balullu09's Blog
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Power Outage/Band
8/6/08 1 CommentOk.. so I JUST got my power back at about 12:25 pm. (it's 2pm now) and it went out on Monday around 8pm. so that was like.. 40 hours without electric. It was torture. Luckily, right before the power went out, I learned how to make a bracelet out of starburst wrappers off of youtube. So I had something to do.. until it got dark. It was extremely hot all day and night, when it got dark there was nothing to do because I couldn't see, and if you wanted to take a shower the water was freezing cold. Anyway, we have power now, and just in time for Mindfreak!!
But that brings up another subject. Since I'm in band, we have rehearsals every week. And they're always on Wednesdays from 6pm-9:30pm. Normally there isn't a problem. Last year (the first year I watched Mindfreak when the new episodes were coming out) Mindfreak was on Tuesdays so there wasn't a conflict. But this year, the show got switched back to Wednesdays, and it's a big conflict. Where I live, the show airs from 9pm-9:30pm. And that conflicts with my band. So this year, I am forced to tape every episode, or download it somehow. Last year, I taped every episode by choice. Ugh.. It's so annoying... But I might be able to catch most of the episode tonight without having to tape it. Because tonight's rehearsal is from 5-9. Not the normal 6-9:30. Anyway, my band's marching show this year is going to be amazing. It's a game theme. Our first movement is titled "Simon says Risk" our second movement is "Twista" our third is "Candyman" (as our ballad, lol) and for our fourth movement we have "Chutes and Ladders" (aka, "Slides and Stairs" for copyright purposes). We have really good music, and our drill is amazing. I think we can win anything if we work really hard. And I think we are working hard. Or at least harder than last year. -
State at ISU (10-20-07)
10/23/07 2 CommentsSo I'm feeling better about state. So I'm going to write about the happy times, and my day now.
I woke up at 5am, and I had to be up at the school at 5:30am to leave for state. I was kinda late leaving my house, but whatever. I knew that the band wasn't leaving until 6am anyway. So I got to the school, gave my little sister her present. (Not my real little sister. I don't have one. In band, we do this big/little brother/sister thing. It's fun.) I got her basically a bag of candy with a letter. And she did the same thing.
On the bus ride down, I barely got any sleep. I brought my pillow, but I didn't have anything to lean against (like a window). So it was really hard to sleep. But I did get a few hours in.
Once we got to this middle school (to practice a little) we ate some food, and the seniors passed out senior letters. (The seniors always write letters to the juniors and underclassmen in their section.) I got like, 7 of them. Then we warmed up, got dressed, and practiced marching a little. After a while, we got on the buses, and I was starting to get really excited for state. It was finally the day.
We got to ISU (Illinois State University) and went to the warm-up field. We had our official warm-up, and then stood outside of the gate while we were waiting for the other band to end. And this is when all of the seniors started to cry. It was their last state, and they didn't want it to ever end. Well, when everyone standing around me was crying, my eyes began to tear up a little. And I just kept thinking to myself "I'm not going to cry. I can't." and I didn't.
We put our hats on, and started to get ready to march onto the field. While we were marching onto the field, the crowd was going insane! It was so loud. And they all couldn't wait to see us perform. It was an amazing feeling. Well, I went to my set, and stood there. My director called us to parade rest, so we all went there. But when our drum major called us to set, no one in the band heard them because the crowd was so loud. (It kind of looked bad, but not that bad.)
The show started, and all I could hear behind me was Mitch crying. And I couldn't take it. It was state, and the show started. It was intense, and I just couldn't help but start crying. And I never thought I would cry during state, but there I was marching the show, crying like a baby. And then when I turned around to play the first big hit, the crowd was so intense. It was the first time I actually saw it while on the field. And the stands were packed. They were screaming as loud as they could, and it was the most amazing feeling ever. And I couldn't even play because I was crying so hard. (And I may sound weird, but every upperclassmen in our band always cries because they're so connected to the show.)
As the show went on, I stopped crying later on in the opener because I knew I had to actually play. And I played my heart out. I did amazing during the show, and I couldn't have asked for a better one.
After the show ended, I marched off of the field. And right as I stepped off of that field, I just cried as hard as I could. And I didn't even know why. I didn't want to cry, but the feeling you get when you're on that field performing your show, and when you know it might be all over is so crazy. (And you'll think I'm weird, but I'm actually crying right now just thinking about this. I love it, lol.)You probably won't ever know what it's like unless you've marched at state with my band. We're like a family, and we love each other.
Well, we marched off of the field, and sang "Close Every Door". When we sing that song, it means that we did fricken amazing! And we did. It was the best show our band has ever had. When we were singing, tears were just streaming down my face. I couldn't help it. They just kept coming down.
Well, our director talked to us, we took pictures, and went back to the buses. Whenever my band goes to the buses after our performance, it's never normal. All of the parents and friends make a tunnel, and cheer for our whole band as we walk through them. It's really fun, and makes everyone feel like they did even better. My mom took more pictures of me, and then I got some food, visited with the band, parents, and old friends that came back from college.
It was time for the awards, and to see how good we did compared to everyone else in our class. We weren't expecting anything but 2nd place (because the band that always wins grand champion is in our class) and crowd appeal (because our crowd goes insane). We ended up getting both of those trophies. The people who we expected to get 1st got 1st, and we got 2nd. Later on, someone told my mom that my band should have gotten 1st, and that made me really proud. And I really wanted to know if I made finals. But I wouldn't know that for another 5 hours.
We went and ate a nice hot meal at a park (the whether was great) and it was really fun. But then our nap time was outside? Wtf? Oh, and when me and my friends went to go to the bathroom, there were no doors on the stalls. How nice, right? Well, it was an adventure.
Anyway, I couldn't sleep at all, because it was outside, it was light out, leaves were falling from the sky, and I wasn't tired at that moment. And we only had an hour. So it was pretty much like, what's the point if I'm only going to get an hour?
After nap time, we got on the buses, and went to a different school to rehearse for a few hours. The field was terrible! There were so many bumps, and there were potholes in the field. Several people almost rolled their ankles.
After that terrorizing rehearsal, we got dressed, got our instruments, and went on the buses to wait and hear if we made finals or not. If we made finals, we would go and warm-up. But if we didn't make finals, we were going home.
Well, I just got on the bus and sat down, when Mr. Barnett (a chaperon) told us to get off of the bus and Mr. Nommensen (our director) wanted to talk to us. Well, automatically I was scared. Either he wanted to talk to us all at once because it was terrible news, or he wanted to talk to us all at once because it was really good news. I even said out loud "I'm scared." to all of my friends, and I'm sure my director heard, I was really close to him.
So he started to talk, and this is what he said "Well, I wish" and just from that, I knew we didn't make it. He continued to say "Well, I wish I could say that this is a joke, and you made finals, but you didn't." I don't remember what he said after that, and I don't want to remember. At first, I didn't start crying, but I was REALLY shocked and disappointed. Every single person thought that we made finals. That was the best shows of our lives, and we thought that we would be having some more fun that night. Well we were all wrong.
As my director was talking, you could just look at the band, and see a lot of people crying. It was really heartbreaking to us. And it's still kind of a sensitive subject. I don't really like talking about it.
Well after that, we took off our uniforms, put everything away, cried, my parents called me, and I went home with my parents and cried more.
That night, I went to my room when I got home, watched the video of my show that my mom recorded, and cried myself to sleep. It was such a sad day.
Monday during band, my director let us listen to one of the judge's tapes, and he was complimenting us the whole time. At the end of it he says "I hope I can see you later tonight." And I just blurted out "Well then you should have judged us higher!!" It turns out that we were 0.15 points away from making finals. Several other bands that we've been beating all year made it in. And I'm pretty sure it's because of score inflation. Which is when they score the earlier bands lower to leave room for other bands to possibly be higher than you. And then they probably kind of forgot about us since we were so much earlier than the other bands that made it.
Well, now all we have to do is practice extremely hard, and show everyone at BOA (high school marching band regionals) that we are an amazing band.
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wtf?!?!? i'm soo pissed right now.
10/20/07 0 CommentsSo my band didn't make finals tonight at state. And I'm literally crying right now. Everyone was looking forward to it soo much. And then we didn't make it.
We had the best show we've EVER had today during state. I still can't believe we didn't make finals. And I get more and more pissed as I think about it more..
Well, I'll write more when I'm not so emotional. And I'll talk about the happy times then.
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yay, i get to have halloween back!
10/16/07 1 CommentYay, I get to go trick or treating now! Before, I had a band rehearsal on halloween, but my director cancelled it.
But here's the catch, I have to have rehearsal on Tuesday the 30th, and Thursday the 1st (if we get the field house on Thursday). And that just made me REALLY mad, because now I'm gonna have to have my dad tape Mindfreak.. I'm guessing the Seance episode is going to be playing on the 30th, and that looks like a REALLY good episode.
Ugh.. whenever something good happens, something bad just has to ruin it right away..
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Lincoln-Way East Contest (10-13-07)
10/14/07 0 CommentsSo my band went to another contest yesterday. And it was pretty fun. But we did have rehearsal from 1-3:30 before the contest.. Then we finished up the senior speeches, but it wasn't the same. No one was into it like the night before. Almost no one was crying, and it just wasn't the same. I almost felt bad for them because they couldn't give theirs last night.
Well anyway, after senor speeches, we ate our Subway (we ALWAYS get Subway..) and then we loaded the trucks, and got on the buses and left for the contest.
The bus ride was REALLY boring, and it was like, an hour long. But I just listened to Dane Cook the whole time.. So that made it better.
After we got there, we had 20 minutes to go to the bathroom, and do whatever we wanted. But those 20 minutes went by soo fast! It only felt like 5!
Anyway, we got dressed, and those 45 minutes felt like forever. But it was fun. We just talked the whole time about random stuff.
It was time to go to the warm-up field, and I was starting to get excited to perform. Warm-ups felt like it went extremely fast, and before I knew it, we were marching to the field. On our way to the field, we saw Marion Catholic's (our arch rivals) pit, so I was trying to look extra good, lol. And then we got to the field, and the band that was before us was still playing. We stood there for almost their whole show. And then we were marching onto the field.
I got to my first set, and then they started reading off these "Air-grams" but I didn't get one. And apparantly the high brass section leader has a fan club? It's probably just his family, though.
So the show started, and I was fricken amazing! I hadn't made any mistakes in the first 2 movements that I could remember. And in the 2nd movement, one of the judges looked REALLY familiar. So I was staring at him for a while. And then I realized, omg, IT'S MR. ATLEMAN! (He was a student teacher last year for the band). But anyway, I did all of the new visuals amazingly, and then came the 3rd movement. I started out amazing, and I got untrapped really good, like we practiced. But when we get untrapped, we go out for 8 counts and then forward 8 counts, and then right after those second 8 counts we put our horns down. And I gorgot to put mine down.
I was pissed at myself. I was like, soo fricken mad! Omg, I wanted to punch myself in my face! (Lol, not really..)
So I tried soo hard to do amazing, and I did everything else really good. We were marching back to the buses, and then for some reason, we just stop, the director asks for all of the Seniors to fall out of the block, and give their instrument to someone. And then we keep going for a little bit, and then we stop again, and one of our drum majors tells us that we're going to take a short gut back to the buses, and put everything away, and we need to show the seniors that we can do this, because they aren't going to be here next year. And I was soo confused.
Okay, fast forward about half an hour.
We start going back to the field to watch a band. And I was thinking soo hard "Please let it be Marion Catholic!" because I really wanted to see their show.
Anyway, awards started, and my band didn't get any caption awards (ex. best percussion, guard, music). All of those awards went to Lake Park (omg, what a suprise!)
We got 3rd place with a score of 75.95, 2nd place was Vicotor J. Andrew with a score of 77.35, and 1st place was Lake Park (omg, soo surprising!) with a score of 84.25.
Even though we only got 3rd place, we beat a whole lot of good bands, and none of us really expected to do this good with all of the other bands in our class.
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