March Through The Sun

Today? Uh....BRUTAL.

I woke up and honestly, the fact that I showered really didn't mean much after the parade.

Right away I checked the hour by hour forecast online, and learned that it was extremely humid, and also in the high 70's-mid 80's.

Now in middle school, these temperatures are uncomfortable when you're in uniform, but it's ok to deal with. Middle school uniform is only jeans and the band t-shirt, you see. I honestly got a little annoyed when I heard middle schoolers complaining about the heat and having to wear full length jeans.

I mean REALLY? Did they not see what the high school marching band was wearing? 

I don't have any pics from today yet, but I was able to grab one from the fall when we were lining up for our formal photo so you can see what our uniforms sorta are like. 

^^Seriously only like 2 of six rows of the band. And of course I'm in front. Because I'm short. I'm the fourth one in the right in the front row in fact.

So, as you can see, our uniforms consist of black bib pants, black marching shoes, black gloves, heavy formal jackets, and Aussie hats with plumes, although we went without the plumes today. :'(
Only our faces show, which means during the cold shows in the fall, we're kept nice and toasty. Today, we were too toasty. Way too toasty.

We were in uniform at eight this morning, and did warm-ups and block before going to the beginning of the parade where we just waited around and roasted for a bit before step-off at ten-thirty. I had already begun to overheat and the sun was still hiding behind some clouds!
Of course, right at step-off the sun decided to show its bright shining face and make the temperature spike yet again.
This of course made the whole of the rather long parade route almost unbearable in our stifling uniforms.
Sticky, sweaty, gross, you have NO IDEA how relieved I was at the end of the parade to be able to strip off my jacket, and pull off my gloves and hat. Felt soooo good.
Now I know why they wait to collect and clean the uniforms until AFTER Memorial Day....

Anyway, after the parade I also had my first driver's ed class which was good! It's back to school tomorrow which I'm not that excited about, but I'll deal with it. It's the home stretch after all!

Parade Prep

Ahhh. It's been a long day. Church, baseball game with youth ministry and an end of season YM cookout. Would've gotten pics if my camera had battery....but it didn't.

Since we got home though I've been prepping for the parade tomorrow. I am really looking forward to it because I love marching band and even though compared to competition parades are quite boring, it's still really fun. However, I'm also really NOT looking forward to it because it's supposed to be like 80º tomorrow morning and it will be stifling with our uniforms on.

I'm all ready for tomorrow morning though. I took my uniform bib pants out of the hall closet and made sure they were still properly creased, and I dug out my drill masters and cleaned them up with some vaseline. Now they're really really shiny!

I also had to get my marching trumpet out and make sure that it still worked......I honestly haven't played it since last season because in concert band, jazz band, and pit band I play my pro horn.

(That's my pro horn on top, my marching one is on the bottom....oh how I simply LOVE double cases)

Needless to say...the valves and slides were really sticky and there was gunk coating the inside of the leadpipe and valves. Now my hands are covered with a mixture of valve oil, slide grease, and green trumpet gunk. Eww. What can I say? Life of a trumpet player. (for example, I honestly emptied my spit valve on my foot about five times during my concert on Thursday. It was quite disgusting.)

I also practiced my music, and I have it all memorized, it's a very cool rendition of Sousa's 'Stars & Stripes Forever' and it also has the theme from Superman stuck onto the end of it which is a bit odd but also really awesome. 

Anyway, that's my plan for tomorrow. Parade, marching band barbecue.....and my first driver's ed class! What are you doing to celebrate Memorial Day?

Feels Like Summer

It is a really good feeling when it feels like summer, and there are always these little signs that make me switch my mind from spring into full-blown summer mode. Sometimes this can be a bit of a problem when it starts feeling like summer in March and there's still several months of school left. Not good. 

It feels like summer because I know that school will soon be over. Teachers are talking about finals pretty much every class, my SAT is a week from today, senior graduation is also in a week, we've had our final concert (it went really well!), we've hit our last long weekend, and teachers are starting to tell us we need to start studying for our final. It also makes me really really happy that I shouldn't have to have some of my teachers ever again. Which is good.

It also feels like summer because of what I'm wearing. I'm routinely walking around in flip flops, skinny jeans with the bottoms rolled up and cute summer tops. Light and floaty and summer-y. Awesome.

I think that the biggest indicator for me though, is that heavenly summer smell that drifts through my window. You know....the one that smells like grass and sun and wind and dirt and grills and amazingness? It is probably my most favorite smell. Just beautiful.

What makes you feel like it's summer?

Here Comes The Sun

Jocee at the Cupcake Dictionary is having a blog party! It's perfect because it's called the 'Here Comes The Sun: Blog Party' and then sun has finally been out and shining brightly these past few days around here.

So link up, it's going to be a lot of fun and to participate in some of it I'm going to do her little question/answer thingy.

• What would your dream summer vacation be? Personally I love my summer vacations already because I get to spend them doing some of the things that I love most, being at Pilgrim Lodge, band camp and marching band :)
• After a rainstorm, what you think of when you see the sun peeking out from the clouds? Usually I'm like 'THANK GOODNESS. It's rained far to long, now let's have some SUN!'
• If you were stranded on a desert island with the sun streaming down on you and had ONE palm tree for shade, you can only have three things with you; what would they be? Well, since I'm a logical person, I would have a BIG container filled with drinking water, that could also catch rainfall, I would have a giant beach umbrella that would shade me from the sun and that I could huddle under in the rain, and I would also have a fishing line so I could catch something to eat.
• Vanilla, chocolate, strawberry or neapolitan? Well, considering I'm a terrible decision maker, neapolitan. 
• If you saw your celebrity crush walking down the beach with a surfboard, what would you do? Uh...faint? I don't even HAVE a celebrity crush... 
• If you went back in time for a day, what era would you go back to, and why? Sally no like these questions....Sally like where she live now....
• What's your favorite thing about waking up on a summer morning? NO SCHOOL!!!!! YAY!
• Your soundtrack or theme song(s) for the summer: for the summer? The marching band show! So basically, my soundtrack for this summer will be National Treasure.
• Say you went to California to visit family. What's the first thing you would buy? Well, since it's hot in California, and I'm addicted to ice cream, I would buy ice cream.
• Manicure, pedicure, or facial? Pedicure. Things get scraped off my fingernails too easily.
• What's your favorite color combination? I enjoy a soft green, blue and yellow, or a bright red, black and white.
• If you were at the beach and you wanted to write a message in the sand, what would you write? I do like drawing in the sand but I don't usually write anything, I just draw treble clefs. If I was going to write something I would probably have no inspiration whatsoever and end up writing something lame like 'Sally was here.'
• You're stuck in Paris with $10,000. What do you do? Ahh Paris....I miss it so much. From my experience there, I would probably blow it all on baguette and crêpes and pastries and chocolate......
• What's your most favorite type of summer weather? When it's early evening and the worst of the heat is gone and it's not very humid and there's just a slight breeze and the scent of sweet grass and barbecue flots through the air.
• Blowing bubbles while taking a bubble bath? Uh...YES. That sounds awesome.
• Cupcakes or dictionaries? What kind of a question IS this? CUPCAKES!!!!!!!!

Heehee, that was fun. I guess I'm off now to ready my trumpet and trombone, we've got out spring concert tonight and I think it should go really well!

Darkening Clouds

Methinks that a storm might just be on the way.

It's been muggy and hot all day, and a storm would actually be much appreciated. I enjoy thunderstorms so....yeah.

The clouds outside my window have been growing steadily darker ever since I got home from marching band and I thought that I would snap a few pics of them because they were pretty cool.

These pictures were all taken within a time span of like only five minutes and it's pretty crazy how much different the last ones are from the first ones :)

And they just keep getting darker and more and more keep coming. I can't see the blue sky any more!

It'll be like those great summer days where it's hot and humid all day and you can feel the storm hanging in the air, you can smell it....it's great.

I can feel that storm building, and it seems like weather.com agrees with me:

So ready for the storm :)

Back to Marching

Well....not really.

But this afternoon I was with the rest of the marching band as we practiced for the Memorial Day Parade in a week. We were only inside doing music prep as we won't actually go out and march until parade day, but it was pretty awesome and fun nonetheless.

I honestly love marching band so much.

So much power in the music we play. The intensity. The complex drill movements.

Oh! I get shivers just thinking about it.

Sure, this is just a parade so we only have to march in a block and be able to play Stars and Stripes Forever with a fanfare and be able to snap our horns up and down, but still, it's marching band.

Playing in the band room today just playing with that totally awesome sound that only a marching band can get was just amazing. I lovelovelove it sososo much. 

Of course it helps being the best band in the state....

Anyway, today has made me long for marching band season to come. 

Because marching band is epic.

And we're doing music from the movie National Treasure, which has a great soundtrack.

And I officially signed up to be in the 2011 band today...

....and I was first on the list.....

And there are only 80 more days until it starts!

And I am super excited. Super. Excited.

Can you tell how much I love marching band? I'm so going to have to go to a college that has a good one.

Well, sorry for the hyper, excited post, I'm off to rock the house on trombone at jazz band!

Hello 8-0-0

(And just a note on the above image....I HATE pink. But it finally didn't rain today so I felt springy and needing some pink in my post)

But aside from pink.....HAPPY 800th POST ON TREBLE CLEF!!!!!!!

This is exciting, my 800th post. It's certainly a landmark! 800 posts, two and a third years of action, 164 followers, Treble Clef is booming, and it will only continue to get even better and better.

So, yay me, yay Treble Clef, yay awesome followers.

I'm not going to be doing anything special for this occasion, but there are several things that I'd like to put into this post.

First, I know my posts have been a little less regular than usual. This is just due to a slightly more boring and less exciting life this past week. I dunno how it happened....but relaxing was pretty good. And I went onto Netflix and started watching Glee. I'm now a Glee addict....what can I say? It's hilarious! Anyway, I should be posting more this week because my life gets busier and more exciting again. Tomorrow, my church is having an all-church game of capture the flag, which should be awesome. Monday I've got jazz and it's back to the marching band to to get ready for the parade next Monday, Thursday I have what will be an epic spring concert, and Memorial day weekend is big because of the parade and also I START DRIVER'S ED. Awesomeness. It should be a good week. I'm hoping for minimal homework, as I still need to be reading my one section a day for that SAT of mine.

So I should be posting more :)

More stuff about this blog is....

I have sent an email to my dear friend Olivia, who does all the designing for Treble Clef about a new summer design, *update* She has agreed to my request and will be creating a new look very soon!

 Speaking of summer, I have an important announcement to make.

I am going to be away from home pretty much all but like four days from June 26-July 31 and I don't want to leave the blog inactive, so I'm looking for a multitude of guest posters for that time period. Email me at trebleclefblog@gmail.com if you are interested!

I think that's all, once again, happy 800!

A Depressing Forecast

Well, I don't know about where all of you guys live, but the weather forecast around here is pretty much depressing. 

In other words, it's rained since last Saturday.

On

and

on

and

on.

It refuses to let up.

So today in biology, I had a free moment, so I looked up the most recent forecast, which said that it was going to be raining through Saturday.

And then Sunday and Monday, it's supposed to be quite nice and sunny. High 50ºs, mid 60ºs, going to be some good normal May in Maine weather, which is awesome after all this rain.

Except for the fact that after Monday,

it's

going

to

rain

for 

another

whole

week.

Honestly? This is just sad.

I'm working wicked hard in school right now, studying hard for the SAT, practicing a bunch of audition and performance pieces, and it's not even nice out to distract me and take my mind off of quadratic equations and meiosis/mitosis, and circle theorems and immune system structure and function.....

And I know distraction is usually viewed as a bad thing....but.....I really wouldn't mind some right now.

Studying Hard

I got a present yesterday!

In a way it was welcome, in another it was not.

It was *drumroll*..........

SAT STUDY/REVIEW BOOK AND PRACTICE TESTS.

Blah........

Yep. Only *gasp* 17 measly days left before test day, which means lots of hard studying is in store for me! I've been working my way through this giant study book, and today I worked through the biochemistry chapter, which wasn't too bad. I got most of the practice questions correct, which was good. i'm going to have to work through one or two chapters each day if I want to have the book done by June 4, which is test day.

THAT is a lot of studying.

Plus homework.

Plus trumpet and musical stuff.

Oh well, I can do it. I just want to d really well on this test....and not fail miserably. That would NOT be cool. Not cool at all.

And after the SAT you know what happens?

FINALS.

Yay.

I just looooove tests...... (not)

But speaking of tests and a slightly more fun test, I am starting driver's ed really soon and if all goes well, I'll have my permit before the end of June!

Six Flags

Yesterday was a great day spent with the band. We headed down to West Springfield in the morning and played in the festival at the local high school. We did very well, and got gold!

After playing, we headed over to Six Flags New England to spend several hours at the park.

It was very fun and I got to go on four roller coasters :) 

Here are pictures of them, curtsey of Google Images.

It was totally awesome and epic.

The bus ride home wasn't that great however, I was wet from the log flume, extremely tired, not feeling too great and the bus weirdly just stopped working and stopped at the side of the road not once, but three times. Yay...

All in all though, it was awesome :)

Blogger is Confusing Me.......

So....I wanted to post yesterday, and I couldn't. Because for some reason Blogger was down, and no one could get on, blah, blah, blah....

And then, (this is really weird), I get on Blogger this afternoon, on Treble Clef, and my latest post is 'Google Loves Mr Men' which was posted on Monday.

Which I'm thinking cannot be right because I so wouldn't have not posted since Monday.

Blogger, or something, deleted my most recent post.

My post about upcoming final exams, 'The End Is Near' is nowhere to be found. Not on my dashboard, not on my edit posts, not on my blog, the comments on that post weren't under the comments tab anymore....

Sally is very confuzzled. Very confuzzled indeed.

But aside from that, my Friday the 13th has gone very well, and I wouldn't say it was a bad day at all!

Tomorrow is going to be such a fun day, we're driving down to West Springfield, Massachusetts for a band competition and spending the next seven hours after the performance at Six Flags! Going to be so so great, and I'm excited. Band and amusement parks....it really couldn't get much better :) 

The End Is Near

I would love any proof that the end of school is fast approaching. Talk of Memorial Day parades, and announcements of next year's marching band show (Music from the movie National Treasure, by the way. Going to be AWESOME!), working through our last unit in most classes, counting down the days left....anything but what my math teacher told us to copy down today.

Schedules for final exams. Yay...

Pretty much in my school we have eight classes, or blocks (periods) rather because study hall isn't really a class. Four 85 minute blocks a day. We have red days with four blocks and the white days with the other four classes. 

Our exam schedule is as follows: 3 days (June 14, 15, 16), 3 testing blocks each day, and you don't have to be at school during the blocks that you don't have tests. 

Actually, my schedule really isn't that bad. I only have two tests each day and my free blocks are the second test blocks so a get a break between tests.

Day one is White 3 (French) White 1 (Study hall, no test) White 2 (English)

Day two is Red 3 (World History), Red 2 (Band, but playing at graduation is our final so it's a free block) and White 4 (Math)

Day 3 is Red 4 (Gym; why we need a final for this, I have NO idea....) and Red 1 (Biology) and the last block is for make-up if you missed the test.

Ugh.

Finals....

Google Loves Mr. Men

Anyone else here a Mr. Men fan? (There are also the 'Little Miss' books, but I don't know them as well)

If you aren't...you my friend are missing out on some of the greatest "children's" books. I put children's in quotations because these books are just so cute and funny that you just can't help but love them, even at any age. See, these are the Mr. Men:

Aren't they just adorable? I remember that the first Mr Men book I read was 'Mr. Strong', but Mr Muddle and Mr Clumsy were my favorites. I became hooked. My aunt LOVES Mr. Men books and has pretty much all of them, so when we visit my aunt and uncle, there's not a visit that doesn't pass without the reading of some good 'ole Mr Men books. Now it's fun because I can read them to my little cousins!

Imagine my delight then, when upon finishing my math test this afternoon, I opened my computer to my google and saw....Mr Men, specifically Mr Bump, sitting on my homepage. I thought it was AWESOME. I was even happier when I realized that once you refreshed the page....different ones would show up. So, so epic.

Anyway, I kept scrolling through until I think I saw, and saved all of them, so if you didn't get to see these today...here they are now.

(These are all Google's property, by the way)

(My favorite)