6/6/2003

You are Snoop Dogg! You are a weird rapper. You
sing about weird things too, like hookers and
drugs and booze. Yeah, you are one weird mofo.
which weird singer are you?
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Midnight – You are a deep thinker, always searching
for answers and never quite at home. You are
very contemplative, and enjoy being alone with
your thoughts.
When are you?
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So I heard from the band director yesterday afternoon. He said he’s not sure how he missed me on the mailing. He said they’ve already had three rehearsals but that I am more than welcome to join them at the next one. He said he’d get me caught up and up to date. So that’s exactly where I’ll be next Tuesday at 7pm. yay! I doubt very seriously that any of the music he’ll choose will be all that difficult so I’m not too concerned about being behind. I am a little nervous though because everyone else will have already been there and is settled in. I’ll be the only new person and that’ll be weird. With any luck though I’ll get an end seat. 🙂 I hate sitting in the middle since flutes stick out so damn far. This is going to be really weird for me. I’m excited and nervous. I never really thought I’d be in a band again. I’ll never forget how I felt at graduation, sitting there, for the first time, in the audience instead of with the band. I’ve always been with the band, since 5th grade, it took everything I had not to cry as they played, and it wasn’t because I was excited about graduation, it was the fear that this was how it would be for the rest of my life.

I think this calls for some reminiscing.

I started in band in elementary school, 5th grade. I wanted to play the Saxophone like my aunt, she had been in the marching band at her high school and that’s exactly what I wanted to do. Play the sax in marching band someday. I picked up the instrument price sheet and took it home with me, that weekend there would be a little sale and workshop thingy at the high school. I handed the price sheet to my mom and told her I wanted to play the Saxophone. Mom was not excited about me wanting to play the saxophone. The saxophone was $1,000.00. She brought up how I’d tried many different things and given up on them as soon as they got difficult. Like any kid, I told her that I would NOT give up on this one. She then took a look at the price sheet and said she’d rather I pick a cheaper instrument and pointed out the flute. I told her I didn’t want to play the flute, I wanted to play the saxophone like my aunt. Mom then said I couldn’t play the saxophone and that I would have to pick a cheaper instrument or I couldn’t be in band. I really wanted to be in band so I agreed to play a flute, flute’s were $500.00. My mom then called my aunt to ask if she thought I’d be able to play a flute and my aunt said that if I could make a noise over a soda bottle that I could probably play a flute. Oh boy could I make a noise on a soda bottle!! 😉

We went to the workshop and instrument sale where I got my very first Flute, an Emerson Student Flute, it was beautiful. This is also where I would meet the woman who would become my private lessons instructor. She worked with me a tiny bit there to show me how to make a noise on my flute. I was extremely dissapointed when she took the head-joint out of the case then closed the case back. Dammit, I wanted the whole thing out!! Anyway, she showed me how to make a noise and once I made a few she sent me on my way. I sat there in the car with that head-joint and made noises all the way home.

By 9th grade I had become very proficient on my flute and my flute teacher recommended I get a better flute. My mom was quite proud of me and it was obvious I was going to stick with the flute so she purchased the flute I still use today. A solid silver, open-holed, B-flat foot Emerson Model 8. It even has a gold-plated mouth peice, which impressed all my flute playing friends. In tenth grade I also purchased my first Piccolo, a Yamaha Student Piccolo, my father purchased that and I paid him back out of my paycheck.

10th grade was also when I joined the Union Renegade Regiment Marching Band. Marching band looked like so much fun, I had no idea what was in store for me. Summer rehearsals began in August, the HOTTEST month of the year in Oklahoma. Our days always started off with an aerobic warm up routine and a lap around the football field. Being very uncoordinated it took me awhile to get the hang of marching and playing but I finally got it. I did A TON of pushups, any time you made a mistake you had to drop and do ten pushups. By the start of the school year though I didn’t have to do so many because I was making very few mistakes. Our band directors and section leaders were VERY strict and hard. You’d think we were in the Army the way they get in your face and yell and scream. But it worked, we were the shit and we won Nationals that year.

It was a very exciting year for me.

Here’s a picture of my band-nerd self:

1996 was the only year I got to spend with the Union Renegade Regiment. 1997 was the year things went downhill for me. I was depressed, frustrated and ready to kill my step-mother. It was the year I ran away from home. When I was brought back home I was enrolled in a small private Christian School. Metro Christian Academy. They had a band too, but it was rather pathetic. I almost didn’t join but decided I would and turns out I’m very glad I did. I made and easily held first chair the entire time I was there. My 11th grade year Metro didn’t have a marching band but my Senior year my band director decided it was time his band marched. It was a blast, I helped teach everyone how to march at the summer band camp thingy he held, I helped everyone get their uniforms and I was of course, flute section leader. It felt good and was a lot of fun. We marched in the 1998 Tulsa Christmas Parade of Lights. Here’s a picture of me with my friends Holli and Nancy. I’m the tall one on the left then Holli, then Nancy:

That May we also went to DISNEY and had a complete blast.

We didn’t win anything but was a blast anyway.

A couple weeks after the Disney trip was Graduation and that was that. I was graduated, married and shipped to CT where I am now. 🙂

My Senior picture:

Now it’s finally time for me to make some new band memories. 🙂