We're Missing You - Post #244

Ending #1: Pastor Terry and Mr. Wysong are leaving us.

We had their goodbye party at church and I cried. A lot. Through our whole presentation. We're going to miss them so much.

Pastor Terry who, under the formal appearance, could throw out comebacks like no one else, who threatened us with an hour long sermon if we didn't shut up and go to sleep at Camp Washington, who led us through so many hard times and happy times, who understood that we need to laugh as much as we need to pray.

Mr. Wysong, with his big happy smile, who told the same story over and over about the fish that eats too much and floats upside down looking like its dead, who got all excited about the wheel-less lawnmower called a FlyMo we saw in Scotland, who was always, always there for us. I don't know what St. Paul's will do without them. I don't know what I'll do.

Ending #2: The marching season is over.

It ended the same way it's gone - we did our little cheer thing and Tim and Tyler yelled "Boom headshot" and we all got to do pushups. Anticlimactic? A tad. But that's how life works, I guess.

There was a final marchoff between the four marchoff winners. I couldn't watch, I peeked up between commands. First off was Dan...then Dori and Tom...no wait! Tom walked off by mistake, he was still in. The Brea... Tom won! Humble guy he is, just stood there smiling slightly as we got absolutely tackled by half the band. I don't think it's possible to not like Tom. He's one of the few in the band who doesn't rag on people, doesn't get mad, doesn't make you feel like crap. I'm so, so glad he won.

But I'm gonna miss these guys. All the seniors...Tom, Tim, Brea, Dan, Katie, Cat, Andrea, Tyler, Ray, all of them. I can't imagine what it will be like when they're gone. Then there's the people who are tired of all the crap...Jess, Tyler, Shawn, Caruso...who don't think they'll come back next year. Who's left? Things aren't going to be the same. Ever.

They say every ending is just a new beginning, but not for me. I don't like endings. Too much sadness. I miss everyone already. =(

--Iona

Without Music, Life Would Bb - Post #243

Life's been pretty busy, hence the lack of posts. Sorry about that. Between band, chemistry, Tom, and friends, I find myself with less and less time to post. I'll work on that.

Band is awesome. We went to watch the Musical Arts Conference, a big marching band competition, and it was amazing. My favorite was a high school band who had a drumline in kilts and white shoes (the rest of the band had black shoes and normal uniforms) and were doing their show. Then their movement shifted about ten people in kilts who had previously been randomly scattered around the section to the front. They but down their instruments (a saxophone, a flute, a trombone...) and picked up bagpipes. The whole band stopped playing and were doing an awesome formation in the background while the drumline and bagpipes did their piece. It was brilliant.

UConn played too, and they were amazing. Their band is GIGANTIC! I want to be in a college band so badly! I really hope I get to. I can't even imagine...

So that was a fun trip. Rachel and Tom and so much music merchandise, I spent a good five minutes wishing I was rich. I got a music charm bracelet and a button that says Treble Maker (Rachel's said Musicians Duet Better). It was great. Freezing? Very. But definitely great.

Marching band is going well, but we only have two practices until Thanksgiving, and we still haven't run the whole show!! We finished Part Three with music finally, and we (we = the snares) did amazingly. As soon and Tyler remembers he's on the hash for the last set, we'll be perfect. I adore my section. I don't know what I'd do if I didn't. It makes band so much better.

We started getting our Christmas music for concert band, which is good. I missed my oboe. It's fun...when I play. Darn oboe gets so much rest! That's what happens when you play such a...umm..."unique" instrument.

And finally...I joined jazz band! Or, more correctly, I'm attempting to join jazz band. Whether or not Mr. Duffy will let me stay is yet to be seen. The style of music is so different, and I've only been playing the instrument for about two months, so it's quite a challenge and I'm not sure if I can pull it off, but it's worth a shot. I love having so much music to practice.

And there's a lot of people I like in jazz band. Tom's there, obviously, which instantly makes it amazing, but then there's CJ and Tyler (my marching section), Jerry (the freshman clarinet who's learning to play the baritone saxaphone, and it's almost as big as he is), Dan Cameron is way nicer than I thought he was (he got me all my music), Adam (he's just always nice, and amazing to watch play piano), and Andy (who is just Andy, and thus helpful). I really want to do this. It seems so awesome.

Tom won a marchoff! it was only maybe the third one this year, and he won, and I was very happy. It's his last year and I don't think he's ever won one before, and he won, and I was happy, and Tim and Tyler started dancing.

Without music, life would most definitely Bb.

--Iona

The Golden Compass - Post #242

The book by Phillip Pullman was good, though I never read the third book in the series, and now The Golden Compass is coming out as a movie! Definitely going to see this one, so matter how low it's rated. The website has this cool quiz to see what daemon you would have. I like mine a lot. Go take it and let me know what you got. =)

--Iona

I'm Still Here - Post #241

Yeah, it's been a while. And I totally missed my third anniversary of blogging - as of October 17th I've been here for three years. Weird stuff, huh?

Basically, life's been pretty busy, so I've been crashing at the end of the day and honestly, who wants to read a crashy blog post? They're all depressing and whatnot.

So...life. Basically, band and chemistry are my favorite classes. Band...I mean, music, Tom, Rachel, Gizzy the freshman flute, Dani the freshman clarinet and her senior pit player Andrea, my beat boxing snare buddies CJ and Tyler, and then all the folks from last year. We have fun.

Chemistry is AMAZING. Ms. Temme, though very strict and opinionated, is an amazing teacher. I love having a teacher who I actually respect, who actually teaches, and who is actually intimidating. They're pretty rare. We're doing awesome labs in there too, all sorts of mixing chemicals and burning things and changing colors. We learned a bunch of elements and decided that 'Oxygen Magnesium!' serves the same purpose as 'Omigod!' (With abbreviations OMg and OMG.)

She also does a thing called seminar where she calls a person in the class, gives them one of the homework problems, and has them defend it. If they get it right, that's an 85. Then they get a second question related to the first that they haven't had time to prepare for. If they get that right as well, they get full credit - a 96. It's quite terrifying, but I prefer it so much rather than the monotony of some of my classes. (These will remain unnamed.)

What else? I'm learning saxophone with relative ease, though switching between it and oboe is a chore. Oboe is going well also. The piece I'm attempting to learn to play is probably the most challenging so far. It's what I would have played if I was good enough to try out for CMEAs.

Halloween was okay this year - hanging out at Jackie's with a billion people. Bill made me laugh. That what the picture's from.

Basically, I'm posting tonight because tomorrow is Election Day, so no school. It's a massive relief and I'm actually in a pretty good mood. I'm also updating ionabrockie.com, so take a look. I like it. Heh, after almost a year I still need to figure out what to do with it!! I want something impressive. But what?

I'm probably going to go back to doing that now, along with singing to my iTunes (Code Monkey and Omigod You Guys) but I swear I'll post more often. =) See you soon!

--Iona