Sunday, November 07, 2004
Reunion
Well, the parents are gone. We had a good visit, but as with all good things it eventually came to an end. Dad's already at home in good ol' Ramona and Mom's still here in SLO at the Peach Tree Inn, getting a good night's sleep in preparation for a 7am departure. It's not as hard to seem them go considering that I saw them two weeks ago at Homecoming and that I'll see them two weeks from now at Thanksgiving. It does still make me a little homesick, but then when am I ever not a little homesick?
Anywho, I'll pick up where I left off on my post last Friday night. I was able to sleep in pretty well Saturday morning (having the room to myself and all), although Kevin's alarm did go off promptly at 7. It took me a pretty good while to figure out what the heck was happening, but somehow I managed to groggily make my way across the room to silence that insufferable beeping. But I went back to sleep for a good three hours more, so it all worked out. I got up, had breakfast, and showered, all in time for Kelsey from my music theory group to come over at noon to bang out a composition. When she got here we decided it was easier for just one of us to write it, and since I had already written something and since I had a moderate amount of interest in finishing it, we decided that person would be me. (I'm not trying to sound like they're all trying to stick me with all the work. I actually do have an interest in this project, and I'm glad I get to write our piece.) That was about the extent of our meeting. Kelsey left me to compose.
About an hour later Dad called to say he had arrived in SLO. He came and picked me up so we could go to lunch. We had planned to go to Firestone Grill, a popular SLO sports bar/cafe, but the line was about thirty feet out the door. We opted instead to go across the street to Woodstock Pizza. My slice of pepperoni was good but Dad was less than pleased with his Greek salad. So it goes. From there we went to look for sunglasses for me, because I lost the ones we bought when I first got to Poly. I couldn't find any I liked at Big 5, so we decided to go elsewhere to look.
However, it was at that point that Mom called to say she was coming into SLO. So we ditched the sunglasses search and met Mom back at my dorm. And from there I took Mom and Dad on the grand tour of Cal Poly (which, by the way, I'd gladly give to any of you should you decide you'd like to come visit me. I'm all for talking as many people as I can into coming here.) Mom had never been to SLO before, so it was fun to show her (and Dad, although he had seen a lot of it when he dropped me off here in September) all of the places I talk about in my blog and elsewhere. My EE lab classroom happened to be open, so I was able to take them in there and show them a bunch of the equipment I use. I also took them by my math and physics classes, the library, the university union (including the bowling alley), and Campus Market. Whilst we were at the market I chanced upon some sunglasses that weren't the worst things in the world (although Mom had to talk me into them), so I went ahead and bought them with my meal plan dollars. Woot for efficiency.
After the tour we went and had dinner at Firestone Grill, where the lunch rush had diminished and the dinner crowd hadn't arrived yet. I had a delicious tri-tip steak sandwich. Very SLO. I then left my parents to go and get ready for Bandfest.
Dress. Mustang Band rehearsal. Break. Wind orchestra rehearsal. Break. Opening of show: "Star Spangled Banner," played by wind orchestra, ensemble, and Mustang Band; then "Fanfare for the Common Man," played by windO/windE brass. (From now on I'd like to refer to wind orchestra/ensemble by their abbreviated forms, pronounced "window" and "windy.") Both tunes went well; we managed to not screw up Fanfare, although it wasn't as flawless as a professional group would have played it. Then the windE portion of the concert: "American Salute" (variations on "When Johnny Comes Marching Home Again"), "America the Beautiful" (the blue Europe band version), and "National Emblem" (the monkey/flagpole march - see Friday's post). All three of these went just dandily. WindE followed us to wrap up the first half of the concert; I couldn't listen because I had to change from my tux to my MB (MB = Mustang Band from here on out) uniform. During intermission MB warmed up. We opened the second half of the concert with "Come on Feel the Noize," following it with "Jump in the Line," "I'm a Man," "Hummin' Along" (drum-soloalicious), "Nights in White Satin," and, of course, the fight song. These all went well also. Although after the fight song when we all had taken our bows we were standing there waiting for the curtain to close, but the stage hand couldn't figure out what cord to pull or something because nothing happened. We all stood there grinning and watching out of the corner of our eyes for some instruction. Someone in the audience finally yelled out, "close the curtain!" It did, and all of us in MB finally were able to let out the laughter we had been restraining. It was pretty darned hilarious. Anywho, after that was the WindO/WindE combined portion of the concert. We played "Lonely Beach," where I got to go stand in the audience (still wearing my MB uniform, mind you) and play a solo-bugle-call kind of thing. Then we played "Armed Forces Salute," which was my favorite part of the concert. We played each of the five branches' songs, and J told all the veterans in the audience to stand when theirs was played. It was really moving to see all of them stand up and clap along with their branch's song. After that we closed the concert with...brace yourself, big shocker coming here..."The Stars and Stripes Forever." We played it very well, although I've heard the piccolo solo played better before. (Interesting aside: John Philip Sousa was born on November 6, 1854. Our concert was November 6, 2004. Happy 150th, J.P. Sousa!) Anyway, that was the concert.
I went back to the dorm afterward to change, and then I stayed with Dad overnight at his hotel in Pismo Beach (the same one we stayed at when we first moved me up here). I had no swimsuit but I really wanted to go sit in the jacuzzi (as I don't have one around here), so I went in my boxers. Feeling more relaxed - and more awake after my Starbucks Frappuccino kicked in - I stayed up pretty late finishing my music theory piece. Then sleep.
I woke up to find Dad had been up for a few hours already, walking along Pismo Beach and enjoying the scenery. We went to church at the mission and then picked up Mom for breakfast. After waiting twenty minutes or so we sat down at a table at the Apple Farm Inn, only to be informed that breakfast wasn't served after noon. So we ditched the Inn in favor of IHOP. Stuffed french toast deliciousness.
Dad had to hit the road after that, so he dropped Mom and I back off at Mom's hotel and left. Mom then returned me to campus so I could have a few hours to catch up on homework. I wish I could have spent the time with my parents, but I have more midterms coming up and I desperately needed to catch up on my work. I got a considerable amount of math and physics done before I had to leave for my music theory group meeting, where we took our first stab at playing my piece. Our attempt wasn't too shabby, although we will need a lot more work. We've got two weeks; I'm pretty sure we'll pull it off.
While I was in the music building I decided to practice trumpet. I have an audition tomorrow, and I really want to make windE because they're playing "Candide." I'm playing a couple of easy pieces out of Arban's...I'm going the "play an easy piece well" route rather than trying to push myself and risk screwing something up. I'll let you know tomorrow how it went.
After I had sufficiently recovered from last night's concert, Mom came and fetched me and we went back to the Apple Farm Inn for dinner. I had chili, with caramel apple pie for desert. Yum! Mom felt like coffee afterwards so we drove over to Starbucks and purchased a cup of caffeinated bliss for her. Then it was back to campus to drop me off and say our last goodbyes.
In the time since I've occupied myself with the rest of my physics homework (on a chapter I'm actually finding quite interesting) and writing this epic blog entry. And that's where we are now.
One last thing before I go: I'm sorry to hear that RB lost field show to Vista at Mira Mesa. But, in a way, I'm glad to hear it. I hope all of you now can stop feeling guilty about "always winning." And, as the margin of loss was so little, I hope it inspires you to work harder in the two weeks you have left this year. There's still time...use it and enjoy it!
Good night all.
Cheers,
Josh
mood: much less stressed now that I've caught up on a lot of my homework
music: a punk cover of "Mr. Sandman," which happens to be on a CD Joanna made for me a while ago entitled "Super Cool, Really Awesome, No Words to Describe Them - Songs"
location: dorm
Anywho, I'll pick up where I left off on my post last Friday night. I was able to sleep in pretty well Saturday morning (having the room to myself and all), although Kevin's alarm did go off promptly at 7. It took me a pretty good while to figure out what the heck was happening, but somehow I managed to groggily make my way across the room to silence that insufferable beeping. But I went back to sleep for a good three hours more, so it all worked out. I got up, had breakfast, and showered, all in time for Kelsey from my music theory group to come over at noon to bang out a composition. When she got here we decided it was easier for just one of us to write it, and since I had already written something and since I had a moderate amount of interest in finishing it, we decided that person would be me. (I'm not trying to sound like they're all trying to stick me with all the work. I actually do have an interest in this project, and I'm glad I get to write our piece.) That was about the extent of our meeting. Kelsey left me to compose.
About an hour later Dad called to say he had arrived in SLO. He came and picked me up so we could go to lunch. We had planned to go to Firestone Grill, a popular SLO sports bar/cafe, but the line was about thirty feet out the door. We opted instead to go across the street to Woodstock Pizza. My slice of pepperoni was good but Dad was less than pleased with his Greek salad. So it goes. From there we went to look for sunglasses for me, because I lost the ones we bought when I first got to Poly. I couldn't find any I liked at Big 5, so we decided to go elsewhere to look.
However, it was at that point that Mom called to say she was coming into SLO. So we ditched the sunglasses search and met Mom back at my dorm. And from there I took Mom and Dad on the grand tour of Cal Poly (which, by the way, I'd gladly give to any of you should you decide you'd like to come visit me. I'm all for talking as many people as I can into coming here.) Mom had never been to SLO before, so it was fun to show her (and Dad, although he had seen a lot of it when he dropped me off here in September) all of the places I talk about in my blog and elsewhere. My EE lab classroom happened to be open, so I was able to take them in there and show them a bunch of the equipment I use. I also took them by my math and physics classes, the library, the university union (including the bowling alley), and Campus Market. Whilst we were at the market I chanced upon some sunglasses that weren't the worst things in the world (although Mom had to talk me into them), so I went ahead and bought them with my meal plan dollars. Woot for efficiency.
After the tour we went and had dinner at Firestone Grill, where the lunch rush had diminished and the dinner crowd hadn't arrived yet. I had a delicious tri-tip steak sandwich. Very SLO. I then left my parents to go and get ready for Bandfest.
Dress. Mustang Band rehearsal. Break. Wind orchestra rehearsal. Break. Opening of show: "Star Spangled Banner," played by wind orchestra, ensemble, and Mustang Band; then "Fanfare for the Common Man," played by windO/windE brass. (From now on I'd like to refer to wind orchestra/ensemble by their abbreviated forms, pronounced "window" and "windy.") Both tunes went well; we managed to not screw up Fanfare, although it wasn't as flawless as a professional group would have played it. Then the windE portion of the concert: "American Salute" (variations on "When Johnny Comes Marching Home Again"), "America the Beautiful" (the blue Europe band version), and "National Emblem" (the monkey/flagpole march - see Friday's post). All three of these went just dandily. WindE followed us to wrap up the first half of the concert; I couldn't listen because I had to change from my tux to my MB (MB = Mustang Band from here on out) uniform. During intermission MB warmed up. We opened the second half of the concert with "Come on Feel the Noize," following it with "Jump in the Line," "I'm a Man," "Hummin' Along" (drum-soloalicious), "Nights in White Satin," and, of course, the fight song. These all went well also. Although after the fight song when we all had taken our bows we were standing there waiting for the curtain to close, but the stage hand couldn't figure out what cord to pull or something because nothing happened. We all stood there grinning and watching out of the corner of our eyes for some instruction. Someone in the audience finally yelled out, "close the curtain!" It did, and all of us in MB finally were able to let out the laughter we had been restraining. It was pretty darned hilarious. Anywho, after that was the WindO/WindE combined portion of the concert. We played "Lonely Beach," where I got to go stand in the audience (still wearing my MB uniform, mind you) and play a solo-bugle-call kind of thing. Then we played "Armed Forces Salute," which was my favorite part of the concert. We played each of the five branches' songs, and J told all the veterans in the audience to stand when theirs was played. It was really moving to see all of them stand up and clap along with their branch's song. After that we closed the concert with...brace yourself, big shocker coming here..."The Stars and Stripes Forever." We played it very well, although I've heard the piccolo solo played better before. (Interesting aside: John Philip Sousa was born on November 6, 1854. Our concert was November 6, 2004. Happy 150th, J.P. Sousa!) Anyway, that was the concert.
I went back to the dorm afterward to change, and then I stayed with Dad overnight at his hotel in Pismo Beach (the same one we stayed at when we first moved me up here). I had no swimsuit but I really wanted to go sit in the jacuzzi (as I don't have one around here), so I went in my boxers. Feeling more relaxed - and more awake after my Starbucks Frappuccino kicked in - I stayed up pretty late finishing my music theory piece. Then sleep.
I woke up to find Dad had been up for a few hours already, walking along Pismo Beach and enjoying the scenery. We went to church at the mission and then picked up Mom for breakfast. After waiting twenty minutes or so we sat down at a table at the Apple Farm Inn, only to be informed that breakfast wasn't served after noon. So we ditched the Inn in favor of IHOP. Stuffed french toast deliciousness.
Dad had to hit the road after that, so he dropped Mom and I back off at Mom's hotel and left. Mom then returned me to campus so I could have a few hours to catch up on homework. I wish I could have spent the time with my parents, but I have more midterms coming up and I desperately needed to catch up on my work. I got a considerable amount of math and physics done before I had to leave for my music theory group meeting, where we took our first stab at playing my piece. Our attempt wasn't too shabby, although we will need a lot more work. We've got two weeks; I'm pretty sure we'll pull it off.
While I was in the music building I decided to practice trumpet. I have an audition tomorrow, and I really want to make windE because they're playing "Candide." I'm playing a couple of easy pieces out of Arban's...I'm going the "play an easy piece well" route rather than trying to push myself and risk screwing something up. I'll let you know tomorrow how it went.
After I had sufficiently recovered from last night's concert, Mom came and fetched me and we went back to the Apple Farm Inn for dinner. I had chili, with caramel apple pie for desert. Yum! Mom felt like coffee afterwards so we drove over to Starbucks and purchased a cup of caffeinated bliss for her. Then it was back to campus to drop me off and say our last goodbyes.
In the time since I've occupied myself with the rest of my physics homework (on a chapter I'm actually finding quite interesting) and writing this epic blog entry. And that's where we are now.
One last thing before I go: I'm sorry to hear that RB lost field show to Vista at Mira Mesa. But, in a way, I'm glad to hear it. I hope all of you now can stop feeling guilty about "always winning." And, as the margin of loss was so little, I hope it inspires you to work harder in the two weeks you have left this year. There's still time...use it and enjoy it!
Good night all.
Cheers,
Josh
mood: much less stressed now that I've caught up on a lot of my homework
music: a punk cover of "Mr. Sandman," which happens to be on a CD Joanna made for me a while ago entitled "Super Cool, Really Awesome, No Words to Describe Them - Songs"
location: dorm
