Christmas Parades

Okay so it's only now December and I have done two Christmas parades this week. What is wrong with people? The Staunton Christmas parade was on Monday and the whole VWIL (Virginia Women's Institute for Leadership) core was marching in it. Mind you, Monday and Wednesday are two of my busiest days. I had the parade at 7:00 and then fencing at seven, so I did the parade (luckily we were second) and then changed and ran up to fencing. I got in a good half hour of fencing before I came back to do my but ton of homework. I stayed up late Monday night finishing my lab report.

After the Monday parade the rest of the week went pretty smoothly. I had an interview with a reporter on Wednesday, and I got Brittan's uniform for yesterday's parade. Ugh. I had to leave band an hour early for her because she didn't come because she was too busy studying for chemistry. The same test that I was going to take and yet I went to band. Oh well. She got her uniform and it all worked out.

Side note on the chem test. I think I did AWESOME. It was not half as hard as I thought it would be.

Back to the parades --> So in class on Wednesday we got Jingle Bell Rock and we played it in the parade on Friday. It sounds super cool and the saxes have an awesome part. The parade on Friday was in Lexington, VA, and for it I missed an hour of Dungeons and Dragons. It was super fun though. We played two Christmas songs in a loop and our director Colonel Brodie was finally able to come to one of our parades. We played quite well and we marched awesomely too.

WE GOT FIRST PLACE!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Band got FIRST PLACE!!!!!!! AHHHH!!!!!!! It was so awesome. We have not gotten any awards for our parades this semester and for our very last parade we got FIRST PLACE. In case you have no idea what I'm talking about the core awards three platoons for military performance every parade, and we got FIRST PLACE. If you hadn't noticed I am super excited.

Also this was our last parade of the semester so no more parade shoes until next year. Yayish. Parades are stressful, but fun. People clap for us and smile and cheer us on. It makes me feel very special. On the other hand though it is freaking hard to keep alignment while playing. I have mastered marching in step even through wheel turns, but alignment is hard.

OK well all in all my week has been pretty stressful running from parades to homework and back.

Well I will see you guys next week in Hell Week.

Love,
Alora