No promises!: My weekend; part the second

Monday, October 09, 2006

My weekend; part the second

Oh, I forgot to mention the bagels in my post about Friday. One of our band parents knows the managers of both Bagelheads here in P'cola. They donated 200 bagels to the band for breakfast on contest day. We had to leave at an awkward time, and got there just after lunch, but before we performed...the bagels were very nice to have around. However...they were an assortment of bagels, not just plain bagels. They dropped them off Friday afternoon, and by the time we got back from the game Friday night, the band office REEKED of onion bagels. The band room itself was becoming slightly tainted by the bagel smell, but not enough to be noticeable. By Saturday, the smell had permeated the entire room. I opened the door at 9 AM to walk in, and was assaulted by the smell of onion bagels. It smelled like gym socks. No lie! Anyway, there were bagels, and it was funny. Trust me.

So, I get to school at 9AM. I roll up with the purse Resa brought me from Korea (it was MUCH adored all day, btw) stuffed with dried fruit, 2 20 oz Diet Cokes, a book (yes, I was overly optimistic) and the last $15 of my one dollar bills from my MIL's birthday gift. Road trip! The kids trickle in and eat a few bagels and get ready to go. We're taking charter buses as we're traveling out of state...we get the kids on the bus and head out. I was on bus 2 with the other staff members closer to my age. All you band nerds out there, just guess what we watched on the way up there? No, not DCI finals...Drumline. ...sigh... By the time it was over I was very ready to gouge my eyes out with a dull stick. Then they put in Legally Blond. Which made me appreciate Drumline a little more, but that's another story.

About halfway through Legally Blond, we're there. Where's 'there', you ask? Well, when I said "Dothan peanut festival," I was apparently overly optimistic. This was not even in Dothan. This was one of the "suburbs" of Dothan (I laughed out loud when I typed that, just so you know), called Ashford. Ashville? Ash-something. Regardless, it was a tiny little school with a tiny little field, and away bleachers that made me miss Catholic's. They had the aluminum soccer bleachers I mentioned before. Did I mention how small this was? And the old, abandoned milling factory that stood between the stadium and the road? It would have been ideal for a haunted house.

So...we get there, and the kids troop off the bus. Potty breaks and unloading ensue, and we're ready to go warm-up. As we walk past the back of the home side stands, I see a band on the field made up of about 30 kids. Oooookay.... The kids fell in to attention and walked (didn't make them march) in 3 lines from the buses to the practice field...we got comments such as, "Wow, that's a huge band!" "Look at them!" and such. The only other band in our class was warming up when we got to the practice field (aka, the baseball diamond...which was being torn up to install a new sprinkler system). Andalusia High School. They sounded pretty good, and their guard looked VERY good. The kids start warming up and I see my boss scurrying across the field toward me. Escambia High was performing at this competition, too...the only other band from P'cola to attend. They were in their very own class (no competition) and were scheduled to perform after the dinner break that followed OUR performance.

Well...guess who showed up early? It turns out they were told to get off the bus and head straight to the stands - do not stop at the concession stands or restrooms. Watch Pine Forest. Ahem. A little back story here...in Escambia County, there's always been one band that has been consistently amazing...and that's Tate. Heh, gotcha there, didn't I? Escambia High tries, but doesn't have the same population or financial base that Tate has. Tate has done everything there is to do to be considered a nationally-recognized band. Macy's Thanksgiving parade? Check. Bowl games? Check. Escambia's close...they've done the Philly parade and a few minor bowl games...regardless of that, it's always been a fine band. I graduated from that school, and we practiced hard, played hard, and always got straight superiors. ALWAYS. Anyway, not much has changed along those lines. They have a large band, and a good band. Our band is getting better, and we're aiming the kids not at Tate, but at Escambia. They're an awesome band, but they're attainable, if you know what I mean.

So...not only were they in the stands to see us, but they were sitting on either side of the walkway into the stands from the practice field. I told the kids as they waited to march out that Escambia was there to see THEM. Got them fired up...let them see that you're coming after them, blah blah. They were intense. Then they got on the field... Now, to be perfectly honest, it wasn't a BAD show. It wasn't their best, by ANY stretch. It wasn't their worst, either. It was ok. There was a tempo issue in the beginning that was made worse by the fact that it's a recurring issue...one that was supposed to have been fixed at least 5 times since we started rehearsing. It involves the pit and some tom drums...I declared at that moment that I was going to "fix" the problem by shoving a drumstick through the head of each tom drum to render then unusable...that'll fix the problem for sure. How big a problem? The drum major had to skip two beats in her pattern to catch up to the band once the pit stopped playing. That started me out on the wrong foot completely. There were a few other minor mistakes throughout, and a couple large, glaring ones we've never seen before. A snare drummer and a trumpet player collided at one point...I don't' know the whole story but I'm pretty sure that the snare was in the wrong place entirely. That's unusual because he's one of the best players and marchers we have...I'm talking corp material. I dunno.

Anyway, after the performance we head to the buses to put instruments and uniform coats away, and give them the "You did ok, but not your best...we'll take whatever the judges say and apply it to our rehearsals next week...it's a small competition, and the first one....learning experience...don't get discouraged..." speech. Basically everyone (kids and staff alike) thought that we were going to get diddly at the award presentation. The parents loved it - but that's their job. The kids were turned loose to eat and such during the dinner break. Escambia left to warm up, and we relaxed a little bit. The section leaders came to find me once Escambia took the field and we went back to the buses to get back in uniform and go over salutes. They were all pretty bummed about the performance...we talked a little about it and they knew they hadn't blown it, but they didn't do their best. We get back to our spot in the stands and get the band kids arranged appropriately and the section leaders seated and watch Ashford/Ashville perform their exhibition show. Which I will not critique here, as they were our charming hosts. I will, however, say that there were many announcements during the break of "We need all Ashford/Ashville band students to report to the band trailer right away." ...the band...trailer? Ahem.

The seating arrangements were interesting. Pine Forest and Escambia had the entire away side reserved for band seating, so we had one side and they had the other. They filed into the stands after they performed, with my kids cheering for them the whole time. It was cute.

So anyway, the award ceremony. Our band council heads up front, and fall in on the field with the other band kids. The first few classes (really small bands) didn't' fare too well, but suspiciously there were no scores lower than an excellent. Hmm...I started to feel better about our chances. They got to our class, and the kids went deathly quiet. They announced Andalusia's scores...superiors all the way across. Once they stopped cheering we had the kids stand up, and as soon as they called out the school name, one of the seniors called them to attention. I had told/threatened them earlier that they were not to react at all to the results until after they gave the overall score...then they could hoot and holler their fool heads off if they wanted. And they did! I was so proud. heh Anyway, they reeled off the scores; percussion, superior; drum major, superior; color guard, superior; band (3 judges), superior, superior.....(insert an overly dramatic long pause here)...superior. An overall rating of superior." And they went nuts. Escambia stood up and cheered for us, too. Very touching. Then they announced Escambia's scores...no surprises there - all superiors.

Then came the best in class awards. For our class, Andalusia got best in class drum major, majorette (which we don't have), and percussion, but we got best in class band and guard. They go to announce best-in-class for Escambia's class (the only band in the class) and guess who won? Heh. About this time, rather than cheer for themselves, the Escambia band started doing a wave. We told the PFHS kids to bring it all the way down the next time, and much to Escambia's surprise, they did. Then Escambia stood up and asked us to send it back...and we did. It was actually a lot of fun, and the folks on the home side got into it, too. Then we remembered that they still had awards to announce and sat down and shut up.

Now they had division winners...the top 2 classes were one division, the middle 2 another, and the bottom two, a third. I was unaware of this situation. This put us in the same division as Escambia. This would rank us, Escambia, and Andalusia 1-2-3. I got a little concerned at this point. We hadn't told the kids about this, so they didn't' know exactly what was going on. They got to our division, and when they announced Andalusia had 3rd place, the staff and parents nearly peed themselves. Holy crap! None of us expected to have first place, but at least we weren't last! The kids in the band had no idea what WE were so het up about until they announced us second place. THEN they got it. Oooooooh, I see! Then, as expected, Escambia took 1st. There was much rejoicing, and one of my sax players jumped the fence to get out to the field faster. I yelled at him, and then gave up. They jumped around like a bunch of drunken monkeys for a while, and then it was back to the buses and a long ride home.

It was a long, long weekend. I spent entirely too much time with the kids, but it really did end up well. I spent Sunday helping to clean and decorate the house for the party next week. PFHS has a game this week that will factor into the playoffs greatly, and it's away. Next week is Fall Break...I don't even want to THINK about that right now - it's far too enticing. We do have a game, though...against PHS. That'll be a doozy, too. We have district contest Saturday (then I race home for the party), and then 3 more between then and the Gator Bowl. ...sigh... I told you it was going to get worse before it got better. There's always Fall Break...we only have rehearsal one day that week...even though it's an all-day sort of thing, it'll be fine. At least that's what I keep telling myself...

posted by Jen @ 10:22 AM

3 Comments:

At 9:47 PM, Anonymous said…

WAY TO GO PF/WFHS!!! :)

-TX Jen
At 8:16 PM, Anonymous said…

Just a comment about the Ash-whatever's band trailer... until just a few years ago (long after both my time in the Blue Band and my brother's) the Penn State Blue Band's only home was two trailers in the middle of the practice field. Eventually they did a big fundraiser (don't see the PSU football team needing to hold a fundraiser to get anything, but that goes without saying, I suppose) and had these film clips that they showed on the big screens in the stadium with a Sousaphone player wandering around wearing his instrument trying to find "the home of the PSU Blue Band." He kept asking people and eventually he found the trailers. I think fans were genuinely shocked that the Blue Band didn't have a building... or even someplace to go to the bathroom during rehearsals... the field was easily a half a mile from the nearest university building. Anyway, they raised the money and now there's a building with bathrooms and everything. But until about 3 years ago, the PSU Blue Band was about on par with Ash-something in terms of digs.

I enjoy reading your blog, Jen, and today I picked up my Weight Watcher's materials and blew the dust off them, so maybe we can be diet buddies. I've gained and lost the same 30 pounds 3 times in the past 3 years... well, O.K. I've gained those 30 pounds 3 times but I've only lost them twice. Sigh.

Love you,
Mary
At 6:55 AM, Jen said…

Now that I think about it, I'm pretty sure they were in more of a 'portable' type building that was located behind the away stands. That's where I recall seeing them all congregate most of the evening, and then where that really annoying bari sax player kept PLAYING while we waited for the end of the dinner break. The way the announcer said it was great, though. "Bay-yand Ter-RAY-ler" stretched out into 5 syllables.

Good luck on the WW thing...the hardest pounds to loose are the ones that come back. They're comfortable pounds. :)

I'm doing well so far, diet-wise. I haven't weighed myself, so I dunno how that's going. I feel better, though. That's what's important. For now...if the scale doesn't budge shortly I'm going to get grumpy. LOL

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