Competition

I think I am finally starting to recover from a long competition day on Saturday. We began the day at 7:30 a.m. with a quick warm-up, brief rehearsal, and a run-through of the show. We planned to do that in our stadium, but the sprinklers were on (despite the recent rain), so we moved to our practice field. No chance of water there -- that field hasn't seen a sprinkler in decades!

At 9ish we rolled out in 4 school buses, our equipment truck (pulling our trailer) and another truck hauling a trailer with the flying rig and the backdrop. At 11:15 we stopped at a rest area and handed out hot dogs (kept warm in a cooler -- ironic, I know), fruit, cookies, and lemonade. Back on the bus, and we arrived in Carrollton at 1:15 p.m., just in time to unload, put our uniforms on, and head to the warm-up area.

We had the best performance of the year (so far), which was enough to give us 3rd place in Class AAA. Our drum majors got second place, as did the drumline. So, it was a successful day.

Oh, and I should mention that one of our judges was none other than Ken Bodiford -- my (and Pete's) high school band director in Hampton, VA! He is now the Director of Bands at Jacksonville State University and Executive Director of Spirit of JSU Drum and Bugle Corps. (Pete and I marched with Spirit in 1993, back when they were Spirit of Georgia.) JSU's band was there for an exhibition performance, which was phenomenal. They marched THIRTY tubas, playing bell-front concert tubas with a strap. Pretty impressive. The band was HUGE, but they were clean and sounded amazing. I now have 100 kids who want to go to JSU. :) Probably the coolest part was when the trumpet section "arched up" in front of us and played the theme from Phantom Menace, complete with ridiculously high notes.

Anyway, I got to talk to Mr. Bodiford (still feels weird to call him "Ken" - I know, Pete was calling him that before graduation) for a few minutes during one of the breaks. He didn't know I had a band there (we had already performed). Last I saw him I was at a drum corps show in Orlando while I was still in Florida. He asked about Pete and Mom and Dad. He rolled his eyes when I told him that both of us had little ones running around. :)

So, back on the bus at midnight, and we arrived at school at 3:45 a.m. Sunday. I got home a little before 5 a.m. No church for me on Sunday morning! It was a long day. But we brought home 11 trophies in all, so that's pretty good. We placed in every caption - overall band, drum majors, color guard, danceline, and percussion.

For those keeping score, yes, Effingham was there, competing in the same class as us. Their drum majors won first place in class (we were 2nd), as did their percussion (we were 2nd). But our overall band score was better. :)

As for video -- I have an MPEG, but Google video doesn't seem to like it. You can't see Elphaba flying anyway -- it's a wide angle shot from the press box, so all you see is a little black dot, and only if you're paying attention. Still, I'll keep trying to post it.

The good thing about being at a band competition all day is that it distracted me from Florida's meltdown against LSU. But I did notice that Pete Crawford is a little less vocal about his Wildkitties since they lost last week. I have to say, it's pretty strange looking up at Kentucky in the SEC East standings. Don't worry; we'll correct that in two weeks in Lexington!