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?