I miss life...

I have no life, it really sucks.
School, marching band, sleep.
School, marching band, sleep.
School, marching band, sleep.
It's ALL I do. BAH!
It'll be quite bittersweet when it ends though, because then I'll be bored out of my head.
In other news, we got first place at our competition on Saturday! WOO!
AAAAND it's the 50th blog post! Yay!
Many calls for celebration, but alas, I must leave you. Can you guess what I have to do? ;)
I miss you all. I'll see you when I get back to having free time.
♥♫♪JMJ

A day off? What?

So guess what?
I have a day off. OMG.
I literally have nothing to do today after school. It's very very strange.
It's usually school Monday-Friday (duh) and Marching band every day except Wednesdays and Sundays. However, on Wednesdays I go to the Elbow Room to study with a couple of friends after school and on Sundays I have church and youth group. So I literally have a day off of stuff besides school today because we have no marching band.
AAAAH it's weird!
:O
We do, however, have a competition tomorrow, so I have to be up early. But on the bright side, we go to Bob Evan's first thing in the morning. Yay for starting a day with Bob Evan's! :D
So anyway, I believe I'm finished. Look for posts soon, I'll try to update more often. :)
♥♫♪JMJ

So...

New template! Yay!
In other news:
I have an idea. A couple of you have heard me talking about this fantastic mini-series that was made for CBS called Harper's Island. I was on Sparknotes and saw that they blogged each chapter of the Twilight saga and I was like "Hmm... I wonder if I could blog something like that, but I don't know what I should blog about." Then I got to thinking that I'm the only one out of my friends that's watched Harper's Island. Lightbulb! :)
Sooooo, here's where you come in. I need feedback on whether or not it's a good idea to do recaps of my own to inform you all of this fantastic series. I'll let you know what it's about with the website's show description:
HARPER'S ISLAND is about a group of family and friends who travel to a secluded island off the coast of Seattle for a destination wedding. This island is famous for a streak of unsolved murders from seven years ago. Although they've come to laugh and to love, what they don't know is they've also come to die. As the wedding festivities begin, friendships are tested and secrets exposed as a murderer claims victims, one by one, transforming the wedding week of fun and celebration into a terrifying struggle for survival. In every episode, someone is killed and every person is a suspect, from the wedding party to the island locals. By the end of the 13 episodes, all questions will be answered, the killer will be revealed and only a few will survive.

So yeah. It's pretty awesome if you're into murder mysteries and such. Give some feedback on whether or not to do this project, I'd really appreciate it. :)

♥♫♪JMJ

Sigh.

Today's the last day of summer.
...
Oh well. Nothing's going to change just because I whine.
Anyway, I've literally been the busiest I've ever been in my entire life. It's not very fun, but at least I'm not bored. :)
Yay optimism!
I've decided that I'm going to spend the last day of summer doing nothing, because this is one of the rare days I'll be able to. If there's another do-nothing day, I'll jump up and down and scream hallelujah, then I'll go take a nap. BECAUSE I CAN! :D
Excitement is abroad.
Also, I think I'll be looking for another blogger template, because I'm getting bored of mine. Look out for one sometime soon. :)
♥♫♪JMJ

Freaked.

Yesterday, during marching band of course, my hip started to hurt. I figured it was just muscle fatigue and it was no big deal. Right?


WRONG.


Of course, at the end of rehearsal, my hip was still hurting. I put all of my stuff away, went to the car, and rode home. However, the second I stepped out of the car...

HIP SHANK.
Oh my. It hurt so badly that I literally almost fell over. I couldn't even walk.
I pretty much limped into the house and up to bed.
The next morning, I woke up and expected my hip to feel better. I got up out of bed and then
DOUBLE HIP SHANK.
I seriously couldn't even march today. I had to sit in the stands during rehearsal and during the full runthrough I had to stand next to the pit and just play my part.
So naturally, I'm freaking out. We have a football game in two days and I pulled a hip muscle.
OMGAHHHHHHHHFREAKOUT!
What am I going to do?
:/
♥♫♪JMJ

BAH.

I'm upset.
My copy of Sweeney Todd decided it wasn't going to work anymore.
Or at least not when I wanted to watch it last night.
Bad mood.

In other news, first football game tomorrow! Yeah woohoo marching band plays at halftime! I'm tired.
Goodnight.
♥♫♪JMJ

Band camp, oh band camp.

So as you all know, I was gone for band camp this week. Let me just begin by saying that this is pretty much a recap. Although I can't tell you everything that went on, (don't worry, I kept it G-rated. Lol) I will give you a little idea of what went on. I have no idea how long this will be, so I'm sorry if this is like three books long. :P
Let's begin by explaining the schedule.

7:00 AM Wake up
7:45 Calisthenics/stretches on the field
8:00 Breakfast
9:00 Basic Block/Rehearsal #1
12:00 Lunch
1:00 Sectionals
3:30 Break
5:00 Block
5:15 Dinner
6:00 Rehearsal #2
9:00 Event Preparation
9:45 Evening Event

Wake up is pretty self explanatory. Lol. However, with twelve girls in a cabin, we generally got up earlier to make sure everyone got ready and had time to get all of their stuff done.

Calisthenics is basically stretching, doing really basic cardio-like workouts, and just getting yourself warmed up for the day.

Breakfast. I'll just say that it was camp food. If you've ever been to a camp, you know how camp food goes.

Basic block.
Ugh.
I seriously HATE basics with a burning passion.
Basics are pretty much lining up in about fifteen lines of five people and listening to our instructor finding ways to torture us.
Band ten hut!
Horns up, move!
Okay, your assignment is quadrant one of the diamond drill. Eight 8 to 5's forward, twelve steps diagonally to the left, backwards style, and eight 8 to 5's to the right. Now remember, keep your shoulders forward and traverse on the third set. Keep those horns up. Remember your duts. Oh wait, Ben put his horn up late. Everyone start over.
Horns down, move!
Horns up, move!
Nope, Sara was late.
Horns down, move!
Horns up, move!
And by this time, my arms, back, calves, neck, shoulders, and feet are hurting so badly that they feel like they're on fire.
HATE.

Rehearsals usually consisted of learning dots. Basically if you know how to graph on an X Y one quadrant graph, you can do dots. However, basics and dots are tied together, so they were pretty uncomfortable unless you were doing them without the horn. Putting the music to them was also weird.

Lunch.

Sectionals was always one of my favorite times of the day. We just met up as the high brass section and worked on how we sounded, memorization, and keeping ourselves focused on more than just making sure we're marching the right way. We had a guy named Matt as our instructor. Basically it was "Hey guys, how are you? Alright, now forget that marching band crap, let's work on one chorale for two hours." Which frankly was kind of boring but at least it wasn't painful. Matt also recommended that I try out for the Flint Youth Symphony and a Brass Quintet that he leads, which I think I'll do if I can because I'm awesome. Lol :)

Break was pretty much spent laying down and eating junk every day. If I wasn't doing that, I was filling out my dot book. I'm glad a break was put into the day, but I wish it was longer. :P

Dinner block was a bit better because it was only fifteen minutes and it was usually an activity. The first day it was pretty much mini-basics, the next couple of days, it was E-block. E-block was an exercise where we had to follow directions and try not to mess up or we'd be out. However, it was all trick questions. I got out during this exercise:
Band ten hut!
Band parade rest!
Horns up, move!
*motion horn up*
Oooooh, you can't put your horn up during parade rest! You are OUT!
Fail.
However, on Friday, we did this thing colled a C-block.
The C stands for concentration.
The seniors come out either wearing something absolutely ridiculous, doing something absolutely ridiculous, or saying something absolutely ridiculous. The goal is to keep your concentration, stand at perfect attention, and not laugh. I failed.
Julianne somehow managed to not laugh when Travis whispered in her ear "I'm going to take a hot stick of butter and rub it all over you, then lick it all off. Drop. By. Drop." Which I would have died laughing at. Kathryn, however, managed to surprise us all by actually making it the whole fifteen minutes.

Dinner.

Rehearsal #2 is basically doing the same thing as rehearsal #1 but with instruments and playing the music along with it. It was harder, though, because it was later in the day and we were all really tired and sore.

After rehearsal, we'd go back to our cabins and change, do what we needed to do, and make sure we were ready for whatever event was going on that evening.

Monday: Game night
This is where we discovered Linda. More on this later.
We played cards, knight rider princess, and chilled in the shelter house for a little while. It was fun. :)
PRINCESS! AAAAAH!

Tuesday: Dance
I can't dance, but I tried. I also taught Chris how to do love shack. Lol

Wednesday: Movie night
We watched Up. It was fantastic :) We ate popcorn, sat on couches, and laughed at all of the-
SQUIRREL!
Hi there. :)

Thursday: Skit night
There are no words for this. I may post a video on facebook if I can, but I don't know if it'll let me.

Friday: Senior ceremony
This night was the emotional one. It was the seniors' very last night at Echo Grove band camp and we performed a traditional ceremony where we waited for the seniors to march toward us and light candles, then we walked on a lit path and sang kumbaya until we got to a campfire in the woods. Strange, I know, but it's a tradition that I thought was pretty cool. When we got to the campfire, our director gave a speech and then the seniors gave their own speeches about how they loved to march and how worthwhile it is, which inspired me to stick with it and persevere through the painful horn angles. Lol. After that, we watched videos of previous shows, ate junk food, and had a good time overall.

Quotes
"Wait, are you part cow?"
"Yeah, it's in my genes."
"NOOOOOO!"

"I HAVE A JOKE!"
"It's going to be a dead baby joke, I know it."

"Gum! Aaaaah!"
"Where?"
"Right there!"
"Where?!"
"Kathryn, right there."
"I don't see it!"
"OMG Kathryn it's right in front of your face!"

"Everyone knows that zippers go on the back."
"Obviously these people didn't."
"Well they're dumb."

"So she decided to do what any sensible woman would do back then and became a prostitute."

"No, fathead! Don't sit on my duffel bag!"

"Mitchell, you cursed my horn, I can't play high F's."
"It's because he licked his mouthpiece on your horn."
...
"HAHAHAHAHA!"

"She looks like a little boy!"
"That was terrible word choice."

"Amber, there's bacon!"
"BACON?! Yes!!"
"Wait, that's sausage. Nevermind."
...
"You pig."

"Okay, the farther we get at band camp, the better we do at states."
"It's true. OH MY GOODNESS, I COULD GRAPH IT!"

Overall, band camp was a fantastic, yet painful, experience that I can't wait to do again next year. It's really fun and extremely rewarding, so if you're ever on the fence about it, fall to the side in which you join. :)
Yeeeeah, band camp. :D
♥♫♪JMJ

OMG

So those of you that play Nancy Drew, be excited. I found a recipe for Koko Kringle bars. I will hold for the applause. :)


Ingredients:
1 bag of Hershey's Dark (Or Milk, if you wish.) Chocolate Chips
1 Cup of mixed peanuts and cashews
2 1/2 cups of Rice Krispies


1. Put the mixed peanuts and cashews into a ziplock bag and crush. (I stopped when the crumbs where as small as I could make them.)
2. Pour the chocolate and nuts into a stove top cooking pot, turn stove onto medium and stir the chocolate and nut mix until it is nicely melted. Make sure to keep stirring so the chocolate doesn't scorch.
3. Add the Rice Krispies into the pot, keep stirring until they are mixed in well.
4. Pour the chocolate onto a cookie sheet and make the chocolate nice and even.
5. Let the chocolate set until it's slightly hardened
6. Cut into rectangles
(I printed out the Koko Kringle wrapper I found on Her's Facebook wall photo's album and cut the chocolate so that it could be wrapped in it.)
7. Wrap the bars in foil (like the chocolate bars you find in the store are) and then wrap them in the Koko Kringle wrapper.

Truly, I don't know what you could use to substitute for the nuts. Toffee pieces, maybe?? Try it out and let me know if it's good. :)
♥♫♪JMJ

Woot!

Mini camp is officially

Overrrrrr! :D

However, band camp is on Monday. It will be fantastic though, I can just see it.
My arms are still noodles. What a surprise, right? Lol. But I hope I can keep my horn up by the time we get to a competition. It'll be a stretch, but I think I can get myself to do it.

By the way, I apologize that all of my posts lately have been about marching band, but frankly, nothing else is going on. Lol, maybe the next few days will produce a non-marching band post.
I love youuuu :)

♥♫♪JMJ

Tired.

I'm sorry for any spelling mistakes in this post, but I'm too tired to fix them.
I love marching band, but sometimes it's just kind of a "Why are you doing this to me when I was just having so much fun?"
Because of this, everything is sore except my head. My knees are especially taking it hard from marching backwards. I have nothing better to do, so I'm going to make a list.

Things I Love

About Marching

1. Dots. (Where you should be on the field in relation to the music.) They're epic. It took me a little longer to learn them, but once I got them, they were fantastic. :)
2. The music. It's challenging, but not too challenging. Plus, sectionals are fun.
3. Marching 8 to 5. (Eight steps to five yards) I am not meaning this in a bragging way, but I was pretty much a natural. The instructors were like, "Okay. Don't look down, but try to land on the yard line in eight steps." I was like "Crap. I won't be able to do this." But I did it perfectly, so I was very proud of myself. :)
4. The "family". Everyone in marching band loves each other and is very friendly. Well, unless you're really annoying, but you get the picture.
5. Instructors, because they're very helpful and patient. I was learning dots today and one of the instructors was patient with me and helped me get the hang of it through my first two dots until I got it right. They'll correct you if you're wrong, but do it in a nice way. They won't accept less than perfect, but that's what you need.

Things I, Well,

Don't Love About Marching

1. Horn angles. Omg. Keeping your arms up to maintain your horn angle feels like you're being stabbed repeatedly and the only way to stop this crazy stabbing is to put your arms down, but you're not allowed to. I feel dumb when I have to put my arms down because they hurt so badly and no one else does that I can see.
2. The fact that I lean when I have a horn in my hands. I can't help it, but I'm doing my best. Because my arms are hurting so badly, I don't focus on my posture, so I lean to support my instrument because I can't do it with my arms.
3. Heat and sweat. It's death. The second I hear "Okay guys, take five," it's pretty much the happiest moment of my life. I was disgusting, I literally got home and ran to the shower. YUCK.
4. Marching backwards. Most move to their right when they march backwards, which messes us all up and then our instructors make us do it again and again and again, which is terrible for your arms when you're holding a mellophone/baritone/sousaphone.
5. Pain in any aspect. Which is all around.

So yeah. It's a love/hate relationship. Once my arms aren't noodles anymore, maybe it'll be a bit different. :)
♫♪♥JMJ