[ my mood: rrrrr ]

High school is half over. June 17th is my last day, and all I have is my band exam -- I plan on leaving immediately after that. Exams are on the 12th, 13th, 16th, and 17th, so technically I only have class until the 11th. After that, though, I'll be an upperclassmen, and everything is going to start getting very busy for me.

It ain't gonna be fun and games no more, nosiree. As much as I hate it and suck at it and can't remember a damn thing I "learned" about it, I have to buckle down and actually get a B in history. I have a C average for two years running now. Same with English, even though I have a B for last year and a C for this year. I'm also going to have to make room in my schedule for music theory senior year. Something is going to get dumped; I may take a semester science class instead of a year-long one. As it is I already ruled out four years of history.

The balance is also going to have to change. I can't spend all my time on the Internet anymore. I'm going to have to...*gasp* do my homework. The only class I never do my homework in is...(any guesses?)...history. I always do it for biology and geometry, and on occasion miss an English assignment. We never get health or Spanish homework. With two music classes next year -- one of which Smitty is calling an honors class -- I'm going to have some serious problems. Looks like practicing the bass clarinet will take a backseat to the rest of my schoolwork. Clarinet practice is going to have to happen, since that's my Wind Ensemble instrument.

I also want to spend time with my friends. I don't particularly like being shut in my house with my sister all the time. All we do is fight. And it gets worse when my parents are home. Going to the movies or the mall or just hanging out or ANYTHING is better than being cramped at home. I can't legally start Driver's Ed until August 13th, so I'll end up starting it when I get back to school. That's unfortunate. If they don't change the law, though, I will have my license next April. If they do, I won't see it until October 2004. That royally sucks. I hope it doesn't/hasn't change(d)...

Ahhh, fsck. I hate being a teenager in this age.

[ my mood: ]

1. Bridgit came to visit yesterday!! OMG I missed her. She looks great (the same) and has her eyebrow pierced. About four people in my band class don't know her, so the rest of us spent half an hour hugging her and telling her we missed her. Bridgey! Yay! :)

2. Career Day also happened. Nile was with me for Session I (music), and Robbo was with me for Sessions II and III (computer programming and then music). It was wicked awesome! Meeting Steve Badessa was, anyway.

3. Pig Day was today. My biology class, about three others, and Mike and Nick were stuffed in my biology room watching Mr. Stetson play with pig innards. It was horrible but Mike absolutely LOVED it. He thought it was awesome. He's a guy, though. I'm surprised I stayed the whole time.

[ my mood: ]

Whenever I listen to this song, it brings back wonderful memories of last year's band. It was somewhat more balanced and better-sounding back then. Maybe there's some improvement this year; it's certainly not from these freshmen. Trust me, my class was much better than they are when we were freshmen.

Last year, we lost some of the most wonderful people I've ever known to graduation: Bridgit Saflund (oboe), Chris Colozzo (alto sax), Beth Fox (trombone), Brendan Mulhare (trumpet), Ned Swann (trumpet), Adam Sebzda (French horn), Jess Sperlongano (flute), Michelle Wilcox (flute), and Jen Tidswell (flute). Now we don't have an oboe, period, and we're still waiting for Mike to figure out the French horn.

I'm glad I made Wind Ensemble, because I have an escape from what's going to be a pretty...uh, unpretty concert band for some amount of time. Last year, the three concert trombones we had were all upperclassmen (Beth, Ned, and Seth, who was a junior at the time). This year we still have Seth. Zach was only in jazz ensemble last year but does concert band now too because Smitty needed him to. The other trombone player we have is Kyle -- Seth's brother. Let me put it this way: eww. So next year we get Kyle and a bunch of freshmen! Yay! That's just one example of the fun of concert band 2003-2004!

Graduating this year is an even longer list of talented musicians. I'm probably going to forget some people, but these are all great people and I'm going to miss all of them.

Libby Grimm (flute), Tiffany O' Neil (flute), Renee McKinney (flute), Beth White (clarinet), Nichole Fugere (clarinet), Renee Heath (clarinet), Nicole Ayala (tenor saxophone), Liz Frobel (bass clarinet), Mike Daley (trumpet), Nate Powers (trumpet), Dan Wree (trumpet), Seth Printer (trombone), Zach Dyer (trombone), Chris Larose (baritone horn), Chris Benson (percussion)

We've got about two years left before the whole thing turns to crap. By then I'll be gone, so I'm lucky.

[ my mood: overjoyed and relieved ]

I MADE WIND ENSEMBLE!!! I'M FIRST CHAIR IN THE THIRD CLARINET SECTION AGAIN!! WHEEEE!

I have at least one class with some of my favorite people next year -- Ashley, Pete, Kenny, Alex, Donna, Rachel, Mike, Steve, Travis, Rob, the Ryans, and Kathleen! Wheeee!!!

:D :D :D :D

*is about ready to squeal*

[ my mood: annoyed ]

The band left for Cleveland last Thursday morning. I didn't go because my parents are Nazis -- when I told Ryan that (adding in my father thinks I'll get abducted and raped), he said, "What? My mom wouldn't let that happen! She hasn't been abducted or raped yet!" "Yet?" I reply. "There's a first time for everything," he says. LOL. (Ryan's mom was a chaperone on the trip.)

They're on their way home right now. I really wish I'd gone. It's depressed me lately every time someone gets to do something or have something that I can't. I'm a lot brighter than my parents imply about me. If something were to happen to me, don't they think I'd do something about it? I'm not stupid. And I missed two days of school just so I wouldn't be there without everyone else.

Yes, I'm the happiest person you'll ever meet.

[ my mood: wet ]

I had my audition yesterday. Here goes.

First was the Great Stand Fiasco, in which every stand in the instrument closet was broken, so I had to go get one and Mr. Smith sat on his butt with his clipboard in the closet. I went in and closed the door. First I play a scale -- I pick A concert, which I've been practicing, and manage to play it OK. Then I played a one-octave chromatic scale; I can play a three-octave one (E below the staff to D above the staff), but whatever. And then I told him the Mozart Concerto story and got away with America the Beautiful for it. Then he sprung the sixths and the jazz arpeggio on me.

Afterwards he said he's impressed and he knows I've been practicing, and he knew it was me who could play the stupid grace notes in Sousa today. He said I've been working very hard. Heeheehee. :D And over the time I was in there with him, he called me every single nickname he's ever called me, except Ashley and Cournoyer -- Camanda, kiddo, sweetie, and honey. MY DAD CALLS ME SWEETIE! And what's with the honey thing? I'm not the only one he calls that -- he called Miss Ford that all the time.

I rocked. I did so good. It was all f***ed-up but it was better than it could have been. ;)

[ my mood: ]

Well, I'm not, but sometimes I think I should. Then they start acting all adorable and I can't help but love 'em.

A month ago this upcoming Monday, I asked a guy to the sophomore dance. His name is Mike, he's a sweetie, he's funny, he's smart, and he's a band boy. I like band boys. I asked him and got as far as a "maybe" out of him before Mr. Smith started yelling for the instrument closet to be evacuated (Liz, Nicole, Kathleen, Mike, and I were all in there). Since then, we have spoken to each other approximately twice:

I. He asked me for the cosine of thirty-six in geometry because he didn't have his calculator with him and Doug was being weird.
II. He asked me how to do one of the trigonometric ratio problems in geometry because Doug was being weird. Again.

Mike and I have been friends for a while now, and I don't know if he's gotten the hint that I like him a lot. He may be a guy, but he isn't that dense (Steve is one of those people who wouldn't pick up on it if you told him, because he's dense). For a while I thought he was mad at me because Georgiana is torturing him to answer me, and I keep telling her not to do it. Finally I asked Foster to ask Mike if he's mad at me, and he's not. He probably thinks I'M mad at HIM. For not giving me a straight answer, yes, but nowhere near the point that I hate him. Far from it.

Then, never mind any guy I may LIKE. There's the guys who are my friends that drive me nuts -- Nile in particular. Ever since he started dating Rachel (who, by the way, I love and would never ever ever think of harming in any way, shape, or form), he's had no consideration for any of my feelings. Back when he was just obsessed with Rachel, he and I would bitch to each other about being single and trying to get whomever it is that we're smitten over (for him, Rachel; for me, Mike), and encourage one another with the opposite sex's perspective on us. Now that they're together, he doesn't want to hear it anymore, even if he's the only one there that I would talk to. Rachel, of course, listens and tells me to either tie Mike to a chair and beat an answer out of him, or just beat him up for the hell of it. Nile is the only guy with that little mental capacity that I would ever talk to about that kind of thing. Rob is more like one of the girls most of the time, and Weebee is a loser but he likes to hear the stories and threaten to tell people.

What makes me change my mind about guys is things like what happened in the band room today. Mr. Smith was finishing auditions during the last half-hour. He auditioned me first and that took about five minutes, so I played Tetris on my Palm for the rest of the period. Tom likes to argue with me about EVERYTHING, which is what he was doing. I turned to Pete and said, "HE HAS TO ARGUE WITH ME ABOUT EVERYTHING!" Pete laughs and replies, "I think it's so funny the fact he's standing right there, and you said that, and it went right over his head." I laugh, and say, "I'm used to it, Nile's like that." Tom says, "Nile's like what?" and Pete and I continued the chucklefest. It didn't stop, either, thanks to Pete miming throwing his apple at the back of Tom's head just to get a laugh out of me.

The other thing going on in the band room was Mike, Alex, and Chris Larose's antics. Tom said something like, "I'll grind your bones to make my bread!" and the three of them are like, "What the f***?!" So Alex says, "I'll...grind your eballs to make my soup!" Mike says, "Eballs?" Alex says, "Yes, eballs. HIGH-TECH EYEBALLS!" And Alex was protecting his trumpet from the other two, who were trying to take it from him, and Alex yells, "MY MOMMY WILL HURT YOU!" and Mike started opening Alex's case, so Alex had a hissy-fit.

Men are so confusing, but hey -- gotta love 'em sometimes. ;)

[ my mood: upset ]

Well, looks like all my dreams are going down the toilet.

Earlier this year, I picked up the tenor sax with the ambition of playing it in the jazz ensemble next year. All was going well until auditions were right around the corner, and I realized I am not in possession of a tenor. The one I was using belongs to the school, and...well, it sucked. It was in sorry physical condition, the lower pads stuck, the neck smelled bad, the mouthpiece was crappy, the octave key didn't work, and the bell was dented. And now I'm down a sax, since I gave it back to Smitty so he could get it fixed. He hasn't.

I called Robert's Musical Instruments last Saturday for a price check on rentals. Yesterday my father and I went to see what was in stock, and the guy there didn't know and told us to come back or call the next day. So today we called, and there are a. no used tenors for rent and b. no new tenors for rent for two weeks. Ugh. Then we went to Warwick Musical Instrument Co. this afternoon and discovered they don't rent tenors. Rrrrr.

It's not panning out the way I want it to. I'm not happy.

[ my mood: philosophical ]

I'm certainly not new to the entire concept of blogging, oh no. Methinks the first attempt I made at keeping anything remotely like a blog was my LiveJournal (which I still update), and I'm closing in on the two-year mark with it. I have another LiveJournal that's mostly for my schoolmates, while the other one is mostly for my fellow Leoville bloggers.

Of course, the most popular blog software of late is MoveableType; yes, I have one. That's what this journal's template is based on. Of course, I had to write more code for my MT stylesheet, but hey. What can you do? Some of my favorite fellow MT bloggers are Leo Laporte, Mike Chandler, Rachel Ricer, Megan Morrone, and Chris Pirillo just to name a few.

Why did I start this journal? I don't know. Maybe I was looking for an alternative to the constant downtime and ultra-uncool restrictions of LiveJournal. Maybe I was looking for a customizeable yet already-intsalled version of MoveableType (it took me three tries to install it right!!!). Or maybe I'm just nuts and have tried every journal/blog/diary service out there. Any way you slice it, I'm here and I'm gonna stay, since I like this. :)

[ my mood: slightly ill ]

*sniff* Mmmm, journal.

Let me tell you a bit about meself. My name is Amanda, I am fifteen and attend Coventry High School here in Coventry, Rhode Island. I live with my parents and my sister, who is fourteen and named Emily. I also have three dogs -- two males and a female. The female is a mutt named Pepper. The elder male is an Akita named Yoshi; the younger is a Great Pyrenees named Dreyfuss.

I'm a complete and utter band geek. That's what I am. I love band. I play the clarinet and am section leader this year for the third clarinets. Next year I am planning on being in Wind Ensemble (clarinet), Jazz Ensemble (tenor sax), and concert/marching band (bass clarinet). Some think I'm nuts, but believe me -- it's more fun than a lot of things.

Nerd. I am a nerd. We'll get that over with before you read any more entries. Wait, come back! I don't have a pocket protector, my glasses are not Coke-bottle black-framed things, and for what it's worth, I have a B in Honors Geometry. Trust me, I'm not that boring