Extreme Laundry

I just had a realization. Laundry should be considered a sport. At least, the way I do laundry should be considered a sport. Why? Because I (apparently) have an inability to do laundry on a regular basis. So I end up waiting a few weeks before I do laundry. This ends up being a big mistake for several reasons:

* My laundry basket is only so big. And my basket is pretty big to begin with

* When I have guests over, I have to pick up all my dirty laundry that has been piling up on my bedroom floor because there wasn't anymore room in the basket

* I end up shoving all the dirty clothes into a huge heap on one end of my closet- usually it's an overflowing mess out of the basket

*I finally decided to do laundry. Now I have to carry it downstairs. This is a muscle building excercise as I usually have to carry the large basket and 1-2 smaller baskets to get all the laundry down

*It requires agility because I have to squeeze through several doorways with the large basket without dropping any clothes

*I usually end up doing 3-4 loads of laundry in one day because I've put it off for so long. And then there are still some clothes left over because there wasn't enough for one more load.

* After I've exhausted myself with the lifting and sorting (yes, I'm being over dramatic), then I have to haul all the clothes back upstairs, fold them and put them away.

*I have to get them put away before they get wrinkled (that didn't work out last time.....can you say iron?)

*On top of all that, I wait until 5pm to start this process. Oops!

One of my New Years Resolutions? Creating a new laundry method!


"After ecstasy, the laundry." ~Zen teaching

Top 10 T-shirt Worthy Slogans

This list is courtesy of Time. com Check it out here

1. "Don't tase me, bro."

— ANDREW MEYER, a student at the University of Florida, who, after an outburst during a speech by Sen. John Kerry, was shocked with a Taser by campus police officers

#2. "I have a wide stance."

— LARRY CRAIG, Idaho senator, in an oft-quoted but inaccurate phrase borne out of the police report summarizing the conservative Republican's explanation for why his foot might have touched a cop's in an adjacent bathroom stall during a sex sting at the Minneapolis-St. Paul airport. What Craig actually said was, "I'm a fairly wide guy."

#3. "Dumbledore is gay."

— J.K. ROWLING, Harry Potter creator who published the final book in the mega-selling series this summer, responding to a young fan's question about whether the Hogwarts headmaster ever finds true love

#4. "Put your big-girl panties on."

— MARGARET SPELLINGS, U.S. Secretary of Education, giving encouragement to deputy White House press secretary Dana Perino, who took over for press secretary Tony Snow, who is battling cancer

#5. "I don't know who I am, but they're after me."

— KARL ROVE, White House advisor, who likened himself to Moby Dick, Beowulf and Grendel in being hounded by Democrats who believe he secretly controls President George W. Bush

#6. "Thanks for the question, you little jerk. You're drafted."

— JOHN MCCAIN, Arizona Senator and presidential hopeful, responding jokingly to a high schooler's comment that, at 71, McCain might be too old for the White House

#7. "I take a bath every day."

— THE REV. AL SHARPTON, black activist who ran for President in 2004, on Joe Biden's calling fellow 2008 presidential hopeful Barack Obama "the first mainstream African American who is articulate and bright and clean and a nice-looking guy." Biden later apologized.

#8. "People are at least as smart as goats, maybe not as agile."

— TRENT LOTT, Mississippi Senator, on why building a fence along the U.S. border won't stop illegal immigration

#9. "I have lived the American Dream."

— ALBERTO GONZALES, the first Hispanic to serve as U.S. Attorney General, who resigned without explanation amid allegations of perjury before Congress

#10. "I want to be like Gandhi and Martin Luther King and John Lennon, but I want to stay alive."

— MADONNA, during a radio interview, on how she wants her art and philanthropy to inspire people

LAST DAY!

today was the last day of classes before Christmas break! And we get 2 WEEKS of this year!!! I can't wait!! I'm not doing ANY homework the first week. I'll do a ton of clarinet, piano, scrapbooking and probably have the House MD marathon sleepover I've been planning for several months. It's so exciting to de-stress for a while. I haven't felt this great in quite a while. It probably has something to do with the fact I turned in my Extended Essay on Thursday. I still need to re-work the abstract AFTER break. Basically on break I've got to do my HOA IA. But it's a rough draft, so I'm not going to worry about it.

I got into the Presidential Music Scholarship Competition at my top college!! If I win, I'd get $12,500 a year!! And if I don't, I'll still end up with mucho financial aid. Really looking forward to that!! : D

I really want to wish everyone a very Merry Christmas and Happy New Year! Remember that it's not about the holiday stress, the commercialization, or even the fact that IB has found a way to keep us busy for 2 weeks when we don't have school. It's all about God's Son coming to Earth to change our world forever.

Here's a great, hilarious video. It's a group calle Straight No Chaser. It's an accapella group that did a parody of the 12 days of Christmas. It's fanastic!!

Everything can be explained by cows:

World Ideologies as Explained by Reference to Cows


Feudalism
You have two cows. Your lord takes some of the milk.

Pure Socialism
You have two cows. The government takes them and puts them in a barn with everyone else's cows. You have to take care of all the cows. The government gives you all the milk you need.


Bureaucratic Socialism
Your cows are cared for by ex-chicken farmers. You have to take care of the chickens the government took from the chicken farmers. The government gives you as much milk and eggs the regulations say you should need.

Fascism
You have two cows. The government takes both, hires you to take care of them, and sells you the milk.


Pure Communism
You have two cows. Your neighbors help you take care of them, and you all share the milk.

Real World Communism
You share two cows with your neighbors. You and your neighbors bicker about who has the most "ability" and who has the most "need". Meanwhile, no one works, no one gets any milk, and the cows drop dead of starvation.


Russian Communism
You have two cows. You have to take care of them, but the government takes all the milk. You steal back as much milk as you can and sell it on the black market.

Perestroika
You have two cows. You have to take care of them, but the Mafia takes all the milk. You steal back as much milk as you can and sell it on the "free" market.


Cambodian Communism
You have two cows. The government takes both and shoots you.

Militarianism
You have two cows. The government takes both and drafts you.


Totalitarianism
You have two cows. The government takes them and denies they ever existed. Milk is banned.


Pure Democracy
You have two cows. Your neighbors decide who gets the milk.

Representative Democracy
You have two cows. Your neighbors pick someone to tell you who gets the milk.


British Democracy
You have two cows. You feed them sheeps' brains and they go mad. The government doesn't do anything.


Bureaucracy
You have two cows. At first the government regulates what you can feed them and when you can milk them. Then it pays you not to milk them. Then it takes both, shoots one, milks the other and pours the milk down the drain. Then it requires you to fill out forms accounting for the missing cows.

Pure Anarchy
You have two cows. Either you sell the milk at a fair price or your neighbors try to take the cows and kill you.


Pure Capitalism
You have two cows. You sell one and buy a bull.

Capitalism
You don't have any cows. The bank will not lend you money to buy cows, because you don't have any cows to put up as collateral.


Enviromentalism
You have two cows. The government bans you from milking or killing them.


Political Correctness
You are associated with (the concept of "ownership" is a symbol of the phallo centric, war mongering, intolerant past) two differently - aged (but no less valuable to society) bovines of non-specified gender.


Surrealism
You have two giraffes. The government requires you to take harmonica lessons.
**********************************
In far less interesting news, I've finally made-up all the tests that I missed because of All-State. And I really need break to come because even though a ton of my major project deadlines have passed, I'm about ready to collapse.

Congrats to all the choral students on a great job at the concert last night! (my page turning abilities were pretty incredible, I must admit)

And I'm very excited because tomorrow is the last jazz band rehearsal I have to lead! As much as I enjoy bossing people around, I'm not very good at it when it comes to the jazz band. On top of that, tomorrow is another percussion ensemble rehearsal! Yay!

Snow Day!

today was the first snow day of the season. Yippie! I really needed the day off to get caught up on stuff. did I? Of course not! Every moment of free time I ever have I feel like I am forced to decide whether I work to get caught up on everything or take some time to relax so I don't go insane. That debate, of course, causes me to go insane. I honestly can't wait until I'm done with IB. Right now I think it's doing me more harm than good. Especially since I have no clue when I'm going to start reaping the rewards of all this stress.

The Bio trip yesterday was ok. I was a little more than freaked out by the exhibit. I'm not big into dead bodies and dead body parts. There were other parts of the museum that were cool, and not sitting in classrooms all day was pretty cool. But I think I would have prefered to just skip school.

We're so close to having a band director it's driving me nuts. Everyone knows who it is, even though we're not really supposed to talk about it since nothing's official. Arg. I don't like the fact that it can't just be out in the open.

The concert went really well Monday night. Even though I explained to several people that it was nothing like what I expected my senior year Christmas concert to be like. I thought we'd still have Borsz, be in 2 bands, have a (comparatively) huge jazz band (that I wouldn't be part of), we'd have a "mysterious guest conductor" lead Sleigh Ride, and then cookies afterwards. Instead, I was there an hour early, rehearsing with some small ensembles, rearranging the decorations in my concert dress with Eleanor, leading the jazz band (while doubling on my clarinet on the last second), participated in all the ensembles expect for one, have one large band under Ms. Bergstrom (because we don't have a director), and everyone knew who the guest conductor was about a month before that. The only thing that was the same was that we played Sleigh Ride and had cookies.

The percussion ensemble had another rehearsal on Tuesday. We had 2 more people join the pit (yay!) and Ms. Thomas came in to hel pout with the pit rehearsal. Consequently, we sounded really good. And it was awesome for me to take part in an ensemble where I got to be a student, not a leader and I got to mess up and ask questions. It was AWESOME!!! Dorothy and I have decided we need to make t-shirts for the pit (since we're way more amazing than our drumline counterparts.....: P)

As we discussed in ToK the other day, you have to hit rock bottom before things can start to get better. Maybe that's finally happening for me.

Dome video and College Visit

I got a copy of the Dome video the other day. I think it was Thursday. But that's not really revelant. It actually turned out quite nice. The quality was a lot better than the ones in the past. We sounded really good and they didn't show too many spots of us marching, so I couldn't tell. All in all, I thought it was good.

The other day I went on another college visit to Roberts Wesleyan for their Music Preview Day. I really enjoyed the visit. During the registration time I hung out with some other prospectives, and it turned out that 3 of us were all wearing the same chromatic watch (it's a music geek thing). The first class I went to was Music Theory I where they discussed phrasings and then reviewed for the final exam. it was scary because they actually use the same textbook we're using in class. After that I watched a presentation by an admissions counselour on the college. Then I watched a clarinet lesson with the professor (I've had a lesson with her before) and that was very interesting. The really cool 2 parts were next. We got to listen to a student and faculty recital which was awesome. They had a woodwind quinet, clarinet soloist, classical vocal and jazz vocal and a piano duet. I then went to lunch and discussed a ton of stuff with the clarinet professor (and another prospective clarinet student). Then I was talking with another professor about 'Dido and Aenas' so that was awesome. Next I had Music History and Literature II where they talked about Berlioz (memories of All-State) and Mendelssohn (I'm giong to see a performance of Elijah soon, and we're playing Fingal's Cave in YO). Next I watched the Men's Chorus rehearsal for a bit then went on a tour of a dorm room and the new library. Finally I got to watch the Wind Ensemble rehearsal. Oh my goodness. They are incredible. They started out with Sleigh Ride and it sounded AMAZING (especially compared to EHS playing it) then they did Russian Christmas Music (which we did last year). They sounded great. All in all, it's going to be very difficult to decide where I want to go to college. It's going to involve a lot of prayer, and some serious financial aid issues.

Yesterday I went to Lauren's birthday party which was at one of the many coffee shops in the area. I hadn't been to this one and it was great. Plus I got to hang out with some people I hadn't seen in FOREVER. Happy birthday Lauren!

Today I played a solo (w/ CD) in Church. I hadn't done one in a while, so I was really nervous. It went great and I'm very thankful to God for that.

This week I'm actually going to be at school on Friday! WOW! However, I'm taking a field trip with the other Bio students on Wednesday, so I'm having another 4 day week. Unless of course we get a snow day or something tomorrow. Which would be very cool. Except for the fact we'd have to figure out a way to reschedule the band concert. But that's fine with me.

Etc

I survived my last Festival of Lights parade. We did a row of 4 across this year, and in the front line there were 3 freshmen. Yikes! I'm slightly concerend about parade season, but that's several months away. Thank goodness. For once I didn't run into the colorguard and I kept us on camera for a ridiculously long period of time and I'm very proud of that. We've managed to lost one part of the Christmas tree costumes. There was one still in the ceiling (it was actually Jenna/Chase who hid them there, not the drumline), but we're missing the top part of the one we pulled down before. So now we're going to have to go on a quest to find the other top.

ALL-STATE

It was incredible and I loved it!! Here's my disseration:

We got to ride in a monster van which was really funny watching HC try to park it in the Dunkin Donuts parking lot. I have trouble parking in the mornings with my own car which is about half that size. And no, it's not because I lack parking skills, despite what others may say. The ride up to Rochester was interesting because there had been a pact made not to discuss Les Mis (since all 3 vocalists are going out for Les Mis and the auditions are this week and 2 of them are going out for the same lead role). So what did we talk about? Les Mis. Eleanor and I couldn't hear half of the conversation since we were in the last row of the van. When we got to the hotel I felt like such an expert because I actually knew what was going on. It was pretty awesome. After I registered I bumped into the West Genesee kids, including Katie who I hung out with last year. It was a lot of fun visiting with her until HC grabbed me. So then I went to my room (yeah, I know this is getting overly detailed, but you just have to deal with it) where I met one of the roomies. They've done some renovating of the hotel, so we had one king sized beds and two cots, so we rotated who slept where each night. I was really smart and decided to have the bed Saturday night so I could be well-rested for the concert. Or comparatively well-rested.

I practiced for a little bit then went to my audition site. There were 2 firsts, 2 seconds and one bass player. I remembered one of the firsts from last year (she ended up getting first chair) and the other one was a junior who had gotten a 100 on the same solo I did. I didn't think anyone else even knew of the Cahuzac, let alone played it. After my audition (I ended up getting 2nd chair) I hung out with the Wind Ensemble sax players who were also auditioning in the same spot. One of them is actually from Copiague, another competitive marching band, so it was really fun talking about that with him. The other second clarinetist showed up late (because he's from the Rochester area or something) and I heard his audition. I knew right away that he beat me, but I knew that was going to happen before I even got up there. The Berlioz (Roman Carnival Overture) was just too much for me to handle at the playing level I'm at right now. AKA I couldn't play it all weekend because it was too fast for me to articulate.

The first rehearsal went really well. I really loved our conductor and I knew right away that I'd like the Hindemith more than the Berlioz. Friday was a really, REALLY long day. During the afternoon session we had sectionals, but we weren't allowed to go back to our hotel rooms (or even leave the floor) so we had nothing to do. Therefore, I took a nap. That seems to be my default activity whenever I get bored. Even though we had sectionals, it was still a lot of work, I was really tired by the end, but a ton of fun. I had quickly made a group of orchestra friends to hang out with which was a lot nicer than not knowing anyone like last year. After dinner I ran into the C-town folks (including the Griffins) and I was talking with them when Borsz showed up. Apparently some of the Zone 15 people begged him to stop up for dinner Friday night since he wasn't going to the conference. Eleanor went completely nuts, it was so funny. I restrained myself and merely insulted him the entire time. I have to say it was really great getting to see him since I hadn't seen him in a long time. The bass clarinet player I was sitting to was hilarious and since he didn't play during the Berlioz he turned my pages for me, but I couldn't understand him half the time because he was from Long Island. I noticed that just about everyone was either from Rochester or what I now refer to as "downstate" that way I never mess up people from NYC and people from LI.

Once again I enjoyed getting to talk music with other music geeks. I was standing in a line waiting to pay for some sheet music (part of my Christmas gift was sheet music shopping money) and I was talking with a bunch of bass players about bass music/parts (I actually learned quite a bit) and then discovered that one of them was actually in IB Music HL2. We discussed our compositions and our comparative music papers which was cool. I also got into some deep 20th century music discussions with 2 flute players I hung out with, and we argued about which styles of music we preferred, likes/dislikes of composers, etc etc. One of them composes for the fun of it and really wants to take a look at my 12-tone piece when I'm finished. Everyone was really nice up there.

Music-wise I loved the Hindemith a lot more than the Berlioz. Mainly because the Hindemith had some really awesome wind parts whereas the Berlioz was mainly for the strings. Plus I had to fake-it on the Berlioz because the tempo was way too fast for me to be able to articulate it cleanly. I knew that was going to happen because articulation is my weak spot right now and it drives me nuts. The only thing that bothered me in the Hindemith (which you warned me about) was the trills. I swear I never want to play another trill in my LIFE. Or a triple for that matter. My favorite part to listen to was in the 2nd mov't with the big brass section (letter Q). It sounded so cool, especially since I was sitting right in front of the French horns. I was sitting pretty close to the timpani as well, and that had to have been the coolest part in the orchestra in several sections in that mov't. I had listened to the recording before, but it was so much more alive sitting there and actually playing it. And our brass section was incredible, along with our percussionists who apparently didn't have part assignments when they showed up to the first rehearsal. Out of the woodwinds, while all the principals were excellent, I loved the English horn soloist in the Berlioz. Her tone and musicality were incredible. When we performed in Eastman, she sounded beyond amazing.

Speaking of our performance, it went really well. I can't wait to hear the recording of it. It was kinda difficult for the winds/brass since they didn't have risers for us, so we had to up the sound level and we were really far away from the conductor (in comparison to where we were during rehearsals). It's hard to judge how well something sounded when you've been playing it for more than 20 hours during the course of 4 days. I felt my personal performance went well, so that was nice.

PLUS:

I'm playing vibes for the new percussion ensemble : P

3 days!!

AHHHH!!!!!!!!! I CAN'T TAKE THREE MORE DAYS OF SCHOOL BEFORE THANKSGIVING BREAK!!!!!!!!!

Okay, so here's a quick overview of what's been going on:

Band- We're all combined together under the direction of Bergstrom. It's been...um...interesting. It's really different for someone who has been in Wind Ensemble since their freshman year. Sleigh Ride is REALLY different, especially compared to freshman year (when we had Steve, Brian, Brice, Caylynn, etc etc etc).

English- I've survived Hamlet and we're into poetry. I'd take more Shakespeare over poetry, though I do like some of the Wordsworth. I just have trouble marking it up.

Music- Basically, I love this class. We're sort of doing an independent study of sorts. Marty and I both want to write our second composition in the the style of 20th centruy music, so that's what we're working on. We're doing twelve-tone first, which is what I'm writing. Marty still hasn't settled on his style, but it's probably going to be some sort of minimalist thing. I'm finding that I really love writing 20th century music because all you have to do is follow the rules and you don't have to come up with some creative melodic line. It really takes the pressure off.

Bio- Well, it's Bio. Lots of confusing labs and topic sections. I'm just not a science person. I'm doing okay in the class, so I must be understanding some of it (even if I don't feel like it).

Lunch - Well, Mr. Potter (our long-term sub) doesn't keep the bandroom open, so we have to find someplace else to eat. Last week Katie, Sarah F and I were selling tickets for Drama Club so we were in the cafeteria. I have no clue what we'll do this week.

HOA- We've been doing PROJECTS! Yes, I've decided that in Hurd's class we will always either be watching a video, doing a project or taking an essay-test.

TOK- We've been doing a PROJECT! It's a project based on learning from a play we read.

Spanish- I survived my first informal speaking on the problems of my senior year. I ended up with a 29/30 because I didn't use all the upscale grammar that we've learned. And we've learned a ton. Which is pretty much what we're working on right now.

Studyhall - I've been in the bandroom - DUH!

The first weekend of November I visited Houghton College. It was an awesome time! I'll write more later when I have more time.

This past weekend I went and saw the fall play "Rumors" I LOVED IT!!!! It was AWESOME!! Everyone in the cast did a great job and it was hilarious. I could not stop laughing at several points. At intermission I was talking with some of my friends and we couldn't figure out how it was going to get funnier, but it did. Congrats to the cast!!

This weekend in Area All-State and I get out of school after period 4, so I get to miss gym class! YES!!!!

All-State is in 16 days which is highly exciting.

The Jazz Band has become student run which is pretty interesting since I've been in charge of things. Yeah. It's been very interesting. I think we're going to sound good at the concert. I'm a little nervous because we only have 4 rehearsals left, and I have no clue what I'm doing when it comes to leading a jazz band : P Eleanor is going to come in and do vocals on one of the songs which should be cool.

Les Mis is being obsessed over by everyone in the school. Of course! Anyways, I found this really funny video of Neal Patrick Harris and Jason Segel singing "Confrontation".



Anyways, I can't wait until BREAK!!

Go Figure

Well, this is just a short update. We found out on Tuesday that Mr. Benson has taken another job at another school district. He's still living in the area (same house, etc). And of course, I would be going on a college visit on his last day. So today was my last day with him, and I stayed afterschool to talk to him, etc etc. And my parents came (of course) since it's their last time with him too.

Until the December concert, we're all going to be together as one big band. Which is going to be nuts. Especially for Sleigh Ride.

That's about all I feel like writing about now, but I figured I should post that update.

Competitions, Football Games, Wegmans and Life

Wow. Life has been busy! Which explains why I've been too busy to write. Not that anyone actually cares, but I felt like I should say it. Here's some large updates:

9/22 Competition

We placed 3rd (out of 4) with a score of 60.20. The fact that we beat someone is not the most important thing. Benson was overly disappointed that we were more excited that we beat someone than the fact we jumped 5 points in 2 weeks. I think he really needs to check his perspective.

Segment One was a smash hit. It went really well. Segment Two wasn't too bad. Still a little trouble with the halts. So that was business as usual. Segment Three. Oh man. I was completely ticked off at the band because of what happened in Seg 3. It was unbelievable. I know the band has great difficultly watching the drum majors. They always have trouble with that. Which means that we always have tempo issues in the 3rd segment because at close to the beginning they've got a halt and have to watch for a tempo. I know- standing still and watching for a new tempo is SO difficult. So usually we've got some phasing more about a set or so then it comes back together. This wasn't just phasing. It was band mitosis. I have no clue what happened. Everyone was taking a different tempo. Several of the band members doubted it was as bad as I said it was. Then they watched the video on Monday. And then they understood why I was so upset. Segment 4 is Jenna's segment. So I usually don't give a care what happens then because I can just blame it on Jenna. The trumpets initially didn't hold out their phrases long enough. But whatever. Then Seg 5 wasn't too bad. It was better than usual. Overall the whole show was an improvement, except for Seg 3.

After we performed, Walker hurt his nose. I'm sure you've heard all about that. They were playing Frisbee, Phil M accidentally hit Walker's nose. Talk about blood. It was all over the place. But he was laying there, making jokes and everything. Keaton's dad got a pic of it for the slide show at the end of the year. My mom actually got to play medic! They called an ambulance and everything, but the EMTs said there wasn't much they could do. He's doing fine. He didn't need surgery- by the time he went to the ER the next day, they said they couldn't do anything until after the nose healed. But that wasn't the best part. The best part was Guy questioning us on what happened (I was standing watching the whole process).

Guy "What happened"
People explain
Guy "So what does this teach you about Frisbee?"
Arkin or Sven "That it's a really fun game?"
Guy "You should NEVER do it at a band competition!"
Arkin "Guy- it could happen anywhere!"
Everyone else "IT'S JUST FRISBEE!"

9/28 Homecoming Game

I'll summarize - our football team was terrible the first half. We were even worse at pep tunes. We only did the first 2 segments, BUT WE NAILED THEM!!! I was so proud of the band. And the color guard! They were incredible - THEY DID THE SAME THING AT THE SAME TIME!!! Perhaps things are starting to look up. We've added a ton of visuals. We've got the band snapping their fingers during Peter's solo, and kneeling at the end of Seg 1. They're doing a new horns down at the end of 4. And they're doing this weird bending thing at the end of 5. Dorothy wants the drum majors to do it too, but it's impossible to do while conducting. So the DMs are revolting against Benson. We're not going to do it. And that's that.

Katie P was homecoming queen for class of '08 and Jen H was queen for '11.

9/30 Wegmans

And today I was 2 teachers at Wegmans. Which was just freaky. I saw Mr. Hurd (who asked if we enjoyed having a weekend off from band...I reminded him we had a football game the night before, and he said that didn't count) and Mrs. Taylor my Bio teacher. I got to see her baby, who is just soo cute!!


10/5 Football Game (vs Johnson City)


The first and only afternoon football game. The game was at 4:30, so we had to be there at 3:30. Which was crazy. I helped tutor a student 9th period. Sarah and I then went to pick up some garlic knots and pizza at Ricos. I drove and managed to parallel park on Market Street! We then brought the stuff back. Dave Hoffman was supposed to take a picture of the entire band, but Keaton's dad ended up doing it. Benson was starting to bite off people's heads because it was taking too long. Then as we were heading out to the field, we found out the Johnson City had brought their band. Oh goodness. I was visibly upset. We emphasized the fact that everyone needed to play amazingly well. The alma mater and stuff went well. I started becoming very impatient in regards to the pep tunes. Mainly because I was freaking out the entire time. We then had 3rd quarter off like we normally do. But then people weren't coming back. I had to go down to the concessions stand 3 times and some people still wouldn't come up. So I sent Benson. I was completely fed up with the band.

10/6 Crystal City Competition

AHHH!! It was my last one! I almost started to cry as we were marching on the field. The show was great. It was awesome. We placed 2 out of 3 with a score of 64.85- another 4 point (and some odd change as Benson would say) jump in the course of 2 weeks. Our added visuals are really helping. The drill was excellent- I was able to see lines! And there weren't huge tempo bumps. After I did the initial salute, Kayla screamed "YEAH KATIE" which was amazing. I can't really give specifics on the show because 1) it was a while ago and 2) I was really living in the moment (senior year and all). After our performance, Benson told us that it was the definition of the word "wow". It almost rained later during the comp and we had to delay it for 15 min because of lightning. But other than that it went well. Oh, we did have a ton of injuries. In other bands. No one at East played Frisbee, so we were safe this week. My mom was the medic and she had to run all over the place. SHE MISSED MY PERFORMANCE. I was very ticked about that. (Yes, I know I said everything was amazing, but it was an evening of juxtapositions). For senior awards, they gave us a glass mug that had our name and EHS Band 2007-2008 on it filled with candy, plus a copy of the program.

10/13 Victor Competition

Victor was the competition last year where they had to stop the show because we were late. Thankfully that didn't happen again. The bus ride wasn't too bad. We stopped at McDonald's (as usual). It was the coldest competition (or game for that matter) of the season. I think people just weren't mentally prepared for the colder temperature. We tried to get them to keep their horns/hands warm, but the drastic temperature change threw everyone off. It was a really bad grass field, but everyone seemed to manage okay. We beat CAST and we ended up getting 2nd to last place. I believe it was 4th. Our score was a 66.25 - about a 2 point increase. For once there were no huge issues for me to go crazy about. I could sense that it wasn't as good as it could have been, but I blame it all on the elements. And the fact our band wasn't ready for them. And technically that weekend, we beat two bands, since our score beat the score of a band at a different competition. Then on the bus ride back, we had to stop because there was a car accident that happened just a minute or so before we reached the intersection. The staff was driving in a van ahead of us and it happened almost right in front of them. They were able to go around, but the by the time the buses got there everything was stopped. When I announced to everyone on my bus the severity of the accident, not a single person complained about being back home late. They were so well behaved. We got back to the school rather late, but I'm starting to get used to that.

10/29 East-West Game

Tonight was the East West game. We lost 34-20. Yes, my senior year we lost. But I was more or less expecting it. The band did a fantastic job. West high cheered for us and told us great job. They even said they were amazed at how well we executed everything. I was stunned. I've never heard West be so nice to us before. It's crazy. And our show did go really well. I was really proud of them.

Tomorrow night is Bandtoberfest. Unfortunately, we don't even know when we're performing. We're assuming first, and then all the students will leave. Benson left it up to me to decide whether or not the DMs would stay for the retreat. We're going to stay, but change out of uniforms along with everyone else. We're going out there in our jeans and band jackets. It's going to be awesome!!

There's one more week left in my senior year of Field band season. There are a lot of things I'm going to miss, and there are a lot of things I won't miss.

Outside, of band, I haven't had a life. That's why it's taken me several weeks to write this entry (I write in chunks and then have to save and then end up adding on). English class is okay - we're working on Hamlet. Music class has been awesome. We've got one composition finished, which is great. Bio is just incredibly confusing. Lunch has been great. HOA we've been watching videos and doing what I call "passive learning". I'm not sure we've been doing anything in TOK. I keep missing it for various reasons. I really wish we had Spanish more than every other day since I feel so rushed to remember all the material. And studyhall has been the same all year.

Youth Orchestra is starting to drive me nuts, but that's more or less because I never have any free time on the weekends (between band and orchestra)

I FINALLY got my All-State music!! I'm on the 2nd Clarinet part in the Symphony Orchestra. We're playing Berlioz' Roman Carnival Overture and Hindemith's Symphonic Metamorphosis. Two very cool pieces.

I can't think of another thing to write!

9/8 Competition

Well, there really isn't much to say about our first competition. It can be summed up in one word: terrible. Utterly terrible. This is the East High Band at its worst. I take that back. I'm sure we could have done more things incorrectly, but that would be a strech. We ended up with a score of 55.35. The only other SS3 band that did Week 1 competition was Westmoreland (they were at the same place) and they got a 64.75. Some things went well. I think. The woodwinds came in on their echo part in Natural Woman, and people played the whole way through the show. That isn't saying that they played it well, but they did play. And one of the judges said that our ending triads (chords) were nicely in tune a couple of times. This is the first year I've listened to the judges tapes. We got slaughtered. We decided to perform the entire show, but we stood still for segment 3 (South rampart Street parade) and then did a scatter drill thing to get to Segment 4 (Closer Walk). When we got back to teh school and watched the tape, I mainly watched Benson's face. It was a mixture of shock, horror, confusion and disappointment. This week we've focused on re-learning the drill/music for Segment 3. And tomorrow/Friday we are going to just starting running the show. And this Friday we've got sectionals from 3-5 and Saturday from 1-3

Oh, I forgot to mention the fact the we got back to East around 11, unloaded the truck, watched the video and THEN had a section leader meeting with Benson. I didn't leave East until midnight. That was terrific.

School has been pretty crazy. I'd write more, but I'm not really in the mood. I just wanted to get a post up about the competition.

Fire Drill Friday

Gotta love fire drill Friday. Every single class gets shortened a little bit, and you get to walk out into the obscenely hot outdoors. Which are almost as bad as the classrooms. It was completely disgusting. I was soaked by the end of first period. So, the rest of the day I was : upset about band, hot, sweaty, smelly, and tired. Just like everyone else.

Yeah, band did not go well today. It was bad. In every aspect of the word. I don't know which was worse- not using Dr. Beat, or trying to use it. Either way, I got stuck trying to fix the band's mistakes every 5 seconds. And I don't like it when I have to stop conducting and then start again to keep the band together. That's just ridiculous. Plus, we've got our first competition tomorrow. So pretty much all the sectional leaders were upset after band. That's why we've got sectional scheduled from 12- 2 tomorrow (some are starting at 1). And for once, every single section is having a sectional. Except the drum majors. I'm running the clarinet sectional because Olivia needs to get some CAS hours done (I am so thankful I'm past that). And they will know their entrances in Natural Woman by the time I get through with them.

One class of note: In HOA, Hurd decided to give up on trying to teach us, so we watched some random video clips from last year (the videos from the 50s, Ike for President, They're taking taking the Hobbits....)

And in Spanish, Senora Tunison (who has had me for 2 years, this is the third) said that this was the most tired I've ever looked in her class before. Which was probably very true.

Afterschool Jenna hung out with me for a bit, then I helped my mom with some final uniform stuff. Always lots of fun in the uniform room. Especially when it reaks of smelly feet and body odor.

Then I took a quick shower, and went to my youth orchestra audition. I auditioned for Augusto and Dr. McBreardy, which somewhat suprising, since I though Scott Kelley was going to be there. The audition went well, and I'm in.

I then came home, ate some leftover stuffed shells from my birthday, finished watching West Side Story.

Now I'm just hanging out, enjoying the air conditioning. I'm going to watch the new episode of Pysch and completely dread the sectional and competition tomorrow.

End of Summer

Well, here it is. The night before the first day of my senior year. This summer felt so long, and yet so short. Here's my review of the summer:

I did write my Extended Essay, and it's not too terribly bad

I've gotten most of one of my compositions written

I've got some other random ideas for the second one and the third one I haven't even thought about yet

I did no work at all on my IB Music comparitive paper

I managed to visit 4/5 clarinet professors at the colleges I'm thinking about attending

I found out that I got into All-State

I've got some good clarinet music to work on for my college auditions

My clarinet teacher and I decided what solos we'd look at this year

I took a lot of time to relax and do nothing

I watched Disney movies, Psych season one, All three seasons of House, and on Friday nights watched the current episodes of Psych

I actually spent some time with friends outside of Band Camp

I went to Freshmen Intros and survived. And I learned the names of the freshmen

Band camp went prety well. It had it's ups and downs, as did I

And my drum majors didn't totally rebel against me when I was being a jerk for no reason (usually when I'm a jerk, there's a reason)

I read some books that I really wanted to read

I got my liscense

I was actually able to make it to Youth Group a couple of times

I re-discovered the fact that I have the most amazing family and friends in the world

I survived 2 major near mental/emotional breakdowns

That was my summer

Period

NYSFBC

Well, the NYSFBC has the schedule for this season up and running. Here's what we're going up against:

Week 1: 9/8 Westmoreland, placed 4th last year at the Dome, score of 77.15

Week 3: 9/22 Pioneer, 6th, 72.70
CSAT, Last, 64.30
Wellsville, 8th, 71.55
Dansville, 10th, 68.85

Week 5: 10/6 Wellsville, Bath

Week 6: 10/13 Westmoreland, CSAT, Pioneer

Week 8: 10/27 Johnson City. Yes folks, they followed us to SS3. Remember, they beat us at the Dome by .55 This can not and will not happen again!!!

To put it all into perspective, here are our scores from last year:

Week 1: 9/9 64.00

Week 3: 9/23 70.80

Week 4: 9/30 67.25

Week 6: 10/14 70.15

Dome: 76.85

If you're curious about past scores, etc visit www.nysfbc.org The show hosts post the scores each week after the competitions so you can keep track of all the standings

Not so Yippie

I really don't want school to start. Severly don't want to school to start. For several reasons:

1) I have to start doing IB work again

2) I didn't complete all my IB work for the summer

3) I'm a senior. That makes me feel old. And it means I've only got one year left with everybody

4) We basically have 3 mornings to rehearse until we get slaughtered at our first band competition

5) I have to fill out colelge applications, get auditions set up, apply for scholarships, write essays = ICK

6) Once again, I've only got a year left. Much as I'll be glad to leave IB, I don't want to elave my friends. Even though I'm sure they'll be glad to leave me.

In other news, I did some slight revising on my extended essay. It's 3, 442 words. That's if I put all the pieces of music in an appendix.

In a completely unrelated story, my dog was really sore yesterday for some reason and it was really sad. She could barely stand up. But she's doing better today.

In Sunday School, I kinda sorta hung out with Lauren and Tristan. They made me sit in front of them, so the teacher had a grand and glorious time picking on me. Thanks a lot guys! Then Lauren showed me her baby brother who is sooo cute! And big!

Today I also finished reading "Mr. Darcy's Daughters". It was a pretty good novel, but it had more of a modern edge to it than I would ahve liked. Either way, the author was smart to not bring in Darcy or Elizabeth and use new characters (Darcy's 5 daughters) as the basis for her story.

Well, that's it for now!

Yippie!

Thursday I finished the rough draft of my Extended Essay!! I was completely brain dead afterwards, and it probably gets worse towards the end, but the important thing is that I finally finished it!!

Yesterday I had a headache all day. It finally went away for a bit when I took a nap in the car on the way to Mansfield for colelge clarinet lesson #4. It was with Dr. David Wetzel. He's a great teacher and very down-to-earth. He was going to show me how to play something, but explained to me that he was using a really bad reed because he didn't ahve time to find a good one all week. There's a true clarinet player - always blame the reed!!

Now the only teacher I need to meet with is the professor at Houghton. I still haven't worked out a time to meet with him yet.

I can't believe that there's 3 days until school starts. And a week until we get slaughtered at our first band competition of the season.

East High Band Members - We seriously need to discuss times to have extra rehearsals, probably either Friday afternoons or Saturday morning/afternoons. It wouldn't ahve to be every week, but we NEED the extra time/work

25 days until the season premiere of HOUSE!

4 days until my birthday!!

AHHHHHHHHHH!!!!!!!!!

Today was crazy. Not as crazy as some days, but still pretty crazy.

The big thing I did today was visit Roberts Weslyan and have a lesson with their clarinet instructor. She was amazing!! She really worked with me on my solo, gave me a ton of info about their music program, and invited me back to a Preview Day in November and an Honors Band Weekend in February. PLUS if you're accepted to the college, you're accepted to the music school; the audition is just a formality. SWEET!! It was a lot of fun meeting her, and she had a lot of great tips (just like all the other college profs....I'm starting to go into information overload!)

When I got home, I did some paperwork. A lot of paperwork. Well, organized the paperwork. Basically it was all my college info and whatnot. I've been e-mailing the colleges a lot, so it was time to get those all organized. And I got started on figuring out the college application process. Which was a terrible, scary idea. By the end, I was shaking. It was bad. So I had some dinner and then went to youth group.

Youth group was a lot of fun. I hadn't seen Lauren in a while (neither of us had been there for a while) so it was cool to see her again. Mrs. Stevens finally had her baby, so we got to hear all about that. He was almost 10 lbs! That's just nuts. Then we played some "baseball". I actually didn't strike out! I hit 4 times, and got 2 runs. One time when our team was completely beating the other team, Jeremy told me to hit it and walk to first: it was a guarenteed out so we'd be able to switch places (the other team didn't want the 5 run rule). Well, I hit it and walked, and didn't get out. It was amazing.

Tomorrow is supposed to be my big Extended Essay day. I've only got to type up my various Post-It notes (go ahead and laugh) so it shouldn't take too long. Friday I'm going to pick up my senior photos and have a lesson with the clarinet professor in Mansfield.

Countdowns:

First day of school: 6 days
My Birthday: 1 week
Crystal City Competition: 1 month, 1 week
Last Field Band Championship at the Dome: 1 day less than 2 months
All-State: 3 months plus 1 day

Just Some Light Reading

Here's how today went:
-Clarinet Lesson
-Amazing Lunch/Dinner/Meal of the Day at an Italian Restaurant my teacher told me to go to
-Staples shopping
-Barnes and Noble shopping
-Cleaning
-Quick clarinet practice (as in, 7 min max)
-Nothing!

At Barnes and Noble I picked up some "light reading"-

What to Listen for in Music - Aaron Copland
Candide - Voltaire
Mr. Darcy's Daughters - Elizabeth Aston
NPR Guide to Building a Classical Music Library (or some title like that)
Demystifying: Biology (yeah, it won't be close to the IB level, but it should help me review the basic concepts I don't remember or probably never learned in the first place)

Quick Note

I haven't actually done much in the way of being productive, so there's not much really to write about. Which is obviously why I'm writing this entry. : P

I have actually made it 1281 words into my Extended Essay. Yippie!! That's without having written the intro and conclusion paragraphs, and I still need to finish up the bulk of the essay. I've written all the background information. I'm going to either have 2 or 3 main sections and I'm almost finished with the first one. Yes, I know I've put it off to the last minute, but that's just how I tend to do things.

Tomorrow I've got my regular clarinet lesson and then on Wednesday I've got a lesson with the clarinet professor at Roberts Weslyan. And at my clarinet lesson tomorrow I think it's about time that I freak out about college auditions, since I have no clue what I'm going to be playing.

I've started working on college applications (something I should have been working on all summer), but I'm still way more concerned about auditions than the applications.

That's about all I've been up to. Hopefully I can finish up the extended essay by Thursday. That's my goal at least. We'll see what happens.

End of Band Camp....End of Summer??

Well, Band Camp is over. Tuesday night we learned all the drill for Segment 5. it went really well. Wednesday night we reviewed 5, put music and drill together, and then did segments 4 and 5 together. Finally, on Thursday night we reviewed segment 1, which has always been our weakest segment. By the end of the evening we were able to run segments 1-2 and 4-5 without any major difficulties. That puts us in really good standing for our first competition, which is in less than 2 weeks. Kris and Benson were discussing how they might alter the show for the first competition. Kris was discussing standing in place while playing a sgement of music, or perhaps cutting a segment off. All the really matters is that we meet the minimum time requirement. I think it's 7 min, but I'm not sure. And we've got a grand total of 4 mornings to get all that figured out. Woohoo!!

In a related story...Tuesday night I found out about All-State!! I got into the Symphony Orchestra!!!! I am SO excited!! I just want the end of November to come right now!! (that's when All-State is). I won't even get my music until October! This is the part where I need to learn patience. I don't know all the vocalists who made it - all I know is that Eleanor got in and Peter was placed as an alternate.

Friday night I got an e-mail from Dr. Sanders at the Crane School of Music saying that he could meet me 4 o'clock on Saturday. So on Saturday, we made the 5 hour drive to have a lesson with him. He was incredible. He really helped change my thinking about articulation (one of the things I struggle with) and how I think about my practice sessions in general. It was really neat. Of course, the really long drive home wasn't exciting, and I fell asleep (Dr. Sanders had given me a CD he wanted me to listen to and call him, but my body told me it was more important to sleep).

This week I seriously need to sit down and work on my Extended Essay. I've got all the research and everything, it's just sitting down and typing it that I don't like. Plus it all sounds incredibly stupid when I'm writing it out.

And I also need to get filling out college applications. Ick.

And I've got Youth Orchestra auditions in 2 weeks. And there are 2 other clarinets auditioning, so now I actually have to do well.

I really don't want school to start. But here's my schedule anyways:
Homeroom/1 - Band
2- English HL2 Radford (new English teacher/IB coordinator)
3- Music HL2 (I'm not sure who's teaching the class, probably HC)
4- Bio SL1 Taylor (does anyone know who that is??)
5- AC Bio Lab, BD Gym
6- LUNCH
7- HOA HL2 Hurd
8- AC TOK2 Baker, BD Spanish SL2 Tunison
9- STUDYHALL

Band Camp: Two Week Review

Well, it's about time I write about Band Camp. Especially considering we've only got 3 rehearsals left (woohoo!!).

Band Camp was Band Camp. Some good, some bad, and of course, some ugly! Things started off really slowly. Most people came without having looked at the music over the summer and didn't have a clue how to play it. I can't really blame them. There are a ton of crazy rhythms and whatnot that needed to be explained. I have to admit it was a little depressing. Come on, senior year is supposed to be great, and no one could play the music! But that was only because I forgot the small fact that no one ever knows how to play their music on the first day of band camp. So it really wasn't that bad. The first few days I helped out the sax section during drill, which was fun, but then they were doing fine so I stuck to my podium. Tuesday night it rained, I managed to screw things up somehow (I can't recall what I did wrong, I just remember that I went up afterwards to apologize to Benson for whatever reason). Then there was that whole mess with Jaime, the brass instructor. Tim made of movie of it; check it out on YouTube. It basically sums up everything that happened. Except for the screaming parents, and the massive apology part. But that's the boring stuff. Anyways, everyone seemed to be learning the drill rather easily (considering it's all lines and diagonals). But when we tried to put music and drill together, everything just fell apart. And that happened more than once. We managed to make it through the first three segments by the end of the week, but they weren't good. We took Friday night off, only because Butler and Benson both couldn't make it. We just did the music for the ice cream social and the next two nights we learned segment four and re-learned segment 2 and most of segment 3. The Ice Cream Social performance sounded great! I think it helped that for once, everyone was close to each other and could hear all the different parts. And Seg. 1 went well, especially considering Tim had to sight read the alto sax solo.

I have to admit I was a little concerned about the start of the season. I know that we always manage to pull it together in the end, but it's still really hard to watch people struggling and unable to help them in anyway. That's the most frustrating part of being a drum major. I really want to help, but there's not much I can do. Then Thursday night happened. Oh My Goodness. Everyone worked so hard, it was astounding. I was completely amazed at the turn around. It looked great and sounded great! And no huge train wrecks!! It just goes to show that our band can do amazing things when they put their minds to it. There's still stuff that needs to be cleaned up, but we're on track to placing in the top 3 of SS3.

We've got 3 more nights in which to learn segment 5 (10 drill sets) and re-learn segment one. think we can do it. The section leaders have already had sectionals to work on the music, and I'm having one on Tuesday to work with the drum majors. Plus the color guard has been putting in a TON of extra hours. It's really neat to see how hard those girls are working this year. And it's great that they're not having huge conflicts like they used to.

**********
On Friday I went an visited James East, the clarinet instructor at Fredonia. He's a really nice guy. He helped fix my posture, air support, and hand position. It was really informative. He also told me I need to work on my embouchure.

Hopefully this week I'll hear about the All-State results.

And this week is the last week of band camp.

Oh yeah- I almost forgot. Someone filled the band office with balloons Thursday night!! We don't know who did it, so if you did it, please confess so we can thank you. Here are some photos:

Wow it rained!

Talk about rain! It not only rained it poured! And hailed! That's just crazy!

Obviously, you can see that I'm not intending to become a weather person in the near future.

Well, I haven't done much of note recently. I've got the final parade with Community Band tomorrow. And the movie "Becoming Jane" is coming out in select theatres, but not near here (that I know of). If you know where it's playing, let me know!!! Normally I don't watch chick flicks, but this is the exception to rule.

What I'm really writing this entry is this- BAND CAMP IS ON MONDAY!!!!!!!!!!! AHHHHHHHHHHHH!!!!!!!!!!!!! So if you haven't even looked at your music, maybe it's time. Just an idea. And I can't believe it's my senior year of band camp. Not that I'm going to miss standing outside in the sun doing nothing, but it's still something special. *sniff sniff*

But enough about that. YouTube is amazing. Why? Because you are able to view amazing videos of amazing bands.

The most amazing halftime show ever! It's the Ohio University Marching 110. They are amazing. I know love them.

Basketball Floor Show Same group. Same amazing-ness. You just have to sit through some alma mater or something. Then you go to amazing. Again.

So just go on YouTube and look up videos of the Ohio University Marching 110. And get all pumped up for Band Camp!

PS- The Empire Statesmen are rehearsing at the stadium this Sunday @ 1pm. Everyone should go - especially since you get to watch Kris getting yelled at for once!

Untitled

Last Saturday I hung out with Jen. It was great. She came over and all we did was talk about random stuff and get each other updated on our lives. After that my mom and I went to see "Heart and Music" the musical revue that was put on at 171. It was AMAZING!!! Everyone did a fantastic job. The best part was that everyone looked like they had a lot of fun doing it. And I heard they made a lot of money for the charities, which is even better!

On Sunday I had mini church duty with the preschoolers. I call them ankle-biters. They are nuts. Seriously. I don't know how people who actually have preschoolers survive. The craft that the teacher did involved beads. Ankle-biters + beads = trouble. Thankfully I only have to help every 5th Sunday, so it's not that often. However, I'm pretty sure I'm never going to have kids so I never have to deal with them when they're preschoolers.

Monday I didn't do too much. It was nice.

Tuesday was lesson day.

Today I started contacting all the different colleges about having a lesson with their clarinet instructor. This way I wouldn't get stuck with a teacher I hated for 4 years. My current instructor hated both his undergrad and grad teacher. That's 6 years of torture. I also worked on my extended essay. I'm having a lot of problems figuring out the format that I'm writing it in. It drove me nuts. When Mom got home she took me to Hokey Pokeys for ice cream therapy. That always makes things better. : P After that I went to youth group. It was fun. I love the new look of our youth room. It's too bad I'm going to miss youth group for 3 weeks due to band camp. And Mr. Bennett (our youth leader) is going back to school (he and his wife are getting training to be missionaries), so we'll miss him (they left last year but were back for the summer).

This Saturday I've got the final parade with the community band. I really hope it doesn't get too hot. And I just checked weather.com and it's supposed to be in the upper 80s. Rats.

Monday is Band Camp! Last year! I'm half excited and half not. I would rather be sleeping in and doing nothing all day, but if I'm busy at band camp, I don't have to work on the stupid extended essay.

Long Wait

Once again, I've forgotten to post an entry in a while. Oops!

Wednesday 18th: I went to youth group for about 30 min again. It was fun hanging out again and everyone harassed me again about the fact I would have to leave early again. Then it was the second freshmen intro. It went MUCH better than the first. I actually contributed to the teaching of the youngsters. There was one girl that I tried to help as best I could. She wasn't there the first week, and the instructors were going a little fast. The down side is that she played tenor sax and I had no idea how to hold a tenor in any of the positions. So I just guessed. She caught on rather fast. She even wants to be in jazz band. Which is amazing. Since we will need as many people as possible to join jazz band this year. We the seniors were "better behaved" as well- Emily Novak showed up, along with Chris L Yes, Chris is a freak. In fact, Kris (our drill instructor) and Benson had a $20 bet on whether or not he'd show up before band camp. Benson lost. I actually made a couple of intelligent remarks and summed up the job of a drum major quite well: "You will have 3 drum majors up in front of you and one of them will even be on a podium. All we do is wave our hands around and we really love it when people watch us." In summary, it was a good intro and it's scary how quickly these kids are grasping the marching concept.

Thursday, Friday, Saturday and Sunday: Two words- Parallel Parking. Yep. That's all I did those days. Practice my parallel parking. It drove me insane. Granted, some people would say that I'm insane to begin with. That's not the point. It was so bad that I had nightmares about parallel parking.

Monday 23rd: The big day. Road test day. I was freaking out. Almost as bad as when I was freaking out about All-State auditions. And for those of you who were unfortunate enough to be near me on the day of my auditions, you remember how badly I was freaking out. Anyways, I took my test @ 1 pm. I messed up the parallel parking (the guy had me almost parallel parking in front of a drive way.....for some people that would make it easier, for me it made it harder) and apparently I didn't drive close enough to the center of the road at one point. However, I did pass, which is all the really matters!! My family went to Old World to celebrate.

Tuesday 24: My first time driving alone was to the dentist office. Yeah, not that exciting. Especially since I had to wait forever to get in, and I forgot to bring a book to read or something to keep me busy. Then I had a clarinet lesson. After that I went to the only Teen Week activity at my church that I could go to. We did a survey of people's worldviews then cleaned up the church and the new youth room. I stayed until 10 (since that was the original cut-off time) but I heard that some people were still there at 3 in the morning!! It's a good thing I didn't stay that long....I need my sleep. I can't wait to see the room on Sunday, I'm sure it looks fantastic.

Wednesday 25: The last freshmen intro. The drum majors didn't have anything to do. We were supposed to do commands, but that didn't end up happening. So Katie C and I just went over a bunch of drum major stuff the entire time. It was fun. Afterwards I talked to Benson to find out what plans he had for drum majors during band camp. "Well, the first thing will be to keep a close eye on my iced coffee level" "I didn't get my license to run errands for you." "Why else do you think I helped to expedite the process?" "You don't even have New York plates on your car yet!" "How else do you think I know which car is mine in the parking lot?!" Yeah. In reality, I guess we're working with the woodwind music sectional (since we've got flute, clarinet and sax players in the drum major section) and pretty much I can have as much time as I want to work on conducting and whatnot. This season should be fun. We've got about 66 band members and 20 color guard. I can't wait to see what unfolds.

Thursday 26: Last concert of the season with the community band. We played at Green Meadows and they gave us ice cream afterwards. Ben, Heather and I traded lots of band stories. It was rather enjoyable.

Today 27: Today I cleaned up my room. Majorly. I even "Febreezed" it! In my personal opinion, it looks very nice. I had a parade with the community band. It's been a long time since I've marched and played my clarinet at the same time. At least I didn't have to memorize the music. That was nice. Plus it was a short parade. It couldn't have been more than 20-25 min.

Upcoming plans: Well, I'm going to be getting together with an old friend tomorrow (who is probably reading this....) and hanging out with her for a while. And I'm going to go see the musical revue that's going on at 171. Since basically everyone I know is involved with it. Plus it benefits charity. And all the people I know who are in it would hurt me if I didn't go. On Sunday I have mini church duty (with the preschoolers......help!) and this week I'll either be scrap booking or working on my extended essay. I've got both my sophomore/junior years to scrapbook, and I'm ready to start writing my essay, so I'll probably alternate between them. One more week until band camp starts and about a month until I hear about All-State!!!

It's been a week

It's been a rather busy week since I last posted an entry.

Last Wednesday: Jenna and I went to my youth group for about 45min. Tony D gave his testimony and it was really interesting. Then we went to the first Freshmen Intro. It was interesting, as always. I think we've got a good group of kids coming in. They caught on pretty fast to the concept, especially considering that some people still can't march when they're seniors (if I was still on the field, I'd be guilty of that.....there are good reasons why I'm a drum major). Plus they got a lot of info thrown at them all at once. We covered the commands and marching forward. "We" meaning the band staff, since the seniors (and the two juniors) that were there really didn't do much (especially the drum majors). Well, we did talk and laugh and it got a bit too loud. (I was made aware of this afterwards). So I'm passing this on as a warning- we need to knock it off before Benson or Kris yells at us.

Thursday I had a concert with the Community Band. It was the one in Centerway Square, and it was a good concert. Afterwards we had ice cream since it's the tradition.


Friday Ben called me up. The one that's in Japan. We chatted for about an hour, mainly about the EHS Band and traded as many jokes about Benson as we could think up. He missed hearing about all the stupid stuff Benson does (which I sometimes think his stupid stuff tends to outnumber the smart stuff). It was a good chat. Then it was time to watch the season premiere of Psych! It's a show on USA every Friday night @ 10. It's about this guy with trained observant skills who (instead of becoming a cop like his dad wanted him to become) decides to be a "psychic" and work with the police force. It's hilarious. And I love it.

Saturday I went and saw Ocean's 13 with my family. The critics may have called all the Ocean's movies Bs, but I think they're great (and most of the movies I like are Bs by critic's standards)

On Sunday my family rented some videos and watched them. "Stomp the Yard" and "One Night with The King". They were both excellent movies. The latter was a re-telling of the story of Esther, but it had me on the edge of my seat several times (even though I knew the ending...thank-you very much Sunday School and VeggieTales).

Monday was a clarinet lesson. That's pretty much an all day thing for me. That night we watched "Astronaut Farmer". It really wasn't what I thought it was going to be and that was disappointing. It was a decent movie. I'm not going to rush out and buy it or recommend it to anyone.

Today I finished reading "She's All That". It's the first book in the "spa girls" series by Kristin Billerbeck, a Christian "chick-lit" author. It was a great book and I really enjoyed not having to worry about symbolism, allegories, or any other IB English rubbish that ruins reading a good book.

As most of you know, Art passed away Monday morning of a heart attack. Art was one of the reasons to come to school at EHS every morning. He would always greet everyone at the door with a smile-I dont' think I can recall not seeing him happy. He would wear yellow on Mondays because yellow was a happy color, and Mondays usually aren't happy. He and Chuck used to wear the same patriotic shirt occasionally. Basically, he was one of the best things about EHS. We're all really going to miss him. I'm going to be attending the calling hours tomorrow.

On a lighter note, tomorrow is going to be Freshmen Intro #2 so by then I'll have met all the new people (you have to come to 2/3). If you're a section leader or a senior, please come!!!

Randomness

Randomness should definitely been a word. Since it describes my life.

I did take the 5-hr course with Jenna. We had a "great" time. 5 hours of someone telling you all the way you're going to die in a car. "In this room, 6 people will have a serious accident shortly after passing their road test". Don't I feel good about myself right now.

The 4th of July was spent waiting to see if it was going to stop raining or not. It didn't. So I spent most of my time watching "A Capitol Fourth" on PBS and then watched some other random stuff on TV.

On the 5th, we celebrated the 4th. This included playing with the Community Band at the Stadium before the fireworks, then watching the fireworks. They were pretty good this year. Although I doubt anything will ever top the ones from Corning Inc's 150th anniversary. Those were great. Then it took us about 35 minutes to get home. That's about 3 times as long as it normally does. I would say it was almost as bad as the East-West game.

On Friday the 6th the IB scores came out. Yippie! I actually did well on the Math SL exam. I got a 4/7!!! And that's with not understanding anything the entire year!! Unfortunately, I heard that 9 out of 13 senior diploma students failed the TOK essay and that there were a ton of Cs on the Extended Essay. This is not looking good. And the Chem students don't have their scores due to some information missing. Which really stinks for them.

On Saturday I went to Soulful Cup with Sarah Jane for a nice, relaxing chat. I love just getting some hot chocolate (I don't do coffee) and hanging out there.

On Sunday I went and saw Nancy Drew at the Palace with Sarah and Sarah Jane. It was a pretty good movie (I still liked the books better than the movie, but that's just me). Then we got to see all the pictures from Sarah's trip to Spain and here all the great stories. It was great getting to see her again (okay, so I hadn't seen her for about 2 weeks....that's still a long time!!!)

Then Monday was Dorothy's 16th Birthday!! Happy Birthday! So I saw a whole different group of people on that day. We went to Atlas and then to the Fountain. And I refused to get wet.

So I've been rather social as of late. Today I went to the doctor's to get a shot, had ice cream from Hokey Pokey's (or is it Hockey Pokeys) for brunch, and then had my clarinet lesson. I finally got my new clarinet!! My teacher had a guy do some repair work on it and it works great! I love it. And I am a geek.

Tomorrow is the first Freshman Intro. I can't wait to see all the scared little freshmen. I guess I'm going to try my best to be nice to them that way they don't drop out before band camp. (Even though I'm not actually scary, mean or intimidating)

Feeling Much Better

Thankfully, it looks like I didn't have mono. I was feeling much better by Sunday night, so we didn't go for blood work (another good thing...if I can avoid getting poked by a needle, I will) and my fever keeps going down. Today I woke up without a fever at all! My mom said it was some type of virus probably (don't ask me to write it- there's no way I can spell it). Anyways, the worst seems to be over so my life can get back to its usual state of "normalness".

The great move of furniture in and out of my room is continuing. For those of you who have been to my house and have seen my room, these next few sentences will actually make sense to you (otherwise, you'll probably have no clue what furniture I'm talking about): I've got a new bed frame, same place as the old one, a new nightstand that's shorter and wider (same place) and a new dresser (same place, same stuff on top of it). We moved the poster above my bed so it's actually centered. The table/chair at the end of the bed are gone and there's now a table will drawers and stuff there. I've put a lot of random stuff on the top (gnome, Godzilla, glass banana, etc) and I'm using the drawers for storage....but I haven't figured out what yet. The chair that was by the window is gone, and the chair that used to be at the end of the bed is now there. And, in a few days, the thing that I've got the entertainment center on is going to be replaced by some desk thing (with more storage). The cabinet next to that entertainment center is already almost empty, except for DVDs (since all those random things are now at the end of the bed). Basically, my room is going to look cool and organized when this is all over. Somehow. I've still got boxes to unload and what not. Hopefully everything will be set by the end of this week.

Well, that was a pointless paragraph!

Today I'm also going to do the 5-hr course (it's taken me long enough) so maybe I'll actually get around to doing my road test in the near future. Still need to work on my parallel parking skills. However, I've got enough friends who actually have their licenses that I can mooch rides for a while.

Other than that, not too much going on (as usual). Freshmen Intros in 8 days. And I'll hear about All-State in probably 7 weeks.

I HATE BEING SICK!!

I hate being sick. Totally hate it. It ruins all the plans that I made and just messes up my life in general. And this is not a good time to be sick either.

So back on Thursday, I was not feeling well at all. I was running a fever, had a bit of an upset stomach, and for about a week the glands in my neck had been swollen (causing neck pain). Plus my head was hurting whenever I stood up, or did any other quick movements with it. So my mom took me to the doctors where they said they would check for strep and if it wasn't that I should go get blood work done to check for mono. The strep tests were negative, so tomorrow I'll be getting blood work done. Yippie! Just how I wanted to start my summer. I'm usually the work in the early morning hours- chills, night sweats, and I wake up with a crazy fever. Then I get taking some Advil (regular doses, no I'm not an addict) during the rest of the day and I'm pretty much fine. I'm a little tired, but not completely wiped out (once I get up and moving). The thing I hate is that I have to be careful not to over-do anything. And being a geek, I hate that I can't practice. But that's just me. So I'm sick and tired of being sick and tired.

This is also a really bad time to be sick family wise. We've been emptying out my grandma's house so there's been a lot of moving going on. And I'm getting new furniture in my room. Which means my room has to be clean so we can move stuff. However, I can only clean so much before I get tired. The system isn't working too well. So I just got some boxes and threw everything in there. That method "cleaned" my room in less than 10 minutes.

I realized yesterday that I've got one more week of freedom before Freshman Intros start. Terrific. Especially since I'll probably still be sick during my last week of freedom.

I am excited because in less than two months I'll know about All-State!!

I <3 Nothing Days

Summer is terrific. I can actually sleep in late, have mac & cheese for lunch (or breakfast, whatever you want to call it), watch movies all day, have Aniellos pizza for delivered in and go to bed when I feel like it. That was my Monday. And it was amazing.

Today I actually had to do stuff. Mainly my clarinet lesson in Vestal. Then there was another grad party to go to. I'm sick and tired of riding in cars. And I'm tired of eating food. I've got one more grad party this Saturday and then I'm done.

The fantastic news is that I have found my new clarinet. I've decided on the R-13 RC. It's top of the line, 15 years old and in great shape. I've got a top notch repair guy putting new pads on it, replacing some of the corks and realigning some keys then it'll be all set. I'm so excited!! It'll be in the repair shop for 2 weeks. Then there's the question of whether or not I should be really weird and name it like so many other people do. Personally I think it's a crazy idea and would probably never do it. Plus I have no idea what you'd name an instrument. Seriously. It's a combination of wood, silver and cork.

Umm...nothing else to write. Once again my life has hit a boring streak.

Untitled?

I can't really think of a title for this entry. That's usually when you call something untitled.

Saturday was great. I got to sleep in and then do nothing. Well, I did practice, but that's just because I'm a geek. And I like sounding good. Which I haven't been for the past few weeks since I've been rather lazy. Later I went to Chris' grad party. I spent a fair amount of time making plans with Ashley for the upcoming band season. Hey- we've only got 3 weeks or so until Freshman Intros so we better make our plans now : P I've talked with various seniors and we've got a bunch of great ideas that will hopefully work. Who cares if Benson likes them. He's just the band director anyway. Then I went to Steph's party where Leah and I talked about Mexico, college and vented about IB. And between those two parties, I ate a lot of food. Therefore, I was very full by the time I got home. Then my mom and I watched Ocean's Twelve. I liked it. Probably because most people don't like it. (see prior comments about liking Ocean's Eleven). So now we're figuring out a time to go see Ocean's Thirteen.

Today I went to Church and had a great Sunday School session. It's great having such a small group of people to connect with. Then I chatted it up with some of the adults during the fellowship time and then there was the actual service. Afterwards we had lunch and then got ready for a shopping trip!! Mom and I went out to Michaels and picked up some scrapbooking supplies then we headed over to Best Buy. I got a new camcorder! I'm not going to try to copy Tim or anything like that, I just love recording what goes on when I get together with groups of friends. It's usually hilarious. Then there's the band. Random video opportunities always come up (like the time those girls started doing step while we were waiting for a competition bus). So yeah.

Since then I've been basically doing nothing. I ate dinner and practiced the clarinet. I've got 2 clarinets on loan for me to test so I can decide which one to buy. Yes, I'm getting a "new" clarinet. Both of them are used Buffet R-13s (top of the line clarinets). It's better to get them used so the wood is in better condition. This is the kind of clarinet I'm going to need in college, so I'm going to find one this summer (okay, probably in the next few days since I've had these for 2 weeks now) that I can use at my college auditions in the fall.

Yes, I'm a geek

CONGRATS!!!!!!!

Congrats to the EHS Class of 2007!!! You guys have been great and I'm really gonna miss you : (

Even though your graduation was FREEZING cold, it was the most fun I've had at a graduation yet. Between trying to turn/hold pages of the pianists, Sarah making me laugh, making faces at Katie Chase, Benson making faces at me everytime the music stand almost hit my face (this happened 3 times), everyone sounding terrible (as usual) and everyone waiting to see what Wilson was going to do ("I love you Mom!"), it was a lot of fun. Very cold, but a lot of fun.

On a different note entirely, I finished my World Lit papers yesterday. And I dropped them off @ Caulfield's house (she lives on my block....how weird is that?!). Today I went in and sorted through all the uniforms with my mom. Benson did bring us donuts (to make it feel like a jazz band morning) and my mom bought me white hot chocolate. And Benson did tell me that he found where Jenna and I tried to hide the evil Christmas tree costumes. They're back in their proper place now, ready to torture the DMs for another year.

I CAN'T BELIEVE I'M GOING TO BE A SENIOR!!!!!!! I'm totally freaking out about it. It doesn't seem like the first major portion of my life has passed me by. And there's no way that I'm entering my 12th year of education. Or supposed education. Especially since I feel like I'm just beginning to get to know so many of my classmates. And it feels like freshman year band camp was just yesterday. I still remember being really scared of it all until I found Sarah F. "Hey- weren't you the girl who sat second chair to me in the elementary school band?". Hahahaha--honestly, I didn't mean to sound condescending, but other than Jeremy, she was the only person I knew (okay, so I barely knew her). Since then I've met many more people, made many more friends, probably made many more enemies and I've gotten to know so many more people this year it's incredible. And I can't believe I've only got one more year left with all of you! My experiences at EHS have been amazing and I love every single person (okay, well maybe not love love, but you get the idea). Band has been probably the most wonderful experience of them all. It's been great meeting so many new people through that, and I'm gonna miss the people that are dropping out (though I really can't blame them). I can't wait for Florida Trip '08!! And I can't wait to start bossing people around at the Freshman Intros and Band Camp. So, I guess I can't wait for my senior year to start, and despite IB, I've got the feeling it's going to be the best of them all.

So to the seniors who are leaving us-congrats. You survived. Especially the IB DP students. You guys were the lab rats that paved the way. I know I'm going to miss you guys (especially the band kids), and I hope to see you around town (and I know that there are band kids coming back to band camp). Best wishes on the rest of your life!

And to the Class of 2008- Let our senior year begin!

Just A Few More Days

Yesterday I took my final regents exam for the rest of my LIFE!!!! It was the Us History & Gov't exam. It wasn't too bad. The multiple choice questions were harder than I thought they were going to be. I got really confused on two different questions. I though I did ok on the thematic essay and the DBQ wasn't too hard. I really didn't include much outside detail though. They pretty much gave you all the possible information you could have used.

Last night I watched Ocean's Eleven with my family. I enjoyed it. Even though I'm the type of person who usually enjoys the films that get "B"s from the critics. I had a massive headache though, so I went to bed early. Which didn't help because I couldn't fall asleep. I'm still trying to decide if it was due to braindrain from the exam, or the lack of caffeine. Either way, feeling tired while having a headache is not cool. And not being able to go to sleep isn't cool either. Thankfully, I finally fell asleep.

I slept in till around 10:15 this morning, practiced the clarinet, walked the dog, ate lunch, and did nothing. It's been a very enjoyable day. I still have one paper to write for English and putting that off one more day was great. I think I'm going to pull a Tricia on this one.

And I'm excited because we're having Chinese for dinner. Normally this wouldn't be a cause for excitement, but I've been wanting Chinese for a while now and I was having random cravings during the exam yesterday.

Benson still hasn't sent me the music files for our field band show that I'm supposed to send to all the drum majors and anyone else who wants them. If you're interested in either the really bad midi files or the really bad live recording of the show, let me know and if he ever gets around to sending them to me, I'll get them to you.

Ummm....well....that's it I guess. Rather boring entry, but so is my life (occasionally)

So Close

One more week of this horror then school is officially OVER!!! And that's very exciting news.

Then I realize that thanks to IB I have homework over the summer, so school will never truly be done.

This past week I haven't done a whole lot. I've been in a cleaning frenzy, which is very funny if anyone has ever seen my locker (or my room when I wasn't expecting company).

Thursday and Friday were a colossal waste of my time. AKA I had the English Regents exam. 6 hours of my life to see if I know how to write. As I told several people "I'm an IB student. I shouldn't be subject to the New York State Board of Regent's mockery of the educational system!" Caufield said that if we got all 6s on our essays that she'd take us out to dinner. Oh darn. Looks like I won't get to go out to dinner with my teacher, since there's no way I got 6s on everything. The listening essay was on "The Power of Books" which was followed by the "graph" essay about "Lessening the Danger of Volcanoes". I really started to zone out on the volcano essay. I even noticed that the word "canoe" is in the word "volcanoes". Which got me wondering, why does canoe sound like "can-new". Should it be "can-no"? If anyone has an answer to that question, I'd love for you to tell me. Afterwards I had to drop off a check to Benson (we got paid for Colonial Days), and that was an interesting experience. I got to watch him try to take off his toe. The repair guys were there and Benson went over to ask one of them something and tripped over the edge of a bari sax case. Honestly, it was one of the funniest things I'd ever seen! I thought he was going to land flat on his face. Instead, he tore his toenail up with a lot of blood. At least I realized that there was a first aid kit in the uniform closet. Later on the repair guys were really funny to talk to. Apparently when they were in high school they were in marching band. One of them was as trumpet player and the other was a clarinetist.

The next day we had the paired passage about "Lessons Learned" followed by a critical lens on "heroism". And I totally messed up the critical lens. I used Janie from "Their Eyes Were Watching God" during the hurricane scene (which I didn't remember too well, except for something about a cow and Teacake getting bit by a rabid dog) and Alba from "The House of the Spirits" with that whole torture thing.

Thursday night I went to CACCB rehearsal. Not much to say about that.

Saturday was the Laurel Festival Parade. It's always too long and too hot, but I LOVE THE PEOPLE!!!!! There's a group that we call the "Corning Crazies" who are totally obsessed with us. They're amazing. We won (of course). And during one part a little girl ran up to me and gave me 75 cents! I totally freaked out and had no clue what to do. Later my parents told me it was some sort of a tradition that they give 75 cents to someone. I guess Guy got it once and Borsz got it one time. However, I am the only drum major in EHS history to have ever gotten tipped during a parade!!!!

Today I went to church and was still very tired from the parade. Later we gave my dad some Father's Day gifts. And I had a CACCB concert where I ended up sight reading the second part (even though I was sitting in the first section). Apparently the plan is that I'll switch parts every single performance to cover for whoever isn't there. Which means I'll be sight reading every single concert. Yahoo! Later I finished writing my World Lit 2 piece. I did a detailed study regarding the significance of the bed in "The Pickup". Okay, so it was a paper I wrote earlier this year and I just edited it.

The plans for tomorrow: do some cram practicing for my lesson (that I am totally unprepared for) and study some History for the exam on Tuesday. I've got the grad Band rehearsal followed by the second attempt at a recording session. Then I go to a clarinet lesson and come back for that IB thingy.

Random news: I finished writing the book on drum majoring. No joke-Benson actually had me write down what the expectations and duties of a drum major are. Like anyone is actually going to pay attention to them anyways, but it's a good effort.

After this week I'll be done with the last exam! And I have one more paper to write then I'm finished for this school year (well, I have to play at Graduation).

That's Life

Well, the school year is basically over. I've got the English exam (bleck) and the US History exam and that's it. I can't wait to get those exams out of the way so I can start relaxing and enjoying my summer. What little of a summer I'm going to have:

In the midst of studying for the 2 exams, I've got 2 World lit papers I need to write by graduation. Next Saturday I have the Wellsboro parade and next Monday graduation band rehearsal and the recording session afterwards.

After graduation, I've got about 3 weeks until Freshmen Intros start. They're only one hour each week, but they signify to me to beginning of the end of summer (and the beginning of my senior year!!) And then August hits with my final band camp! Somehwerei n there I also have to work on compositions for IB Music (wind ensemble, clarinet choir and woodwind quintet) and the comparitive music paper thing as well (the baile folklorico of Mexico vs. Aaron Copland's Rodeo) and I have to work on my extended essay ("To what extent did Aaron Copland's music create the American Sound"). So even though I'm "taking the summer off" and not working like everyone else I've still got lots to do, unfortunately. And I'm going to be doing a lot of work with the band when band camp starts.

And I really can't ignore the fact that the Colonial Days parade was yesterday. It's the hardest parade for EHS, mainly because the students still feel it's rigged. Whether or not that's the case, I don't know. All I know is that it's incredibly disappointing to keep trying hard year after year and never win, so I could sense that we didn't try as hard as we could have. However, Jenna and I had the worst of it, since we had to walk from the end of the parade all the way back to the park for the award ceremony afterwards. And we still had to have our uniforms. We tied for second place with Bath. One interesting fact is that one of the music judges (area #2) actually scored us a point higher than WHS!!! Even though we ended up 11 points behind WHS, perhaps there is a change coming?? Hahaha, I don't know, nor do I really care. I've got one more year left and whatever happens is going to happen.

That's Life - Lou Rawls (originally by Frank Sinatra)

That's life, that's what all the people say.
You're riding high in April,
Shot down in May
But I know I'm gonna change that tune,
When I'm back on top, back on top in June.

I said that's life, and as funny as it may seem
Some people get their kicks,
Stompin' on a dream
But I don't let it, let it get me down,
'Cause this fine ol' world it keeps spinning around

I've been a puppet, a pauper, a pirate,
A poet, a pawn and a king.
I've been up and down and over and out
And I know one thing:
Each time I find myself, flat on my face,
I pick myself up and get back in the race.

That's life I tell ya, I can't deny it,
I thought of quitting baby,
But my heart just ain't gonna buy it.
And if I didn't think it was worth one single try,
I'd jump right on a big bird and then I'd fly

I've been a puppet, a pauper, a pirate,
A poet, a pawn and a king.
I've been up and down and over and out
And I know one thing:
Each time I find myself laying flat on my face,
I just pick myself up and get back in the race

That's life
That's life and I can't deny it
Many times I thought of cutting out
But my heart won't buy it
But if there's nothing shakin' come this here July
I'm gonna roll myself up in a big ball and fly away from here