Anyway, school starts tomorrow. Where has the summer gone? I just finished my last band camp, and my senior year of high school is already beginning. Crazy. This summer went by so quickly, it’s insane! All it pretty much was was California, home, summer reading, and band camp. Oh, and I have my license and a car.

Band is looking a lot better than last year though. I’m actually surprised. The kids are looking good, and believe it or not, the directors are actually organized. Ms. Stevens still doesn’t do anything though, and her baby is around all the time. The drumline is also looking a little sorry, but I’m actually enjoying being in the pit a little. I still hate this music though.

A few days ago, we rehearsed in the field after a thunderstorm with the full band. Pushing the instruments through a swampy field is one thing, but then standing in a swampy field and being attacked by ants was just unbearable. My ankles are still swollen, and I can’t STAND IT ANYMORE!

This year, some one had the bright idea of assigning people specific parking spaces in the school parking lot. I already know this won’t work, because frankly, high schoolers are just dumb. So I’m not looking forward to driving to school tomorrow morning while everyone is freaking out about where their spot is. And I’m also expecting people to NOT park in their assigned spaces, which means that person has to park in another space and etc. etc. It takes one person to mess it up! This won’t work.

I’ve been thinking about doing drum corps next summer. I think I might go to a camp. Since Troy came back from being with Troopers, I’ve wanted to try Troopers too and he said that I should try it. I’m not sure if I could make it though. I’m no god on mallets, especially 4-mallets. I’m also not sure if I can handle 13 hour rehearsals and sleep on buses and gym floors. Well, maybe being uncomfortable is what I need. I’m super lazy sometimes.

I wonder what my school schedule will be like.  So far, I only know that I have band 7th period. Woot.

Tomorrow will suck though. Not only do I have to go to school, I have to stay after school for percussion rehearsal. I hope it doesn’t rain, but I hope it isn’t muggy and hot. Houston’s weather sucks.

Until next time………(who knows..),
autumn

Anyway, I’ve been listening to Mates of State’s new album “Re-Arrange Us”.

I’m not going to lie. It is pretty wonderful. The album itself is really different from their beloved album “Team Boo”, but it’s different in a good way. I’m totally into it.

So I checked out the lineup for Austin City Limits 2008 earlier this year, and I was pretty disappointed. The only band I would have wanted to see was Mates of State, but I’m not about to pay $80 to see one band 2 hours away. Good thing I looked to see if they were touring any time soon, and guess what! They’re coming to Houston on June 12th, 2 days before I leave to California. What amazing luck! I am forcing Bryan Zubay to go, even though he says he probably can’t, and T.D. and Kevin decided to come with me. Hanging out with them at the Invisible Children Benefit Show was a lot of fun, and I can’t wait for the Mates of State show. It’s going to be great.

Hmm…so life kind of slowed down these last few weeks. Really, we shouldn’t be doing anything anymore, but some teachers just insist on continuing. I wish all classes could be like Human Geography right now: movie time. We’ve seen Ball of Fire and I Am David in the past few weeks, and now we’re watching Pan’s Labyrinth. Yeah, too bad I don’t quite have an A in that class and I’ve lost any more opportunities to raise my grade because of movie time. Oh well. I am feeling SO lazy. Which is probably not a good thing since I’m only a junior, almost senior. Wow.

Band is annoying me a little less now for some reason. A LITTLE. I was elected Band VP, which I never expected. I also decided to stay in the Pit and be Pit Captain, playing marimba once again. I really love it. The only real thing I don’t love about it is my section’s lack of the same enthusiasm and determination. Even Ms. Stevens said that I have the worst job in the band having to be responsible for the section of what they believe is full of drumline rejects. Truthfully though, our parts are just as important, no less, but for some reason no one understands? I mean….drum corps pit members weren’t drumline rejects, and they prove that the pit has some of THE best parts of a show. Maybe I can get them to understand that and love what they do.

It’s already been a rough start though. I think we started originally with nine people, and we’re already down to six that I know are staying. There are like sixteen pit parts though, so Mr. Stevens and Mr. Brown had to figure out the instrumentation for all of us by mixing and matching different parts up, which is a huge hassle. I had to do the copying and seriously used an inch of paper. Then I went though and marked it all up, and I’m kinda afraid the music might intimidate everyone because they are all so chaotic. Hopefully it won’t bother the kids too much, even though it’s been bothering me already. Man, I miss freshman year when there was thirteen people in the pit, the parts were written specifically for our pit, and we had a ton of fun.

Sigh.

Well I could recap over all the other stuff that’s happened since my last entry…nah.

♪ MP3: Voxtrot – Kid Gloves

If you ever have a chance, listen to Voxtrot’s self-titled album. It’s good. Their “Raised by Wolves EP” is also very good.

So, what’s this chaotic shit I’m talking about? I don’t know. High School. Junior year. Band.
Nowadays, I feel like nothing can ever go the way I would like it to. I’ve been increasingly angry over this school year, but I never blame myself for choosing to put up with this shit. I chose to take 6 Honors/AP classes at the beginning of the year. I chose to be lazy my freshman and sophomore year and get by with B’s in everything.

I chose to stay in band, even though I hate it. I stay hoping there will be some miracle that will make things better and allow me to do what I love, and that’s to play music with the band. If you know me, you know how I feel about this. Band used to be the place I can forget about school to do what I love. It used to be a getaway that I could be happy to be a part of. Now, I have to worry about Band dropping my GPA because we have 11 major grades and I have no motivation anymore.

I don’t know what is wrong with me. I never cared about getting A’s before. Because I want A’s so badly and everything about Band is wrong, I find myself feeling more stressed and upset than ever before. I complain so much to make myself feel better, but I know it doesn’t do anything. Honestly, I’m sick of hearing myself bitch about everything. I annoy myself every time I do it, but I can’t help it anymore. What the fuck.

With all this stress about school and a disaster in Band, I can’t stop being angry anymore. My little social life has definitely disappeared too. My favorite thing to do nowadays is nothing, because I’m so tired from everything else. Sad. Everything going on is tearing me apart.

Okay. That’s my update 2 months until school ends.

Looking forward to the summer…