Upstate High Schools Are Marching Band Champs

Upstate High Schools Are Marching Band Champs (no, I'm not making $$ off this - band rules!)
POSTED: 7:50 am EST October 31, 2005
UPDATED: 9:46 am EST October 31, 2005

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GREENVILLE, S.C. -- Several Upstate high school bands competed in the state marching band competition held Saturday.

In the 3-A competition, Greer High School took home the championship trophy. (This was our class.) It was only the second time the school has participated in the event. (This was also a serious upset - usually, Blue Ridge won state, but Greer snuck up on everyone this year!)

The bands from Union High School, Blue Ridge High School and Travelers Rest High School also placed in the competition.

In 4-A competition, Greenwood High School placed seventh and Boiling Springs placed 10th.

In the 2-A division, Pendleton High School placed third, Chapman High placed seventh and Chesnee High School placed eighth.

The band from Blacksburg High School marched home with first place in the 1-A division.

8 out of 12 ain't bad

Well, final candy apple count is 8 out of 12. The packet was supposed to make 12 apples, but I guess I "laid it on a little thick" LOL. Actually, I made more like 7 1/2. The last one was a disaster since the candy was close to drying by then. I have a blob of candy halfway wrapped around the 8th apple! The rest of the candy stayed on my spoon, making a lollipop that I am now enjoying.

I totally missed Daylight Savings Time. I woke up today with half of the clocks in house updated and the manual ones still what they were last night. I was getting ready to accuse Josh of playing a joke on me when it dawned on me that the clocks changed last night!

I volunteered at Greenville's "Booseum" today as part of our group from work. It's a Halloween event for kids... crafts, a haunted house, a toy shoppe, and other things, I think. I got to help kids write their names in Heiroglyphics and wrap them up like mummies. I think I had a better time than the kids! Most of the kids liked having their arms wrapped (they could choose one body part for one ticket), but a lot of them let me wrap their heads. One was so scared that she only let me wrap a finger! But another wanted me to cover her whole head, so I convinced her to let me keep her nose unwrapped. I really had fun today.

Off to watch Crossing Jordan!

Happy early Halloween!

Actually, Happy Halloween, All Saints Day, Samhain, or however you might celebrate this holiday! This is my favorite time of year... leaves changing, marching bands, football season, trick-or-treaters, cold weather. I'm getting ready to make candy apples for tomorrow night... another reason to like this time of year. Well, if I could only find my candy thermometer, I can make them! 8:48pm

15 minute pause...

Ha! I found it! Right where I left it "so I'd remember", actually. DUH is the only word that comes to mind right now. Off to make candy apples! 9:06pm

Party in my cubicle!

Ok, maybe not directly inside my cubicle, but outside in the courtyard... we had a company Halloween lunch/costume contest. I'll post pics when I can this weekend.

In the meantime, here's a pic of our cake again! I'm re-posting it b/c in exactly 16 days, we get to thaw out the top of this cake (which has been in our freezer taking up some major space since 11-13 of last year) and chomp down! It's cream cheese cake and cream cheese icing - Lord help me - we will eat every last crumb! I think at the rate we paid for it, the crumbs probably cost a quarter apiece, so it's a waste of $$ not to do so! :) I even have wedding napkins left over. :)

I can't wait to re-arrange my freezer!

We're hoping to go to a local haunted house tonight called Wompus Woods. It's a whole forest full of scary sh*^$t, chainsaw people, zombies, etc. You actually drive through it, so at least I can lock my doors LOL.

Well, too much crap to do and not enough time in which to do it. Later!

Sick Baby - updated news

update to the last post - please continue to keep this family in your prayers.

****Updated 10-28-2005**** The baby has died... took 3 breaths after birth... no more details yet. :*(

***Updated 10-27-2005****
We received the following email, “We're back from Virginia with the mother. They wanted her to stay until the baby is born so they could do all kinds of surgeries on her. The mother told them she needed to come home and decide if this is what she wants to do or if she would allow for nature to take it course. The baby has gotten worse over the past week but in order for her to have a 50/50 chance of survival (and operations) she needs to go full term ( 6 more weeks).
She already has fluid around her heart and stomach. She has developed another vein like the Vein of Galen in the back of her head called something sinus that leads into the jugular vein. Her heart rate for the failure is up to 170 beats from 150 of last week. And the hydrocephalys is much worse.

Now, her lungs are a problem, due to being smashed up against her side they are under-developed. They can't tell for sure but it appears the blood vessels needed aren't all there. We met with so many different sets of doctors over the past several days. But this is the only place on the east coast that does this type of procedure. When we got there on Thursday morning the first 6 doctors told Tasha that they were planning on delivering the baby then, but when the doctors that would do the Vein of Galen surgeries did the MRI on the baby they said that they needed to do whatever they could for Tasha not to go into labor before her due date. I want to thank all of you for your thoughts, prayers and concern. I just hope that the right decision is made.”

Anyone who sees this, please keep this family in your prayers (or however it is you ask for guidance). This is a friend of one of my co-workers.

Earlier Message: Her unborn baby has a brain aneurysm. There is no
hope for the baby.

***Updated 10-5-05*** She went back to the doctor today for an ultra
sound and the news wasn’t good. The baby has gained up to 4lbs and 1oz.,
but she has gotten worse over the past few weeks. Her heart is enlarged
now due to the heart failure. She is still averaging 150 beats per minute,
but the size takes up most of the chest cavity. The hydrocephalus is worse
as well. The aneurysm is still in proportion with the size of the brain as
it was 2 weeks ago. The aneurysm is pushing the brain against the
skull. The doctor said she is just hanging on. She can live better
inside than on the outside but there is still very little hope. The
mother is now 32 weeks. Another ultra sound will be performed on the
20th.

Band Dork!

You are a hard core band dork.

What is your Marching Band Personality?
brought to you by

502!

Cool! My site stats just hit over 500! What I like is not that people visit once, but multiple times. So, what you're looking at is not 502 different people, but how many total hits I got. It's like my own private blog-credit-score LOL.

Today I am:
...not frizzy b/c my conditioner is awesome...
...suffering from vertigo...vertiguous? (my own made-up word!) :)
...obviously pensive...
...only listening to mellow music...
...REALLY enjoying this chilly weather...icky? please - anything but!


Song Recommendation:
So Much to Say - Dave Matthews Band

One Word

One Word

Describe me in one word - just one. Send it to me (just comment), and see how many different things people think about me! I'll compile them all as I get them (oh yeah, I sent this to non-blog people as well, hence the extra words).

So far:

Caring (2x)
Loving
Trustworthy
Musical
Fun
Baby-sister
Fantastic (I love this one!)

updated: 10-28

I'm still here!

Sorry I haven't posted in a couple of days. I've just been plain lazy! Ha!

JB - thanks for the b-day wishes. :) I had a wonderful day of laziness, followed by laundry, birthday phone calls, DVD watching (see below), spaghetti and more laziness! Josh took me out on Friday since I had a competition on Saturday and he had to work on Sunday.

Josh bought me the new Phantom movie DVD. I love that movie! I watched it in the morning when 3rd-shift hubby was sleeping.

My house is a mess, and I have NO idea how it got that way! I was shocked myself when I walked in from lunch today! However, I do believe that some un-named piddies are responsible for the mass of unused trashbags scattered on the kitchen floor, as well as the wide-open cabinet. Glass Plus on the floor also... I guess the Mr. Yuck stickers don't work on kitties. LOL - my mom must have given me a couple of Mr. Yuck stickers when we moved out, in case the nieces came over (either that or I had them in my old sticker book!), b/c i have them on some of my bottles!

Must vacuum - again... it never stops... never... stops...

Lucy the food-hog pooped in her carrier again! I believe she thinks it's a litterbox... God love her!

Philosophical thought of the day: If kitties fight, and no one is around to see them do so, did they really knock over all the contents of one's computer desk... or was it a figment of their Mommy's imagination?

Happy Birthday to Me!

Happy Birthday to Me,
Happy Birthday to Me!
Happy Birthday dear Carri,
Happy Birthday to Me!

(note time on post - this is my exact birth time!)

Grow up!

My birthday is on Sunday. I bring that up b/c I am about to be 29 years old, and that is a foreign concept to me. Granted, 29 is not old at all, but it just seems weird that I am “29 and holding.” Ha. Well, minus the holding part. I find it hard to wrap my head around that fact. At this point in life, I am not holding, though. I want to age. When I am “old”, I want to have white hair and be bouncing a grandkid on my lap, afterwards, handing her a quarter and telling her not to spend it all in one place (quarters will probably be non-existent by the time we have grandkids!). Luckily, the white hair trait runs in the maternal side of my family.

I am well aware that I am no longer a child, no longer on my father’s tax returns as a dependent, no longer borrowing 20 bucks from Dad to gallivant all over the local mall. I have my own 401k, my own car purchased by my own money, I have an awesome grown-up job, I have a husband, my very own rented apartment, and everything we have is either in my name or in Josh’s. Yeah, a lot of things I mention are about money, but a large part of being an adult is financial responsibility.

Another reason I know I’m getting older is that the youngest kids I instruct in the band were born during my senior year of high school. If that doesn’t hit home, then I’m an idiot.

So where in life was this sudden transition from childhood to adulthood? Of course, it happened over time, probably somewhere between high school and getting married. I know for sure that I was no adult in college. I thought I was, though. That’s when Mom and I had our “creative differences” about me. Though, we worked them out, and moving out with Josh helped. We were probably just getting a little too much of each other.

I knew I was starting to become an adult way before then, but I refused to take on ALL of the responsibilities of being grown and independent. Only now that Josh and I are on our own do I realize what it really takes to be an adult and responsible for oneself. Some people don’t even have to grow up, as they have had and will continue to have everything handed to them on the silver platter that Mom and Dad’s good investments bought for them – good for them. I’m not one of those people. My parents struggled (for various reasons, none of which had anything to do with being irresponsible, mind you), and we will probably struggle. We don’t have any problems right now, but we might in the future. We don’t have our house yet, and everyone says that we might not have MORE bills, but the bills we have now will be larger.

The job Josh has currently has a one week unpaid shutdown (I consider it a temporary lay-off) during December, which pisses me off to no end. During the hardest time of the year for some people, we get half our family income. Yeah, it’s only a week, so you say, but think about what would happen to you if you lost 1/8 of your monthly income. Some bills would suffer. We are already saving now for the week, but it’s really hard to do so. Christmas will have to suffer, and that’s hard for me to accept. Though, it’s something that must be done. We just can’t spend on our loved ones like we did the past two years. Luckily, I already have some $$ from band checks to cover most of my Christmas $$ allotment, but I won’t be able to spend as much on Josh this year b/c of all this.

Enough of being introspective – time for lunch.

What is it about the middle of the day on Wednesdays that makes my blog so tempting to read? Why not midnight on Tuesday? Or even 1:37 on Friday? Who knows...

You know, I have made every effort to be lazy today, but it didn't really work out that way. I think the news from work today gave me an extra boost of energy. I have cleaned the bathroom and most of the kitchen. Please, forget about the bedroom! That's not going to happen anytime soon. There is enough floor to find my way to the bed, so there!

Crap... my knee hurts - big time... like the ache I get when the humidity goes haywire here. Ow.

I FINALLY found my mp3 software! I've been looking for it for about a year now, which makes sense considering I found it in our bridal shower card box! yay - I can finally put my songs on my mp3 player. Can I get a woo-hoo or a hoo-ha?

Listening to: Adema - highly recommend!

I have a new boss

Yipe! What a change. We just a meeting about our department re-org, which puts me and my co-worker in a new category. Our current boss is being promoted to something totally different. We'll probably have to move our stuff way over to the other side of the department. I hate moving days. So much is involved in moving... overnight phone switches, physical objects, fax line re-routing (my division has its own fax machine, which we might lose anyway due to the move). Good thing: we couldn't have changed hands to anyone better. I really like my future boss, and I look forward to working with her. I like where I am geographically, though. We are at the windows that face outside. The other side is facing the glass partition and a hallway. We might get some light, but not much. This side is better. Whaaaanh!!!! I dont know how far off in the future this is going to happen... so for now, business as usual!

Countdown: 46 minutes!!!!!!!

Lucy Update and Countdown Continued

Ok quick part now:
countdown: 176 minutes!

Lucy part: Josh took her to the vet to get her stitches dealt with. Right when he pulled into the vet's parking lot, she pooped in her carrier!! That's the 2nd time she's done something like that - the first being on the way to Gatlinburg. She does NOT like being in that thing, yet she'll sleep in it at home - I don't get it! But as soon as she realizes she can't get out, she has a piddy fit!

Poor baby...

Well, Macy acted a little better last night. As long as Lucy isn't moving toward him, he'll tolerate her. She was on the ottoman grooming herself last night, and Macy walked by her within 6 inches. He stopped, stared at her as if to say, "Hey dude - you're on my stool." Then he just walked away, which is much better than how he was acting. Also, we have been putting Lucy in the bedroom with us during bedtime and closing Macy out.

Last night, I decided to give co-habitation a try again. Bad move, I guess. We have a lot of clean clothes in a large pile in our papasan chair in the bedroom next to the turtle tank (which is on top of our dresser). Ha - best complicated sentence ever! Lucy likes to see what Doc is doing and will hang out on the chair. Macy also likes the chair, as it is usually his sleeping area if he stays in the bedroom with us. When I went to bed, Lucy was walking around the living room, and Macy was curled up in the papasan. I went to bed w/ no regrets of leaving the door open. Just when I was almost asleep, I heard Macy hiss. Great... I heard it one more time, got up, & turned on the lamp to see what was up. Ha! Poor Lucy was curled up right beside Macy on the papasan and Macy couldn't stand it! So, I kicked Macy out and closed the door. Josh opened it when he got home (a little before dawn) and all seemed well , I suppose.

Josh didn't report any problems this morning. By the time I got up, poor, sweet Lucy was sleeping in her carrier (we leave it out and open a few days in advance of putting her in it to relieve her vet worries) and butthole Macy was sitting in a dining chair under the table. Don't get me wrong, he is my sweetie, but he's being mean right now and we don't know why. Anyone have any ideas?

Oh yeah - work countdown: 417 minutes

Feline Sibling Rivalry

Geez - what a week! I took Lucy to get fixed on Thursday morning. We figured it was a good day to do it, since she had to stay a whole day. Between Josh and I, one of us had the next three days off, so someone would be with her until tomorrow. Everything went fine at the vet, and Josh picked her up as scheduled on Friday. When Lucy started walking around the house again, Macy hissed and growled at her like she wasn't even the same cat! We've had a hella weekend dealing with him. The only other time he acted like this was the first ten days we got Lucy. We believe that he thinks she's a different cat b/c of the different smells?? Who knows, but he REALLY needs to calm down. I'm at the annoyance phase b/c of dealing with that.

Recent competition news: third competition was yesterday - the kids got best drumline, best color guard and 2nd place in class I. It was their best competition performance so for, but not their absolute best performance for the season. We had a mock competition on Friday (we were the judges). We ran the show four times total, and they got better every time, with the last being their best ever. Funny thing, we were repeating our same critiques every time for the most part.

More stuff tomorrow!

Countdown 3

29 lousy minutes... another burper... help me

going home and playing my Law & Order PC game!

Countdown 2

78 minutes!!

I hate unnecessary burping. You KNOW when it's unnecessary, too! Like when someone is talking to you, and they just deliberately let one go right in your face! rude...

or when my band kids just arbitrarily burp out of nowhere - I hope they don't plan to use that for general effect scoring...

Slow Countdown

BORED TO DEATH - I have stuff to do at work, but it's so monotonous today that I feel like stabbing the paperwork to my cubicle. I think if my cubicle walls were a different color, I might not be so bored. Maybe one kiwi green wall and one Furman purple wall (look it up, Furman University color).

Countdown: 135 minutes - geez, that's too many minutes.

Long weekend - sort of

Well, another competition in our back pocket - the kids received best horn line and 3rd place trophies. We had some tough competitors this time. I didn't get to see anyone else perform, but the scores were pretty much neck and neck. Total score didn't improve, but most individual scores did, which is good. We just need to concentrate on nit-picky things from now on. We've been tracking our competitors for Upperstate competition and most all of us are close in the scoring. The point system is only going to get harder as we go.

I saw such a lovely thing the other day, and I forgot to write it here:
I was driving home on a long road at night. I was about 30 feet away from this, but a deer was darting across the road (no chance of hitting, so rest assured). I thought it would jump into the forest, but I didn't know there was a long fence hindering him. So, without a path to escape, he traveled down the side of the road (grassy part about 8-10 ft. wide) as close to the trees as he could. By the way, he had the most beautiful antlers (about 18-24 inches, I guessed). I followed behind him as long as I could (probably about a 1/4 mile, I think), until he found an opening and jumped about 8 feet into the air over the fence (it looked like those fences ranchers close behind cattle after rounding them up). I was astonished, to say the least! I wish I'd had my camera with me.


Songs of the day:

• Teardrop - Massive Attack
• The Ludlows - Legends of the Fall soundtrack
• Photograph - Nickelback

Forensics Word-A-Day

We studied this in juvenile delinquency class - Considering the advances in criminal profiling, it is a theory that doesn't really work anymore, but it was a step in the right direction, so say the researchers that believe some people are "born criminals".

ATAVISM (THEORY OF) - a classic theory of criminal behavior that has long been refuted. The theory of atavism suggests that criminals are genetic throwbacks that react deviantly simply because their behavior matches those of our ancient ancestors.

info from: http://www.uplink.com.au/lawlibrary/Documents/Docs/Doc20.html

Are there cubicles in heaven?

Ok, you didn't get any blogging out of me for two days - shows what happens when I start reading a book. Yes - it does have priority over the internet for me.

I am in cubicle hell today, hence today's title.
I walked by someone just now and they were holding their butt like it was about to fall off.

We have another competition tomorrow at Pendleton High School. Our kids have improved a lot over this week, despite Tropical Storm Tammy coming through and dumping two days worth of rain on us. At least we got to work on their music for a day. They needed it. Wish them luck!

LOL - I'm listening to the comedy station on yahoo music. I'm about to get myself into trouble laughing so loudly at work. Oops!

I have overloaded myself with work. Why do I keep doing this to myself? Why? Because I actually like my job and want to learn more about it, I guess? Maybe. I do like my job, though... that's not the maybe part.

Exactly what is "nothing to write about" for bloggers? Some blogs are filled with whatever happens to pass through one's mind, yet others are filled with political statements, even more are filled with people saying they're bored. Each might say that the other is full of "nothing". That said, I'm not worrying about whatever else I might write here might be considered "nothing" by someone else.

Game tonight - must work.

Song Recommendations

This is all the blogging you get until I get home - LOL -

• Hello - Evanescence (seems like Macy's theme-song, by the way, the little co-dependent thing!)
• If We Could Remember - Yolanda Adams

One More

Oh yeah - diesel fumes also!

Yeah, I know that one's dangerous, but I hang out at the back of the band buses and it smells good to me. :)

LOL - my work address won't access myspace.com - probably because there's so much objectionable stuff there - oh well, waiting until I get home.

Oddity

I love the smell of copier toner - is that super-scary?

My New Space

Just created a place in myspace.com: Check it out!

www.myspace.com/opiccolo

It's pretty much empty, though. Not for long!

Work Stuff

Well, since previously mentioned annual review went so well, I'm looking forward to rate-increase meeting. It's supposed to happen in the next few weeks.

We're undergoing a major revamping or our little section of the department... and we're doing it to ourselves. We're also are charged with streamlining the entire department's processes, so things run smoother and we all are not doing unnecessary tasks and creating extra busy-work. Today, we had a meeting about one of our processes, which lasted 1 1/2 hours. Later, after creating a proposal for another procedure change (I actually like doing this, b/c people really listen to our ideas), we had another meeting to review it and learn about the part of the job we're going to start doing... this meeting lasted anoth 1 1/2, so did I get much done today? Nope!

Josh and I watched "Mean Creek" this weekend. It's a definite "I recommend" movie. We also rented "Monster-in-Law" but haven't had a chance to watch it.

Hey - check out my new spontaneous frivolous purchases for this paycheck period!

Playing Ketchup

Ok - catch-up - LOL.

I finally have time to write! A lot has happened.

Thursday: It actually rained! On the right is a pic at band practice at about 5:00pm. It doesn't look like much right there, but it poured on us about 15 minutes later.

Friday night, we had a video session and pizza party for the kids. We showed them videos of years past (three of my years as well... I loved that time of my life!) and some DCI stuff. They seemed to have a pretty good time.

Saturday (all day), we had our first competition of the season. I went to the bank early that morning to cash my band checks (my first card is too bent to go into the ATM and I didn't know that my replacement card was given a different pin #), and I didn't know the branch closer to the school didn't do the Saturday 1/2 day thing, so I had NO $$ at all until a parent just coincidentally paid me back for buying their child a clarinet reed - Thanks!

In all, their first judged performance was decent. They did forget things, actually- major things, but it's not like they fell completely apart. The drumline was really good. Every part needs improvement, but we got a good start. Total trophies: Excellent rating (B minus average, if you think about it like that, on an A-B-C-D scale), Best Drumline in Class I, Best Hornline in Class I, and 2nd Place in Class I. Our football rival school really racked up (not band rivals FYI), though. They joined the competition late, so the officials told them that they had to compete in the only un-filled class, which was a class or two higher than they should have been in. Wouldn't you know - they went home with the grand champion trophy - good for them! They beat a couple of bands much bigger than them, which says a lot down here. As much as we try not to admit it, many of the competitions down here are size-biased. All-in-all, though, a good day!

More on another post.