A Kotzschmar Concert

Oh I just LOVE a good concert!

In Portland at the auditorium at City Hall there is the huge and beautiful organ called the Kotzschmar Organ and every Tuesday night in the summer a guest organist comes and plays a concert, and I got to go and see the one last night with my grandmother!

A man by the name of James (Jimmie) Jones was the organist, he was quite young and was VERY good, but the really neat thing was that a woman named Anita Cirba played along on many of the pieces on trumpet.

See the appeal this holds for me now?

Anyway, the concert was INCREDIBLE.

The organist was so so great and was very animated in his playing, which made him fun to watch. It was especially fun to see him glissando the really low pedal notes that are played with the feet. 

This is him:

The trumpet player, Anita, was simply fabulous. She had beautiful tone quality and was just so nice to listen to. She played trumpet, fluglehorn, and piccolo trumpet, and I especially enjoyed listening to her play the fluglehorn. One of the cool things too was that she played a couple of pieces from the balcony instead of the stage which created a very cool effect.

This is her:

They had a great program too. Some Mendelssohn, Holst and Durufle, along with more contemporary composers. I really liked on of the pieces 'Tea and Trumpets' which featured very 'punny' title such as 'Trumpet Mandatory' instead of the usual trumpet voluntary. I knew some of the music too like Hovhaness' 'Prayer of Saint Gregory' and Durufle's theme from his 'Veni Creator'. I was so excited when they started to play the Holst piece though because it turned out to be the ballad from 'Jupiter' from 'The Planets'. 

Of course, our marching band did the planets two years ago and the Jupiter ballad was my favorite part of the whole show.

It was very nice on organ and trumpet too...

All in all it was a fantastic concert and I would love to see them perform again sometime!

It's raining here today, but that's OK. Good for reading books and doing homework and stuff like that :)

Doing Nothing?

Well this is certainly a change...

I've been crazily busy all summer and now I can just, well, relax! 

(Or as close to relaxing as my life can get...lol)

Yesterday we took my brother to camp, Pilgrim Lodge, to a week that I have been to many times that is totally awesome, and that he should really love. That was fun because a lot of my friends who are a year younger than I am go to that week and so I got to see a bunch of them which was nice.

Last night the 25th anniversary concert of Les Mis was on PBS so, naturally, I had to watch it. The whole concert thing was really really cool but I didn't like that they skipped some parts and changed some of the words. It was still very good though and I'm glad I watched it because I needed a nice heavy dose of Les Mis :)

It's a pretty lazy day around here, I washed my trumpet, wrote a letter, memorized the whole opener to our marching band show, read a bit, did some of my APUSH (Advanced Placement United States History) summer homework (YUCK!) and then sat down to write this blog post. Not really sure what to do with the rest of my day, I'm kind of bored already.

While it IS nice to not be crazy busy...it is kinda boring too....

*random pictures*

And On That Note...

Well here we are, June 26, the day that I head off to camp and leave this blog at the mercy of the guest posters.

I'm very excited for camp today, I'm pretty sure that I've been bouncing off the walls for about a week, and today I've been even worse. Maybe it isn't such a great idea to let me drive to camp...I'm so excited, I might just floor the gas pedal which would NOT be so great at all...I'll try not to do that...I'd like to get to camp in one piece.

I also performed a solo in church this morning, a very nice arrangement of a hymn that I have always had a soft spot for, Shine, Jesus, Shine. I was very happy to find that it was in a book of trumpet and piano hymn arrangements that I bought last summer and decided that it would make a good solo piece. By the way, it went very well, thank you for asking.

So now that I am about an hour away from leaving, I suppose I should say goodbye now and go have some lunch...I'll miss you guys but don't worry! You haven't seen the last of Sally. I'll be popping in over the course of the next month whenever I come in reach of a computer to update you on my life and travels, but as you recall, the blog will not be lying inactive in my absence! I've got about twenty-five totally AWESOME guest posters to write and share some stuff about themselves on here and I expect that you show them all your very best behavior while I'm gone, LOL. While they're posting comment moderation will be off as they do not have the power to moderate comments, but word verification WILL be on, just to prevent spamming. OK?

Bye, everybody! Have fun with all the guest posts!

-Sally

Rainy Day Thoughts

It's actually pretty quiet in my house for once.

My brother and dad are off at baseball practice, my mom is in the living room playing some chill music and I'm just sitting here listening to the music, writing this post and watching the rain lightly fall down.

It's pretty nice to have a bit of relaxation.

Yesterday Olivia came over to spend the night. The original plan was to go to the beach today after our sleepover but we went nix-nay on plan A when I saw the weather forecast...and I'm glad we made that decision. Beach + rain = miserable.

So instead we hung out here and we ate enchiladas for dinner and jammed out for quite some time on guitar and vocals (Olivia) and trumpet (me). It was really fun. We also watched a couple of horror movies. Last night we watched  the 1983 film 'The Poltergeist' which was VERY VERY awesome-ly freaky, creepy, and scary, and I highly recommend it to anyone who likes those kind of movies. And also don't be fooled by its rating of 'PG'. It is most certainly more like PG-13 scary.

And my words of wisdom on the motto of this film:

IF YOU'RE GOING TO MOVE A GRAVEYARD, MOVE THE HEADSTONES AND THE BODIES.

This morning we also watched the more recent movie 'The Haunting In Connecticut' which is actually a true story and wicked creepy. It was very scary, but enjoyable. It included some pretty creepy stuff though like post-mortem photography (WHY would anyone want to take pictures of dead people?) and cutting off eyelids for necromancy and stuff. Very well done and a really gripping and suspenseful story, I highly recommend it to you as well.

And again, my words of wisdom to you:

DON'T DO CREEPY STUFF LIKE NECROMANCY AND CUTTING OFF PEOPLES EYELIDS AND SEANCES AND TALKING TO GHOSTS AND CREATING ECTOPLASM AND DON'T LIVE IN A HOUSE WHERE THESE THINGS HAVE HAPPENED AND YOU WILL BE FINE.

Quite simple things to follow actually, when you move graveyards, move the bodies, and don't do creepy stuff. This is what I learned at my sleepover last night.

Since Olivia went home, things have been pretty chill around here, like I said before. I had some practice up at church for a piece that I'm performing on Sunday, and I went to the library to get a bunch of books (obviously...) and I guess when I'm done I'll work on my packing for Pilgrim Lodge, which I am SO SO SO SO excited for and to which I wish I was going tomorrow instead of Sunday, but oh well. At least I don't have to wait until August, which would be torture. 

So yeah. Those are my rainy day thoughts.

Please take my words of wisdom to heart.

You don't want to get caught up in a horror movie.

In the Midst of Summer

Being on summer vacation is a truly excellent feeling.
Yesterday was my last day of finals, and my last day of freshman year. I'm happy to say that I passed all my classes with high honors and am excited for a challenging sophomore year come September!
For now though, I sure am enjoying the summer.
After school was over yesterday, my friend Haley and I hopped on the bus and headed down to the local ice cream shop where we treated our selves to large amounts of chocolate ice cream topped with Reese's and plenty of whipped cream. Needless to say, it was a great start to summer vacation. I spent the rest of yesterday lounging around and playing badminton with my brother and my mom and I went shopping in the evening, which was good because I needed a few more summer clothes.
Got some orange plaid shorts a couple tank tops, and also the lovely outfit I am sporting today, some gray jean shorts and a aqua-green and white striped shirt. Very summery and awesome.

Today I simply relished being able to sleep in until eight, which is so much better than having to wake up at five-thirty every morning to a shrill alarm clock. Best part of summer- no annoying alarm clock.
This morning I went to my brother's final assembly at the middle school at which he received a number of awards, and then came here and finished ready Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows out on my front porch. I figured that I had to read it again before the epic second half of the movie comes out in July :)
I also had a practice up at church for trumpet, and soon I am heading out to my final driving lesson! I'm very excited...I take my permit test of Monday and should have that permit in my hands by 3pm, at which time I can legally drive. Bwahaha.
I'm also going out to dinner with my extended family tonight to celebrate my grandmother's birthday.
All in all, it's been a busy and fun first day and a half of summer vacation!
What have you done so far with YOUR summer?

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?

Jazzing It Up

As you know from yesterday's 4:30am blog post, yesterday was the state jazz festival! And let me tell you it was a super fun day. I got to the school at six and it was very funny because some people were in pajamas, and most were a bit more than half-asleep, and that includes myself. We headed out around six-thirty for our three and a half hour drive up north. Thank goodness it was a coach bus so we were comfortable :) It was probably one of the quietest rides on a band bus that I've ever had, probably because it was so early. I just killed the time by texting Lucy and reading some Harry Potter.
We did stop a little over halfway to get something to eat which made me very happy because by then I was STARVING! Some hashbrowns and and iced tea from Dunkin Donuts were just what I needed :) Finally we pulled in at the high school where the festival was being held. As soon as we pulled into the parking lot though, there were cries and groans of dismay from the whole band as we realized that we'd walked into a complete dead zone for cell phone coverage. This of course made my mother very worried that I wasn't answering her texts and so forth, because they couldn't come through. LOL.
We went up to our homeroom and once we dropped off our stuff, a good sized group of us went around to get a general idea of where things were, a good lay of the land. After that, we decided that if we didn't want our director to get mad at us we might as well go listen to one of the other band's combos so a few of us went to do that which was fun, and the others went to find food. The band was fairly good, but when they were done we had to go back to the homeroom and help our combo get ready. After the combo played we pretty much just chilled. Ate some food, talked a lot in the cafeteria, went to the combo awards, went back to the homeroom, listened to chill music, sung four part harmony to Jason Maraz's "I'm Yours", polished my trumpet until it gleamed so much it was painful to look upon it, until it was time for our warmup. Also, our band director was in a really good mood, making jokes and everything which is a real change from how he usually acts, let me tell you!
Our warmup was KILLER. I played a few notes and they sounded just amazing so I took it really slow and easy and our band just sounded really really great. All my nervousness totally dissipated because every good musician knows that you can only have a good performance if you have a good warmup. Warmups are so so very crucial. We went out to play at 4:30, and it was awesome. I was TOTALLY on fire, which I was super happy about because I played loud, high, and strong, my solo was great, and the whole band was nailing it. It was certainly one of the best times we played our songs, and finally, FINALLY I was playing exactly like the lead trumpet player my band director wanted me to play like. After performing, I was so happy. We had more chill time before the awards so I grabbed more food, and me and a friend had a lot of fun at one of the table in the cafeteria where they had lots of instrument and mouthpieces for students to try out. We had fun playing some sweet trombones and trying out about a million different trumpet mouthpieces. Then came our awards ceremony and our band got SECOND PLACE. We were so amazingly happy. Ahh, what can I say? I was an amazing day; I love hanging with the band, I love being a band geek.

Bitten

A little while ago my dear friend Hannah Marie did a post on her blog called 'Bitten By The Acting Bug' where she talked about how she's found acting to be so awesome for her after doing A Christmas Carol and how she wants to do so much more stuff with theater.

Well, something similar has happened for me.

I haven't been bitten by the acting bug,

but it has to do with theater.

I've been bitten by the pit band bug.

I'd always wanted to be a part of the musical at the high school, and as I got more and more involved with band, pit band seemed like the perfect place for me in the show.

And I was even happier when I learned I was the only freshman who made the band....

Playing lead trumpet. That was big.

And then we started rehearsals...and it was so amazing. Being the only one on my part. Playing this totally awesome music. Putting bits and pieces of it with the cast on Saturday...

And having it sound like the soundtrack.

It's such a big responsibility and it's a TON of work. 

But, like marching band, it's so so so worth all of it.

What can I say? I've been BITTEN.

Typical. Just Typical.

Everything always goes perfectly when before something important...and only gets screwed up when you need it to be perfect. Isn't that just so typical? Things get busted on the day you need them most?

Yeah.

So we have a band concert tonight. My first one of high school. :)

Everything's been pretty good, I know my parts, my trumpet's been in excellent working condition...

Of course that changes today.

I was sitting in band. I had done my extensive warmup, mouthpiece buzzes, lone tones, lip slurs, scales, chromatics, finished off by some tuning and I was feeling pretty good. Good chop day, nice clean sound, just what you want for concert day.

And then. things went funky. First, my sound went from bright, loud and clear, to airy, soft and scratchy. Which was odd because a couple minutes previously everything was fine.

Then I went to play a high B flat and ended up landing an octave below, though my face was set for the high note. I knew it wasn't fatigue because I'd just started playing, so I took a look at my horn.

Valves all the way in, facing the right direction. No block in the leadpipe. Slides functioning well. All the usual culprits were working fine. It was very odd.

And then I saw it. The tiniest of things, that yet made me not be able to play. Both spit valve pads were missing, letting air escape through other openings, and forcing my sound to be pretty darn awful.

How annoying. Of course, my band director didn't have any that he could put on, not even the normal cork ones (I have the better functioning less wearing out neoprene ones).

Thankfully my mom was able to rush it up to the music store to have it repaired before our concert later.

That was way too much trumpet drama than I really needed today....

Les Mis Love

"At the end of the day you're another day colder, and the shirt on you back doesn't keep out the chill. And the righteous hurry past, they don't hear the little ones crying, and the winter is coming on fast, ready to kill.

One day nearer to dying."

Les Misérables. Translated roughly to mean "The Miserable People". It's a book, a Broadway production and a movie. Here's the synopsis:

"Les Misérables (literally "The Miserable Ones"; usually pronounced /leɪ ˌmɪzəˈrɑːbl/; French pronunciation: [le mizeʁabl(ə)]), translated variously from the French as The Miserable Ones, The Wretched, The Poor Ones, The Wretched Poor, or The Victims) , is an 1862 French novel by author Victor Hugo and is widely considered one of the greatest novels of the 19th century. It follows the lives and interactions of several French characters over a seventeen-year period in the early 19th century, starting in 1815 and culminating in the 1832 June Rebellion.^[1]

The novel focuses on the struggles of ex-convict Jean Valjean and his experience of redemption. It examines the nature of law and grace, and expounds upon the history of France, architecture of Paris, politics, moral philosophy, antimonarchism, justice, religion, and the types and nature of romantic and familial love. The story is historical fiction because it contains factual and historic events.

Les Misérables is known to many through its numerous stage and screen adaptations, most notably the stage musical of the same name, sometimes abbreviated "Les Mis" (pronounced /leɪ ˈmɪz/)."

source:wikipedia

"I dreamed a dream in time gone by, when hopes were high and life worth living. I dreamed that love would never die, I dreamed that God would be forgiving. Then I was young and unafraid, and dreams were made and used and wasted. There was no ransom to be paid, no song unsung, no wine untasted."

Pretty miserable huh? But it's a great story and I know a one other blogger, Laurea, who particularly loves it. We sang a medley of Les Mis  songs in the chorus at band camp too, many of which are quoted here. The best part of Les Mis is DEFINITELY the music.

"I know a place where no one's lost. I know a place where no one cries. Crying at all is not allowed. Not in my castle on a cloud."

But WHY am I going on and on about the awesomeness of Les Mis? Well, every year, my high school puts on a simply amazing musical in February. Really. It's incredible EVERY SINGLE YEAR. And this year's show? I bet you can't guess...that's right. Les Mis! :)

"Will you join in our crusade, who will be strong and stand with me? Beyond the barricade, is there a world you long to see? Then join in the fight that will give you the right to be free!"  

No, I'm not acting. But I am.....IN THE PIT BAND!!!!! I found out I made it playing trumpet today which makes me very happy. Our first practice is on Friday and we'll get music and stuff and start rehearsing. Pit requires a lot of perfect timing so I'll have to make sure never to zone out. ;)

"God on high, hear my prayer. In my need, you have always been there. You can take, you can give, let him be, let him live. 

If I die, let me die.

Let him live, bring him home.

Bring him home"

Finally, I've whipped up a short playlist of my five favorite Les Mis songs that are also quoted here for you to listen to. In order of appearance in this post: At the End of the Day

I Dreamed A Dream

Castle On A Cloud

Do You Hear the People Sing?

Bring Him Home

Chill

Brrr! I cannot believe that when marching band started I was complaining of the 102º weather! Well, I can....because 102º is rather hot....but that's not the point. The point is, those last few weeks of marching band are more than a little chilly.

And it doesn't help that we practice at night. When it's colder. Really, it's quite funny watching all of us do our little penguin waddles across the field because we have so many layers on! 

My protocol? As many layers as will fit on my body. Often, it's a lot like what I'd wear skiing!

It goes somewhat like this:

UnderArmour shirt

Regular t-shirt

Riot sweatshirt

Marching band jacket

Long john bottoms

Gap sweatpants

Thick socks

Plaid converse

The thickest gloves I can wear and still be able to play trumpet in

A nice warm hat

And of course, drill book and trumpet, complete with plastic mouthpiece.

You've got all that and you turn into a regular trumpet-playing penguin. Like I said, quite funny really. 

And the best part? Our two minute breaks every hour when we can grab some hot chocolate (Thanks music boosters!) and warm up a little.

I just have one quandary with all of this. How are we going to accomplish the choreographed visual for the ballad which requires ease of movement if we're all fat 'ole penguins?

marching band and everything else that's been going on the past few days

Whew! I'm tired after just typing the title! I haven't posted since when? Monday afternoon? That's just sad :( So this is a post to catch up on the goings-on in my life.

MONDAY EVENING

Was our first marching band rehearsal! It was rather chilly and a bit misty, but we worked on out new music and were able to practice our new music and set a few drill spots which was good and fun. I had forgotten though how much it hurts your feet to march backwards!

TUESDAY AFTERNOON/EVENING

Guess what? Marching band! It was still cold, but at least it wasn't raining! After marching band got over at nine, I drove up to Olive Tree's for a sleepover with her and Elrania and our friend Serena. We watched Monty Python and the Quest for the Holy Grail (lolz) and had a lot of laughing fits. (Especially when I was coming back from the bathroom, stepped on a corner of one of the air mattresses, tripped, and flew through the air landing on top of Olive Tree and Serena. Oops.)

WEDNESDAY MORNING/AFTERNOON

In the morning we filmed our last Lord of the Rings spoof. We had so much fun! The funniest part was the scene where Frodo, Sam and Gollum are at Mt. Doom and Frodo (me) had to push Gollum (Elrania) off Mt Doom (a hill) to kill him. So Elrania and I were stage fighting and I made the move to push her down the hill and she rolls head over heels and totally cracks up. We just had to put that in slow motion in the movie. After I left Olive Tree's I had to go straight to my trumpet lesson and then we went to see my little cousins for about an hour and a half. By the way, it was raining quite a lot the whole time.

WEDNESDAY LATE AFTERNOON/EVENING

At 3:30 I headed off to the third day of boot camp. (marching band) It was raining so we stayed inside and did music practice until eight. By that time they said that it had stopped raining and misting, (It hadn't) and so we would go down and do some drill practice at the parking lot for about 50 minutes. It was pouring, I didn't have my raincoat, and I couldn't see anything because my glasses were covered with water. My section says I need windshield wipers for them. It was a long 50 minutes. One of the worst parts though was that all of these little frogs had come out to play in the lake that was the parking lot (Seriously. At some times I was ankle deep in water.) Unfortunately they were very small, they hid under the water and we weren't allowed to look down to watch where we were stepping, so there was a great amount of frog carnage by the end. Poor little frogs....

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!

Band Camp- One Week Of Heaven

With the posts these next few days centered around the end of the contest and winners, I realized that I probably wouldn't be able to do a post about band camp before I left! So, well, this is it. Band camp starts on Sunday and this also means that I'll be saying goodbye to you all for another week. (*sob*) Other than that, band camp is like one week of heaven- for the most obsessive band geeks. Why is it heaven? Just look at the daily schedule for Monday-Friday!

                        7:00-7:40                       Breakfast

                        7:50-8:00                       SMJMA meeting (band room)

                        8:00-9:20                       Concert Band

                        9:30-10:25                     Sectionals 

                        10:40-11:40                   Jazz Bands/Small Ensembles

                        11:40-12:30                   Lunch break 

                        12:30-1:15                     Non-musical activity (A-H) 

                        12:30-1:25                     Chorus (I-Z)  

                        1:35-2:20                       Non-musical activity (I-Z)

                        1:35-2:30                       Chorus (A-H) 

                        2:40-3:55                       Concert Band 

                        4:00-5:00                       Jazz Fundamentals/Small Ensembles

                        5:00-5:50                       Dinner Break

                        6:00-6:50                       Jazz Band winds/percussion small ensemble

                                                            Choral ensembles/other special ensembles

                        7:15-8:30                       Evening concert or activity

            IN DORM IMMEDIATELY FOLLOWING EVENING ACTIVITY

            9:00                              On the floor

                        9:15                              In the room

                        9:30                              Lights out!

Just awesome. On Sunday of course, we do less since check-in is between 12 and 2 and we have to do auditions and get music and all that jazz but still. The above schedule for 5 whole days??? Awesome. I've been working on my audition pieces for soooo long and they sound really good; I want to make first trumpet in bother concert and jazz band so that's why I've been working so hard :) Anyway, that's where I'll be next week.

Remember- CONTEST ENDS TOMORROW @ MIDNIGHT!

Summer Fun With Olive Tree [and a tag]

It's been a fun couple o' days! Yesterday, Olive Tree came over and we took a walk and took pics, went down to XanFan's baseball game and took pics, and came home and watched Avatar! It was my first time watching it and it was sooooo good! But sad :( Anyway, this morning/afternoon my mom took the two of us to the beach! The water was cold, the sand was hot, the waves were big and we had a great time. She's going to be posting about our little adventures on Wednesday- so be sure to check out (of) Horsefeathers for pics! Right now though, I'm practicing my trumpet  no, that's not true. I'm writing a post) but AFTER I will practice my trumpet some more (I already did some) and work on packing packing packing for Pilgrim Lodge! In the meantime, here's a tag from Elrania:

What time did you get up this morning?
7:10

What time is considered getting up early for you?
During the school year I get up at 5:30 every day so I'd probably say 5.
What time is considered sleeping in for you?
Anytime past 8. It may seem crazy but, whatever :)

Cheese or Pepperoni pizza?
Cheese. I'm a vegetarian, remember?

What did you have for dinner last night?
A yummy pasta dish with cheese, tomatoes, and spinach!

What is your favorite dessert?
You really wanna make me decide??? That's just mean cruel.
How many movies have you seen in 3-D? Name them
Zip. Nada. Zilch. ZERO.

Who is your current favorite movie character?
Ummm.....uhhh....gosh. I really don't know!
If you have an iPod, how many songs are on it?
I have an iPod but I haven't gotten around to putting many songs on it. I mostly just have some Owl City and trumpet stuff.
What do you need to shop for?
Nice summer-y clothes.
Name one goal you have on blogger:
I'd like to get 100 followers (which by the way is only 3 more!)

Baseball, Trumpets, Converse (no Chevrolet)

(Don't get the title? Chevrolet has a jingle that goes "Baseball, hot dogs, apple pie, and Chevrolet". I'm just taking it from there)

Yesterday, Ripplestar and I went to a Sea Dogs game- the Sea Dogs being the minor league baseball team nearby.

We had a lot of fun- although we lost. Very very badly.

Of course, the team mascot, Slugger the Sea Dog, was there. Ripplestar wanted to go squeeze his nose- but she didn't get the chance.

Between innings there are usually different promotions and contests and Ripplestar and I got picked to do one!!! It was called 'name that tune' and we won it! :) We won a bunch of CD's. 

We were kind of bored during one inning where the other team was scoring a bunch of runs so....I took random pictures. Like this one:

Mine are on the left, by the way :)

It was fun.

Before the game I had my trumpet lesson (surprise surprise) and it went very well!!! We are working on some pieces for my placement audition at band camp. For my concert band tryout I have a lovely nocturne and for my jazz, a hip swing piece by Miles Davis. 

Summer is so awesome...

Craziest Week Ever- Tuesday (Afternoon)

My, how the days pass by quickly! Yesterday went all according to plan, (YAY! screams the dominant perfectionist side of me) and my trumpet is looking especially nice and pretty after its wash :) Today was good too with the 5th grade step-up day and stuff. I was glad to have a chance to practice my conducting in front of an audience before the real concert. It went fine. Today was also my LAST jazz practice and my LAST full band rehearsal. Double sadness.*cries like a baby* (jk on the last part- but it was kinda sad) We're sounding really good and I'm so crazy excited for the concert :) So yep. Week's going by fast-- but at least it's fun!

Craziest Week Ever- Monday (Morning)

So this week's posting is going to be a little different. The titles will pretty much look like this one and I'm hoping to have two posts a day (one in the morning and one in the afternoon) and if I follow through on that.....it means that sometime this week I will be hitting my 600th post! Wow! And furthermore, have any of you checked out that followers gadget lately? Treble Clef now has 89 followers! That's so awesome.

So my crazy week starts today. Yesterday I planned by outlining the whole week's activities and sticking it to the fridge, figuring out what I'll wear every day so I don't waste time doing that in the morning, etc. And today's the day it all starts!

My handy-dandy schedule says a few things are happening today. XanFan has a baseball game and my mom and I have to run the concessions stand, I have a doctor's appointment after school and I need to wash my trumpet. I also have to turn in my laptop :'( and clarinet today, and it's our next to last sectional and out final chorus rehearsal.

Finally, I've already heard most of your opinions through the Cbox and previous comments, but how do you like the makeover? Olive Tree did a great job! The only problem seems to be that I don't have a 'fonts and colors' tab any more so I can't change that purplely color to a nice orange. :P Also, as you can see, I have a button now and I'd love it if you put it on your blog!

My life is CRAZY!!!

Insane. Crazy. Whatever you wanna call it- that's my life. This will be a kinda random post about what's happened since my last post.

The first two days of spirit week have gone well! Tomorrow is 'grade color day' and the eighth graders have to wear gray and purple. Blah.....boring colors.

So this morning when I woke up (at 5:30 as usual) I rolled out of bed when I wasn't really awake yet- and I slammed my head on my doorframe. Just lovely. And painful.

Science class is driving me INSANE. He treats us like we're 3rd graders. I mean, honestly! We're in 8th grade, we shouldn't be watching Bill Bye movies all the time!

In math class our final big grade is our toothpick bridge project. My friend Liam and I are a team and we began building our supports today. We've got a really strong design :)

Band sounded really good today especially our LoTR medley. And I got a solo in chorus! I'm so excited for the concert- it's in exactly ONE WEEK!!!!!!

On a relative topic, after band I had to figure out some logistics of the song I'm conducting (solos, background parts, cuing, etc.) with Mrs Barry and I think I've got it down now; which is good. Conducting at a concert is gonna be fuuuuuuunnnnn.

And I filmed for my French skit today, and I went to a trumpet lesson, and I did some homework and now I'm eating dinner. Good night to you all. 

For the love of Friday's

BEST DAY OF THE WEEK. Just saying. In the grand scheme of things today was pretty fun. Before homeroom, me and Bella and Elránia were walking around and the 7th graders who are going to Peak's with us were practicing so we stood outside and were just being ridiculous by marching/dancing to their music. Was fun :) After I got home (i.e. just now) I took some data...on how much everything I carry into school on Monday/out of school on Friday weighs. Here are the results:

Laptop- 7lbs

Backpack- 8lbs

Pro Trumpet- 13lbs

Marching Trumpet- 12lbs

Cornet- 9lbs

Trombone- 7lbs

Clarinet- 4lbs

Total- 60lbs

Crazy, right?