Where the Hell is Sam Houston State Anyway?

Today was a fine today I suppose. Started out strong, went on well, ended poorly. In the end, two for three is over 50 percent so I suppose I can chalk today up for a win.

Started out nice and early with me getting up at 8:30, in the shower at 8:45, out, eating Cheerios, leaving at 9:20, and getting to TU and on the field WELL before the 10:00 call time. So while I waited around for things to start, I joined the small huddle that was surrounding Sarge for story time. After some good ones we all broke off to start warming up on our own, fell into our block on command, ran the pregame and the show, and then we were done. At that point I figured since I was already at TU and I had to attend at least one actual Phi Mu Alpha meeting to fulfill my probationary requirement that I'd just go to the one at 11. Sure enough I went over to Tyreal, got another interview done (this time with Alex Jones), and attended the meeting. I lucked out because they actually moved to skip a few parts and no one had much to discuss, so the meeting was over in about 10 minutes.

At this point I decided I'd just go ahead and go home for a quick shower, after which I'd grab my uniform and other things and head right back to TU. I thought it'd only take 30 minutes but it ended up taking twice as long because I forgot so many things that I ended up making about 10 trips to and from my car. I blame those memory issues on the fact that this week has been like a series of Mondays. So many small mental errors you'd make on a Monday, but made on Thursday and Friday and today. Either way, I managed to get everything I needed (and then some) and head back to TU.

By the time I had gotten back to TU they'd already decided to start closing the parking lots nearest the stadium so I ended up parking in the lot near Tyreal and hauling my backpack, tenor, and uniform over to the band room. For those who have no concept of the TU campus, it's not very far away at all (between two or three football fields) but carrying all that crap didn't make it seem any shorter than it really was. I got back to the bandroom, set my crap down, and hoped to get started on our Music Theory III group project. This was made a slight challenge by the fact that I was the only one in the room from our group. That was nullified quickly by the arrival of Amy, Amber, and Jennifer (with Ricky following his usual pattern of showing up 30+ minutes late). We began to work on our theory work and for once, I honestly had no idea what I was doing. There have been a lot of times where I only halfway know the concept and manage to bullshit my way through it, but this was not one of them.

After getting relatively little of the theory work done over the course of an hour and a half I was called by one of the Phi Mu Alpha guys to come assist with the cookout. They usually hold a cookout before each game and today was no exception. Jason grilled the burgers (after damn near grilling himself/using half a bottle of lighter fluid), and my task was to cart them in a small pan to the table inside so that the band members could partake in their delicious deliciousness. It actually instilled a pretty sizable feeling of doing something good to help out with such a thing and to provide food for hungry friends. Unfortunately, because they had to go walk around campus with the drum line and weren't present, the drum majors didn't get burgers before we started putting things up, so if they happen upon this, my most sincere apologies.

Anyway, after the cookout everyone got their uniform on and their instrument out and we all lined up to march out to the stadium from the parking lot. We started out and barely out of the parking lot my foot starts cramping like none other for no particular reason. Marching for an hour straight, that's fine. Marching a quarter mile at OU's campus, that's jim dandy. Going 30 feet from the TU parking lot, that's impossible. So we marched to the stadium, and past it. We went out into the large field in the [new] U and played several stand tunes for the tailgating-on-the-grass crowd that was there. Then we marched to the stadium and stood in the road outside of it playing to a wall of the athletic building. Finally we marched into the stadium and lined up behind the end zone and waited for 30 minutes or so before we started into pregame. While we waited, the football team was warming up, which means that the kicker was kicking field goals. Through the goal posts. That we were right behind. It was actually kind of fun having to watch out for incoming footballs and possibly deflect or dodge them.

We got through pregame fine and headed into our two lines to make a tunnel for the players to run through. Then came the children. Hundreds upon hundreds of children were at the game for some reason and they were allowed to line up with us and make the tunnel stretch from one corner of the field to the other. That worked out without much problem, but the rest of the stuff was horrible. First ran out some group of people who were a mob of school spirit and body paint, then was a super golf cart with our new and "improved" Captain Cane mascot (to his credit, how the hell would you make a good hurricane mascot?), and then the athletic director rode his motorcycle out. We played the fight song, and started into our "super well rehearsed" move backwards move. It wasn't pretty, but no one died.

We went into the stands and sat there, playing Short (the ending few measures of the fight song we can just rattle off) several times because this week was like last week in reverse. We started smashing the other team, despite making stupid mistakes. It didn't end up being a shutout because they, unlike us, weren't too proud to just take a damn field goal. Either way the first half went by fairly quickly, and then came halftime. We went down to the field and Sam Houston State's band started into their Journey show. Honestly I don't have much of an opinion on it. It wasn't good, but it wasn't horrible. It just wasn't worth caring about to me. We went through out show and when we got back around to our side there were QT sandwiches and Pepsi and cookies provided for us. I grabbed a club sandwich and a Pepsi and a chocolate chip cookie and headed back to my spot in the stands.

Giving us sandwiches and cookies and then expecting us to eat them, while being ready to pick up our horns and play in a split second's notice provided much entertainment at the expense of Kurt's temper. Regardless of how much of a challenge that was, it didn't matter to me because I had about three bites of the sandwich and remembered I don't like them (Sam I Am) and moved on to the cookie. I took a single bite of the cookie and it was utterly horrible. It was hard, but not the crunchy type of hard. More like hardened steel. Then, to add insult to injury, it tasted abysmal as well. I felt kind of bad taking the food and not eating it when someone else could have grabbed either/or and have been happy with it.

Third quarter started with the traveling band getting up and, well, traveling. I kind of wish I was a part of it but on the other hand, it's nice to have a lax quarter to recover and recuperate. The rest of the game went by fairly quickly (in the blink of an eye compared to last week's game against OU) and we went down to the field to march back to the band room. We did so, and when we got back everyone managed to be gone surprisingly quickly. I checked to see if anyone was doing anything and the majority of my TCC friends were going to the Owasso marching invitational, of which I had no steak or interest so I decided to call them gay and not go. Other than that, no one was doing anything or at least nothing I was up for, so I headed back to my car with all my stuff.

Having gotten there I find a lovely little ticket resting on my windshield. The way things are set up are so that if you have season tickets (or just tickets, I don't know) you have a colored sticker for your car, and that allows you to park in certain lots. Nevermind the fact that my car was parked there WELL before they closed the lot off, I still didn't have one of those parking stickers. So I come back to find a ticket on my windshield that wasn't for the $25 that we had originally thought, but instead for twice that much. Fuck. That. Shit. Sarge told those of us at TCC that if we get a ticket for parking on campus that he'll take care of them, so come Monday I'm going to let him.

After that I got home, salted a slug (I expected more of a show but instead it just shriveled up), remembered I was hungry, and went to get tacos. As I pulled up to the drive through I had my window down and heard the tail end of a conversation between the squawk box and the person in front of me telling them that they'd have to deliver their complaint to the manager the following morning. I didn't think that boded well for my order but as it turned out things went fine. Brought the tacos home, ate them, and then wrote this.

The End.

Good Thing I Brought My Trunks

For the first post I thought it'd maybe be a good idea to explain why I decided to write a blog but then I thought, "Why does anyone blog?" and it's simply to post stories about what they did, or how they feel. I'll certainly be doing the former quite often (provided things stay interesting) and none of the latter, because I've always felt that reading a blog composed of whiny inner monologues about how much Jane makes you cry are a painful experience and it'd be akin to being walked in on masturbating if you were caught reading one. Perhaps later I'll dig down deep to my AP English teachings and find a thesis for why I'm really writing this, but for now you'll have to accept the answer "Because."

Anyway, today was pretty uneventful. And then it wasn't. The morning was a standard morning in which I arrived late to my piano class, then sat around for an hour pretending to think about practicing while waiting for theory to start, and then finally going to theory when 11 rolled around. Theory went as it always does, with us "reviewing" things we've never heard of because the prior teacher we had was too lazy to do any actual teaching, and then we left at around 11:30 like normal to go to TU for marching rehearsal. Remaining uneventful we marched pregame a few times, and then went over the music we were supposed to have memorized (and curse our drum major for walking over to check our section on the one measure we didn't know!) and that was that. We left that rehearsal and came back to TCC for our concert band rehearsal. That's when the day became eventful.

Halfway through the rehearsal the guy next to me gets a funny look on his face and says to me, "Huh. My mom just texted me that there's nickle to softball sized hail in our area." This is what threw me off because for our marching rehearsal it was bright, it was sunshiny, it was hot, and it would have qualified for a pretty nice summer day. With that thought in mind, I just dismissed what his mother had sent him and figured she was insane. Then we wrapped up and everyone was overjoyed and started leaving. Yaaaay! I open the bandroom door to step out into the hall so I can put my bassoon up and look out the double doors leading outside.

It looked like it was about 9 at night. It was obviously raining so I paid no heed and continued to put my bassoon up (I still don't know if I managed to swab the wing joint or not, I was just so distracted). I finished that, jammed it in my locker, and went back to where the bandroom doors are and sat on a bench with my buddy Tyler. We discussed getting food and thought that it was a good idea and proceeded to head towards the exit.

The way the doors are set up is you have a hallway that connects to an antechamber through solid metal double doors surrounded by tiny panes of glass that you can't really see out of. The antechamber itself, however, is almost nothing but glass on the front. So we opened the metal doors and just kinda sat there in shock at just how much rain was coming from the sky.

I wouldn't have called it "storming" so much as I would have called it "apocalypting". Sheets of rain (pretty much solid sheets) were coming down, and the sky was regularly alight with lightning, the peels of thunder that followed shaking the building. So we just kinda stood there in awe, each of us thinking, "Huh... I wonder how we'll get to food now."

Long story short, we didn't. Long story long...

It started when a group of us were just standing there in the room, watching it rain. It was my buddies Tyler, Ricky, Jennifer, Amy, three people I don't know, and myself. The entryway has a double door leading outside across the pair leading inside, an elevator in the back corner, another set of doors next to that leading out to the side of the building, and a staircase on the side opposite that. The wind was gusting so hard that those doors leading to the side were blown and held open, and out of curiosity we decided to go check it out. Curiosity would be my downfall this day.

The way our buildings are laid out there's a second story walkway connecting the music building to the math and science building in a rough z shape. Under that walkway is a paved path that follows it. Well we noticed that the wind was blowing the rain straight into the lower walkway and that anyone walking under it wouldn't be saved any wetness at all. At this point I said, "I wonder how wet someone would get if they ran under it." Then came the playful shoves towards it and encouragement from just about everyone present to do it. Not being one to cave into peer pressure I removed my shoes first.

What followed was a comedic dash from the double doors of the music building along the concrete path (which was filled with water about ankle deep and was slipperier than something very slippery) to the double doors of the science and math building. I wasn't timed and I'm not sure how long it took, but I did make it and proceeded to enter the building absolutely soaked. Not a single inch of me was dry and thanks to the campus' super awesome air conditioning I also realized I was really freakin' cold. I walked through the hall of that building into the larger main hall, up the stairs, back down the same hall on the second story, and through the walkway to the music building, all while receiving the, "Dear God I'm glad that's not me..." looks from various people waiting the storm out in the math and science building. Walking down the stairs to the entryway we had been previously standing in I was greeted with cheers and applause and a brief comment wishing me luck finding my shoes. Finding my shirt to be colder than I could bare, I decided to take it off, and apparently my common sense was in the breast pocket. Shortly afterwards Amy and our band director both walked through the entryway to head outside and noticing me soaked, with a towel, without a shirt, looked at me as though I was insane. Probably fitting.

Next came a dare to go out the front doors, down the sidewalk to the closest car (about 30 feet) and run back to see how long it would take me. It didn't take just a whole lot longer from that idea being put forth for it to be realized in the span of about 15 seconds. Luckily people were willing to hold the door open for me, because to coming to a dead stop would have been impossible. And it was. I came through the double door, onto the floor mat, past it, onto the tile, grabbed the handicapped rail by the inside door and slid to a stop. Making mention that I had a towel and spare shirt in my car, another trip was suggested to go grab them, which I also did unwaveringly. As I reached the building again I tossed the backpack containing both items onto the bench, quickly unzipped it, and started toweling off before realizing I had my swim trunks with me as well.

Another dare was posed that I go out to the pond (about 100 feet from the side doors, and the trip consists of a flooding field, a flooded road, and some of the mushiest grass right next to the pond). I quickly pulled an about face, walked into the restroom, and came back out with my swimming trunks on, ready and willing to make the trip in as little time as possible. Voicing mild disdain for the notion, one of the gentlemen I don't know by name volunteered to go with me, and so we made it a race. We gathered on the concrete by the side door and readied ourselves to take off. Someone gave us a count and when they said "Go!" we went. Taking off almost as fast as possible we waded through a field (which we sank into above the ankle), across a flooded road (also ankle deep but with a potentially nasty half-foot step from the curb on either side ), and through the mushiest of grasses that lay right along the pond's edge. I got there first, just tapped the pond with my toe, and took off back towards the rest of the group. As it turns out, to run through a flooding field, across a flooded road, through the ooshie-mushiest of grass, touch a pond, and back through gooshy grass, a flooded road, and a muddy field takes all of about 35 seconds.

Afterwards we decided in our out-of-breath states that we'd wait a few whiles before attempting any more daring runs outside. In this time span I decided it was in my best interest to mess with Jennifer in any way possible, including (but not limited to) attempted soaking wet hugs, attempted kicks with muddy feet, attempted pushing-outs into the rain, throwing my wet towel at her, and various other ploys. I use the word "attempted" a lot there because in reality she's approximately the same strength as I am and was able to fend off most of my efforts. In discovering that last fact though, we did manage to get her to pick me up as though she were a proud groom and I her blushing bride.

The rest of the remaining half-hour or so we stayed there consisted of numerous Family Guy references, and my antics of running out to greet anyone on the sidewalk headed into the building in my trunks, shirtless, offering them a towel.

Pictures and videos will probably show up to embarrass me on Facebook soon.

After we all decided to head our separate ways I drove home listening to Kyuss and not seeing much interesting or exciting (other than more proof that people in Tulsa are idiots when it comes to driving) until I actually got home. When I got home my mother was already there and told me that I should probably come and take a look out at the back yard.

Our backyard goes from the house about 25 feet out, slanting down the whole way. After it hits our back fence there's a sudden 3 foot drop into a storm ditch that is used to channel flooding. I suppose it was doing its job properly considering the fact that water was almost up to the top of the drop off and for the houses behind us it was touching the foundations.



Looking down the yards towards Yale I noticed that the wooden privacy fence the last house had put up to kind of slightly keep them separated from Yale wasn't there anymore. In fact, a steady stream of cars had been coming down our street because the intersection where AMC's parking lot meets Yale had flooded and the flooding was bad enough that it knocked the fence down (uprooting the posts and actually breaking one of them) and was pouring like a waterfall into the storm ditch. I decided to go outside with my camera and look for awesome pictures of the storm and managed to find some as I went down the street into the neighborhood where the street was flooding. Two houses down from us it was ankle deep. A few more houses and it was up to the middle of my shins. A few more houses (the massive pond in the middle of the street) and it was knee deep with a stalled car that some kind person in a truck was attempting to winch out.

After heading down to one end and then the other I went back inside to finish writing this and as I look out the window behind me, I can see gray skies and a yellow tint to everything, my favorite kind of weather.

The massive rainbow is now covered by flashing clouds.



Pictures here: http://www.flickr.com/photos/13647091@N03/sets/72157622304020715/