Awesome Day Turns Ugly, Ends Awesome Again
'lo bob. erm. All.
Well, The past few days have been fun and interesting. I have been spending lots of time with Kimmie working on music stuffs and just having fun. I have begun a sort of Division I Training Program for her and also Emily, as well as anyone who wants to do it. It's basically a combination of the stretch sessions from both Magic and Phoenix, no less than a mile run, some Breathing Gym, and then horn-circle exercises like the high-step and horn-holds. I've also started to move to marching basics.
It's amazing how natural it felt to be instructing. I sounded exactly like the instructors who led me in the same exercises and it just feels RIGHT. I heard myself sounding exactly like Kyle while running and Travis while doing breathing gym. And it feels good.
Kimmie is doing well and really feels like I am helping her a great deal. On Sunday Emily joined as well. We did the full stretch and then ran a mile. I was surprised at how I felt I could do another one when we were done despite having been counting or saying the verbal commands (In . . . Out . . . Off . . . etc) the whole time. I really came far this summer and I learned more than I realized. I had them hold the horns in playing position for 5:30. Emily was so hardcore with that mellophone I was surprised. Kimmie still has some issues with leaning back a bit (aka Big-Belly, lol Travis) but Emily's posture was dead on the whole time. I actually said to her, "I'm looking for something to call you out on, but I really can't see anything!" Her horn never dropped from 10 degrees despite the shaking of her arms around 5 minutes. DAMN, she came far this summer! I told her, "No matter how much you may have disliked your Surf experience, it clearly did WONDERS for you." Kimmie was also much better. Her horn also remained at 10 degrees the whole time. Just to show I wasn't going to do nothing while they suffered, when they were done we went upstairs and I kept the mellophone up for the full length of Magic's show from this year, about 12:10 I think. Kimmie is progressing fast but when we got to marching, it was clear I still have work to do.
And now today. First I had to wake up at 6:30 which wasn't fun but oh well. After getting a late start out the door and sitting in 30 minutes of traffic to the school, I arrived in the parking lot and Kimmie and I went to our class. It's taught jointly by two teachers and looks like it will be very entertaining. After class we went back to her house, had lunch and chilled for a while.
New M.E. Count: 15+.
She took me back to the school and dropped me off for my afternoon class, which was funish. Again the teacher seems like she will make the class interesting. After class, is when my day got ugly. It wasn't anything terribly major, but more than enough to really upset me. I went through a half hour plus ordeal with the school bookstore trying to exchange the book for Psyc 106 with the one the teacher would rather use. Without a receipt. Having worked customer service in retail for nearly two years, I can understand the need for return policies requiring a receipt. I also understand that there are ways around them. I wouldn't have blamed them for saying no except that the book I was buying to replace the wrong one was more than $60 more! The short version is that I had to talk with two managers and have Mom print out a copy of the check we originally paid with (which was a minor ordeal itself) and fax it to me at the school and then I paid the balance on her credit card. If I hadn't run into Tom Phesant right then, I probably would have gone insane.
We walked around and chatted for a bit until running into Denise outside the library. The three of us then proceeded to the bus stop where Denise had to catch, get this, the bus. Much chatting. Tom and I then proceeded to the PAC to meet up with Kimmie, who was already there sorting music for Mr Romano. The three of us then walked to the Student Life Center where Tom went off his own way and Kimmie and I had dinner.
Kimmie talked to Mr Romano about my little training program and now he's going to have me come to MRHS and torture, erm, 'help' the marching band. So I'm going to meet with him and discuss the band's style, technique, etc, so I can figure out what to do. I'm going to lay out what I do with Kimmie and Emily (and anyone else who might want to join -=cough MK cough=-) and see exactly how much of it he wants. He briefly said he primarily wants me to run basics. So I'd want to cover everything about posture and everything with holds and high-step and so on. And it they're roll step sucks it'll be fun to make them duckie walk end zone to end zone. -=evil laughter=-
Anyway, class was fun. We played some pieces we didn't so last semester, so I sucked at them. Having to sight-read in an unfamiliar clef is not fun. I still had fun.
After class, Kimmie and I got chipwiches and drove around the Long Branch area waiting for her mother's prescription to be ready at Walgreen's. Much fun was had and much music listened to. Awesomeness.
I finally arrived home to see my Div I Finals 2004 CDs arrived today! So now I listen to them as I type. And NOW, bedtime!
With music in mind (and headphones),
Matt
Well, The past few days have been fun and interesting. I have been spending lots of time with Kimmie working on music stuffs and just having fun. I have begun a sort of Division I Training Program for her and also Emily, as well as anyone who wants to do it. It's basically a combination of the stretch sessions from both Magic and Phoenix, no less than a mile run, some Breathing Gym, and then horn-circle exercises like the high-step and horn-holds. I've also started to move to marching basics.
It's amazing how natural it felt to be instructing. I sounded exactly like the instructors who led me in the same exercises and it just feels RIGHT. I heard myself sounding exactly like Kyle while running and Travis while doing breathing gym. And it feels good.
Kimmie is doing well and really feels like I am helping her a great deal. On Sunday Emily joined as well. We did the full stretch and then ran a mile. I was surprised at how I felt I could do another one when we were done despite having been counting or saying the verbal commands (In . . . Out . . . Off . . . etc) the whole time. I really came far this summer and I learned more than I realized. I had them hold the horns in playing position for 5:30. Emily was so hardcore with that mellophone I was surprised. Kimmie still has some issues with leaning back a bit (aka Big-Belly, lol Travis) but Emily's posture was dead on the whole time. I actually said to her, "I'm looking for something to call you out on, but I really can't see anything!" Her horn never dropped from 10 degrees despite the shaking of her arms around 5 minutes. DAMN, she came far this summer! I told her, "No matter how much you may have disliked your Surf experience, it clearly did WONDERS for you." Kimmie was also much better. Her horn also remained at 10 degrees the whole time. Just to show I wasn't going to do nothing while they suffered, when they were done we went upstairs and I kept the mellophone up for the full length of Magic's show from this year, about 12:10 I think. Kimmie is progressing fast but when we got to marching, it was clear I still have work to do.
And now today. First I had to wake up at 6:30 which wasn't fun but oh well. After getting a late start out the door and sitting in 30 minutes of traffic to the school, I arrived in the parking lot and Kimmie and I went to our class. It's taught jointly by two teachers and looks like it will be very entertaining. After class we went back to her house, had lunch and chilled for a while.
New M.E. Count: 15+.
She took me back to the school and dropped me off for my afternoon class, which was funish. Again the teacher seems like she will make the class interesting. After class, is when my day got ugly. It wasn't anything terribly major, but more than enough to really upset me. I went through a half hour plus ordeal with the school bookstore trying to exchange the book for Psyc 106 with the one the teacher would rather use. Without a receipt. Having worked customer service in retail for nearly two years, I can understand the need for return policies requiring a receipt. I also understand that there are ways around them. I wouldn't have blamed them for saying no except that the book I was buying to replace the wrong one was more than $60 more! The short version is that I had to talk with two managers and have Mom print out a copy of the check we originally paid with (which was a minor ordeal itself) and fax it to me at the school and then I paid the balance on her credit card. If I hadn't run into Tom Phesant right then, I probably would have gone insane.
We walked around and chatted for a bit until running into Denise outside the library. The three of us then proceeded to the bus stop where Denise had to catch, get this, the bus. Much chatting. Tom and I then proceeded to the PAC to meet up with Kimmie, who was already there sorting music for Mr Romano. The three of us then walked to the Student Life Center where Tom went off his own way and Kimmie and I had dinner.
Kimmie talked to Mr Romano about my little training program and now he's going to have me come to MRHS and torture, erm, 'help' the marching band. So I'm going to meet with him and discuss the band's style, technique, etc, so I can figure out what to do. I'm going to lay out what I do with Kimmie and Emily (and anyone else who might want to join -=cough MK cough=-) and see exactly how much of it he wants. He briefly said he primarily wants me to run basics. So I'd want to cover everything about posture and everything with holds and high-step and so on. And it they're roll step sucks it'll be fun to make them duckie walk end zone to end zone. -=evil laughter=-
Anyway, class was fun. We played some pieces we didn't so last semester, so I sucked at them. Having to sight-read in an unfamiliar clef is not fun. I still had fun.
After class, Kimmie and I got chipwiches and drove around the Long Branch area waiting for her mother's prescription to be ready at Walgreen's. Much fun was had and much music listened to. Awesomeness.
I finally arrived home to see my Div I Finals 2004 CDs arrived today! So now I listen to them as I type. And NOW, bedtime!
With music in mind (and headphones),
Matt