the season ends
Mood:  a-ok
Topic: band practice etc.
well the season has ended for good now. just a little update: we placed 1st at nazareth, 1st at raven's stadium, 3rd at upper moreland, and 6th our of 11 at giant's stadium.

what was interesting about raven's stadium is that the judges made a mistake and put us in the wrong group so we were being judged against a band that was larger than us. but we still ended up beating them anyway. so the judges took our score and compared it to the one in the group that we were supposed to be in and we would've beat them too. so we ended up placing 1st in two different groups and taking home 10 special awards (5 in each group: best marching, best music, best guard, best percussion, and best overall effect). that was in interesting experience.

the trip to giant stadium was a blast. it was on overnight trip so we left saturday morning and got back sunday in the evening. our hotel we stayed at was the hilton just outside of newark airport. we could see the new york skyline from our window. that night it was so cold. in fact i believe it was the coldest i've ever been and that was the reason for our poor performance. the cold weather really ruins your ability to play. it was only about 20 degrees and the puddles in the parking lot were frozen over.

after the show we had to walk around the stadium for pictures and that was the worst. the cold was everywhere and there was a bit of wind coming through the entrances. my hands felt like they were being crushed in a vice and i couldn't feel the instrument i was carrying. it was the worst. some people were even crying it was so bad.

at least i remembered to bring a band parka along which was really warm. a bunch of other people brought parkas and blankets and stuff. so we eventually felt a little better. we had to go on really late to perform (11:24 pm) which was why it was so cold. we didn't get back to the hilton until about 2:00 am.

i'm looking forward to next year. we're doing "pilatuse" by steven reineke who is the same person who did the show last year. so it'll be like that which will be really neat. oh boy i can't wait!

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state championships
Mood:  celebratory
Topic: latest news
yesterday was the state championships for pennsylvania. boy what a hard day it was. i left home about 9:00 am and went to arby's to get something to eat for lunch later on and for some strange reason arby's was closed that day. so i went to mcdonalds and i could get from there was an egg mcmuffin and bacon. so then it was time to go get batteries so i went on over to the travel shop across the road thinking that they would have batteries but they didn't. wouldn't you think that a travel store would have batteries? so then i went over to this other place and got batteries there for like six bucks. geez.

so then i arrived at school and waited for a while and we hacky sacked for a while and then rehearsed for about an hour. then it we had an hour to eat our lunch (my egg mcmuffin and bacon for me) and then it was time to go. it was about a little less than three hours with a rest stop on the way to our destination which was the j. birney crum stadium. mr. forney said that we hit that same rest stop on every trip so many times that they're going to have to name it after us. lol.

we went to the changing rooms and then we got to practice and warm up by this lake and that's when it started to sprinkle some rain. it had clouded over and it suddenly got a bit cooler but no one really thought of it. just a little rain wouldn't hurt anything. so then it was time for us to go on after a little while of practice.

by that time it was a little later in the evening and it had grown a bit darker and the rain was now pretty steady and it got very cold. it was time, though, for us to go on to do our show and i couldn't help but think how uncomfortable it is to be cold, damp, and have to use the bathroom at the same time but really we had no choice. it started raining a little harder as we marched onto the field and by the time we got behind our backdrops it was raining ever so slightly harder and the sky was darker.

the field was astr turf so i was mainly worried about slipping (because it was wet) and falling down and all but i made sure to run slower out onto the field. as we were going into the first we moves it began raining even harder. it felt like it was about thirty degrees or something and the rain hurt when it hit my face. and the part where we have to play down on one knee was pretty cool. also, the cymbals in the pit had a lot of condensation on them and every time that someone hit them, a huge spray of water would fly off. it was very dramatic

we reached this part of the show called "the morning of the dragon" and the sky opened up and just poured like there was no tomorrow down on us. i could sort of see earl (one of our drum majors) up on the podium conduction. and then as we were going forward at one point, the wind blue the rain right into our faces. i thought my hat was going to blow off at that point and thank goodness it didn't. the rain didn't let up for a second and it came time for us to die on the field and it was still pouring rain. so it was pretty weird for a moment because i died as the rain was like pounding into my face and looked around and i could see everyone else dying and it was like it was the actual vietnam war for a second.

and then afterwards we all had to run off the field as usual and it was still pouring but it had lessened slightly. on the way back to the bus we would see people and hear them say how much they enjoyed the show and how cool it was and that's a good feeling you know? and then everyone was soaked all the way through and my pants were wet from like the knees down and my jacket was soaked all the way through. however, my black shirt was dry and everything else so i just threw on a sweatshirt because that's all i had. and it got pretty warm in the back of the bus because the heat was on full blast.

and then it came time to go out for awards and it started sleeting and we could see some hail and stuff too. and austin, kristin, ted, swopey, jonathan, kassie, and jeremy decided to stay on the bus instead of going out into the rain and stuff. we were the only ones to stay behind. later on, we heard that the awards were about to be presented so we all went out (because it stopped raining) to the stadium and watched from the sidelines.

they gave some special awards first when it was our group's turn to be announced. and this one group won like three of the special awards (we won the "best music" award, by the way) and we all thought that perhaps they would beat us. and then they announced the scores. there were four bands in our group (group 2 open) so it was an agonizing wait. and it turns out that the group that won those three special awards only finished third. and after they announced the fourth and third places (not us) we were psyced because that meant we would win either first or second. and then the announcer announced the second place band and it wasn't us! so edna (swopey's mom) grabbed me and hugged me so tightly that i thought that maybe my head would pop off. then it was announced that we had won first place and we were state champions!

it feels good to be the best in the state i think. it's quite a title and i hope we can defend it. i took a lot of pictures and that's one of them to the left. that's one of our drum majors (beckie) with our huge trophie. and afterwards, on the way home, we raided taco bell and burger king and ate a lot of food. and then (several hours later) as we were arriving home, we were pulling off the exit ramp and i noticed a police car pull out in front of the first bus (we took two buses) with these flashing lights on and one pulled out behind us (i was in the last bus) and it had its flashers on too.

and then we were all like "what's going on??" and then mrs. harvey said that since we were state champs, we had a police escort take us through town and we were allowed to like hang out of the windows and yell and cheer and stuff. that was very cool. it felt so neat to have a police escort. boy being state champs sure have a lot of benefits i guess.

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ps: oh yeah forgot to mention. we beat musselmen at the last competition at allegany by nearly two points. lol ;)

weeks fly by
Mood:  caffeinated
Topic: latest news
last night was our second competition and as usual, we came home an hour late. lol. we were supposed to get home around midnight but it was more like 1:00 am instead. we placed second in our group but we also took home the best auxiliary percussion award. we scored two points higher than the next band for that one. but we finished second and the first place band beat us by about three points which is a huge loss for us. and it's the same band that beat us last week at the other competition. we also had a point and a half penalty for going over the allotted time for being on the field. we're gonna have to work on that.

the hurricane moved through friday night and a few tornadoes moved through this area. one of them came within one hundred yards of kristi's house. it was only about ten feet wide but it took the roof of a barn and uprooted some trees. boy good thing a tornado didn't come near our place.

today i went and got a new hacky sack because my old one developed a large hole in it and died. it's flat as a pancake now. and i also got a black shirt for our uniforms for band. a football that was scheduled last friday is now tomorrow (because of the hurricane) and we're playing for that game. we're doing the pregame show. oh and next weekend's competition is on saturday. the same band that beat us the past two weeks for first place is in that one so we're gonna try to throw them down. again and again and again...

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where has the time gone?
Mood:  lazy
Topic: school
boy when school starts, you don't have time for anything. we started last monday and things have been going well. i have about an hour and a half of homework to do each night. right now, i'm taking spanish 2, biology, algebra 1, and english. it's a lot of work. and i'm also taking after school driver's ed from 2:25 to 3:00 pm on monday's through thursday's. whew!

tomorrow is our band's first competition and i hope it goes well! we played last week at a football game with our rival school. boy did their field band suck. i mean really bad. there were a lot of people out of step, a lot of hesitation, and a lot of wrong rhythms. it's sad i think. we played pretty well. that is, a lot better than they did. our football team did a great job as well. we won the game 44-16. our rival school is always bad at football. oh well. sucks to be them. these past two weeks of school have brought a lot of hard work, great times, and hacky sacking after school. i'm getting good at that!

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red moon
Mood:  caffeinated
whew! i had to work a lot on the stinking lawn mower today and it still doesn't work. we took everything apart and cleaned it and cleaned the end of the spark plug but nothing seemed to help. i guess sometime we'll have to go all the way deeper into the engine to figure out what is wrong. and the problem is, my dad and i don't really know much about lawn mower engines lol. but we'll manage.

after that i had to clean the turtle tank and then i got on my new shoes and practice my hacky sack a bit. i'm getting a little better at it day by day. practice makes perfect! then after dinner, i went over to the pool for one last time because the day after tomorrow, school starts. the water was nice tonight and the moon rose up over the trees and it was redish in color. then i left about 8:30 pm. the last day of the pool! wow what a good year it was, all the games of football, wall ball, kickball and hand ball you can imagine. along with swimming and diving. i hope i am still a member next year.

school seemed to have snuck up on everyone this time. oh well. all i have is a book bag and that's all i need for now until we get our syllabuses which tell us everything that we'll need. at least i'll get to see a lot of friends that i haven't seen over the summer (like the ones not in band). but speaking of band. tomorrow i'm gonna go up to the school around 2:00 pm and help out with the props. i hope that goes well. that's all for now. tomorrow is the final day of summer vacation so let's make it a good one!

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no work tomorrow
Mood:  bright
Topic: latest news
first i will begin with yesterday since that's when i had the get-together at my house. there wasn't a lot of yard work to do, just mow half of the lawn. i was just about finished and then the lawn mower died so we have to figure out how to fix it in some way. oh well. then i had to buy snacks for the get-together and that consisted of a lot of soda and chips and, yes of course, famous amos chocolate chip cookies (only the best).

i had practice at six and that went pretty well. our closing to the show will be just like the beginning accept that we're running off the field instead of onto it. we've got the entire thing down and i think that all we really need to work on is our marching style, playing the right notes, keeping in time, and hitting the formations. okay so maybe that is a lot of improvement to make. and our first performance is only a week away! gosh. i think on sunday i will go up and help with the prop-making at two 'o clock and i want to help out with that. a lot of cammo netting and stuff.

and after practice, kristin, laura, justin, and i walked home to my house and we picked cameron up on the way. and then upon arrival at my house, we hung out in the living room and then we moved to the backyard (it was dark by then) and we started a fire in the fire pit. and it got hot enough that we stuck this glass bottle in the fire and it melted and then we took it out and it was all warped and flat. lol that was pretty far out.

we let the fire die down a bit and then we all went for a walk around. that was pretty fun. it was probably the last get-together of the summer but there will hopefully be more sometime soon. i dunno with school and all because of all the work.

today i had to clean the back yard out a little more and oh i forgot to mention that we moved the computer over onto a different table and fixed the tangle mess of wires and everything. and we have this old swivel chair that we use for the computer chair now. i went shopping today for shoes and a bookbag (because school is suddenly upon us!) and i went to old navy and i found this great canvas bookbag sack type thing and i really hope it lasts. it looks like it will. i go through a bookbag every three weeks because someone always messes with it and breaks a strap or something. geez it's like a reflex. "i think i'll try to pull on this string here...weee!!..ooops oh crap...." it happens all the time. oh well. and i got a new pair of vans to wear and there were some shirts on sale at the store so i bought three of them. i spent a little over a hundred dollars today. wow that's like the most i've spent in a while. i was supposed to work tomorrow (and make more moolah lol) but charlie called and said he doesn't need me because the schedule is messed up. there would be too many people there so he gave me the day off! ah yes that means i can sleep in...

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form check!
Mood:  cool
Topic: band practice etc.
whoa i totally love this new format for editing my blog. it rocks! well anyways we had practice tonight from 6 pm to 8 pm and my dad came and video taped the show and i watched it earlier this evening and it looked okay. we only have till next friday for our first performance and that's only three more performances. whew! i hope we make more progress.

today i had to work on cleaning out the back yard some more and that meant a lot of raking and moving of big sticks and brush. after that i went to the pool for an hour and then it was time to get ready for band practice. all that raking really helped gather some more new firewood and i hope we can use that thursday night

see thursday night, the posse is thinking about having another get-together and this time at my house so we may have another fire in the fire pit. hopefully as huge as the last one! this is all very tentative so it may change so i dunno. i hope it works out though.

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p.s. i also have to work tomorrow which isn't a big deal, i just get some more moolah for my wallet lol

old home week pictures! lol
Mood:  caffeinated
today wasn't very eventful except that i had to clean out some of our back yard because there's all these sticks around. it was the area where the old skateboard ramp used to stand (that was dismantled a few months ago) and there were a lot of wooden pieces of it all over the place. i also found this old rotting wooden box and when i flipped it over i found the biggest slug that i have ever seen. it had to have been at least seven inches long and i found another just like it on the other side. wow i had no idea we had slugs on our property. you learn something new everyday i guess.

we got our old home week pictures back and the entire photo is as long as our couch. it's the longest one yet and i believe it is the most people i've ever seen in attendance. i am in both ends with my friend david. yay! also today, i worked on some drawing and i am just stuck on how to draw hair properly. the technique is just not registering in my brain so i stopped drawing hair and decided to draw a dog instead. and that is coming out better than i thought it would. maybe i'll post it on here sometime. tomorrow is another field band practice and my dad is going to film us so hopefully i can finally get to see what we look like!

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nothing much
Mood:  a-ok
not a very eventful day today folks. just had to get myself up at 7:00 am and walk over to take care of roxy (my friend's dog) and then it was back to bed. and nothing else really happened today. tomorrow we get our old home week pictures back. yippeee! i can't wait to see myself in it twice. i've always wanted to do it. i also had a nice talk with my friend kendall in new zealand and i introduced laura to her. hopefully, tomorrow will be more eventful!

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p.s. this coming tuesday is another field band practice from 6 pm to 8 pm

band camp has finally ended
Mood:  caffeinated
today wasn't too eventful. i just had to get up earlier and go dog sit for my friend's dog and then walk the rest of the way to work. work was pretty busy today and i made my usual thirty-six dollars. i'm noticing that people usually come in in big bunches and not in a steady stream like you'd see in grocery stores or something. a million people will suddenly appear in the story and you're running around grinding coffee, replacing peanuts on the shelf, ringing people up, and dodging the other employees (in my case, only 2 others), and all of this is done at warp speed. and then later in the evening i went out to the fair to collect my winnings which was only fifteen dollars anyways. i think that's strange since i took home four first place ribbons and one second place ribbon. hmph!

but most important of all are the events surrounding yesterday. let's see if i can remember what happened. oh yeah earl's big party for the entire band lol. it started at five 'o clock and i got there a little bit before then to find troy and a few others trying to untangle the volleyball net. it took like five people to get it stretched out and then we couldn't figure out how to put it on the poles. we had one side on but the other side was missing a few strings. so we tied it to a nearby tree and everything was okeedokee. (the pole problem was fixed later).

gradually more and more and more people began arriving as we were playing our feeble game of volleyball. then the guard arrived and more people along with them and it was time to start swimming. and a few of us jumped into the pool and splashed around for a while and then this great big black storm cloud moved over and it started thundering and lightning so we all got out of the pool and began to get stuff to eat since it didn't rain at all.

after we finished, the big rain cloud moved over and it was time to go swimming. and that's when another storm cloud moved over and it really started raining and thundering so we all went in the house. and some people watched "bruce almighty" in the living room, others played cards, and a few played on the computer. that was a blast and i played the most violent game of spoons i have ever been involved in lol. spoons rocks. it's a card game and yet it tests your reflexes too.

and that was pretty much the rest of the party and it was so much fun. but it's always sort of sad at the end of things like that because it's just too bad that time has to fly when you're having a good time. and it was the end of band camp. what an awesome experience. it was some hard work but it was really worthwhile. i am glad that i am doing field band this year. hopefully more fun is on the way!

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