championships...this could get long
so this weekend was championships for guard! wow. it was fun, in so many ways. i'll go in chronological order.
ok, so i drive down on friday night because oakton was staying at a hotel, and they had gotten me a room too! it was awesome. except i got there like an hour and a half before oakton did. but that was ok. and then we went out to dinner (at burger king, nothing special) where we had approximately half an hour to eat, because we had practice space at colonial heights that night at 8. so then we practiced, and it was good. innovations watched a run through because they were also practicing there (it's a big gym) and that was nice, they clapped a lot. so then it was back to the hotel for bed time, and i had a king sized bed! i slept sideways in it, how nice. then the next morning, we had practice space at midlothian at 8 am. so we went to that, and midlothian did a run through for us (it was really good) and we did a run through for them. it was nice.
and then we arrived at powhatan. wow, it was big, and crowded, and they don't give you runners at championships, so we had to make sure we knew our way around the school. oakton performed at noon, and i thought it was a pretty good run through. unfortunately, they got 13th place out of 14, and they would have gotten 14th if there wasn't a timing penalty. but, overall, they had an awesome season considering how we began. i'm so proud.
then it was enigma's turn. they were aiming for fifth place. i wasn't too pleased to hear that, because i know it takes a lot of time, championships, but you don't go out on the floor trying to do moderately well. but i tried to get them pumped up, and they went out there and they did really well. in fact, we made it to finals. i won't go into how william and mary felt about that, as there were some not so nice things said by them. so yeah, they performed at finals. more about that in a minute.
so that night, it was all about hanging out with oakton, and it was so much fun. we had an hour or so at the hotel before dinner, so i hung out with the girls and taught them the cup game! i think they liked it. and jess read stories from mad libs. mostly, it was just a time for us to hang out and have fun, which we did. so then we went to dinner, and on the way there i got a really funny picture of bill. hilarious. it'll be up on the oakton webpage soon. and then we were at the restaurant for like 2 hours, just laughing, and having so much fun. the girls got the waiters to sing happy birthday and bring a cake out to bill. it was not his birthday. they also brouht a cake out for katie, whose birthday is today. it was fun. at the end of the day i had a huge headache, and i'm pretty sure it was caused by smiling so much all day.
back at the hotel, the older girls and i listened to the judges tapes. not much to say about that. but then we went to bill's room and we listened to the cd i made of possible guard songs for next year. we then talked for an hour or so about this one song that we have decided on (from the cd) and stuff. bill and i also talked about guard for about 2 and a half hours today, which was mostly an extension of saturday's conversation, except no girls from the team there. i love oakton.
so sunday, enigma arrives and they perform, but they had a worse performance than on saturday. immediately after performing, half of them left. i know they had good reasons for it, but it was still disappointing. the rest of us hung out for something like 6+ hours waiting for awards. our score went down five points and we stayed in fourth place. but it was still cool that we made it to finals. uva, however, after they got their bronze medal, talked about them in front of enigma's face, and then attempted to talk about enigma behind enigma's back, except they were right htere, and kept flashing their medals...it wasn't very nice. but that doesn't matter.
and that was championships. and now i'm so excited about next year! i think i might find out what the music for fall is in a week or so, i can't wait! and of course, bill and i will continue to talk obsessively about next winter. we have very grand designs, oh yes.
i love working with enigma, but i totally slacked with them this season. i was totally willing to put my all into it, but after the first couple of months it became apparent that not even half of the guard was really enthusiastic about it. there were attendance issues, and serious problems with being on time, and lots of complaining, so i slacked. i'm not proud of it, but i wasn't about to devote all my time to enigma if i wasn't gonna get anything back from them (in terms of enthusiasm, not stuff) i think we could have done better had the commitment level been higher, but i still am really proud of them. they really did do really well, and did accomplish a lot. very happy with accomplisments, but somewhat disappointed because they could have done even more. oh well. they're on the right path. they'll do even better next year without me around to mess things up and be so confusing.
i'm really looking forward to being really involved with oakton. i enjoyed working with both guards this year, but it'll be a relief to just work with one.
ok, so that's my life for the past like three months. now i'll never have anything to talk about ever again, because guard appears to be my life again. heheh, i'm such a loser. :)
ok, so i drive down on friday night because oakton was staying at a hotel, and they had gotten me a room too! it was awesome. except i got there like an hour and a half before oakton did. but that was ok. and then we went out to dinner (at burger king, nothing special) where we had approximately half an hour to eat, because we had practice space at colonial heights that night at 8. so then we practiced, and it was good. innovations watched a run through because they were also practicing there (it's a big gym) and that was nice, they clapped a lot. so then it was back to the hotel for bed time, and i had a king sized bed! i slept sideways in it, how nice. then the next morning, we had practice space at midlothian at 8 am. so we went to that, and midlothian did a run through for us (it was really good) and we did a run through for them. it was nice.
and then we arrived at powhatan. wow, it was big, and crowded, and they don't give you runners at championships, so we had to make sure we knew our way around the school. oakton performed at noon, and i thought it was a pretty good run through. unfortunately, they got 13th place out of 14, and they would have gotten 14th if there wasn't a timing penalty. but, overall, they had an awesome season considering how we began. i'm so proud.
then it was enigma's turn. they were aiming for fifth place. i wasn't too pleased to hear that, because i know it takes a lot of time, championships, but you don't go out on the floor trying to do moderately well. but i tried to get them pumped up, and they went out there and they did really well. in fact, we made it to finals. i won't go into how william and mary felt about that, as there were some not so nice things said by them. so yeah, they performed at finals. more about that in a minute.
so that night, it was all about hanging out with oakton, and it was so much fun. we had an hour or so at the hotel before dinner, so i hung out with the girls and taught them the cup game! i think they liked it. and jess read stories from mad libs. mostly, it was just a time for us to hang out and have fun, which we did. so then we went to dinner, and on the way there i got a really funny picture of bill. hilarious. it'll be up on the oakton webpage soon. and then we were at the restaurant for like 2 hours, just laughing, and having so much fun. the girls got the waiters to sing happy birthday and bring a cake out to bill. it was not his birthday. they also brouht a cake out for katie, whose birthday is today. it was fun. at the end of the day i had a huge headache, and i'm pretty sure it was caused by smiling so much all day.
back at the hotel, the older girls and i listened to the judges tapes. not much to say about that. but then we went to bill's room and we listened to the cd i made of possible guard songs for next year. we then talked for an hour or so about this one song that we have decided on (from the cd) and stuff. bill and i also talked about guard for about 2 and a half hours today, which was mostly an extension of saturday's conversation, except no girls from the team there. i love oakton.
so sunday, enigma arrives and they perform, but they had a worse performance than on saturday. immediately after performing, half of them left. i know they had good reasons for it, but it was still disappointing. the rest of us hung out for something like 6+ hours waiting for awards. our score went down five points and we stayed in fourth place. but it was still cool that we made it to finals. uva, however, after they got their bronze medal, talked about them in front of enigma's face, and then attempted to talk about enigma behind enigma's back, except they were right htere, and kept flashing their medals...it wasn't very nice. but that doesn't matter.
and that was championships. and now i'm so excited about next year! i think i might find out what the music for fall is in a week or so, i can't wait! and of course, bill and i will continue to talk obsessively about next winter. we have very grand designs, oh yes.
i love working with enigma, but i totally slacked with them this season. i was totally willing to put my all into it, but after the first couple of months it became apparent that not even half of the guard was really enthusiastic about it. there were attendance issues, and serious problems with being on time, and lots of complaining, so i slacked. i'm not proud of it, but i wasn't about to devote all my time to enigma if i wasn't gonna get anything back from them (in terms of enthusiasm, not stuff) i think we could have done better had the commitment level been higher, but i still am really proud of them. they really did do really well, and did accomplish a lot. very happy with accomplisments, but somewhat disappointed because they could have done even more. oh well. they're on the right path. they'll do even better next year without me around to mess things up and be so confusing.
i'm really looking forward to being really involved with oakton. i enjoyed working with both guards this year, but it'll be a relief to just work with one.
ok, so that's my life for the past like three months. now i'll never have anything to talk about ever again, because guard appears to be my life again. heheh, i'm such a loser. :)