Nearly Time

Why, look at that- we're nearly on tour! Woo! It's 2 1 day until we leave. Or technically, 1 day and some only 20 hours. But anyway. I'm crossing stuff out because I initially started writing this last night, but once last night was over that took us to the less-than-1-day mark. So.
Thursday night was the tour premier in the form of our send-off concert, and now we're free to pack and cram in homework so that it doesn't have to come with us.
But most of us are excited because we don't have to do a week of school! And we're going leaving the cold and wet for the warm/hot!
...and also wet. My hair's going to really poof up in the 100% humidity.
My room is in an interesting state:

Suitcase, bags, trumpet cases on the floor, clothes on the chair, etc etc.
Only 36 LESS THAN 24 hours.
YAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAY!

2 Weeks/Sickness/Blogging Hawaii/Packing Angst

Remember these?

Well, we recently passed the two-week mark (that was Sunday 11/20), and the one-week mark is approaching with extreme expedience. It's a busy week ahead. 
Thanksgiving dinner was great, and thankfully I was feeling well enough to enjoy it. I unfortunately picked up a rather virulent cold from my dad on Monday and have been in bed sleeping ever since (why I didn't post the 2-week mark earlier).
I promise you all that I will try my hardest to live-blog Hawaii, but I will tell you honestly that I don't think I'll have time to do anything more than take snapshots from my phone and then post them all when I get back. Whenever it happens, you'll get the whole story eventually. 
And also I find it amusing that I'm as packed as anyone can be at this point. All I have left is my uniform, which I can't pack until next Friday because we have a performance Thursday night. 
But yea. That's what's going on at the moment.

Why I *Can't* Wait To Do Drum Corps

First reason is made up of two words:
True dedication. It's more than just a high school band: if you don't show up, are late too much, or just aren't up to par, you will be cut and your tour tuition will have been wasted.
Then: you get to do crazy-fun things like jump off ramps or run up and down halfpipes.

And then: choreography. That makes the show interesting and fun for both performers and audience.

ddd000fff.blogspot.com

And also: you meet people who love band just as much as you do (otherwise why would you be paying money to be in a corps?)
Also things like this, that are just wonderfully wacky but fun anyway.

www.pinterest.com

I just realized all my examples are from the Bluecoats. Excuse me while I go join them.

... in a few years.

Weird Things We Do at the Holidays

I was considering the fact that Christmas is drawing close yesterday, and thought how much I was looking forward to it, and suddenly realized that the traditions we have are quite random. We all like hearing about each other's wacky traditions, yes? Well, here are ours:

> Christmas music from the Boston Pops, Canadian Brass, Count Basie Orchestra, and other jazzy sources.

> Christmas breakfast at 6:00 a.m. sharp (my dad doesn't like this)

> Me getting up at midnight and sleeping on the sofa for the rest of the night, then waking everybody up at 6 for said breakfast.

> The randomness tree. This is a thing I do. It's a three-foot tree themed with whatever my current obsession might be. Guess what this year's theme will be:

Yep. DCI corps.

> The contents of the above-mentioned breakfast. Most years it's made up entirely of cookies, fruitcake, and smoothies. Although, one year my mom made me eat broccoli too; but that was because I was sick.

> In addition to Christmas music, we listen to Coldplay's A Head Full of Dreams all through December. This started last year when it came out and since then it's sort of become our soundtrack of winter.

> Watching The Lego Movie. We do it every year. Not sure why... we just do.

> Setting up the Christmas tree over Thanksgiving break. To those of you out there who get your trees on Christmas Eve... who are you and what do you think you are doing. 
Anyway. Yep.

The Journey...

...that is finding and buying a new trumpet. This was Wednesday.
3:09 p.m. 
I finish the day's homework while my mom teaches a violin lesson after school.

3:59 p.m.
Starting out.

4:16 p.m.
We actually get to the sale; Kyle, the other trumpet from our school, gets there at the same time.
Henceforth:
I take no pictures for a long time because I'm busy trying 7 or 8 different trumpets.

~5:30 p.m.
2nd round of trying stuff out. We've gone from 7 to 3. Now to determine the best one.
~5:50 p.m.
We've narrowed it down to the Yamaha Bergeron silver.
6:03 p.m.
We FaceTime my dad, who's in Las Vegas, and decide to buy the Bergeron silver, as well as my rental student trumpet so that I have a marching horn.
6:30 p.m.
We're walking out of the sale, having purchase the Bergeron silver, when our assistant band director walks around the corner. He sees my new trumpet and says congrats. 
6:35 p.m. 
Heading home.
7:40 p.m. 
Upon arriving home I do an 'uncasing'- that's like an unboxing- and send pics to my dad.

8:00 p.m. 
We eat a late dinner.
8:45 p.m. 
I start practicing, and would have played all night if my mom hadn't told me to stop and go to bed.

What We Did At School

What we did during JV jazz yesterday:

Yep, that's the one and only Wayne Bergeron, with the also one and only Varsity jazz band behind him.
Also only 18 days to Hawaii.

21 Days

Agh. Fast approaching are three things- a visit to our school from Wayne Bergeron (Monday), the local music dealer's private sale, at which I will get a new trumpet (Wednesday), and HAWAII, the event of the year, in 21 DAYZ. 
WOOOOOOW. 
Right now, I am doing this:

In preparation for this: 

And yes, that is my trumpet on a floor pouf:

We're all getting pumped for Hawaii. Not long at all now. 

Less Than A Month

WE ARE 23 DAYS OUT FROM LEAVING FOR HAWAII ON DECEMBER THE 4TH. Where the heck has the past year gone???
We have an early morning performance at one of the district elementary schools tomorrow (so early it's essentially zero hour, and I get to miss a math test), a send-off concert after that, and then we leave 4 DAYS AFTER THAT.
AGHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH...
!!!
Yay. :D
So my job right now is to study and keep my grades up so I don't fail everything during the week we're across the water on Oahu. 

That rug-looking thing is my beach towel, by the way. It came from Amazon on Monday and I love sitting on it. 
But yea. ONLY 3 WEEKS. O. M. G. WOW.
Happy. :)

Pinterest
The band when anybody says the word Hawaii

In other news, I might (probably will) get a new trumpet next week, but more on that later. Hawaii here we come!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! (uh... overreact much?)

What DCI Geeks Do for Halloween

When Halloween rolls around, we can all change who we are for a day, and unfortunately one day only.. honestly I'm going to miss walking around school like this:

Mine.

Yep, I dressed up as someone from the Santa Clara Vanguard today. For those of you that know me, did you honestly expect anything less? For those of you that don't... get used to things like this.

I painted the shirt and made the plume and the star for the hat. It all cost less than $100.
It all made my band director very happy this morning. We were all just sitting there, discussing our last concert, with me casually under my hat, when Mr. Taylor looks around and says, "You are wearing a Santa Clara Vanguard costume. You have no idea how happy that makes me!" I collapsed into a fit of laughter because that was exactly how I imagined the morning going. At the end of class he took a picture to add to the Wonderfulness of Band archives. (Actually I made that up. It's just the band archive. But whatever.)
Thanks, Mom and Dad, for buying the materials; everyone else for noticing (words of Sam: "ten out of ten"); and mostly the Vanguard themselves for always being their awesome selves out there! #SCV @scvanguard 
Thank you all.

Don't you be smiling in uniform! Oh wait... never mind.

It was great. The best Halloween I've had. 

Blog Challenge *Day 26*

If you had $1,000,000,000 dollars to spend what would you buy?

If I had a million dollars I really hope I would have plenty of money in addition to that to donate to things. But we're talking consumerism here... so let's start from the top.

I'd get myself this nice car, in this color:

2017 Alfa Romeo Giulia
From Car and Driver

Then I'd also get this nice car, either in this color or white, for more utilitarian purposes:

Also from Car and Driver

Then I would buy 2 trumpets: definitely a Cannonball and possibly a Bach or Yamaha Pro.

Of course I can't decide.
Pics from Cannonball Music.

Then I would buy a Torpedo bag for one of said trumpets:

Black is boring. Get blue instead.
From Torpedo Bags.

I'd build a nice (not especially big) house in California. Mediterranean style, thanks. Beach-side lot. 

intro.dvrlists.com

And I think that would pretty much take up my million dollars. If there's anything left then assume that I would buy clothes. 

Yep.

Blog Challenge *Day 25*

Discuss someone who fascinates you and why.
Erm. IDK. Me being lazy is pretty fascinating cuz I GET NOTHING DONE. 

Blog Challenge *Day 24*

What is your favorite movie and why?
Star Wars, I think; the 3 originals are the very best.

www.theodysseyonline.com

That being said I liked Episode 7 too. 
I like Star Wars because it's a classic adventure story, but it has interesting sci-fi details, such that it really becomes its own type of adventure story.

Blog Challenge *Day 23*

Thus spaek day 23: post 5 pictures of celebrities you find attractive.

...

Do I gotta?

...

Fine.

(Pics from Sparknotes' SparkLife)

Am I not Captain Obvious?

That white suit is ON POINT...

Yes, both then and now. Although if anyone's got a time machine up for grabs that'd be cool. But moving on...

From this article that was interesting even to me.

And I don't even watch Doctor Who! ... this is Matt Smith, by the way, for those of you who, like me, don't watch TV.

www.playbuzz.com

www.bbcamerica.com

The 11th Doctor + this picture I talked about = why I love bow ties. Seriously. 

I know that's only two people but honestly that's about the extent of the film and TV industry's attractiveness.

Anyway. Glad that silly post is done.

Blog Challenge *Day 22*

How have you changed over the past few years?

I used to be a complete introvert/geek/weird person. I played the piano. I did Irish dance. I didn't hardly talk with people.

Now I am still a bit of an introvert, and yes, I remain a band geek, but I'm not so obsessive about things like Star Wars and Seabiscuit as I used to be. I play trumpet and I do marching band. I run. I actually try to be a social human instead of not talking. And most of all, I'm now much more confident. It's GR8.

Mine. Credit, plz, if you want to use.

Confidence means...

> Believing in your style, choices, and actions

> Following a path of life that you think is right

> Not letting others hinder progress to things you want to achieve

> Believing that you can do anything; because you can if you think and tell yourself that you can.

Gaining total confidence takes a lifetime, but starting on it now is certainly helping things right along.

Blog Challenge *Day 21*

Favorite TV shows:

None, cuz we don't have a TV and I'm grateful because that's one less excuse for me to waste time.

Blog Challenge *Day 20*

How important is education to you?

Pretty important. I don't want anything to do with graduate school or a Phd, but I do want to learn as much music as possible and get enough qualification to do architecture and design work as a job. Other than that I think it's important to learn stuff and actually try in school because then you'll have those skills for a lifetime, and it's likely that one day- even if it is just a single day- in your life you'll need to use everything you learn. I also think it's up to every individual how far they want to go with such things beyond high school. No college, fine. Grad school, ok. Medical school? Cool, save money. Whatever you study after high school should be of interest to you, though, so that you stay engaged. For me this means architecture and design, and of course music.

My favorite style: Mediterranean

Blog Challenge *Day 19*

What is your biggest regret in life?

That I didn't take opportunities as a younger kid. 

I didn't do spelling bees.

I didn't go over to friends' houses.

I've never yet had or been to a sleepover.

I didn't like trying any sort of new things.

I ALMOST didn't do marching band until my mom insisted. I'm very grateful she did insist because goodness knows what would have happened if I hadn't done marching band.

The reason I regret not doing such things when I was younger is because I have to break out of my shell NOW. Rawr.

Random thing o' the day. Psychedelic, no?

My Favorite Field Shows

Since it's homecoming halftime field show season, I thought it's about time we all had some inspiration to get us through the after school practices until next week. So here are my favorite field shows by DCI corps. (Videos released from the official DCI YouTube channel)
Santa Clara Vanguard 2014:

Bluecoats 2014: The very best of them all! And why I want the 2014 DCI World Finals DVD for Christmas.

Cascades 2016: This one hasn't actually been published, because the season's not over yet! But it's an excellent show called 'O' and if you went to a western region DCI competition over the summer you probably saw it. I'll put it up on this post at the end of the season.

Yep, with the big orange hoops.
ddd000fff.blogspot.com

Cascades 2015: From the Cascades official YouTube channel.

Yep. Be inspired. Good luck. May you always be in step. :)

Cool Things that the Vanguard Did

What I do on Sunday/Monday nights: look at DCI pictures.
Now, I went to a DCI competition in July and saw 5 world class corps and it changed my marching life.
I learned some things.
Namely that the great people in California that are called the Santa Clara Vanguard are amazing.
In fact the Vanguard is so obscenely awesome that they can do things like all of these that I found on the Interwebs today. Exhibit A:

www.youtube.com

They can randomly stand on stacks of Arabian-style floor cushions all across the field.
Exhibit B:

www.pinterest.com

Things like this. No explanation needed.
Exhibit C:

www.dci.org

The 'V' of cymbals. Or this view:

lordsworkr.deviantart.com

Exhibit D:

dci271.dci.org

Complex forms. Hard to march to, still way cool-looking once they get there.
Exhibit E:

www.santaclaraweekly.com

Cymbal moves.
Exhibit F:

dimasmonde.blogspot.com

Cymbal suicide. Ah, them crazy cymbals... (HA look who's talking...trumpet girl...)
Yep. More cool stuff from other corps coming later!

Blog Challenge *Day 18*

What book could you read over and over again?
Up until about April I would have said the Harry Potter books- but recently I happened upon an excellent mystery series that begins with 'The Unexpected Mrs. Pollifax', a series written over about 30 years about- well- the unexpected Mrs. Pollifax, who applies for work as a spy when life gets boring. They're excellent books, and there are a lot of them, too. To date I've read all but 2 of them. If you're a fan of mysteries you'll certainly like them.

www.amazon.com
The first book