Region Band
I came back from the Region Band clinic yesterday!!! ^__^ It was fun. A not-exactly-play-by-play recount of the events.
Thursday (insert Thursday quote here): Went home from school. Packed. Went to the high school. We had to wait for ages for Mr. Davis (the band director) to drive to Mcbee, get a school bus that didn't have a dead engine, and drive it back.
When he got back, we left. This was at, what, six? I dunno. Had a fairly pleasant trip. When we got to Conway, we stopped at a Zaxby's for supper, then went to the hotel. Crappy hotel. Sand Castle resort--I would not recommend it. But hey, it was free. Thank you, Band Booster Club.
So, then we went to bed and tried to sleep. My roommates were all insaaaaane. Taylor and Aimee (Aimee didn't make Region Band; she's the high school band director's daughter.), for future reference. We stayed up until around three laughing at immensely random things. Hah, see, Aimee was trying to sleep, but me and Taylor...well, didn't. And so ensued craziness and Aimee biting our heads off for keeping her awake. Taylor said she would remember the night for the rest of her life.
Oh, and we were for some reason watching Phil of the Future? The one where the principal moves in next door and in which there is a time doughnut (referred to by Phil as a 'time slip'). I swear Phil's dad was using a Sonic Screwdriver o.o
Friday: Got up early because Mr. Davis insists on punctuality, took a shower, lazed about while Taylor and Aimee spent half an hour putting on their makeup (girly-girls), went to the lobby, and waited twenty minutes for Mr. Davis and Mr. Pruitt to come downstairs. Then we left, went to Bojangles, then went to the Socastee High School to rehearse. We went from, what, nine-thirty to six-thirty with an hour and a half for lunch. Fun. The clinician was absolutely mad. For instance, she would specifically state that this time we were going to play whichever song we happened to be working on at the time straight through, no stopping. She would then stop us four measures in because the flutes were playing mezzo piano where the music said it was to be played mezzo piano. She insisted that they had to play it pianissimo. Idiot. Then we'd start over, and stop again because the clarinets did the same thing, but backwards. I liked the music, though.
Afterwards, we ate and went back to the hotel. Taylor and Aimee went over to the next room, where they spent half the night prank-calling me and having me prank-answer them in return. Then I finally went over there, and Cam french-braided everybody's hair until Mr. Davis came in and sent us to bed.
(I feel that supper deserves a paragraph to itself. We went to Ultimate California Pizza. Nice place. Anyway, you can order whatever pizza you like, within reason. And without reaon too. I ordered a wheat-crust pizza, with Thai chile sauce, mozzerella cheese, teriyaki chiken, sesame seeds, and coconut. IT WAS AWESOME.)
Aimee and Taylor went right to sleep, but I had no such lack of luck. Because, on TBS, there was Galaxy Quest!! Yay! I hadn't seen it in ages, since it came out, when I was, for lack of a better word, little. Therefore, I didn't know it had Sam Rockwell it it! ^____^ Pleasant surprise. There was much muffled squeeing. I couldn't think of his name though. So yeah. And Alan Rickman was being unnaturally British *pokes icon*.
Saturday: Got up, ate some of my leftover pizza (which was even better cold), and went to the school. We rehearsed until lunch. Whice reminds me: The first day we were rehearsing in the mini-gym (the school has, as far as I can make out, three gyms for some reason o.o) which the wrestlers use. IT HAS THE WORST MURAL EVER ON THE WALL. It was two guys wrestling, kneeling down, with one guy's face in the other guy's crotch. The second guy had this pained expression. It might have been interpreted in the wrong way. But not by me, oh no, course not.
After that, we watched the alternate concert, went out for lunch, and changed into our concert clothes. Then we hung around the school until three-thirty. For one of the songs (Our Flag Was Still There, a tribute to the family's whose lives were touched by the September 11th attacks...just screams sappy, doesn't it?) the clinician thought it would be cute to have a heart-breakingly cheesy PowerPoint presentation play on a screen behind the band. So we had to have stand lights. And we got to keep them even though Mr. Davis said at first we couldn't because everybody but me had broken theirs (well, actually, I broke mine twice, but I fixed it. I lost the lens, though.) ^____^
After that I bought my medal and we left. We stopped for supper and then after ten minutes on the road La'quisha announced she had to go to the bathroom and could we stop somewhere. So we did. On the way home, I read about three-fourths of So Long, and Thanks for All the Fish by attaching my stand light to the window.
Aaaand that's about it!
~Amy :)
Thursday (insert Thursday quote here): Went home from school. Packed. Went to the high school. We had to wait for ages for Mr. Davis (the band director) to drive to Mcbee, get a school bus that didn't have a dead engine, and drive it back.
When he got back, we left. This was at, what, six? I dunno. Had a fairly pleasant trip. When we got to Conway, we stopped at a Zaxby's for supper, then went to the hotel. Crappy hotel. Sand Castle resort--I would not recommend it. But hey, it was free. Thank you, Band Booster Club.
So, then we went to bed and tried to sleep. My roommates were all insaaaaane. Taylor and Aimee (Aimee didn't make Region Band; she's the high school band director's daughter.), for future reference. We stayed up until around three laughing at immensely random things. Hah, see, Aimee was trying to sleep, but me and Taylor...well, didn't. And so ensued craziness and Aimee biting our heads off for keeping her awake. Taylor said she would remember the night for the rest of her life.
Oh, and we were for some reason watching Phil of the Future? The one where the principal moves in next door and in which there is a time doughnut (referred to by Phil as a 'time slip'). I swear Phil's dad was using a Sonic Screwdriver o.o
Friday: Got up early because Mr. Davis insists on punctuality, took a shower, lazed about while Taylor and Aimee spent half an hour putting on their makeup (girly-girls), went to the lobby, and waited twenty minutes for Mr. Davis and Mr. Pruitt to come downstairs. Then we left, went to Bojangles, then went to the Socastee High School to rehearse. We went from, what, nine-thirty to six-thirty with an hour and a half for lunch. Fun. The clinician was absolutely mad. For instance, she would specifically state that this time we were going to play whichever song we happened to be working on at the time straight through, no stopping. She would then stop us four measures in because the flutes were playing mezzo piano where the music said it was to be played mezzo piano. She insisted that they had to play it pianissimo. Idiot. Then we'd start over, and stop again because the clarinets did the same thing, but backwards. I liked the music, though.
Afterwards, we ate and went back to the hotel. Taylor and Aimee went over to the next room, where they spent half the night prank-calling me and having me prank-answer them in return. Then I finally went over there, and Cam french-braided everybody's hair until Mr. Davis came in and sent us to bed.
(I feel that supper deserves a paragraph to itself. We went to Ultimate California Pizza. Nice place. Anyway, you can order whatever pizza you like, within reason. And without reaon too. I ordered a wheat-crust pizza, with Thai chile sauce, mozzerella cheese, teriyaki chiken, sesame seeds, and coconut. IT WAS AWESOME.)
Aimee and Taylor went right to sleep, but I had no such lack of luck. Because, on TBS, there was Galaxy Quest!! Yay! I hadn't seen it in ages, since it came out, when I was, for lack of a better word, little. Therefore, I didn't know it had Sam Rockwell it it! ^____^ Pleasant surprise. There was much muffled squeeing. I couldn't think of his name though. So yeah. And Alan Rickman was being unnaturally British *pokes icon*.
Saturday: Got up, ate some of my leftover pizza (which was even better cold), and went to the school. We rehearsed until lunch. Whice reminds me: The first day we were rehearsing in the mini-gym (the school has, as far as I can make out, three gyms for some reason o.o) which the wrestlers use. IT HAS THE WORST MURAL EVER ON THE WALL. It was two guys wrestling, kneeling down, with one guy's face in the other guy's crotch. The second guy had this pained expression. It might have been interpreted in the wrong way. But not by me, oh no, course not.
After that, we watched the alternate concert, went out for lunch, and changed into our concert clothes. Then we hung around the school until three-thirty. For one of the songs (Our Flag Was Still There, a tribute to the family's whose lives were touched by the September 11th attacks...just screams sappy, doesn't it?) the clinician thought it would be cute to have a heart-breakingly cheesy PowerPoint presentation play on a screen behind the band. So we had to have stand lights. And we got to keep them even though Mr. Davis said at first we couldn't because everybody but me had broken theirs (well, actually, I broke mine twice, but I fixed it. I lost the lens, though.) ^____^
After that I bought my medal and we left. We stopped for supper and then after ten minutes on the road La'quisha announced she had to go to the bathroom and could we stop somewhere. So we did. On the way home, I read about three-fourths of So Long, and Thanks for All the Fish by attaching my stand light to the window.
Aaaand that's about it!
~Amy :)