This past weekend was thanksgiving break, my family was already on break since the beginning of the past week. Monday, we had our last rehearsal in the Band of Blue as we prepared the "Soulsville" show for halftime last Saturday. Rehearsal went by quickly that day and we finished before 2 pm. Later that day, the auditions for Wind Ensemble/Symphonic Band went underway for the percussion. I auditioned at 5:15, and it went fairly well, better than last time. Overall, the school week was really short.
Wednesday night, I got my stuff packed up for the break coming up. I didn't need much because I was going to return that Saturday morning for the last home game. Anyway, that Wednesday night, my dad came and took me home, we went to Kroger to get some groceries first. After that, we headed to the house, I put my stuff up and hung out with my brother for a while. I played some video games, watched some TV, and did other things that night. I had a chance to get some eight hours of sleep that night. The next morning, I practiced some music for Salsa Band and for my lessons. I also had a chance to listen to my brothers and sister play their piano pieces as well and help them out with what I could. I also had a chance to watch X-men first class for the first time, and Captain America: The First Avenger also for the first time. Both were really good movies. The Avengers will be coming out next year as well featuring Thor, Iron Man, Hawkeye, and the Hulk. From watching movies to playing Call of Duty and practicing piano and percussion, there was not much else to do until we left for our Grandmother's house later that Thanksgiving evening. It was my mom's side of the family at the get together, all of her siblings, six brothers and sister and their kids/my cousins, and some other family and friends. We played some more videogames and watched the San Fransisco 49ers at Baltimore that night. We also had thanksgiving dinner. It was a fun evening, we also ended up watching an English Subbed Chinese originated movie called "Kung Fu Hussler", so we had to read the subtitles instead of listening to the sound delay of the dubbed version. It was a good/funny movie with an interesting storyline. We got home that late that night and we went straight to bed. The next friday morning, the routine was generally the same, only this time, I went outside and fed the dog: half Border-Collie, a quarter Pit-Bull and a Quarter Black-Lab. We have a term for this, and it is a hand-full. The dog has gotten more organized with time, knowing the back-yard and where everything is. I went back in and did some more practicing and TV watching. This was probably the first time I had made my own breakfast in a while also. My brother, the one in high school, having his permit managed to drive with mom and dad to take him to his job at Brixx. I think mom and dad went Black-Friday Shopping that night, leaving me to babysit the other three kids. The kids watched a movie or TV, while I practiced for my Music City Audition as well as other music stuff. I helped out one of my brothers with his midstate music and piano recital music. That night when my brother got back from his job, we decided to drum on some drum pads. Being the center snare for our high school's drumline, he practiced a lot, even when he wasn't the center last year, his sophomore year. We played some of the exercises that they're doing this next indoor season and some stuff from last year as well. It was good going home that weekend. It won't be long until I'm home again.
The next morning, Dad drove me to school for the last home game. We talked about a lot of things, mostly about college and what to expect as well as some good advice. He dropped me off at the music building and I put my stuff up in the practice room. I practiced for a little bit until it was time to get ready for the game. It was the last home game that was recognizing the 4+ year students. At practice we went through "Soulsville" a few times and headed to raider walk. After raider-walk, we had a break and went into uniform as we began to warm up. They began recognizing as the band walked in, so we didn't play the cadence that time around. The usual pre-game happened and we headed into the stands. There weren't a lot of people at this game from the home front, but a lot of us expected that since it was near exam time. However, the half-time show was one of our better runs of the full show. We did lose the game, but the Band of Blue still did our thing. Getting positive feed back about how we sounded that game and other games as well. The band banquet will be on December 2 for the Band of blue.
This was a good weekend. Next weekend, I go back to Music City Drum and Bugle Corps for auditions. Last summer, our show was "Let's Dance" that featured songs like "I Could Have Danced All Night" from My Fair Lady, "American Bandstand" from back in the day, as well as "Jai Ho" from Slumdog Millionaire, "Singing in the Rain", Jackson 5's "Dancing Machine", "Dancing Queen", and many others. This year, the show is entitled: "Phantom of the Grand Ole Opera". A play on words for Opryland's Grand Ole Opry as well as "Phantom of the Opera". As the title suggests, we'll feature music from "Phantom of the Opera" as well as from stars like Johnny Cash, Patsy Cline, Hank Williams, and others. 250+ people have signed up for this next camp, being a veteran member, it will be interesting to see how this corps will improve.
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