Appalachian State Marching Band Competition 10/17

Yes, on Saturday, the marching band took a trip up to Boone for a marching band competition, where we would be competing as a size 1A band, that being the smallest size. It was a pretty amazing trip, hence my documenting of it. I had just played the half-time show live for the first time at the home-vs.-tabor game the night before; my mom and dad showed up in the beginning of "Big Noise From Winnetka," and my dad reportedly was shouting "That's my baby on the bells!" the whole time. When he wondered aloud last night in the car why people had been staring at him when he was yelling this, I informed him that it was likely because I was playing a vibraphone and not a glockenspiel/bell kit. But anyways, we arrived at school the next day at 8:30 in the morning to run through the show. I was sort of irritated that morning from being tired and from the feeling that I was in the way wherever I went. There were two different buses: one for the color guard and people who wanted to stay awake and talk, and another one for people who wanted to try to get some sleep; that is the bus I chose, as did most of the drum line, and it was driven by Mr. James. I took a seat behind Laura and across from Izzie and slept for about an hour or so; when I woke up, I looked out of the window and the autumn mountain scenery was beautiful to behold. The leaves that enveloped the rising slopes of the mountains that surrounded us were yellow and swirling down from greater heights. On either side of the highway were forests unbroken but for fields of lethargic cows.
Once we arrived at the school, we took a step outside of the bus and collectively shivered. The wind chill made the 39 degrees seem ten degrees cooler, and I pulled my earmuffs from my purse as we headed in the direction of the bathrooms. On the way back, someone from the drum line (Vipul, I think) shouted, "It's snowing!" And snowing it was, though barely. Imperceptible flakes fell through the air, occasionally revealing themselves in the light. We had been prepared for the possibility of snow, but it was still really cold.
Once we had retrieved our uniforms and instruments, most of the band left to warm up (not literally, of course) in some warm-up area; Izzie and I stayed behind with the pit equipment, which was being loaded onto trailers by strong men. We followed the trailers onto the field and set up for the small audience that sat in the stands, on either side of the 50 yard line, Izzie with her timpani and me with my vibraphone and xylophone. Mr. James showed up a few minutes before Banks with the band behind him. After Banks saluted to the people in the press box to indicate that "his band was ready," Mr. James yelled from his bench, "Yay band!" really loudly. It was pretty awesome. Then we played "Sing, Sing, Sing," "Novus," and "Big Noise from Winnetka." My fingers were nearly frozen by the end of it, but something about them being frozen seemed to make playing with the mallets easier.
After performing for the judges, we all walked back to the bus, where we loaded our instruments and uniforms back onto the trailer. I grabbed my gloves from the bus and followed Ms. Reese and some other students back to the stadium where we would be watching some of the other 1a and 2a bands perform. We sat in the stands shivering for a while, me feeling colder than I could remember feeling, before I followed a group of girls to the bathroom, where we basked in the warmth until we were forced to go back out for the next band. While in the bathroom, Virginia and Laura told me about the competition last year, held in a different place; apparently it had been even colder, and the girls had taken refuge in the small, not-nearly-as-luxurious-as-Appalachian's-bathroom bathroom. After listening to this story, I walked back to my place in the stands, determined not to show that I was cold; I failed. Thankfully, not long after that, it was announced that we could go back to the bus for lunch at 3:45; we were bused over to Cici's Pizza, and we sat with our pizza, hoping that we could stay in the warmth for as long as possible. Mr James ushered us out when he estimated that the biggest bands, size 4a, would be starting to perform.
Back up in the stands, one level up from our previous location, I sat on the outside; we were all squeezed together for the most warmth, and Izzie let me use half of her blanket. Then, my left side was cold, and so I asked if I could trade seats with her; she finally agreed when I told her that she could use the whole blanket. And then I was not warm, but I was one of the happiest cold people there.
Throughout the bands' performances, I sat between Vipul and Izzie/Mitch/Izzie again as people came and went. Mr. James came through a few times, sitting in the seat in front of us. The snow also was capricious, sometimes coming down in near-flurries and sometimes not being present at all. There was always a bitter chill that made my very bones rattle as I sat, trying to warm myself under the corner of Virginia's blanket that I could pull over my right leg. Between performances, we had random discussions, one being of importance: we were talking about the songs that we had stuck in our head, and when I sang "Baby It's Cold Outside," I was informed by Virginia and Vipul that I have "a beautiful singing voice." I'm used to my dad laughing and saying, "That sounds like you're dying, Robyn," when I sing, and so that boosted my ego about 10 points or so if one can measure ego in points.
When Mitch was on my left, we were discussing half birthdays; he was saying how one of his friends had texted him, wishing him a happy half birthday when he didn't even realize its existence; I said, "Mine's in September." Vipul said his was on the fourth, and I was like, "No way, so's mine." and so I had discovered another March 4th birthday; Mitch's birthday was February 26th, I think, and so that made three Pisces people in the same place at the same time, and that is fairly fantabulous if you ask me.
So at the end, the seniors, Mr. James, and Banks went down for the awards ceremony, and we all stood up from our spots and stumbled down the stairs on numb feet for a better look over the railing; Reynolds won nothing but third and last place, but I tried to console people by saying that we were the coolest losers there, and someone else (I think it was Joe) said that the judges just didn't know how to judge. Casey called us together, there in the stands, to have a discussion about the effort we apply, and then we all put our hands in and said something like "Go Reynolds!" and met everyone at the buses.
About five minutes after we had merged onto the highway, Mr. James informed us that no matter what we scored, he thought we were awesome and would take us anywhere on a tour, and then we yelled "Yay Band!" one more time before I passed out on the seat.
My mom picked me up once we got back to the school and I fell asleep immediately when I got home, having extremely odd dreams that I prefer not to share.
On another note, I'm thinking of throwing a Halloween party for the people in marching band, because they're all pretty amazing, and it shall be at my dad's house if he approves. That would be pretty super, now that I think about it, what with our new deck and everything.