"it's never safe to be nostalgic about something until you're absolutely certain there's no chance of its coming back." - bill vaughn
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phew.
let me go through the last 2-3 weeks in brief detail. (though this may come out to be a novel, it is still abridged, i guarantee it is.)
so april rolls around and the cal aggie marching band-uh goes into this time called "picnic day season". obviously, i need to give you some background for this story to make sense. so here's the long story short-- picnic day is like... a day of festivities; it kind of reminded me of a mix of the orange county fair and the fourth of july parade. it's a really big event in davis, since the whole city takes part in it. in addition, other organizations, groups, and spectators come from all over the place: berkeley, stanford, sacramento, humboldt (f*ckers), san francisco, and even san diego. and it is just a happy day filled with festivities. now. that's picnic day. but what does the cal aggie marching band-uh! have anything to do with this day? most everything.
from the very buttcrack of april's start until picnic day (which was april 17th this year), the marching bandsmen practice their asses off. i can't even begin to fill you guys in on the hours that were stacked on top of one another, day after day, week after week. a typical day for a bandsmen is as follows (and was/is always subject to change):
marching practice 4pm-6pm
marching practice 7pm-9pm
float building (this will be elaborated later in this post)/marching practice 9pm-12mid
and that's an easy day.
in other words, the past two and a half weeks have been complete hell for my body, stressful for my mind, and way too much time allocated to satisfy a crowd for several hours on picnic day. notice on my mini-schedule... it says "float building". yes... the freshmen make a band float for the parade... from scratch. i'm really excited that we got the "best student organization" award for that, because damn, we spent so much time on that. my legs hate me, to say the least, i haven't slept in so long (save for sunday, the day after picnic day. i slept in for 16 hours)... but if you know me at all, you should know that all this complaining is not really complaining; it's me overexcited about band. but you all knew that already :)
let's save all the other stuff for another time... i want to get to the really good part: the battle of the bands, which started at 2pm. so a total of six bands competed: uci, ucsd, berkeley, stanford, humboldt (assholes), and us (uc davis). the rule is as follows: play until you have no songs to play. no repeating of any song, whether your school played it or not. of course, most everyone knows how it starts... we started off well, trying to steal each other's songs. blah, blah... on goes the battle. uci and ucsd leave around 9pm. then cal leaves 30min or so after that. so that left three bands left. well... the battle had just begun. humboldt (pricks) were obviously being asses (notice i've been degrading them for what they are in parenthesis after their pathetic school name); they wouldn't budge. stanford was actually really respectful, defying their "usual stereotype". they cheered us on, and they were extremely considerate. they kept us company until about 12mid., and then we were head-to-head against humboldt (bastards). the battle kept going. as we played harder songs, they pulled out a lame-ass middle school "tv themes" songbook to keep busy. ::shakes head:: you would think, at least, they'd battle with pride and dignity... what dumbasses.
and then some obscenity goes on for about two hours... and of course, we win. at 2am, after 12 hours of nonstop battling, it was finally over. this marked history in out band-uh as "the longest battle to have ever go on" on picnic day. but it wasn't going to end any other way. and it was the best picnic day, ever. i've only experienced this day once... but i KNOW this will never be surmounted by another picnic day. oh, man... we kicked humboldt's ass. and had ourselves a blast.
humboldt: we won, you lost. pathetic attempt to win, losers.
to those who read this god-awfully long post: i love you for sticking around. you rock.
band-uh! and alumni: i'm so proud to be a part of the best picnic day ever.
i love band. i am such a bando. i love it.
mai - alto sax, 2004
p.s. - thanks, nav, for nominating me yet once again, for the "most likely to remain a bando for life" award. i am quite honored and i sincerely appreciate your nomination. i love you, daddykins!
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this really sucks.
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one more day until picnic day. one more day until i get to sleep. one more day until i have a life outside of marching band. (oh wait...)
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marching band is wonderful. but you've never seen marching band like this before. welcome to the 7-hour marching days... and i can thank all this to the delightful day we like to call "picnic day".
so let me try to elaborate on picnic day. it's a long story, and i don't even know half of it. but basically, it's a day of festivities for the whole city of davis. most everyone (if not everyone) comes out and joins in on the fun. for us (the cal aggie marching band-uh), it's hard work for weeks. marching practice, float building (for the parade), battle of the bands (we better win!)... so much to do.
but it's all worth it. marching is such a rush. wow. i really am a bando.
and i am still incredibly happy.
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oh, jeebus... haven't been this busy in so long.
but i am so happy.
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happy birthday, kaitlyn! hope your day is well. :) and it was pleasant seeing you in anaheim. talk to you soon.
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most amazing spring break, thank you. all of you.
on one hand, it was just another typical spring break: nothing too fancy, nothing too costly (well... i take that one back), nothing new, really. but on the other hand, just the feeling of being with friends, like there really wasn't any time gap at all... how wonderful a feeling is that.
here's the quick run-down (i swear, i'll try to be fast) of my spring break in good ol' anaheim, ca:
march 22, 2004 (mon.) | day 1- got in at 11pm, lax airport. smog. carbon monoxide. all the goodness socal offers. treated to in-n-out burger.
march 23, 2004 (tues.) | day 2- get kidnapped by felsh. jam session with joseph, owner, gregorus, felsh, and kaitlyn. colorblind funk. indeed. and gregorus owes me a ride. dinner with felsh. sakura (again). still good. guitar and piano playing.
march 24, 2004 (wed.) | day 3- lunch with joseph, matthew rementilla villacarillo, and kathy at sakura. take mrs. laqui to the airport (i want to go to the philippines, too!). reunite with great friends, chris and yuka. jap night. screwed up pictures. too much free boba. nice.
march 25, 2004 (thurs.) | day 4- even day. jzaz band visit. chit-chat. reunions. smiles. laughter. visit mr. campenelli. lunch with jaaaaaay. elbow sex (don't ask). brutha reunion. minus brutha II. @ yoshi's. an hour late. that's okay. grub. how-to-break-all-maxims-of-communications-101. will's house. su casa es mi casa (he told me). baby grand piano. like old times. boba. some fun with a webcam. don't ask.
march 26, 2004 (fri.) | day 5- lunch with joseph. red robin. gruuub. after school hang out. bates is a girl when i braid his hair. porn pictures. modeling pictures (kevin! lol...). drumline practice. vivian nguyen's birthday. viv, karen, kevin, evan, ryan, navneet, and me. (i hope i named all of you guys). eternal passion, the movie. suspenseful. thai food. yum. evan steals thai food sign. smooth. we take pictures (of the thai food sign). rock on. smoothie night with joseph. awesome.
march 27, 2004 (sat.) | day 6- drumline competition. rancho cucamonga. nice-ass school. the trailor fluid-contained caramel machiado from starbuck's. dinner with joseph, andrew, paolo, and kevin. thai bbq. money running low. spluuuuurge. no boba for us.
march 28, 2004 (sun.) | day 7- visit jeshika. she forgets that i am coming over. so uc santa barbarized. visit will one last time. no one's home. sad times. brea mall (where did all the money go?). dinner with felsh. spend the night at felsh's. carnita burritos. the cheese wouldn't open. either that or felsh is gimp. or both :) . the journey and a half to get icecream. justin timberlake. the labyrinth. yet another precious memory created.
march 29, 2004 (mon.) | day 8- woke up at 5:30am. couple errands. starbucks. festival center. for kicks. lunch with jaaaaaay. downtown disney. collectors pins. filet mignon. "lemon water". poor jaaaaaay. dinner with rossy-pooz. starbucks. again. hyper. rosine's. yuka size! thanks for dinner, rossy-pooz. late night drive with brutha [one].
march 30, 2004 (tues.) | day 9- zero period. so sleepy. breakfast with joseph. bagel me. visit takacs's first period class. hilarious. bates and kody. good times. "high score: kody davis". brutha [one]. boba joe's. store owner remembered me. rock on. the infamous mcgerty jokes. the "lying nickel". such good times. lunch with mr. witten. fridays. brutha [one]. peralta park (again). sweet misery mutilated. way too funNAY. dinner with rossy-pooz. expensive. cheap dessert at el pollo loco. three cents left! icecream cone faces. dirty pictures. all goodness. flood. two mops, one towel, one dust pan, two buckets, whole lotta teamwork. in-n-out at 10pm.
march 31, 2004 (wed.) | day 10- breakfast with gab. denny's (and jaaaaaay was there, too! yay!). lots of catching up. lots of laughing. boba joe's. punk'd. moronic tv show. addicting, too. great to see you again. target (pronounced tar-jay). pick up joseph and andrew. spring concert 2004. concert band, symphonic band, jzaz band, and full orchestra. pick up kody (heehee). saw most everyone. good times. fridays. duh. like always. brownie obsession. drawings on napkins. sugar high. no cocktail pants :( . got me a drummer (yay, dave!). i'm so glad i went.
april 1, 2004 (thurs.) | day 11- shopping spree with joseph. main place mall. the block. todai. mitsuwa. meet up with felsh and skiles(!). (yeah, that guy needs a DRIVER'S LICENSE). pick up gregorus. he doesn't owe me a ride anymore. toyon park. deja vu. zoolander quotes. laughter. great times. carl's jr. mXc. that show's so stupid, it's funny.
there's so much more to say than a list of events, but those are better kept amongst the people whom i spent time with. i've not felt this happy in such a long time.
nothing beats home. i can't wait until summer.
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