Never would have thought..
Before you read, I must warn you that this entry is verrry long, detailed, and all about the same subject. So if you have some time, go ahead lol.
Thursday night's game turned out to be quite interesting. It was pouring all day up until the beginning of the game, then it sprinkled, and by halftime it stopped for the most part... but when it was pouring, Stephanie and I were like freaking out about tossing a quad on rifle and not being able to catch it because of wind/slipperiness/whatever lol. So we went out there just before Ohana and practiced our duet for Part Five (that was just assigned to us the day before). Idk how long we were out there, but we got soaked lol and I slipped and ended up in the puddle *just from my feet to just below the middle of my calves lol* -fricken deep puddle. It seemed like everything was going wrong, but at the same time it was awesome, if that makes sense. We marched to the field in the sprinkles (I think) and when we got there, seniors (ugh) had to go to the North Gym, where they did Senior night. This was the part I was honestly dreading. We get there, drenched lol, and watch the 'football players' and their parents walk, then it was time for us. We all walk through the little balloon-arch thingy lol which was really weird... i was honestly shocked at how loud the cheering was when Mr. Sapakie said my name. Idk if it was the same loudness for everone, but i just didnt expect it to be that loud, especially for me. It actually made me jump haha. But it also made me look around and think, That's my family and I have to leave. We walked back to the field and I started crying (GRR lol i realllly don't like crying) and went to the stands to cheer for our Unedfeated football team. Beautiful. Michael took guard down to warm up and such... and Stephanie and I practiced our duet. We performed a lot better than how I thought we would, considering it was muddy and wet, and we weren't in uniforms and instead were in sweatshirts and black pants haha, our band was black instead of blue. Man. I'm really going to miss this. I caught my toss, barely, but it werked. We won, again. Wahoo! Yay football team! But yeah.
Friday night was the "harvest Festival" which turned out to be better and worse than I thought it would be. It was quite amusing lol.
Saturday... I woke up indifferent, convinced that we wouldn't do very well at Marcos de Niza. The past two days the guard instructors weren't there to help clean up our work that we JUST learned, no joke. They were sick with food poisoning from Wendy's.... hmph. We had rehearsal from 11-12:30am then rushed back to the bandroom to do our hair, make up and change into our uniforms. Chaos, I tell you. Pure chaos. There were tears and yelling and oh wow. I was running around trying to fix everything lol. We make it- getting ready in 40 minutes or so, and finally board the busses. On the way over, I kept to myself and was totally lost in a multitude of thoughts. I tried my best to sort them out, with only some luck. We get there, and start warming up and such. Such the weird day. We finally line up with all of our equipment. As always, we march over there with difficulty; carrying boxes, sabres, rifles, panels, and about 5-6 different flags. Beautiful! It's kind of funny marching with all of it though lol! We wait in the alley, and guard does the whole circle-pixy stick-"we're-proud-of-you" thing, and this time Ms. K joins us. I can never down the whole pixy stick (hmm sounds weird when it is singular) lol I always burst out laughing =/. Then we fall back into parade rest, or we are supposed to and only some of us follow. ahem. haha :-D and then proceed to the edge of the field. I look up into the stands and see nearly no space left. I thought to myself, wow. This is my favorite part of Marching Band. The crowd cheers and all you can do smile. Perfect. I love that feeling. Just that moment in time makes EVERYTHING seem worth it. No matter what difficulties you have had to deal with, It's all Perfect now. I shake my head in disbelief thinking that this is my last year, as we march onto the field. The crowd cheers. I smile bigger- I can't help it. We set our rebellious equipment and watch as the rest of the band joins us. omg. There was no accordian effect. I flipped out. That was beautiful, and I have been waiting for that for a long time now. I love you guys. lol I say to Stephanie and Dani, "There's my band, look how hot they are" hahaha. They agreed. We take our spots among the blue, and I hear the announcer say, "Drum Majors Antonio Bracamonte and Andrew Hrynyshyn, is your band ready". We fall into motionless silence. "Chandler High, you may take the field in your performance". I think to myself, Here we go, yet again. At the end of Part One, I couldn't catch my panel due to unseen forces (wind) haha. That's funny. Everything went alright from there until Part Five, minus sabres forgetting the counts to Part 3.... hmph. Needless to say, we were all off from each other. I tried counting outloud, but soon stopped in fear of someone, other than my family, hearing me. I think I dropped my sabre after tossing the triple? I actually don't remember. The beginning of Part Five.... Stephanie and I started our duet almost 2 counts after we were supposed to and that threw me off, just trying to catch up. We toss, she catches and I guess I tossed my rifle weird in that it ended up like 3 feet in front of me lol... I kind ran (in a jazzy way hahaha) to catch it without making it obvious, and still missed it. It falls to the ground. I pick it up and realize I'm late starting the next phrase. I frantically try to catch up while going back to my spot. So much for not being obvious. That song is always so frantic. After rifle, we grab our flags, and BOOK it backfield. I BARELY make it to my spot before we start moving again and being the work. I did catch my flag at the very end. The crowd erupts. Still, I wasn't happy with it lol. I was convinced that we wouldn't make the top 8, although everyone said we would. We march off field, and to the courtyard which I realized was the place we went to for a competition in Symphonic Band last year... though I don't remember which one. I do remember that they were disecting dead cats at the time, which made me sick to my stomach and sad. =/ ANYWAYS, we have a group peptalk also with Mrs. Ewan, set our instruments down in a orderly fashion, and proceed back to the field to watch the awards. We ended up receiving a Superior.... which means automatically making the top 8... I was like wow, thats cool haha. We did accomplish our goal for that day, despite what I thought lol. We go back to the courtyard, pick up our instruments, and then go to the bus area. We eat, and then warm up again! Sabres worked on their part and COUNTS haha, then I attempted a few tosses on rifle.... and after not catching any of them, I flip out. lol =/. So weird. I don't know what was wrong with me, why I couldn't catch... I take a few moments to breathe, and try it again, this time more relaxed. I catch it 5 times in a row. hm. We proceed back to the field, and wait for the band before us to march off-field. All I could think about was catching my rifle, throughout the whole show. I did catch my sabre like perfectly, as well as my panel... but the duet... it was in my hands... right there, and it slipped out and dropped. I was sooo pissed off lol. I frantically try to catch up AGAIN, this time tears coming to my eyes. We finish the show, crowd erupts even LOUDER, and I'm thinking whaatt.. we march off-field. I realized I was crying when Melissa, Scott, and many guard people came up to me asking me what was wrong. They tell me we did fricken awesome. I should have paid more attention. I regret that. We go into the stands, and watch 4 other bands, including the band that was performing at the Fiesta Bowl Parade this year on December 30th. Finally the time for awards came for the top 8 bands at that festival. They announcer states that the winner representing Arizona at the Fiesta Bowl On Deceber 30th, 2005 would be awarded $2000. I thought wow, I hope Highland has fun with it. The speaker announces, "And finally, the band that will represent Arizona in the Fiesta Bowl is..." silence. me thinking: Highland. Highland. Come on, just say it, my God so we can go home lol. "Chandler." OMG. I jumped... there had to be another Chandler High there that wasn't us, or they are messing with us... They had to say, "Just kidding!! Highland High School!" I waited for it, but it didn't happen. The crowd went wild... and Chandler went out of control. I couldn't breathe, was sobbing, and shaking uncontrollably. It didn't make sense. I watched Ms. K and Mr. Lewis walk across the field to accept the CHECK. We did that well?? Seniors went out onto the track and took a picture with Ms. K, Mr. Lewis, some staff members I think, and the check. I couldn't stop crying until we were on our way back home. I don't know why I reacted that way. It was weird, but even now when I think about it tears come to my eyes. We finally made it. Thinking back to my freshman year, we have grown sooo much. We've improved in every way, and we're finally the band that I looked up to as a freshman/sophomore. I don't believe it. I woke up this morning convinced it was all a dream. I don't know what else to say, except I love you guys. You have no idea.
Thursday night's game turned out to be quite interesting. It was pouring all day up until the beginning of the game, then it sprinkled, and by halftime it stopped for the most part... but when it was pouring, Stephanie and I were like freaking out about tossing a quad on rifle and not being able to catch it because of wind/slipperiness/whatever lol. So we went out there just before Ohana and practiced our duet for Part Five (that was just assigned to us the day before). Idk how long we were out there, but we got soaked lol and I slipped and ended up in the puddle *just from my feet to just below the middle of my calves lol* -fricken deep puddle. It seemed like everything was going wrong, but at the same time it was awesome, if that makes sense. We marched to the field in the sprinkles (I think) and when we got there, seniors (ugh) had to go to the North Gym, where they did Senior night. This was the part I was honestly dreading. We get there, drenched lol, and watch the 'football players' and their parents walk, then it was time for us. We all walk through the little balloon-arch thingy lol which was really weird... i was honestly shocked at how loud the cheering was when Mr. Sapakie said my name. Idk if it was the same loudness for everone, but i just didnt expect it to be that loud, especially for me. It actually made me jump haha. But it also made me look around and think, That's my family and I have to leave. We walked back to the field and I started crying (GRR lol i realllly don't like crying) and went to the stands to cheer for our Unedfeated football team. Beautiful. Michael took guard down to warm up and such... and Stephanie and I practiced our duet. We performed a lot better than how I thought we would, considering it was muddy and wet, and we weren't in uniforms and instead were in sweatshirts and black pants haha, our band was black instead of blue. Man. I'm really going to miss this. I caught my toss, barely, but it werked. We won, again. Wahoo! Yay football team! But yeah.
Friday night was the "harvest Festival" which turned out to be better and worse than I thought it would be. It was quite amusing lol.
Saturday... I woke up indifferent, convinced that we wouldn't do very well at Marcos de Niza. The past two days the guard instructors weren't there to help clean up our work that we JUST learned, no joke. They were sick with food poisoning from Wendy's.... hmph. We had rehearsal from 11-12:30am then rushed back to the bandroom to do our hair, make up and change into our uniforms. Chaos, I tell you. Pure chaos. There were tears and yelling and oh wow. I was running around trying to fix everything lol. We make it- getting ready in 40 minutes or so, and finally board the busses. On the way over, I kept to myself and was totally lost in a multitude of thoughts. I tried my best to sort them out, with only some luck. We get there, and start warming up and such. Such the weird day. We finally line up with all of our equipment. As always, we march over there with difficulty; carrying boxes, sabres, rifles, panels, and about 5-6 different flags. Beautiful! It's kind of funny marching with all of it though lol! We wait in the alley, and guard does the whole circle-pixy stick-"we're-proud-of-you" thing, and this time Ms. K joins us. I can never down the whole pixy stick (hmm sounds weird when it is singular) lol I always burst out laughing =/. Then we fall back into parade rest, or we are supposed to and only some of us follow. ahem. haha :-D and then proceed to the edge of the field. I look up into the stands and see nearly no space left. I thought to myself, wow. This is my favorite part of Marching Band. The crowd cheers and all you can do smile. Perfect. I love that feeling. Just that moment in time makes EVERYTHING seem worth it. No matter what difficulties you have had to deal with, It's all Perfect now. I shake my head in disbelief thinking that this is my last year, as we march onto the field. The crowd cheers. I smile bigger- I can't help it. We set our rebellious equipment and watch as the rest of the band joins us. omg. There was no accordian effect. I flipped out. That was beautiful, and I have been waiting for that for a long time now. I love you guys. lol I say to Stephanie and Dani, "There's my band, look how hot they are" hahaha. They agreed. We take our spots among the blue, and I hear the announcer say, "Drum Majors Antonio Bracamonte and Andrew Hrynyshyn, is your band ready". We fall into motionless silence. "Chandler High, you may take the field in your performance". I think to myself, Here we go, yet again. At the end of Part One, I couldn't catch my panel due to unseen forces (wind) haha. That's funny. Everything went alright from there until Part Five, minus sabres forgetting the counts to Part 3.... hmph. Needless to say, we were all off from each other. I tried counting outloud, but soon stopped in fear of someone, other than my family, hearing me. I think I dropped my sabre after tossing the triple? I actually don't remember. The beginning of Part Five.... Stephanie and I started our duet almost 2 counts after we were supposed to and that threw me off, just trying to catch up. We toss, she catches and I guess I tossed my rifle weird in that it ended up like 3 feet in front of me lol... I kind ran (in a jazzy way hahaha) to catch it without making it obvious, and still missed it. It falls to the ground. I pick it up and realize I'm late starting the next phrase. I frantically try to catch up while going back to my spot. So much for not being obvious. That song is always so frantic. After rifle, we grab our flags, and BOOK it backfield. I BARELY make it to my spot before we start moving again and being the work. I did catch my flag at the very end. The crowd erupts. Still, I wasn't happy with it lol. I was convinced that we wouldn't make the top 8, although everyone said we would. We march off field, and to the courtyard which I realized was the place we went to for a competition in Symphonic Band last year... though I don't remember which one. I do remember that they were disecting dead cats at the time, which made me sick to my stomach and sad. =/ ANYWAYS, we have a group peptalk also with Mrs. Ewan, set our instruments down in a orderly fashion, and proceed back to the field to watch the awards. We ended up receiving a Superior.... which means automatically making the top 8... I was like wow, thats cool haha. We did accomplish our goal for that day, despite what I thought lol. We go back to the courtyard, pick up our instruments, and then go to the bus area. We eat, and then warm up again! Sabres worked on their part and COUNTS haha, then I attempted a few tosses on rifle.... and after not catching any of them, I flip out. lol =/. So weird. I don't know what was wrong with me, why I couldn't catch... I take a few moments to breathe, and try it again, this time more relaxed. I catch it 5 times in a row. hm. We proceed back to the field, and wait for the band before us to march off-field. All I could think about was catching my rifle, throughout the whole show. I did catch my sabre like perfectly, as well as my panel... but the duet... it was in my hands... right there, and it slipped out and dropped. I was sooo pissed off lol. I frantically try to catch up AGAIN, this time tears coming to my eyes. We finish the show, crowd erupts even LOUDER, and I'm thinking whaatt.. we march off-field. I realized I was crying when Melissa, Scott, and many guard people came up to me asking me what was wrong. They tell me we did fricken awesome. I should have paid more attention. I regret that. We go into the stands, and watch 4 other bands, including the band that was performing at the Fiesta Bowl Parade this year on December 30th. Finally the time for awards came for the top 8 bands at that festival. They announcer states that the winner representing Arizona at the Fiesta Bowl On Deceber 30th, 2005 would be awarded $2000. I thought wow, I hope Highland has fun with it. The speaker announces, "And finally, the band that will represent Arizona in the Fiesta Bowl is..." silence. me thinking: Highland. Highland. Come on, just say it, my God so we can go home lol. "Chandler." OMG. I jumped... there had to be another Chandler High there that wasn't us, or they are messing with us... They had to say, "Just kidding!! Highland High School!" I waited for it, but it didn't happen. The crowd went wild... and Chandler went out of control. I couldn't breathe, was sobbing, and shaking uncontrollably. It didn't make sense. I watched Ms. K and Mr. Lewis walk across the field to accept the CHECK. We did that well?? Seniors went out onto the track and took a picture with Ms. K, Mr. Lewis, some staff members I think, and the check. I couldn't stop crying until we were on our way back home. I don't know why I reacted that way. It was weird, but even now when I think about it tears come to my eyes. We finally made it. Thinking back to my freshman year, we have grown sooo much. We've improved in every way, and we're finally the band that I looked up to as a freshman/sophomore. I don't believe it. I woke up this morning convinced it was all a dream. I don't know what else to say, except I love you guys. You have no idea.