The drum sectional wound up being Friday after school. Meg and Chris were there, too (but Sean didn't come for some weird reason). It was freezing out. Adams had a little too much fun playing with Dr. Beat. We learned the sets.
Lauren and Sarah and I went to Good Will and the Halloween store Friday night. I didn't buy anything because all the dresses/costumes that would have even remotely worked for the show cost an arm and a leg. It was still fun, though. We went back to Lauren's and her mom bought us Burger King. Yum.
Saturday we were suppose to play at the football game vs Bishop Eustace, but after we loaded the truck, got completely in uniform and drove to the fields it started to rain. So instead we stopped for an extremely early dinner(it was only 12) and then headed back to school for rehearsal. No one complained, because we needed to practice badly and had we not had the opportunity, well, it wouldn't have been pretty. The drum line actually learned the music to the sets, and wow, what do you know, it's a huge solo! So we were drilled all afternoon and it wasn't sounding pretty. But it was there, and that was good enough.
So we're lined up, on deck at Washington Township, and just as Will clicks for the cadence, it starts to rain. Grrrreat. But it ended up being an omen. We scored a 76.0; fifth out of six bands. But the fourth place band scored a 76.5, and the third place band scored a 77.something, so we were right up there. The best part of all, though, despite the horrible 'interpretation' of the solo, percussion came in second place (might I remind you, out of six bands) to Triton, who only beat us by .7 of a point. We blew away some bands who have established lines. Woo. Go us.
Yesterday was Highland. There was a lot of pressure because we felt like if we didn't improve we'd get yelled at. We rehearsed for like four hours. The drumming was sounding cleaner than ever. Mell was freaking out because he didn't know what to say. Yams wasn't there (he was at church) so it was sounding great. He showed up as we were finishing the last run-through and threw Will off by knocking into him, so the snare solo was blown. Mell didn't come to the competition yesterday because he had some parade things (and he took the holy snare! how dare he!) so had Adams not talked to Will he would have made Yams sit out. We went nuts on the bus kecking the parts out, and the show went really well. Except for a one measure break down in the closer, it was great. We scored a 77.0. One point after only a roughly four hour rehearsal is good enough for me. Cara gathered us together to listen to the tape when we got back to school, and the judge made several comments about how 'wonderful bass one's technique' was. Pardon me while I bask in that.
I can't remember the last time I was this tired. But damn, it was worth it. It's weekends like this that remind me why I love this so much.
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happy.