Awesome Birthday Present

On Friday, I got another great birthday present. This one is special because about 20 band members pooled their funds together. They bought me an XBox 360!!!!! Oh yeah, and they gave me Guitar Hero II to go with it! How cool is that???!?!!

Here's how it happened: Last year, I was talking to one of my band members; his name is Matt. We weren't talking about anything important, just shooting the breeze. We got to talking about video games, and I told him I had been asking for an XBox for Christmas for the past few years. I never really expected to get one, though, because I knew if I had one I'd never get any work done at home!

Then, at band camp back in July, one of the "fun night" activities we did was a Guitar Hero tournament. Well, it was supposed to be a tournament, but it ended up being just a bunch of people playing Guitar Hero. It was great, and everyone had a lot of fun - including me!

So, fast forward to Friday. With about 10 minutes left in the school day, our principal came on the intercom and asked for some students to report to the front office. It was a long list, but after about 5 or 6 names I noticed that ALL of them were in band! The band room is right across the hall from the front office, and I was suspicious, so I headed to the hall. I was quickly redirected back to the band room! A few minutes later, they came in and asked me to come out into the hall. When I got there, all the kids were in an arc (which looked really good - definitely marching band kids). At the apex (?) of the arc was a present. Matt came up and told me that everyone here had contributed to the gift. I opened it -- it was Guitar Hero II for XBox! I thought, "Wow, this is great ... too bad I don't have an XBox." But I tried not to let on.

I started to thank them when Matt said, "You have an XBox, right?"

"Uh....no."

"Oh, really? Hang on a sec..." Matt walked over to a door to a nearby room and knocked on it. Another student came out with ANOTHER wrapped box. It looked like it was about the right size for an XBox. Sure enough, it was!

I was speechless. I think I said "wow" a few times. This is easily the coolest birthday or Christmas gift I have gotten from students. We brought everything into the band room and set it up right away using the projector in the band room. Everyone got a chance to play. It was awesome!

So, for those of you who aren't sure what to get me for Christmas, let me suggest NCAA Football '08 for XBox!!!!!! :)