Dead Tired

Pretty much every muscle in my body is exhausted. My shoulders are so tight, I'm afraid they're going to crack or something. And my legs... oh, my legs! On top of a bad sunburn from yesterday, I've been standing up for almost two whole days. Ug.

I had a wonderful time last night, once we finally started marching in the Torchlight Parade. It was a great experience for the whole band.

I was wondering if I could enjoy anything for a second though... because one of the HIGH SCHOOL band directors executively decided that my horn angle (how straight I hold my horn up) was not good enough for marching on the edge of a row. So, he told me to move to the other side of the row, 3 places in from the other edge... He didn't say why... just asked me to move. I didn't want to, so I asked the reason. He admitted it was because he thought my horn angle wasn't good enough. So, I got upset, not only because this happened as we were already lined up to go in the parade, but because he didn't care about fixing my horn angle; I was just a problem to be moved out of the way. He didn't respect me enough to think that I could respond to criticism. Thank the Lord I didn't go to that high school. I might have prematurely quit band.

My section leaders went to complain to him that he was being unnecessarily rude and disrespectful, and after that, he came back over to my new position and tried to explain to me why I shouldn't be upset. Which is the number one mistake men make when dealing with women. Never try to reason with a woman why she shouldn't be upset. Especially when you've previously disregarded her intellegence. Geesh. Needless to say, he moved me AGAIN, this time to a different edge of a row, probably just because I was upset. (That didn't help my opinion of him) As if being on the end of the row was the issue... I don't think he understood that it was about his rudeness and mishandling of a simple situation.

Several good things came about because of all this messing around, though. So in an odd way, I'm grateful to the guy. I moved around so much that I got to learn the names of three different people in my section; the mello from U of Oregon came over to me to encourage me; my Husky mello friends were very awesome to me; and because I was on the other side of the row, I saw my Jr. High band director in the crowd. Weird.

When we actually started marching (there was 3 hours of waiting around beforehand) I had such a great time! The crowd really loved us, because we're big, and we're going to Beijing, and we sounded amazing. The other 3 years I've done this parade with the Husky Band, I've not had such a pleasant and happy crowd. It was exillerating to march down the street, although my shoulder muscles were crying out to let my horn down and my legs and feet were very sore, to say the least. Just to be able to play that music from memory in front of people (and have them like it) was great. And just to imagine how awesome it will be in China... I can't wait!

So, after the 2 and a half mile parade from Seattle Center to Quest Field, we loaded onto buses at a quarter after 10pm, and after an extremely quiet ride, got back to Bothell around 11. Upon returning home, my sister suggested a WENN episode for relaxation, and we watched 'The Importance of Being Betty'. Often times, my sister and I refer to WENN as Acedawennaphin. Very calming. Or exciting. Whichever you prefer. Oh, oh! Meggan noticed a small inconsistancy in the precipice speech. When the camera's pointed at Scott, his hand is grabbing the edge of the wall... when it's facing Betty, his hand is flat against the wall... I hadn't noticed before, although I'm sure others have. My goodness, there's a bunch of awesome lines in that episode... what am I saying? That's true of all of them.

Today our call time for rehearsal was 9AM! Gosh, that's early after a long, late, tiring night! We played practically the whole day, and in oh, would you look at the time, an hour... huh... we get to perform ALL of the songs for all the parents of the high schoolers. yey.

Don't get me wrong... I am having a good time. I'm just in that exhausted, limbo part of the band camp where we're constantly working and it seems like it will never end, but after a few years, we should get to China. LOL.

Until Next Time,
Jp