Pain, Tornadoes, And Other (More Cheerful) Points of Interest

Hey everyone! I'm back! (Well, of course I am! I'm writing this post, aren't I?) I missed you guys so much over the past week and there were several moments when I really, really, wanted to post about something- but I didn't have a computer, :( , so I guess I just have to squeeze it all into one big post!

From the title, you may conclude that my week may not have been very good, but on the contrary, (aside from a few things) band camp was excellent! I'll start with the topic of the music.

I'd been working on my audition pieces for the concert band and jazz band since May, so even though I was nervous going into the audition, I was not a complete wreak or anything. Anyway, it went super well, and I ended up getting second chair in concert band and second chair in the top jazz band! (You might remember that it was my goal to get 1st or 2nd chair in both) I was soooo happy. That meant I would be playing the first part (in concert band) and if their were any solos/duets I would have a really good shot at them. There did end up being a duet in our second song in concert band that I got to play with another trumpeter from my school, and it went really well. All the songs were really fun to play in both jazz and concert band and it was awesome playing the top first parts in everything! (Although {and this is the pain part} everything was *super* high and so my face hurt SO bad!)

Now, that's the music summary, and here's a story:

It was Tuesday night and I could not sleep at all. Evidently, camp food was making me rather sick. I finally drifted off around 4am, but I missed all the rehearsals on Wednesday because I was still sick. (sadness) By the evening however, I was feeling reasonably OK, so I was able to accompany the rest of the camp to Funtown. (You probably remember this place from when my 8th grade band went) anyway, we got there at around 5:30 and started having fun! I couldn't eat anything or go on many rides, but I still was having a good time. It was a beautiful day! It was warm and there weren't many clouds; the only thing to make it better would have been if I was feeling better.

I was on the bumper cars with a bunch of other camp kids and the ride was about to start when the camp director whips out his iPhone, checks the Doppler radar and says "There's a tornado warning in {insert name that campus is in}."  (in my state, tornadoes are, like, terrible storms that never come near us.) Anyway, after hearing this news I'm a little edgy, and some of us go off for food. We're eating and drinking out sodas, and talking when the thunder begins. (As a side note- through this whole experience I am furiously texting my parents, because things are starting to get a little freaky...) At first it's just a little rumble here and there, a booming sound in the background. But after about twenty minutes or so, there's a little flash of lightning. Through texts, I've found out that there's a really big storm heading towards us; all red on the Doppler. Counselors are talking urgently on cell phones, while the rumbles and flashes become less random. Finally we all end up under a large tent covering one of the picnic areas. I'm looking out over the parking lot were the clouds are boiling in the sky- black and as ominous as death. I try to breathe deeply and relax but it's impossible with the given climate. There are several tornadoes that have touched down. One went really close to campus, so they had to close it down. And the scariest of all- There are tornadoes coming towards us. Everything is getting so intense and scary, I just want to be at home, or at least back in my dorm room, but we're not even on the buses yet! The mega storm is about to strike when a Funtown employee comes barreling around a conner screaming "CODE BLACK! CODE BLACK! EVACUATE FUNTOWN! THERE ARE TORNADOES; GET YOUR KIDS OUT OF HERE!!!!" It was pretty crazy. We ran like crazy to the buses and as soon as we got in it was upon us. The rain came down so hard it was like we were at the bottom of a lake. The thunder was constantly there, and the lightning continuous. I was so afraid that a tornado was going to come out of nowhere and run us all over. I prayed so hard, and somehow, amazingly, it narrowly missed us, and the storm passed over. We drove back and stayed in safe place until we could go up to our dorm rooms. We didn't have power, but that didn't matter. We were safe.


And that, my friends, was my extremely frightening Wednesday evening. 


Tomorrow I've got a long tag from Izori, Olive Tree, Elrania, and Bella and sometime this coming week I do have a post that I'd like to do on a couple cool reflections I had this past week. have a wonderful evening!