The Afterlife of a Band Nerd

Japan to Mexico

   January 27, 2018

   I was too tired last night to write about the clinics, so I'll tell you about them this morning.
   We left our school during third period and traveled for about 45 minutes to the practice location two towns over. The first rehearsal (mine) didn't start until 12:45, so we had two hours to grab lunch and mess around.
   Well, everyone had planned to go to a sushi bar, except it didn't open until eleven. It was only about ten o'clock, so we had an hour to burn. We were sitting outside the café trying to figure out something we could do. Mr. Davis didn't know the town very well, so he had no clue where we could go.
   An idea suddenly dawned on me. "There's a pet store literally right past the café. We can walk there."
   Cam, Alexa, Jules, and Mr. Davis all agreed, so  we all go to the pet store. I wonder what the store workers were thinking when they saw four teenagers and a young guy together on a school day 😂.
   We looked around and admired the pets (they even had hedgehogs, which are like the cutest darn things on the face of this planet 😍🦔).  Mr. Davis ended up buying treats for his dog XD.
   We started to walk back to the café around 10:45. I was so worried about getting sick before all Region that I didn't expect to get actually physically injured yesterday. I had my head turned talking to Jules while we were walking, and my ankle grazed a piece of metal sticking out of the ground. It rubbed off a layer of skin, but it didn't bleed. I'm grateful for it not bleeding because I wasn't sure if the metal was rusted or not. I still hurts after sleeping overnight, though. My parents thought I was being too dramatic when I told them v.s when they saw it. They don't understand my pain. Lol
    We went to the sushi bar and I got to try sushi for the very first time! When we were ordering, the Japanese guy was saying something to me, but I couldn't understand him. I started getting panicky from anxiety, but Mr. Davis, who was next to me, swooped in and saved the day by talking to the guy instead. I thanked him a lot when the waiter left. He said it was no problem.
   I got to try my first sushi! I had a tuna roll. It was better than I had expected. I also ate some teriyaki shrimp with rice and steamed vegetables.
  Okay, on to the clinics. Mr. Davis dropped me off at the high school auditorium that Jr. high was practicing at while he took Cam, Alexa, and Jules to the local university campus.
  First band rehearsed in the auditorium that we're performing in later today. I was on the very back row in front of percussion towards the middle of the horse shoe arrangement. Since I'm last chair, I was sitting next to a baritone player. We have to share stands, except I almost thought I could keep a stand for myself because the trumpet player on the other side of me hadn't shown up. He did about three minutes into rehearsal, though.
  Turns out, the baritone player used to know Spunkyhorse14 and I was like,"Omigosh we're best friends!" They used to go to the same school. I also said hi to one of Spunky's other best friends, who is a clarinet player.
   The director is pretty cool. He is funny and tells stories to apply to what style he wants you to play. Not only is he a trombone player, but a bass trombone player as well. One of the stories he told was about how as a broke college kid, him and his roommate would dumpster dive for fresh pizzas that Little Caesar's would throw out right after closing. XD
   We went through five songs. I LOVE two of them, called "Due North" and "The Lost Lady Found." Hopefully we'll get to perform them today. I really hope they'll let us keep our sheet music, too. There's one song called the King's Guard and I hate it. I just don't like the sound and it's a march in cut time. There's another song we haven't even touched, but I'm not too worried about it because Mr. Davis said that we're going to play it for our spring concert at school.
  The last song is written by a local composer, and we're one of the few bands who's played it because it's not being released for sale to the public until summer. It's pretty. It sounds like spring.
   Due North sounds like a northward journey (the director called it Game of Thrones because the low brass has to play a part in that rhythm.)
  The Lost Lady Found was written by a classical composer named Percy Grainger, which really took me off guard because I didn't expect a classical composer to write a kind of waltzy song. It sounds like something from an opera. I would totally watch it.
   We had a break after about 1 1/2 hours of rehearsal to use the bathroom and stretch and whatnot. Then, we broke for dinner, which I was glad for because my lips were killing me. Mr. Davis was watching me in the auditorium. We got in the blazer (school provided vehicle. I wish we had the maroon, all Region tryouts van, which they nicknamed the raisin). and went to pick up Cam, Jules, and Alex.
    Then, we went to a Mexican restaurant where I ordered taco salad. Everyone also shared two baskets of chips and a bowl of white cheese dip. The meal was school provided.
   After stuffing ourselves, we still had time to burn. I gave Mr. Davis directions and he turned into a strip mall. We all went into Bath and Body works to look around at stuff. It was great, lol. Mr. Davis would let me spray perfume on him, though :,(
   We went back to the school for about two more hours of All Region practice. We were all tired (and our lips ached) by the end of it. What was funny was on our first break after dinner, I walked out of the auditorium to see my mom. Apparently she thought we were getting out earlier. I told her we still had yet to play XD. She said she'd pick me up at the school when I got done.
   We ended our rehearsal by playing Due North. Rehearsals start at 8:45 this morning. I'm look forward to it.
   Bye!