was korean and was from cedar cliff or somewhere like that and she played the french horn and one of the guys was also from there and he played percussion. the other guy i think was from northeastern but that never really matters where you are from when you decide to play hacky sack. he played the tuba, by the way.

we had a blast and we got the hack to hit the ceiling which was like 20 feet up and we tried to get a full (short for "full house" which means everyone hits the hack before it touches the ground) and we almost succeeded and we had a ton of fun. then it was around 11:45 and all of us were starving. so we went into the enormous cafeteria and had lunch. i paid about $4.26 for lunch which was really expensive then what i am used to paying. and we all took the table nearest to the registers and just talked and talked. and ate food.

and we all agreed that the food was pretty bad. austin found a big piece of hair in his piece of pizza which was really really gross but funny. and then the tuba guy disappeared for a while and then came back and was pissed off because he had to pay $1.75 for this tiny little candy bar and we had a good laugh at that. good times.

it was getting close to one so we all parted and went back to our audition rooms. there, they all called us into the first room and gave us back our audition sheets and i had a score of 66.2 and ryan had like a 40 point something and austin had like a 43 point something. and then they announced the top four and all and then we could leave and just do whatever.

the auditorium was full of a whole lot of people and they were showing movies in there all day. ryan and austin and i sat down and watched the end of shrek 2, all of elf, and the beginning of star wars episode 2: attack of the clones. near the end of elf, i was feeling sort of drowsy so i scooted down in the seat and was just starting to drift off when a head pops over mine and says "hey how did you do" and scares the bejesus out of me. it was the korean girl and that group joined us again. and we chatted and talked about stuff while the movies went on.

then it was time to leave at 4:00 pm. it had been a really long day and they began to call schools out to the lobby so ryan and austin and i decided to head on out and get our stuff. we said goodbye to the people we had met that day and we weren't sure if we'd ever all get together again. but it was nice while it lasted. the bus ride home was tiresome and we stopped at a burger king to get a bite to eat and then it was around 6:30 pm when we arrived home. and there was still sunday to do homework!

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