Day 4 - Wed. December 31, 2003
The last day of 2003! Wow...the year went so fast! We got up around 6:30ish or so to shower and get ready for our day. We first headed off to the same local high school where we rehearsed for our halftime show to practice with all the other bands for the Gatorbowl show. WOW. I've never seen so many Sousaphones in one place! There were something like 25 other bands there, and it was so crazy. There were over 1,000 people playing at the Gatorbowl...that's a LOT of band kids! So we got in a terribly unorganized formation and practiced our Beach Boys music for the show. Met some interesting kids...and Katie met herself as a male...lol. I didnt know the music at all, but with like 55 other tubas there, I dont think it really mattered. The most interesting band was Phobeous High School...they were uh, interesting. Their name sounded like fetus...so everytime we heard it, we would yell 'fetus!' lol. Following the rehersal, we got some lunch before warming up for the Gatorbowl Parade. The Parade was loooong and SO hot! I seriously thought I was going to pass out from heat/tuba pain. It was cool though, prob the biggest crowd I've ever played for. The parade was also a competition, like the field show competition. After the insane parade, we headed back to the hotel to get showered and all dressed up for the New Year's Gala Dinner Dance. It was great...everyone looked SO gorgeous and handsome! We danced the year away, until they had us all sit down and gave out the awards for the various competitions. We won 1st place in the Parade, and also Best Marching and Maneuvering...and we won 2nd place in our Field Show Divition (AA) and 2nd place overall and also Best Drum Major!!! Therefore, we were only beaten by ONE band. That's pretty good, but the first place band got to perform their show at the Gatorbowl Pre-Game. Which would've been awesome. So everyone got real bummed out after that. I guess we all were dissapointed since we're a first place band, and it would've been amazing to win. Sure, it was upsetting...but I still had a whole lot of fun dancing some more. FC made their own little corner on the dance floor, and basically just went insane...Jack Rago was stripping, and little Ben was riding our sholders when we made a conga line, and then some random black guy grabbed my sholders and was like "The white kids got a conga line! I gotta join!" and Katie found a really random kid from another band...LOL. They only played one slow song, and I danced with Nick...he's such a nice guy. :) Then I officially rang in 2004 on the dance floor with my friends...it was great. I burst into tears...I seriously didnt want 2004 to come, because 2004=change. I hate change. But I got lots of hugs. Hugs are great! <3 |
