Words....

Things that people say can be taken different than the way that they are meant. Often times you say something in a teasing manner, or in a jokingly way, and it is taken as something serious. It is taken as though it is the cause of the end of the world. Things get blown way out of proportion, and you seem to find yourself in way over your head. Life is hard, life is frustrating, life makes you want to sit down and just cry, but you can't give up, you can't stop. If you do then you admit defeat, you show your weakness to the rest of the world and they can conquer you forever. Buried beneath everything that you have ever done wrong, buried beneath all of the hurt, buried beneath all of the regret.
But what else is there to do?

Band Geek

As many of my friends know… I am a band geek. I am not afraid to admit, I am proud of it.

Being in Band and all the experiences that it entails, have helped to make me who I am now. So I wanted to share some band stuff….

You know you’re a band geek if….

1.       Being mauled by a drum is a normal part of life.

2.       “Armed Guard” means a girl with a pole, not a guy with a gun.

3.       You remember sharps and flats more easily than the names of the presidents.

4.       You see your section more than your family.

5.       Everyone in school wants to kill the other football team… and you want to kill the other band.

6.       Reeds taste good.

7.       The band room is your other home.

8.       When reciting the alphabet you recite A through G and then start back at A.

9.       Emptying spit valves don’t gross you out.

10.   You have band tan lines... for some this includes neck strap lines.

11.   Someone could slap you in the face and you wouldn’t respond, but you will fight to the death over who gets to play the solo in your section.

12.   You go to parades and watch to see if lines are straight, horn angles are the same, and everyone is in step.

13.   You can strip out of your uniform in less than a minute WITHOUT getting it on the floor in order to use the bathroom. 

14.   You can carry four different food products at a time and eat them while standing with your instrument on moving bleachers in the rain and not drop any crumbs on your Marching Band uniform.

15.   You know how to walk on mud without slipping.

16.   You can point out instruments in music from cartoons.

17.   Instead of doing the “L=left” thing with your hands, you take one step forward to figure out which is right and which is left.

18.   Your feeling sick at school, but you wait to go home until AFTER band.

19.   You have never sat in your class section at a pep rally because you have always played for the pep rally.

20.   Someone starts clapping and you get nervous. (LMAO!)

21.   You go to football games to watch the band.

22.   You can measure 5 yards without a ruler- all you need to do is count your steps.

23.   You end everything with the word...HUT!

24.   Normal people argue about the Vikings vs. the Packers, you argue about brass vs. woodwinds.

25.   You’re copying an assignment for another class and you write “Reed pgs 150-267”, and don’t notice it is wrong.

26.   You have talked to your plume.

27.   You have stood at attention for half an hour.

28.   You have held hands with a band member not because you like them but because you’re cold.

29.   You start humming a previous show tune and all your friends add in with their respective parts.

30.   You go onto the field and wonder why there are football players there.

31.   You hate American Pie because if you mention band camp to a non-band member… well you get what I am getting at.

32.   You have tried every instrument in the band regardless of who played it last.

33.   You have spent more money on reeds than food.

34.   Telling someone they blow is a complement.

35.   After the band uniform… you will never be threatened by an outfit that has more than 20 steps to get in and out of it for as long as you live.

36.   You can walk up to anyone in band and fix any part of their uniform without saying anything other than giving them you instrument and saying, “Hold this.”

37.   You get bored in class so you pick random people who aren’t in band and decide what they would play if they were in band based on their personalities.

38.   Your idea of a fun Saturday night is a band competition and the bus ride home.

39.   Tuning out the trumpet is second nature.

40.   You hear a story of some random band idiot and automatically assume it was a drummer.

41.   Icy winds, sub freezing temperatures, and rain at football games don’t bother you. Who needs feeling in their toes?

42.   It is January and you still have your farmers tan from band camp 7 months ago.

43.   You have performed emergency surgery on an instrument. (with and without duck tape)

44.   You have ever used cork grease as Chap Stick.

45.   Your first criterion for college is that it has a marching band, even though you intend to major in something else.

46.   You have ever lost a shoe while marching… and kept marching.

47.   You believe that football is just the warm-up for the band.

48.   You have ever got in trouble for skipping class to go to the band room to practice.

49.   You take it personally when you director tells you that your note is flat.

50.   You actually miss the three hour practices, band 5 days a week, and the faster metabolism that went with it.

51.   Your section dances at every single drum cadence while in the stands.

52.   You don’t question when someone says they are a Boner.

53.   If someone says “One-ee and-a two-ee and-a” you get instant mental picture.

54.   You have perfected the art of playing with a broken, torn, or ripped reed.

55.   When you saw the movie “Drumline” you felt some sort of joy that a movie interprets band as a sport.

56.   You constantly pester your band director with new marching show ideas.

57.   Your computer desktop picture is a picture of marching band.

58.   During silent reading time, you try to persuade your teacher to let you read your music.

59.   Your pets run away when you open your instrument case.

60.   You seriously think of putting a sign at the middle of the bus, proudly stating, “COLORED SECTION” (of course, to indicate that section is colorguard only)

61.   You are ecstatic when you find out you are getting new uniforms next year, but you feel a little sad and nostalgic, too.

62.   Your suspenders have so little elastic left in them that you have to double them over and safety-pin them to keep your pants up.

63.   You know that the cigarette paper and dollar bills that woodwinds keep in their instrument cases has nothing to do with illegal activities.

64.   You complain about people who can’t sing or dance to a beat.

65.   You have ever mocked the ROTC guys for being out of step during pre-game.

66.   If you have ever seen a 6 ft 4 quads drummer in the guards uniform from a previous year.

67.   You quit football for marching band.

68.   You have band t-shirts from before you started going to your school.

69.   “Once more,” does not in fact mean, once more.

70.   If the majority of the band jokes…. Revolve around you.

71.   Pickup line “I’m a formata… hold me.

72.   You despise Astroturf.

73.   Your band directors switch half way through your high school year, and you still keep in touch with your ex band director.

74.   You make jokes at the expense of the football game… K.P. made best joke called the “you can’t score” joke C.A.!

75.   Your band director had to kick you out of the band room after competition because it was 1:00 AM and he wanted to sleep.

Criticism

Criticism… I have mixed feelings on it. Many times I love it. I take in their advice, and I will adjust to better myself. Criticism is often times a good thing; it is a chance to improve and something that should not be over looked lightly. However, it typically depends on how it is received. If the criticizer is rude and is only trying to poke and prod, then it will not be received in an efficient manner.  Often people do not know how to get their point across to another human being in the right way. They only mean well and come off horribly. They become destructive to their pride and their essence of who they are, rather than being constructive with their criticism.

People just need to think about what they say and how they say it before they share it with the world, for it can be taken in the wrong way that it was meant.

New Year resolutions

It’s finally the year of 2011, the year that includes the start of the last year of my high school career.
This year was the first year that I did not get to watch the famous ball drop in New York. Not that I go to New York to see it, but TV has always been a good substitute. The next day I had to work early that morning, so bed was where I was when the hour finally came and the ball plummeted down.

I find it very humorous that everyone creates New Year resolutions, which they never keep. They last for a matter of weeks, a month if they are lucky; nevertheless, they end up forgotten and given up on. Why make out to do something you know you will not follow through with? It appears that people love to set themselves up for failure, and it is okay when they do fail. What is this teaching to the human race? That giving up and failing is okay. What kind of principle is this, that you teach your children this the beginning of each year, and it be okay? Why do we insist on starting a NEW year with failure? And why is it that we have to wait until the beginning of the year to decide to make a change; why not make a change when it is needed, instead of when you have a fresh year?

In my opinion, New Year resolutions are not positive traditions of the human race.

Presents

It seems that every year there is always something that I want to get. One big thing that I want more than anything. One year it was a cell phone, another it was a camera, another it was stereo; it has always been one big thing that I have always wanted and then a few little things. However, this year I find that there really isn't anything that I am begging my parents to get me. They asked me what I wanted, and really... I had nothing to say. Maybe a few things for my car, maybe tinted windows in my car would be nice, I would love to have a brand new wooden clarinet for Christmas.... but that's not going to happen and I am not even going to ask for that. A really good wooden clarinet can run between 3000 and 5000 dollars. Like I said, I am not even going to ask that of them. This year I just really want to be with the family more than anything else. After this Christmas I will have one more Christmas with them.. and then I am out on my own. Yes, I will come back for Christmas. But that's different. Waking up in a house the morning of Christmas to open presents in a house you live in, versus waking up in a house that you are just back visiting and will have to leave in week... well it will just be different. I am still undecided if this will be a good different or a bad different, yet I know it will be different. Also, even though I know that this is my last real Christmas to ask for anything big for a while, I still have nothing to tell them. Next year I will be asking for things for my dorm for when I move up to college.. and the year after that will probably consist on things for basic living that I will be lacking.
I guess what I was getting at.. is that I will be leaving soon and I want to cherish every moment I have left of being a kid... versus when I will truly have to start acting more mature. My life and future will count on it soon. But for now...who cares? I'm just going to be the old silly me. :)

The New Play

For those of you who do not know, we, the Blue House Players, will be putting on the production of Anne Frank in April. Yesterday we had our auditions for this play. There were several people who were trying out for Anne Frank, and many who failed at getting the part, since there could only be one Anne Frank in the play. In all honesty, I believe that the parts that were given in the play were very well casted; however there are some that would care to argue. This is why, a lot of the times, I absolutely dread having auditions. Not because I am afraid that I wont get a part, or that I won´t get the part that I wanted, but because there are a lot people in drama who are sore losers. If they don´t get the part they want then they threaten to quit the class. First off, if you are a senior (for most of them are that complain), then grow up! In a lot of clubs and sports you can call seniority, but not in drama. Drama is about who is best for the part, not about who has been in the class longer. GROW UP! Then for those that are not casted and got put in Lights or Backstage or House and you complain... give me a break! The one person that always talks of putting on the best production and this and this and this... well obviously you were not good enough as to be able to portray a character correctly, or rather there were other people better suited for the part. To be able to put on the best production of Anne Frank, the best possible cast list was made after reviewing all of the people; and I emphasize: the BEST cast list. So take one for the good of the play and sit back, shut up, and stop the crying, because really, it got old 2 years ago.

how to say no.. without using no...

You could say...
I'll take a pass.
I would prefer not.
I decline.
It is inevitably not going to happen.
The circumstances creates the occasion to not arise.
I ask you to refrain from asking the question.
I do not say yes.
Na.
I would rather not.
I will never accept your proposal.
Nope.
Nothing will give me the incentive to receive your offer.
I can not do that.
Don't bet on it.
There is not an intention of my approval and acceptance of the idea.
I absolutely believe that there is not a chance of this ever becoming true.