Tuesday, October 05, 2004
The New Guy
I have quite a few things that occurred today that I'd like to talk about. Some of them are pretty major, and others are quite trivial. As such, this entry may seem relatively random. So it goes.
I noticed this morning that all the city buses have "SLO Transit" written on them. Ironic? It's amazing what cute puns you can come up with when the name of the town in which you live has an acronym that forms an actual word.
I got a locker in the music building! One that my trumpet actually fits in! Woot! I had to go bother the lady in the music department office twice to get it though, and I'm sure she's sick of me by now. I went in the first time with the information that I the locker she had assigned me was fine depth- and width-wise, but I needed a locker that was about an inch higher. She said she needed the actual dimensions of the case, and was annoyed that I didn't already have them. (She asked me the last time I was in there, but I honestly thought the information I had would have been sufficient.) I do feel pretty bad about bugging her so many times in the last week. Oh well. I have a locker!
I've heard three or four people around my dorm use the word "piccadilly" in a conversation with someone else. I told you all that it's going to catch on. And you're all my witnesses that I came up with it. So when I get the credit, it'll be just piccadilly.
I went to the first band rehearsal today. It was so much fun! All of you who are part of or have been part of the Royal Regiment would find this band to be a little different than what you're used to. I won't get into all of the specifics, but I'll cite one example: when we reset a move, nobody runs back to their spot. It's a leisurely stroll back to the top. So, yeah, the Mustang Band doesn't exactly strive for excellence, but let me tell you, it's still a heck of a lot of fun. You can talk in between sets. And not just about whether you're in the right spot or not, but about other things. (Every time I spoke I expected Mr. Cox to jump out at me screaming...) But we still accomplish a lot. We learned a tune and a half in the 90 minutes we were outside today. (Although, tunes tend to be between five and ten sets, not the twenty that RB folks are used to.) Anyway, it went really well. I wasn't way behind anyone else or anything, so that was good. We did not, however, march the one tune that everyone else already has learned...that should be interesting. But hey, it's all good.
I have a hilarious story for all you RB band people. You know how when the drum major calls you to attention by yelling "Band, ten, hut!" you all snap to attention and scream "HUT" back at him? And you know how by the time you're a senior in band you don't even have to think about what you're supposed to do when called to attention because it's such a reflex? Well, evidently some bands don't do this the same way. In fact, some bands, when called to attention, make no verbal acknowledgement at all. Can you see where I'm going with this? At the end of rehearsal, the drum major called us to attention to dismiss us. And I of course yelled "hut," and I was of course the only one. Everyone snickered at that, and the drum major sighs under his breath, "high schoolers..." You'd think I'd have been totally embarrassed, but it was so funny. I was trying so hard not to laugh. I'm laughing now just typing this. So hooray for already having college marching band memories.
And now for something completely different: Tower 2 has created an intramural basketball team, and their first game was tonight. (Tower 2 refers to the tower in Yosemite in which I reside. We've formed a tightly-knit group - we pretty much always do everything together. I'm pretty sure it's rare for an entire tower to get along with each other...and that's what makes us so awesome.) We went down to the rec center to cheer on our team. It was great because no one else was there (save for the players and refs). So there would be loud cheers and shouts when Tower 2 scored, and dead silence when the others scored. We totally kicked their butts!! So that was fun.
We had a fire drill tonight. We were told to take all fire alarms seriously because there are no drills, but we had a drill tonight. You can pretty much imagine how that went, so I won't get into the finer aspects of it. But I would like to tell you that the fire alarm itself is the most obnoxious sound you've ever heard. Imagine standing on the 50-yard line of a football field. Lauren is standing in one endzone, holding a note on her piccolo. Renee is standing in the other endzone. Now, let's just say for demonstrative purposes that they're out of tune, but only slightly (we'll chalk it up to the doppler effect). Slightly obnoxious, right? Well imagine that they decided it would be fun to run straight at you, one holding a ff high C and the other a fff high C sharp. The obnoxiousness grows and grows until they're basically on top of you, still holding their notes. But ffff now. And there's nothing you can do to stop them. That's what the fire alarm is like. But then I guess that's the point.
And now I'm shut in my room, typing. But I had a very good day today. (It helps that I had only one hour of class.) But all good things must end. So good night.
Josh
PS - Lauren and Renee are both phenomenal piccolo players.
PPS - engineers but no architects
mood: pleased
music: the theme from Hey Dude, that old-school Nickelodeon show
location: Tower 2! Woot!
I noticed this morning that all the city buses have "SLO Transit" written on them. Ironic? It's amazing what cute puns you can come up with when the name of the town in which you live has an acronym that forms an actual word.
I got a locker in the music building! One that my trumpet actually fits in! Woot! I had to go bother the lady in the music department office twice to get it though, and I'm sure she's sick of me by now. I went in the first time with the information that I the locker she had assigned me was fine depth- and width-wise, but I needed a locker that was about an inch higher. She said she needed the actual dimensions of the case, and was annoyed that I didn't already have them. (She asked me the last time I was in there, but I honestly thought the information I had would have been sufficient.) I do feel pretty bad about bugging her so many times in the last week. Oh well. I have a locker!
I've heard three or four people around my dorm use the word "piccadilly" in a conversation with someone else. I told you all that it's going to catch on. And you're all my witnesses that I came up with it. So when I get the credit, it'll be just piccadilly.
I went to the first band rehearsal today. It was so much fun! All of you who are part of or have been part of the Royal Regiment would find this band to be a little different than what you're used to. I won't get into all of the specifics, but I'll cite one example: when we reset a move, nobody runs back to their spot. It's a leisurely stroll back to the top. So, yeah, the Mustang Band doesn't exactly strive for excellence, but let me tell you, it's still a heck of a lot of fun. You can talk in between sets. And not just about whether you're in the right spot or not, but about other things. (Every time I spoke I expected Mr. Cox to jump out at me screaming...) But we still accomplish a lot. We learned a tune and a half in the 90 minutes we were outside today. (Although, tunes tend to be between five and ten sets, not the twenty that RB folks are used to.) Anyway, it went really well. I wasn't way behind anyone else or anything, so that was good. We did not, however, march the one tune that everyone else already has learned...that should be interesting. But hey, it's all good.
I have a hilarious story for all you RB band people. You know how when the drum major calls you to attention by yelling "Band, ten, hut!" you all snap to attention and scream "HUT" back at him? And you know how by the time you're a senior in band you don't even have to think about what you're supposed to do when called to attention because it's such a reflex? Well, evidently some bands don't do this the same way. In fact, some bands, when called to attention, make no verbal acknowledgement at all. Can you see where I'm going with this? At the end of rehearsal, the drum major called us to attention to dismiss us. And I of course yelled "hut," and I was of course the only one. Everyone snickered at that, and the drum major sighs under his breath, "high schoolers..." You'd think I'd have been totally embarrassed, but it was so funny. I was trying so hard not to laugh. I'm laughing now just typing this. So hooray for already having college marching band memories.
And now for something completely different: Tower 2 has created an intramural basketball team, and their first game was tonight. (Tower 2 refers to the tower in Yosemite in which I reside. We've formed a tightly-knit group - we pretty much always do everything together. I'm pretty sure it's rare for an entire tower to get along with each other...and that's what makes us so awesome.) We went down to the rec center to cheer on our team. It was great because no one else was there (save for the players and refs). So there would be loud cheers and shouts when Tower 2 scored, and dead silence when the others scored. We totally kicked their butts!! So that was fun.
We had a fire drill tonight. We were told to take all fire alarms seriously because there are no drills, but we had a drill tonight. You can pretty much imagine how that went, so I won't get into the finer aspects of it. But I would like to tell you that the fire alarm itself is the most obnoxious sound you've ever heard. Imagine standing on the 50-yard line of a football field. Lauren is standing in one endzone, holding a note on her piccolo. Renee is standing in the other endzone. Now, let's just say for demonstrative purposes that they're out of tune, but only slightly (we'll chalk it up to the doppler effect). Slightly obnoxious, right? Well imagine that they decided it would be fun to run straight at you, one holding a ff high C and the other a fff high C sharp. The obnoxiousness grows and grows until they're basically on top of you, still holding their notes. But ffff now. And there's nothing you can do to stop them. That's what the fire alarm is like. But then I guess that's the point.
And now I'm shut in my room, typing. But I had a very good day today. (It helps that I had only one hour of class.) But all good things must end. So good night.
Josh
PS - Lauren and Renee are both phenomenal piccolo players.
PPS - engineers but no architects
mood: pleased
music: the theme from Hey Dude, that old-school Nickelodeon show
location: Tower 2! Woot!
