Friday September 3, 2010
Easy day today. I went to theory this morning and then came home and napped. I had Blue Band at 4 and then we got ready to go to the stadium for football eve. We lined up and the cadence started. Then everybody started basically dancing around. This was the phenomenon known as Parade Order. I’ve seen it before, but I never learned anything for it. They basically throw all of the rookies under the bus and make them learn it on their own. Here is basically what happens.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KvcLxjh3284&feature=related
Craziness. And I loved every minute of it. So once we got there we walked through the tunnel and sat in our seats. I couldn’t help but smile. We got into our seats and played some stands tunes throughout the show. We did cheers and other stuff. And then JoePa and the Nittany Lions came and he game a speech. He was like Mark Twain but he got the crowd riled up. After that, we lined up for Parade Order again. I love it. After we got back to the Blue Band Building, I packed up my stuff and headed over to my friend Ryan’s room to watch last year’s Blue Band DVD. It was cool to see some of the halftime shows that they did. After that I walked home and fell asleep quickly because I knew tomorrow was D-day.
Saturday September 4, 2010 (Day 18 if you’re still keeping track)
GAME DAY!
Woke up at 6. Ugh. But I knew that it would all be worth it in the end. I went and got a shower and when I got back in my room I heard a familiar sound. A bunch of trumpets thought that it would be cool to wake up East halls at 6:30 before they went to rehearsal. I walked into my room with Victory blasting from the ground near my dorm. And it was loud. I thought to myself, God I love this place! After I got dressed I walked over to the Blue Band field. There were already cars parked and people were getting ready to eat breakfast. We rehearsed for a while and then we went into the building and ate hoagies and some other treats. (Breakfast of Champions!) We saved our cookies to eat during the game. Then it was time to get dressed and inspected. The Blue Band takes their uniform very seriously. The section guides inspect you and make sure that you have everything put on correctly etc. We then lined up for Parade Order to march over to the Bryce Jordan Center for TailGreat. About halfway over I saw my parents. They basically freaked out when they saw me. Very cool. We got into the BJC and marched in to the Pre-game Cadence. People went crazy. It was so cool. Youngstown State’s band also came. They were good. Smaller band but they had a good overall sound. After TailGreat we lined up outside and marched over to the stadium. I saw my parents again, this time with my brother. They were smiling and Aaron was taking pictures and videos on his iPhone 4 (so jealous, by the way). We got to the stadium and marched into the tunnel entrance. We hung out back there until the football team walked through and then a whistle sounded, and mass chaos occurred. Everyone ran to the front of the tunnel and got into position. We waited there for about 3 or 4 minutes and then we heard the drum taps. DRUMS ARE OUT!! Everyone was yelling. I grabbed onto the shoulder of the person in front of me so we didn’t get trampled on the way out. ONE FOR THE MONEY, TWO FOR THE SHOW, THREE TO GET REEADDYYYYYYYYYY!!!!! LEFT LEFT LEFT LEFT. I marched onto the grassy field of Beaver Stadium (The most beautiful grass EVER, I’m convinced). SWITCH! My horn was down at the normal position now. I felt numb. My eyes were everywhere. I looked at the student section and noticed that it was only about half full, but I didn’t care. I was marching pre-game with the Penn State Blue Band. DROP TURN! OUT UP! The notes of the fanfare broke up the sounds of cheering and clapping throughout the stadium. I watched the big screen as the drum major ran up to do the flip. He didn’t make it, unfortunately. It didn’t matter though. He made the second one. We continued through pregame. I didn’t screw up on the Floating Lions, Thank the LORD! And we got into the Team Aisle so the team could run out. We started to Rock and Roll! Halfway through the team ran out and the stadium exploded. We ran off the field. All together it went by so fast I couldn’t explain what was good or bad. It was just a blur. I’m hoping to catch more of it when we play Kent State. Then the game started. It was cookie time. It was good J The Lions looked a little sketchy in the beginning. They went down after Youngstown scored. 7-3. Not good. Penn State came back though and we were up by the time halftime rolled around. We went down unto the field with about 2 minutes left in the game. It was probably the closest anyone could get to the players and coaches without actually touching them. Joe Paterno was pacing up and down the sideline about 15 yards away from me. The players were GIANT. I’m talking like two heads taller than me. The half ended and we watched the Youngstown State band perform. We did a good job with our Halftime show. The theme was Space and we did the theme from Star Trek, the Jetson’s, and Jupiter from the Planets. After halftime we headed back up to the stands. When I was about halfway to my seat, I heard the crowd go crazy. Penn State returned a kickoff for a touchdown. I was happy. We watched the rest of the game and Penn State dominated them for the most part. We walked down for Post Game. We played some fight songs and some song from our halftime show. I heard the familiar whistle of my Mom. I spotted her and the rest of my family. My Uncle Brian and his son Greg had also come up for the game. After we were done playing we marched off the field playing Victory. I ran over to my dad and gave him a high five. We talked while the drum line did their thing. Then we lined up to march back to the Blue Band Building. After I got changed into my civilian clothes I found my parents and my brother and Madeline, a friend of ours. I sat and chatted with them for about an hour until I decided that I was too tired to function, so I went home and passed out. But it was an awesome day!
Sunday September 5, 2010
I woke up at around 11 o’clock and my dad came a picked me up. I took my laundry down to my brother’s place, which seems to be our normal Sunday routine now. Before we got to the laundry, we all went out to eat at the Allen Street Grill. It was so good. I guess when you eat at the commons most of the time, you tend to appreciate a ‘real’ meal. So then we went back to Aaron’s apartment and we loaded up their car. They drove us up to Aaron’s parking spot near the BJC and they said bye and left. Then Aaron and I went to my dorm to get some stuff. We got back to his place and started the laundry. While we waited, I decided that I was going to record a tag and possibly put it up on YouTube. So I warned my brother not to make any sound while I did this one. I belted a high A flat for about 25 seconds, and then I hit the stop button. My brother said that I couldn’t do that again because I was too loud. So that killed that idea. So the wash finally got done and we sorted it and then my brother brought me back home. I was excited because the Blue Band was going to the Spikes Game. The Spikes are the minor league baseball team that plays in State College. It was so much fun. They sit us in the middle of left field. So naturally we talk to the left fielder the whole time. And we politely harass the opposing teams left fielder the ENTIRE game. So funny. It was a good time. Then I headed home after the fireworks display and passed out, still tired from Saturday.
Monday September 6, 2010 (Labor Day)
While I was mad that I couldn’t be home to play with my band Story of Another at Zoostock, I made the best of this day. But they were in the back of my mind the whole day. We started the day with a 9 am rehearsal followed by a wonderful picnic. Burgers and Hotdogs and all of the other Labor Day essentials. Following the picnic I was recruited to play football against the trumpets. Well apparently it is a contest every year. And the trumpets always win. And everyone is against them. We looked good. Some would say that it was the best team we had in a while. What I didn’t know was that this was legit football. There was a line with 5 guys on it and 4 wide outs a running back and a QB. And the line protected the QB. I’m talking like all out blocking. I’m talking 45-minute halves. I’m talking PAIN. At then end of the game we lost 1-2. But we were in it the whole game. The game ended as we were driving down the field to score, but time ran out. I was drained. I went back to my dorm and immediately laid down. My body hated me. I then cleaned my room because I had friends coming over. My friends got here and they brought pizza sticks that were amazing. Then we decided to go for a walk. We walked down to the football practice field because that is where Blue Band practice is held on Tuesday nights. Mollie showed us the quickest way to get there. After walking around for a while we decided to go home. My arms hurt so much, I couldn’t lift them up above my head. It was hard falling asleep that night.
The rest of the week was kind of rough. I am sick today (Thursday). I feel like my head is going to explode. And I found out yesterday that I have to organize rehearsals for Tuba/Euph Quartet. So much work. I was planning on going home this weekend but I doubt that that will happen. :(
