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!