Okay, guys, it’s set –
I’m going to Midwest Band and Orchestra Clinic!!!
I’m so excited…it’s going to be great. I just booked the flight, registered for the conference, I have a commitment for a roommate for at least 2 of the 5 nights I’ll be there and I know my friend Amy will let me stay with her one night as well. That leaves 2 nights to worry about but I’ll figure it out. Contributions to the Cathy’s Going to Midwest Fund can be sent to….
WOO HOO!!!
Things have been a lot of fun lately. My friend Crystal and I have celebrated Halloween to it’s fullest by going down to 6th Street on Halloween night. The crowd moved pretty quickly and we were looking for some friends so we really didn’t get too many pictures of the crazy but we had a lot of fun. You had all your typical slutty costumes as well as men dressed as women. We saw quite a few people dressed up as Jehovah’s Witnesses, minus the bicycles. That was pretty funny and a little ironic on 6th street. One of the doormen at Shakespeare’s was dressed in a speedo and swim goggles; we thought that was pretty brave. Another brave soul was our friend Ryan who dressed up like Tom Cruise again. I think he ended up hurting his feet being in just socks all night. I decided to dress up like Doctor Meredith Grey again (from last year) so I could wear tennis shoes. We ended up in The Blind Pig, where we know Ben, the owner. Because a majority of The Blind Pig is outside and on the roof, they don’t serve bottled drinks. Crystal is collecting can tabs for her friend so we started asking everyone for their tabs. We ended up with 151 tabs and some dude gave us a $20 to help out. But don’t ask what she’s collecting them for because it’s not nearly as charitable as the Ronald McDonald House.
The SPHS Tiger Football team is District 14-5A football CHAMPS!!! The game against Georgetown HS was so good, I actually watched the whole thing. The stadium they’ve been playing at for years is an old community stadium with no track and it’s HORRIBLE to watch the game from but luckily, because of the lack of the track and the shortness of the stands, our 10 foot drum major podium was besides the stands, just waiting for halftime. The band directors decided to sit up there to watch the game. Let me tell you about GREAT SEATS! The entire 1st half kept going back and forth in points but in the end, we beat G-Town 48-38 to secure the title. To go from no winning seasons to being District Champs is wild. On a college football Saturday, our win took front page of the Austin American Statesman Sports Section, too!!!
And speaking of college football, how about that Longhorn game? I was over at Crystal’s because a bunch of people were watching it in Man World (they’ve converted their 2nd garage into a sports bar type thing) and we ended up leaving to go shopping since the Horns looked like they didn’t have a chance anymore. When we got back, we heard that they won the game and we missed quite an exciting ending.
Today is catch up on life day. I’ve gotta pay bills, clean many rooms of my house and do some laundry. I’d like to make it down to Whole Foods to see my mom…I haven’t seen my family in over 2 months! It makes me very sad, too. Luckily, I talk to them quite often so we all know what’s up in our lives.
I have got to figure out how I can go to Midwest Band & Orchestra Clinic this year. I got the listing of clinics & concerts that will be happening and that, combined with the connections I can start making for going to grad school in a few years…I’ve gotta go! It’s about budgeting my money so I can afford a flight. Once there, I think my friend Amy was talking about letting me stay with them to make the room split 4 ways. That should help make things affordable. Unfortunately, because our Band Boosters pay for my going to TMEA & TBA each year, I really can’t ask for money for Midwest. If it’s meant to be, things’ll fall into place as I try to plan this out. 😀
Okay, lots to do today. Love you, mean it!
~C
Wow, I can’t believe what a year it’s been already! This week, here are the great successes that have happened at my school:
It’s a great time to be a Tiger!!
~C
I love Sundays in October. If you don’t know already, October is the craziest fall month for me because that’s when the rubber meets the road for a band director. This month is full of contests, mostly marching. In order to be sure that the kids are successful at contests, we try to practice as often as we can (within the 8 hour rule, of course). On top of all that, we have football games, homecoming, a report card (which could knock kids out of participating all together) at least one holiday or staff development day and I think something else major but it’s just not coming to mind right now. So, needless to say that the month of October is crazy for anyone involved with high school band.
Ah, but Sundays are spectacular for me. I’m single and have no kids of my own so Sundays are my day to myself. I stay in my PJs for a good chunk of the day and catch up on TV shows I’ve missed all week. I start the day with a nice breakfast and actually have 3 square meals on a Sunday. I try to make sure I do a few chores so they don’t pile up but I don’t obsess about getting everything done on a Sunday anymore. The kitchen floor can be mopped again in November, you know what I mean? It’s really about regaining my sanity and reminding my cats that they I really do run this house. LOL
So, I guess I’ll go do a load of laundry now because that is the one constant to Sundays at my house or the rest of the week doesn’t work quite right. Hope you enjoy this glorious Sunday as well!
~C
Oh, and Happy Birthday to my friend Daniel Montoya, Jr.. It was kinda weird but kinda cool announcing his name as the composer of a show that performed at our contest yesterday! 😉 Speaking of birthdays, it’s Frank Miller’s birthday as well. Wow, what a wonderful addition to an already fabulous day!!
It’s not that I haven’t had anything to blog about, it’s just that I really haven’t had any time. This school year has really been different, mostly for the good, with some new changes in so many facets. I can’t believe our first competition is only 3 weeks away already! But the show is coming along nicely and the kids are working really hard. They have to…the show is HARD but it’s gonna be awesome when we finally get it all down. Thanks to George Hester for his creativity!! If you want to see the drill charts in action, you can go to our page of his website and watch the videos.
I’ve also made a point this year to not let work overwhelm my life. I find time to go out with my friends once or twice a week. We still do the weekly girls night on Thursday, and I go when we don’t have a band thing on Thursday night. It was a little hard during summer band but now that school has started and we have morning rehearsals and our one Thursday game has passed, I’m gonna be back to getting together with those wonderful women. If you’re connected to me via MySpace, you’ve seen pictures of my adventures with my friend Crystal so no more really needs to be said about that.
My friend Ken is still living with me, but only for a few more weeks. He has been so helpful by trying to help out with chores so that my stress level and task list on my one free day is low, it’s awesome. And I’m glad that he’s going to live close by until the next school year. Once he starts back to school and moves to San Marcos, I’m afraid that our time to hang out will diminish to almost nothing again. We can have lots of fun together!
I went to the Tx State/Baylor game yesterday in Waco. I took part in the Alumni BBQ reception they had and won a cool t-shirt. There were about 150 people there but no one I knew (I don’t think band folks are too interested in Alumni House stuff) so I made some new friends. The Bobcats played fairly well and they had a good chance of winning but didn’t. I think the only reason they had a chance of winning is because The Bears made as many stupid plays and mistakes as we did, too! LOL 😆 I also found out that Baylor’s star quarterback from the 2004-05 & 2005-06 season works with me as a football coach at Stony Point. He had to keep stopping our conversation when I bumped into him at the game to shake hands and say hello to random people. How cool is that?? 😎
And to answer the most common question asked me lately: No, I’m not upset the iPhone has gone down in price already and sure, I’m pleasantly surprised they’re giving me a $100 store credit. It’s technology, prices are going to plummet. It’s a corporation – I’m surprised that they actually care about the customers who have already given them their money. Ya know?
Well, I’ve got a good little list of tihngs to do today so I’m going to sign off. Hope your weekend was what you needed! Love you, mean it!
~C
—————————Addition—————————
Oddest/coolest/funniest experience at the Baylor game – they said an invocation at the start of the game and at the end, he said “Amen”. Then, the ENTIRE stadium said “Amen” as well. It was not what I expected at a college football game. Those silly Baptists!!! LOL
Benford's Musings 
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