Practices, Football Games, and Competitons

I'm just going to say now that I'm sorry that I haven't updated for a while, but I was sort of waiting for something more exciting than practices to blog about. Fear not! You are now reading another of my posts!

I don't think that I'm alone is saying that the beginning of this school year felt just a continuation of the last because the marching band was at school all summer. It sort of ruined the whole back-to-school vibes that I get every year. I wasn't too keyed up to sleep, and I had everything planned out for the next day more in anticipation for practice than school, though neither was new to me at that point.

Three weeks of practices is a lot. I think that I'm definitely coming home more tired after school and practice than I was last year even though Adiemus was more a physically exhausting show than this year's. Weird. So I'm easily falling back into the rhythm of practice till 5:30, skipping dinner and going straight to doing homework until ten or eleven. I still wonder how I actually survive the next day since I don't actually fall asleep until well after one in the morning most nights. But I'm making it work, so we can't worry too much about that. I haven't fainted yet. :)


Spirit week came to a fun end with the pep assembly, and we played the fight song. It actually wasn't all that much fun because they decided that they were going to let the football players be idiots and waste time with whatever it was that they did, and the marching band got "cut" from the program. So we didn't play first number, and it was sort of a slap in the face to the band because that was the first thing that they thought to take out. Whatever. The parade was slightly better, though I definitely remember more people coming to see it last year, but the guard was pretty good. Check us out: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-T5mqxYygRs&feature=feedu  And then we got to eat:

Mrs. Hunt, Rachel Chacko, and Mom

 The cars lined up with food for all of the hungry marching band teenagers. Mmmm.

And the guard got ready for the performance, including a sort of trial and error session with our hair, but at least it looked good at first. We made it awesome for the competition the next day.

 We're so pretty!

The game was so much fun! We kept getting compliments on our very pretty costumes, and it was just fun to be in the stands in uniform and pumped up for a win, which we did get. Also at this game, Oak Park's marching band made an appearance, and THEY WERE SO LOUD. Their band couldn't have been more than sixty people, with a lot of dancers and guard members (27 of them!), so they had a small group. I think that I'm not just speaking for myself when I say that my mind was BLOWN by how great their sound was even though they were loud enough to cut right through our sound. It was pretty amazing. Have I mentioned that their band is only six weeks old?

 You see the people in red in the stand back there? That's them. And they were fierce.

We had a game that wasn't very traditional for Farmington, so we didn't march it in after the game ended. The band practically ran to the seats underneath the press box so that we could see Oak Park be really amazing out on the field for their post-game show. Right as they started, FHS's football players came and walked RIGHT IN FRONT OF THEM! It's was SO rude, and our marching band booed them. Good job, guys, way to make your school angry at your own homecoming game. Oak Park's guard on that side of the band was a little thrown off and stopped spinning, but we were relieved to see them get right back in with everyone once that craziness had stopped. Their show was really different from ours in that they played more current music than Beethoven. :) It was really cool to watch, and I'm glad that we could talk to them and find out more about what they do during third quarter.

Saturday started off with us meeting in the dance room to get kicked out by a custodian who freaked out about us being in there since she hadn't gotten a chance to clean it up the night before, so we moved to the hallway for food and hanging out before the pre-picture practice started, which was helpful though brief. When that was over, we headed into the school to get ready for pictures, and Emily and Kristina tag-teamed on everyone's hair: Kristina did the twists, and Emily worked on the buns. Emily used a hairigami for mine, which made me really happy because I used to have a couple of them when I was younger. So we got our pictures taken, did a guard pileup, and immediately went to practicing once all of the individual shots were done.

 Emily didn't want to "crush" us, so she stood behind us.

Practice consisted of a full run-formance, and then we went to eat lunch/dinner before loading up the truck and the buses and heading to Novi High School for out first competition. Yay for more practicing, which is what we did when we got there, and we shared the tennis courts with the most adorable little girl and her dad playing tennis, and Harrison High School's guard. They're made up of mostly eighth graders and freshman, from what Mark Istratie (their instructor) told me. There are only three seniors with them this year. So that was fun, and we waved to the girls who we recognized, and then left to perform and HURRY to leave because homecoming was also on Saturday night, and some of the band was planning to go. I was at a party of people who didn't go to the dance--and some who showed up when the dance ended--when we got the news that we placed 2nd out of three bands with a score of 65.67 and the caption award for best marching. Harrison got first with a score of 66.61 and the caption awards for best music and GE. Good job FPS for having the top ranks at a competition! We're a pretty talented bunch of kids. It's kind of neat to have two band in one district that are fairly good at what they do. So the weekend was a pretty nice one, and I'm happy that it went so well.

Until next time!

The ones who didn't go to the dance: we're pretty cool.

Photos courtesy of Emily Palmer, Jim Liska, Abby Harmon (her mom), and Emily Hunt (her mom). Video by Jim Liska.

Suicidal Guard and More

So once upon a time there was a color guard at Farmington High School, and they were learning show work in their auditorium. They were going over counts for one particular move, and on count 4, they stayed there so that their instructor could make her corrections. It was at this point in time that one of the girls noticed that this position made the guard look suicidal. And thus became the joke that lasted the rest of the week. When Sara nearly died trying not to get tripped by Emily's bag, they laughed about going to count 4 because they couldn't take the "death" of Sara. And they talked about how exactly to achieve count 4 at the T-shirt decorating party at Kayla's house. The end.

It's not really the end, at least not for this post. This week was really, really annoying, and I can't really pinpoint a reason beyond tiredness, which is absurd because I've been getting eight hours of sleep a night all week. Well, that and my knee hurting constantly might've made me a bit cranky. At least Brad never heard me tell him to shut up (quite loudly) when he was telling us to get back out on the field. *Sigh* It's been a really long week. I think that the most amusing part of it was sitting in Narnia during the band camp meeting. I didn't do anything but make stupid comments to everything and I drank my mocha frappuchino. Delicious!

And band camp is tomorrow! I'm trying to judge how much tanner I will get this week. I figure that I'll need a self-tanning cream and a paintbrush to get rid of my glasses tan and my sports bra tan by homecoming. If I can get it done before school starts, that'll be even better. :) Maybe I should get back to packing for this week-long trip rather than spending time reading fanfiction and writing this post. 

Go Falcons! Let's have a safe trip!

Better Late to Post Than Never :)

     Well, last week is over, and I'm happy that I can finally relax again. It's hard to even find a moment to just stop and breathe, let alone try and make plans with people or not get to wrapped into what's going on at the moment. So it's with a big, happy sigh that I say goodbye to last week and hello to this one.
     I'm not sure that I've ever had to deal with so much 90 degree weather all in one week! There's been so much heat and I've gotten so many blisters from marching and from the sun that it's been hard to just keep myself in a positive mindset: July has the worst mini-camp, and it cools down a bit after this. I even managed to smack myself in the head with my flag, which happens, of course, but I never actually see colors or get dizzy or get bumps on my head when it happens. I just hope that it doesn't hapen again, because I don't think that Emily would like to have an incapacitated guard member on her hands for any period of time. :D
     So the mini-camp is done and the weekend is here after what seems to be a blink of an eye. Time, you are not very nice to me, because I could've sworn up and down that yesterday was my first day of high school, and I was getting nervous for my very first football game. Not fair at all. I always wonder how it moves so fast. Back on track now, the weekend was HOT, and there were so many drinks and snacks to sell at the Bingo Tent for the Founder's Festival. There are never as many people that come through the festival on a Friday as there on a Saturday, so we always get swamped with people wanting food and so much friggin' water. The parade was fun though. :) I think that every time that we play the fight song, I go on auto-pilot and just look at the people around me to see who I know. For anyone who worries about that, I haven't messed up the fight song once since Emily changed some of the work and I tried to incorporate the old work into the new (the end result is getting really confused and wondering "How on Earth did that happen?").
     Honestly, I can say that it was a productive week, and the best "surprise" was having Sammie show up with popsicles for the guard on Tuesday (it already seems like two weeks ago, but it's only been half that time). I'm so glad that it's over though, because I need time to recuperate and go out to buy more sunscreen and band-aids and other supplies that I'll need for the August mini-camp and then band camp. Speaking of which, I'm still trying to figure out what I'm going to say at the campfire. Oh dear.

First Week Back

     So I've decided not to quit marching band, though I know it would save me quite a bit of stress. There are other reasons for my not quitting other than the whole pow-wow that I had with Kayla, Steele and Emily, but this is about marching band, not my inner-most thoughts. Well, not exactly.
     Yesterday was my first day back on the field since MCBA States November 2010. It was almost a bittersweet feeling, knowing how much hell I'd have to go through to get through this season and for the entire group to go through to make it to States again. We're hoping to make it again for the third year in a row, and we have a pretty good chance of not being in the bottom of our class. Flight II is the hardest for a reason, and we're constantly competing against better marchers, better musicians, better dancers/ guards...you get the point.
     I felt the heat from the field seeping up into my shoes and I knew immediately why I always want to quit during summer rehearsals. They're the worst, and for someone who doesn't take kindly to extreme heat or cold, I was covered in sweat and sunscreen, and I always get the worst headaches. Mostly, those just turn into migraines, so when I get home, I'm ready to crawl into the darkest part of my house and not emerge until the sun has gone down. Unfortunately, I was sweating so much that the sunscreen dripped into my eyes, and it stung. But could I break set to go wash out my eyes or even rub them? Not a chance. It's a good thing that I can march forwards and backwards and listen to commands with my eyes closed because I kept squeezing my eyes shut, willing the burning to go away.
     Summer rehearsals are always the worst part of marching band, and they're really tedious. I do understand that the basics and repetition of the basics will make us better, but Brad's rants are far from fun, and getting lectured on every mistake is so very boring. My least favorite part is sliding, and learning how to do it. If I could just skip it, I totally would. The color guard doesn't slide too often because we're facing our spots, or we're dancing side-to-side. It kills my knee when we twist and I actually try to keep that stupid leg straight every time. I know that by now it'll hurt more if I keep it straight, and I still try to get through it. Poor injured knee...and back. My scoliosis doesn't really allow for too much twisting, especially when doing our fancy guard pushups on the right side, which I have to modify now. Apparently, it's gotten worse, and I only just discovered that during pushups today. But my back won't be the only thing hurting tomorrow: my abs will probably be the most sore out of everything. All of my core muscles are used for pretty much everything that I do, and crunches almost killed me today. They'll murder me tomorrow when I try to sit up, but that's nothing that I haven't dealt with before. Actually, the only new thing that I experienced today was what happens when I forget to take my iron meds...oops. That was not fun, but I don't see a need to regale anyone with that experience.
     Poor Leah today! I felt so sorry for her when she was telling me about how upset she was that she had to sit out. I know the feeling, so I can totally sympathize with her. When I sit out, I'm watching my watch (to see how long I've been out so that I can monitor that), or I'm watching the band. When the season picks up and my knee starts to pretty much dictate my every. single. freaking. move. then I air flag on the sideline, or I picture myself doing the flagwork, going through every checkpoint. In my mental pictures, I hit every spot exactly on, and I don't mess up at all. ;) I usually don't mess up the work, but I can't say the same for my drill. It depends on how aware I am in the moment when I'm actually marching it, and it also depends on where other people are around me. I'm close to my sets though, even when I'm dressing the shapes.
     I need to take my shower now, and I feel so gross right now that I might explode if I don't get this done. I'll be here all year, sharing my senior year of marching band with anyone who wants to listen.