- So guys, do you have pig flu? Wait, sorry, do you have swine flu? (shamelessly stolen off of cucumberseed's page)

- Our last concert of the year was today. It was super short because each band only did two pieces, one of which was from the last concert anyway, because what with the competition and the Band Baby, there was really very little time to prepare any new pieces but one.

- Last week's disaster led to one of the kids I babysit saying to me today, "Hey, remember last Thursday when we went to YOUR house? That was fun." *pause* "That was really fun." *pause* "Can we go to your house again?" D'awwww.

- We had a lockdown today in school — just a drill, of course, though people were joking that there was definitely an armed intruder, what with the fire drill that was not a drill earlier this year. While we were in lockdown mode (for like TWO HOURS UGH) (okay, more like an hour and a half) (two class periods, anyway), the police and the canine unit were going through the halls, sniffing lockers for drugs and whatnot. (The dogs were sniffing out the lockers, not the police. I should hope, at least.) I found out afterwords that apparently, they went out to cars and randomly called people out and made them open up the trunk so they could go through it. Isn't that... some sort of violation of first amendment rights? I guess the cars ARE on school property.

Today, we had marching rehearsal, and so rather than try to highlight how it went, I'll just run through the quotes.

"You're a band of 187 kids! Right now, you sound like about 35. I need you all to play TWICE as loud! Then at least you'll sound like... 65 people."
"Okay, so, about 92% of you are playing this correctly, but..."
Our director has an interesting fixation on numbers, though mathematics might not be her forte, let alone fortissimo (I AM SORRY, I ALREADY REGRET THAT PUN). Anyway, we had to memorize our music for this parade. Luckily, it was only one piece, and a really simple one. Still, memorizing music really isn't that easy (or at least, I don't find it to be easy...), and the entire band was really shy and quiet when we played it.

"Dude, stick your hands in your armpits, it's MAD WARM!"
It was excessively windy today, and since marching rehearsal goes really late anyway, we were all wicked cold. ):

"I think I just made my baby deaf..."
This year, rather than yell so the entire band can hear her, our director has this portable speaker box, the only problem being that she can't really lug it around with her, so someone else holds it. Which means she has a tendency to walk in front of it. And whenever she does that, there's this ENOURMOUS feedback sound. It is terrible. And painful. But probably not enough to make an unborn baby deaf. (or is it? YOU DECIDE!)

And now, my shoulders are sore from holding up my trombone, and my roll-stepping muscles are sore from roll-stepping. I don't really know which the muscles are. Now, time to stay up until past 2 again with work!

So, today in band, our conductor FINALLY admitted that she is, in fact, pregnant. This is made rather ironic and funny, seeing as she's a fill-in conductor for our old one... who is on maternity leave, because about this time last year, she announced that she was pregnant. So, yeah, I guess that being the band conductor at my school is a fantastic fertility drug. Now we just have to worry about the student interns who sometimes conduct the band...

In other news, my dear mother almost but then didn't ride that plane that crashed into the Hudson! o.o Luckily, she didn't (and is safe) and all the people who were on it are also fine. Nonetheless, it was a bit nervous-making to hear about.

And finally, here are the four photos I was missing from 365 photos.

( below a cut of course )

Hallowe'en was great. For the Rag Shag parade (which is an informal parade my school band does, in costume, for little kids), I got to play the sousaphone. This was awesome because (1) I've been wanting to play it since the beginning of the year and (2) the sousaphone part for Louie Louie, which was pretty much the only thing we played, is amazing and really easy. This was not awesome because (1) there weren't enough bits to attach to the sousaphone so that the mouthpiece reached my mouth, so I had to sort of crane my neck and my head kept hitting the sousaphone's bell, and (2) that thing digs into your shoulder SO HARD. It hurts insanely. My shoulder still aches. I need to improve my pain tolerance anyway, though, so it works out, I guess. I was dressed up in a yukata (a summer kimono, or a kimono for married women) for the parade, so when I got some candy afterward (candy is the incentive to go to the parade), I got to put it in my sleeves, which was kinda funny.

After the parade, I handed out candy at my house with a friend. There were one kid who was dressed up as a shower (like, with a shower curtain and stuff), and one kid who couldn't remember if you said "happy Halloween" or "trick or treat" and ended up saying "happy trick or treat," which was very cute.

A little while later, I took my little brother around the neighborhood trick-or-treating. His costume made him look sort of like a minister, so we gave him a bible, a cross necklace, and decided he was Johnathan Edwards, a very funny costume for a holiday which is essentially pagan. xP One person who saw me going by was like, "Oooh, what's your costume? Are you a geisha girl? It's beautiful!" Ever since Memoirs of a Geisha, it seems that kimono (or anything like it) = geisha. Oh well, at least she liked the costume. ^.^;

And NANOWRIMO STARTS TODAY! Which is good, but I don't know what to write about yet. And I have to work. Oh well! I WILL PREVAIL! IN ALL CAPITALS!

Last Thursday, I:

- rode an elephant
- rode a camel
- shook hands with the governor of Massachusetts, Deval Patrick
- bought a handmade cashmere (or rather, Kashmir) shawl
- saw a kangaroo! but it was sleeping and looked a bit dead ):
- bought aviator sunglasses YESSS
- marched in a parade
- thought my arms might fall off from holding my trombone up

Also I want to write a story where the main characters are called Pashmina and Kashmir. It would be a smash hit amongst sellers of scarfs and shawls.

- First field trip of the year tomorrow! YAY

- I found out why lacrosse is called lacrosse today. It seems that the "when in doubt, it must be some sort of religious thing" works for gym class, too.

- Why are there so many of my teachers on facebook?

- History class: "So, the Dutch, Frannish, and the Spench..." When this spoonerism was pointed out to him, my teacher said, "Well, it isn't as bad as the time I mixed up the first letters of the Turks and the Kurds."

- The new cadence for band is nothing but noise. Seriously. Rather than being helpful and aiding me in keeping step, it is confusing and distracting, and I have to focus on blocking it out so that I can stay in step. While I've come to like the new conductor otherwise, this is one thing which I still can't help but think "Whyyy?" And I don't think we'll ever get the old cadence back either. )':

- I thiiink I finally understand some of those algebra things. Possibly.

Namely, we are giving props to my siblings. Even though they are miles away and with their own schoolwork they STILL were able to go onto AIM for a while and try and help me slog through a heinously long and complicated algebra problem. It involved a lot of confusing typing and a lot of photos taken and then sent for the sake of showing work, but, in the end, we got an answer of some sort, so it's all good. Even if we hadn't, it's still spiffy that the internet makes it possible for me to do that at all.

But I have some more work I should probably get to. Biology, namely. Also, I have a field trip this Thursday! YAY! And I've memorized how to play Build Me Up Buttercup on my trombone! DOUBLE YAY! The only problem is I haven't memorized Carry On yet and I really need to. nyuoom...