day numero uno...
wow what a long day it was. i got up at 6:45 am to get ready for band camp and then it was off to the school at 7:45 am. band camp begins at 8:00 am and runs until 12:00 pm which is when we have an hour lunch break. then after that, there's another session which runs from 1:00 pm to 4:00 pm. so it was some long hours out in the sun (luckily i had sun glasses with me).

first, we all went out to the field and did warm-ups and stuff and then we did our marching basics for like 3 hours. that consisted of marching backwards, different turns, and also practicing a high step thing that will eventually be part of the show. after that, we begin to set charts (which means finding your positions on the field. we found the first 12, i believe, during the sessions today. then once we practiced marching to them, we got our instruments out (this was after lunch) and we played for a little while inside and then went back outside where we played while marching to the charts on the field. it went really well and practice will only make us better.

ziggy

tomorrow...
...is the beginning of band camp. i gotta find markers (canning lids) to use in field band so you can remember your different places on the field. we have to end up memorizing like 57 different positions throughout the entire show. so that'll be quite an experience.

i went and visited my grandmother today out in philly. i got to listen to good music in my headphones lol. and we got our van back! that's right. it's all fixed and everything and it turns out it needed a new transmission and one of the front tires was loose. someone forgot to tighten it which meant that if we had ended up driving it down to the ocean, we would've got like 20 miles down the road, the front tire would pop off, and we would've probably broken the front axle if not all of the bones in the our body. so it was a better idea after all to take someone elses car down. but it's great to have our comfortable van back again.

old home week has just about come and gone. wow so quickly too. and to imagine that the next old home week will be when i have graduated from highschool! i'll be off into the world the next time i have my picture taken. gosh i don't know where the time will be. i don't know if i'll even have this blog here then. time sure does flie when you're having a good time. i mean it seems just like a few seconds ago that kassie, jeremy, swopey, and i were hanging out down on the square, that i was running back and forth to each side during the picture, when i was dying from heat exhaustion from marching nearly 4 miles, when the fire got so hot in our backyard that we had to stand like 10 feet away from it (and we still felt like we were gonna melt), and finally when i spent the entire day with justin and watched the fireworks and all. time sure does fly and well i think it's time we catch up. i shall start on thursday since you don't know what happened then...

thursday morning i woke up like towards noon i think and then i just hung around the house for like all afternoon until it was 3:30 and time to set up the little canopy out front where my parents were putting the food for the people we invited over for the parade. that wasn't too hard except that the dang thing has about a million metal tubes you gotta put together all in this certain order and stuff. and there were about a million chairs across from my house and all up and down the entire street. it was a little unnerving to think that several thousand people were going to be watching you march in a few hours.

i took a shower at 4:00, at a sandwich at 4:30, then headed over to the school at 5:00. no one was out in the parking lot (which is odd because usually you see a few cars pulling up and letting off band people and stuff). it turns out, everyone was inside so i was at least on time.

we marched all the way down to the starting point and everything and we were unit #12 out of over a hundred others i think. we stood around for awhile and then we marched all the way through the length of town and then back again. it was one of our town's longer parade's. everyone was drenched in sweat by the end and my mouth was really dry. we all got back to the school and i changed into my normal clothes and whatnot and then justin, laura, kristin, and i all walked back to my house. we hung out there and justin lit this huge fire in the fire pit out back. the flames got around 10 feet tall and the heat was almost overwhelming. around 10:00 pm it started to rain and we had a cloud burst and we ran inside to the porch and we went upstairs to my room and hung out there for a while. then we decided to go for a little walk.

it was a dark night out and we walked all the way through moss springs developement and then back by the park and up through the ballfield back to my house. the developement was really creepy because hardly anyone had any lights on or anything. as we were going past the park back in that alley by the hardware store, someone began to set off these fireworks and they were curving up over us and cracking really loud and flashing and they were setting them off one after another. and then about the 12th one they set off went off course and flew towards a house and some trees and bounced off the house. justin and i thought the trees were gonna catch on fire and that's when the last few fireworks began to arch up over our heads. it was a little freaky because we'd only have a few seconds to react if a stray firework came our way. after they were finished going off, the air was filled with all this smoke.

luckily, the trees didn't catch on fire and we didn't get blown up or anything and we made it back to our house and hung around the fire pit some more and then kristin, justin, and laura all got a ride home from kristin's older brother. so that was the events surrounding thursday night.

friday was a long day. once again, i woke up around like 10:30-11:00 and as soon as i awoke, i got this call from justin. he told me that we should go swimming down by the bridge and we decided to meet there at noon. my dad drove me all the way out there and dropped me off and justin and i stood around for a few moments trying to contact kristin and laura but the antique cell phone that justin had didn't have any signal.

so we walked up the hill towards past kristin's house and towards laura's house and we finally got a signal on the cell phone as we were walking up laura's extremely long driveway. then we had this idea that we should call laura and tell her that we couldn't come over or anything and stand right outside her window while we called her. but we didn't make it all the way to her house because laura spotted us and it turns out that kristin was over too. so we hung out on laura's front porch for like all afternoon.

then, kristin had to go home and it was just laura, justin and i there and we went inside and i listened to laura and justin play the piano for an hour and then justin and i decided to go to justin's house. we borrowed laura's bike and laura's mom's bike and we were going really fast down the hill towards the bridge and then up the other side and back through all these long roads and developements until we were at justin's house. the entire ride was around 5 miles. justin hit 30 mph down the hill towards the bridge and i couldn't go as fast as him because 1. i hadn't ridden a bike in like 6 months so it felt weird 2. this was a mountain bike i wasn't used to and 3. there was something wrong with gears 5, 6, and 7 on laura's mom's bike. i got it up to warp speed and gear number 5 would not click into place. so i had to stay in 4th the entire time which was too bad.

justin showed me his house and then we had to make important phone calls and stuff and then laura called again and said that she wasn't going to the fireworks. and kristin wasn't either! which was odd since we had been planning to all go to these fireworks in town as a group since monday. it turns out that kristin didn't feel like going and laura's mom had suddenly decided to take laura and her sister sarah out to dinner. so that was kind of a bummer. but we had to ride back to laura's and give her the bikes back and then laura's mom gave justin and i a ride back to the town and dropped us off at the library.

from the library, justin and i walked to the school and stuff and we waited around for the army band to play at 7:30. so we had an hour or two to kill so we took a walk back to this birdwatching stand out in the woods and we saw where the fireworks were going to be set off from and this sign that was going to spell out 'goodnight' in big fiery letters.

once everyone began arriving, justin and i hung out with diana and troy and david all evening and we watched the fireworks which were the best fireworks i've ever seen around here. it looked as though they had spent a lot of money preparing for it. the fireworks started at 9:30 and were over a little after ten. i waited around for a while after everyone (including troy, justin, david, and diana) had left and then i walked home from the school back to my house by myself at 10:30 at night. and then i had to crash and get up for work the next morning (saturday).

but i should end there because this entry is ridiculously long already lol. i think that this might be the longest one ever, i'm not sure. but tomorrow is the start of band camp and all and i guess i feel ready; how bad could it be? you just spend a day with your friends and have fun and are mercilessly drilled by the drum majors for 4 hours in the afternoon. i'll have to write an entry about that tomorrow. but for now, i have to go to bed!

ziggy

thorn

well there's my best drawing of rose thorn ("thorn") so far and i hope you like it because you just better. no questions lol. but i did work pretty hard on it for two days last week (thursday and friday) and it turned out better than i suspected it would.

the eyes are probably the most realistic eyes i have drawn on any protrait and this is by far the best portrait i have done so far. the hair was fun to draw. since i learned how to draw hair properly, it's actually quite easy. see all you have to do is shade the hair first as though it was a solid shape. you don't draw individual hair strands as most people will make the mistake doing. next, you draw the hair strands in over the shaded parts (and be sure to leave some bright highlights because hair is very reflective) and then some darker strands too.

if anyone reading this cares to see some of my other works, just send me an email and i will be sure to send some of them to you. remember, the scanner doesn't copy the exact contrast levels of the original drawing so it isn't the best reproduction of the work. geez, technology these days.

ziggy

5...
...days until band camp. boy it's sneaking up on us already. am i ready you may ask? yes i am! i think it'll be a great experience. i can't wait until we set a few of the charts down (like maybe the first 10 or so) and march to them because that will just be the coolest. and i also hear that we have a morning session during band camp which starts at 9:00 am and runs till 12:00 pm and then we get an entire hour for lunch which is totally cool and then we have an afternoon session from 1:00 pm to 4:00 pm. so that's like 7 hours of band goodness lol.

well today at 11:30 am was the big old home week picture down on the square. it looked as though the entire freakin town was there this morning and everyone like went ina big circle around the lightpost that is in the center of the square. and i thought "gee, these people sure are stupid. i mean if the camera has to swing around in an arc, wouldn't you think that that light post just might be in the way?" oh well. we needed a sheep dog real bad because without any sort of direction, all the people in the town would've just wandered around and eventually died like ants or something.

but fortunately, our sheep dog or person with a megaphone arrived and told us to stand in certain places and stuff and kassie and jeremy decided not to be in both ends this year but david and i wanted to. you see, everyone stands in this big 'u' formation in one corner of the square and the entire thing takes up about one side of the square. and as the camera starts at one end, and then pans around, you can run from one end of the 'u' to the other and then boom! you're in both ends of the picture. it's pretty interesting actually. a bunch of other kids were running too.

they took the first camera run and they started at one end and david and i were in that and then the camera passed us and we charged across to the other side with about 20 other kids and we just barely stopped in time before we would've plowed a couple of old folks down. boy that would've been good at all. then, they took a second photo and we had to run back to the starting positions again. and then, after that they took a third photo and david and i began to realize how incredibly hot it was getting since it was nearly high noon.

and then the photographer up on the big ladder and his assistant were like, "oh hey in that last one, there were too many people moving so we're gonna have to take one more." it turns out, no one from the back of the crowd could hear the megaphone so they figured it was over after the third photo. so we had to suffer once more running back and forth. that was my old home week photo experience for this week.

now i have finally been able to be in the photo twice! whoopeee for me! and david! lol. too bad kassie and jeremy didn't want to do it at the last moment. guess they'll have to wait another 3 years for that to happen. and tomorrow is the parade and i'll explain more about that now.

reporting time for the parade tomorrow evening is 5:15 pm (i'm always like 20 minutes early lol) and we have to wear our band shirts, our blue pants, black shoes, and black socks. but thing about the shoes is, they have to be black and i don't have any black shoes. so i ended up spending $43 on a pair of shoes that i would most likely be wearing one time in my life. well for band at least. there might be a "formal" occasion sometime so i'll probably wear them for that.

the funny thing is that when we went in the shoe store, we said to the shoe guy "well we need a pair of shoes, black laces and everything, tomorrow for the parade and..."

"that's quite interesting," said the shoe guy, "because the zimmermans were just in here and they said the exact same thing."

that made it easier for the guy because he already new what we wanted. marty zimmerman and i were friends way back in middle school and i remember he was in the rank in front of me and he had this absolutely perfect posture and all and i would try to march like him and stuff. so yeah that was the somewhat strange occurence for the day.

and that's about all for me right now. tomorrow night after the parade, kristin, laura, justin, and i will walk home from the school to my house (not that we'll really feel like walking after almost 3 miles of marching and playing). and we're just gonna chill at my house tomorrow night till around 11 pm and i'll write about that when i get around to it. friday is when the army band plays down on kaley field and then they have fireworks so i'll take a look at those. but otherwise, that's the latest news.

ziggy

7...
...days until band camp. the countdown is getting into the lower numbers now. whoa what a day. i gotta tell ya. sheesh are they trying to kill us? almost my entire day consisted of band and marching and stuff. i'm pooped. i think i'll use a lot of bold and italic lettering tonight for a change. or no wait! bold and italic! wow the miracles of html. building a website on angelfire has really helped me learn about html and how to write it and stuff. i think it's just the coolest because you can make your webpage into virtually anything you want; you don't have to use any pre-fab template or something.

last night was such a blast down on the square. boy what a time everyone has! there was food and all and i was walking with my friend saif when all of a sudden someone comes up behind me and grabs me and half scares me to death and i turn around and there's kassie behind me. i should've known. kassie and her boyfriend jeremy and i walked around for like a long time and then we found swopey and he had his bike with him so we talked about his bike and then charlie (another band person) grabbed swopey's bike and she ran off with it and then swopey and i were marooned down on the square for about 20 minutes.

and then we managed to get his bike back and we looked for kassie and all then and then we stood around for a long while and talked. and people were getting up on the stage that was set up on one corner of the town square and leading the singing of all these old songs. and i realized that you could've sang them all to the same tune practically. i mean "the old gray mare" would go perfectly with "this land is your land" or something like that lol. and everyone is always way out of tune and everything so that's amusing.

and that was over around 1:00 am so i went to bed and i didn't get enough sleep because i had to get up early at 7:30 am to get ready for that orientation for new members for field band. that was up at the school at 9:00 am and it lasted till noon. and during that time, we watched some videos and then we went out to the field and learned "marching basics" which was one tiring excersize after another to learn stuff like left turns, right turns, marching forward, marching backward, warm-ups and stuff, flanks, and hip shifts and stuff that i can't even remember the name of but how to do it all is drilled into my mind like the drill sheets that we learned to read. that was probably the most complicated part. but it's alright once you learn.

so that was hot and tiring because as the sun got higher and higher the temperature rose and stuff. so that was the morning. and then later in the afternoon, i had to visit charlie (my employer) about a new work schedule for september since it's a very busy month. but we got that worked out okay.

and then, this evening was rehearsal for the band. it lasted from 6:00 to 7:30 and we marched for the greater part of it. and that about killed me. gee marching for an hour out in that evening heat really does a number on you. everyone was so tired after that. man and then band camp is just like that next week. just 9 am to 4pm everyday for 5 days straight. how can anyone do it? lol. i'll soon find out. i think this experience will be worthwhile.

ziggy

8...
...days until band camp begins. my how time flies. before you know it, i'll be right in the thick of it and i'll try to post a message on here each day about it. bug me to do so lol.

well tonight is the opening of old home week down on the town square at 10:30 pm. i'm gonna head down with my parental units and then i'm gonna look for my friend kassie and we're gonna hang for the evening. hopefully that all works out and that would be totally cool if kassie and i ran into a few other band people that we recognize. or just friends. they'll probably be food and drinks and the town sing along (which isn't always in tune). 'the old gray mare' is a classic one to sing during old home week. but first, i shall tell you a little about it, in case you have no idea about what i am talking about...

"old home week" actually started out as "the old boy's reunion" way back a long time ago (lol sorry i don't know the exact date). about 50-64 old guys showed up for the celebration which consisted of picnics in the park and gatherings down in sandy hollow which was (and still is) a very popular swimming spot down by the creek. well the old boy's reunion was such a success that they decided to have one 3 years later and this time for the entire family. and thus, "old home week" was born.

and that's what i am attending tonight. the first of many ceremonies to come. hopefully i can manage to find kassie in the throngs of people and a few other people.

well the first drawing of thorn is finished. i've just gotta scan it now but the mouse pointer is acting up so i might have to wait until tomorrow to do that. and i worked on some hair contrast drawings and some eyes over the weekend so that has improved a bit.

a little earlier we just got back from the slye's party down in good 'ol west virginia. that's right. half a day, an entire night, and a good morning of great food, awesome music (from a live band, might i add), and just plain fun. boy that was the best damn chicken i ever ate. and the corn. the band that played on the porch was 'lunar stew' and i recommend that you look them up on the internet and buy there cd lol.

it always ends up raining and it just poured on the way up the mountain and then it rained steadily for about another 2 hours and we had to wait to set up our camp. my dad and i shared our tent while my mom slept in the car with a mattress that we hauled down. over the tent went one of those tarp canopy type things with legs and stuff and then we wrapped a tarp around one side of it to keep the rain from blowing all the way through. what a set up huh! and it took a while because we had to wait for breaks in the rain to do each part.

it stopped raining towards the evening and the band played until around midnight and we were waiting to see the full moon. i decided to go to bed because i was tired and about 20 minutes i hear this big shout and all the dogs start barking and everyone is howling and yelling. and i poke my head outside of the tent and there is the moon that came out from behind this big bunch of clouds. and it's what you'd call a 'blue moon' this month so that makes everything cooler because it hardly ever happens. only every few years.

so that was my weekend. and tomorrow, i have an orientation for new field band members from 9 am till noon (*note, i am the only sophomore that's new at field band lol) and i'll write more later but it's nearly time for the old home week celebration!

ziggy

countdown...
...to band camp. here it comes believe it or not. in only 10 days. everyone is getting really phsyced about it. i'm looking forward to it sort of lol. we just got a letter in the mail from mr. forney about our new schedule and everything and we'll have to leave early from school the day of our giant stadium competition (boo hoo i'll have to miss a day of school oh my i'm just so completely upset about that..........not!). and the cost will be a whopping $20-25 for the overnight trip. overnighters are always a blast. the band trip this year was so cool even though the condiditions sucked lemur butt (dang laura, now you've got me saying it lol). oh and you can refer back to april for the entries on the band trip.

tomorrow we leave in the morning around 10:00 am for the big party down in west virginia. hopefully that will be fun. we're gonna be staying overnight and camping out in a tent which is like the only time we ever use the tent during the year. we practiced setting up our tarp thingy where the tent will go. we always need extra protection from the rain. you know it always seems to rain at least for a little bit while we're down there. oh well. we come back sunday evening.

and you know what happens sunday? yep you guessed it. the official opening of old home week on the square. we'll make it home in time to go down to the center of town like at midnight to welcome in the good 'ol days. hopefully, kassie and kristin will be down too. the more the merrier.

the drawings have been coming along great but now my email isn't working at the present moment so that sort of sucks. oh whoops i mean it sucks lemur butt lol. i was working on the hair late last night during john kerry's speech at the dnc and the hair turned out better than i thought it would. that's always nice when that happens. later tonight, i will finish the drawing up and then scan it and then send it to kaitlyn. and maybe i'll most it on here to lol.

ziggy

now for something completely different...
today was pretty uneventful as usual. gosh things just seem to get more boring don't they? i had to mow the lawn for the first time since we got home and boy was it thick. i'm glad i didn't have too much trouble. all that grass pollen floating around really gets to you though.

earlier in the day, we worked on cleaning more out of our computer room and i vacuumed the stair well. those were some of the biggest dust bunnies i have ever found in this house. that's like several years of dust bunnies. and guess what. yep that's right. i breathed in so much dust that my bronchial tubes are hurting right now. believe it or not. and right after that, i had to mow the lawn. so my chest is hurting and it's bothering me.

more action with the cape today and boy was nadia riled up. i guess it's from all the speakers during that democratic national convention. well whatever it was she sure was wild today. she grabbed the cloth when i wasn't looking and bit it and then started to tear a big hole in it but i managed to intervene and get it away from her. wow what a wild animal to play with!

tomorrow is that rehearsal with the band. and it starts a little earlier around 5 pm for people who want some extra time to work on the march. i will surely attend because rehearsals are always fun because you get to goof around with your friends. and what more can you want? lol. last rehearsal mr. forney announced that we will be in group a open competition and that means going to giant stadium in new jersey for a huge competition. oh gosh lol. so it's off to new jersey...again...in the same year lol. we went to new jersey for our last adjudication in case you didn't know. and this trip to giant stadium will be an over-nighter so that will be pretty cool.

and progress is being made with the thorn drawings. i just got finished a little earlier looking up all sorts of ways to draw and shade eyes properly because that's what i need to work on the most. the eyes are just to flat and unrealistic looking and that really bothers me. i want these drawings to be the most realistic ones yet so it will take some serious work. but i am looking forward to it because i have nothing else to do besides worry about field band and play with the cat. it really helps me find something else to think about.

ziggy

nadia de la mancha (part 4)
ouch well you still gotta watch out for those claws. i learned that the hard way again today. nadia had just come out from behind the cape and i sort of tried to lift the string up and away from her but she followed it and she jumped up in the air after the string and she came down and her claws were out and they connected with my right elbow. i could feel them sink into my skin riiiiiiip. lol okay maybe not that bad. but i did manage to stop the bleeding after a few minutes.

we worked on cleaning out the computer room yesterday and we'll work on it some more tomorrow. rehearsal last night went well. we went outside and marched around and stuff and boy were we tired. and to think we only have like a week to prepare for the parade!

the parade runs the entire length of town and then back again so it's twice as long as our halloween parade. gosh we're gonna die out there. hopefully it won't be like 90 degrees out and humid and...oh gosh i shouldn't have said that. lol. knock on wood. i hope it's not very hot. the hotter it is, the harder it is.

this coming thursday's rehearsal should be interesting. brock decided to have it a bit early at 5pm and he's gonna order pizza. it's for people who want a little bit of extra time to work on the march. so yeah. oh and today i didn't do much. i just started some preliminary sketches on this person named rose thorn. see i've been "commisioned" by a friend of mine named kaitlyn to do a drawing of a character of her's. thorn's a mighty undertaking and it'll be very challenging but i think it will turn out alright. i needed something to do because i am just so bored here lol. oh and kaitlyn, i hope you can come out and visit sometime soon! it probably won't be for a while but i look forward to it!

ziggy

nadia de la mancha (part 3)
yes folks it's back to the bullfighting ring for today. nadia's got the hang of bullfighting now and she loves it but you just have to be careful. i mean her claws are so incredibly sharp they'll slash into your flesh and you won't feel it and all and then you'll notice the blood everywhere. yeah so you get the idea. lol.

well anyways today was very slow and boring and stuff. we would've gone to philly but decided not to at the last moment. we'll visit in a few weeks. tomorrow is another rehearsal with the band and hopefully that will go well. we'll probably be marching around a little outside so that will be alright. everything has been going pretty smoothly with band. band camp is coming up soon!

mr. forney told us that we have to maintain this perfect posture and doing this is very difficult. he said "just imagine a marble between your cheeks...and i'm not talking about these cheeks (*points to his face). just squeeze that marble tight and you won't sway back and forth when your marking time."

mr. forney does have interesting ways of saying things.

ziggy