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.
