Dolphins remain on a level three...

Well, I'm back, and leadership camp was certainly an experience. I had a blast, even though Mr. Troyka chewed us out a lot. I actually like Mr. Troyka. He might come across as mean on the marching field, but he's actually a pretty cool person when you get to know him.

I met numerous people (there were 180 kids there), and found out that many either look like, or have the personality like, or both, of people I know here. I met an Andrew, a Julia, a Justin, a Mr. McSweeney, a Jeff (my cousin), and a Sam Spade (the protagonist from my book). It was quite an interesting place.

But, anyway, here's my day by day overview (as best I can, this is going to be a very long post).

Sunday
I got to camp at SHSU a little late (well, about four hours actually), but they knew I was going to be late, so it was fine. I went in and registered and got my room assignment in the Sigma Sigma Sigma house. I walked in and met a tiny room with two small beds, a wardrobe, and one desk for both of us to share. I met my roommate, Haydon Pustka, who turned out to be a pretty cool guy. I'm glad I didn't get roomed with some weirdo. We just hanged out in the dorm that night and he got me caught up with the schedule and everything and we fell asleep around midnight.

Monday
Today was the first true day of leadership camp. We got up at six and took our showers and got ready. I have to take a moment here and talk about the bathroom. The bathroom was shared between two dorms with an open toilet and neither door locked, so it was quite common to have someone walk in on you and catch you at a bad time. The vent above the toilet had to have broken more health code violations than the waitress at Buchanan's. The shower was the worst shower I had ever used. The best analogy I can come up with is from my roommate Haydon. "That shower. Wow. It's like the wall is peeing on you." And that's exactly what it was like. No joke. Anyway, we had breakfast at the Cafe Belvin, which had okay food, but the breakfasts didn't look that good, so I stayed with the cereal.

After breakfast we had our first aerobics session (or fitness and safety training the schedule called it). It was certainly something I had never done before and was quite an experience. It was held in the Health and Kineaseology Center on the exact opposite of the campus. It was a good ten minute walk. Some kind of techno was going on in the background when we came in and we all recieved our name tags...except for me. I remained without a nametag or leadership handbook because I had yet to be put into the system. It's a good thing I brought my own binder, because it would have been impossible to go through camp without one. Anyway, when everybody got situated, Mr. Troyka turned up the music and we started. It wasn't like anything I had ever done before. In commerce, I heard that someone else ran the aerobics but in this one it was Mr. Troyka himself standing on some rickety tables guiding us through the session.

After aerobics we went to my first leadership training session (there had been one the day before, but I had missed it). So I went in bookless and looked off of Haydon's book and took my notes on some sheets of spare paper I had brought with me. The leadership sessions were nice. They reminded me a lot of Dr. Tim. We had to sit next to somebody not from our school (I didn't have much of a choice there) and we had to sit with our arms and legs crossed the opposite way. I'm not going to go into much detail on what we learned in the sessions. You are welcome to ask me about it in person and I'll tell you.

When the session was over we learned our new marching style. It was the weirdest style I had ever seen. The check postion was open toed for one. That was weird enough by itself. Then we had a straight leg step-off, no bend to the knee whatsoever. Also, the step off was on the and of four instead of on four. We go pull and touch. The style goes pushtouch. (that's really hard to put into words, it might just be better for you to ask me for a demonstration later)

After that, Haydon and I ate lunch together and we headed back to our dorm for awhile. Then we went to our first sectional, Haydon to clarinet, me to mellophone/alto saxophone and we got our music, which I really enjoyed, and started memorizing it: "Latin Closer" (which featured a medley of La Virgen de la Macarena and Aztec Fire; it was our marching piece) and "Proud Mary" (we didn't have to memorize this one). We learned in the sectional that it's impossible to get twenty mellophones in tune much less an added twenty saxophones. I was also the only mellophone player that wore gloves. I never got stopped answering questions for the duration of the week. After sectionals we had full band rehearsal (but it wasn't a full band because all drum majors left for their breakout session).

After rehearsal we had another leadership training session and then dinner. At dinner Haydon and I met Josh and Anthony, which turned out to be a "full" table with a freshman, sophomore, junior, and a senior. Josh played bass clarinet and Anthony played the flute. We remained in a group the rest of the week.

After dinner was our first marching rehearsal. It was quite an experience marching with a 180 piece band. So, we began our half mile (at least) walk down to the stadium. I've made that walk so many times, there is a burn on my calf and a bruise on the side of my thigh from where I carried my instrument. We got into our concert arcs to warm up and it started raining (which, by the way, it rained at least once every day). So we headed up into the press box and waited it out. In the press box I sat next to Haydon and an alto sax player named Dexter. Here we also received our coordinate sheets which completely threw me off guard. I didn't know a whole show could be printed onto a little strip of paper like that. I was horn 53, by the way.

It finally stopped raining so we went down and began rehearsal. Halfway in it started raining again but Mr. Troyka kept us out there anyway. It was kind of fun marching in the rain, actually. When it slowed up a little we could actually see a full rainbow right over the music building. It was quite a sight.

After rehearsal was over we began our long walk back to the dorms through the rain. When we got in Haydon took a shower first and I got out of my sopping wet clothes. After my pee from the wall, Haydon introduced me to some of the most amazing storebought cookies that I have ever tasted. Mother's Iced Oatmeal Cookies. They were amazing. After a couple of those we both fell asleep pretty quickly.

Tuesday
Tuesday morning we got up again at six and had breakfast. It was basically the same thing, except it rained on the way to aerobics. I was still nametagless and bookless. It cleared up afterwords as we were heading back for the leadership session. For our fundamental marching session that morning we got to march up and down the parking garage. That was an experience. It was pretty cool though. We also started learning new skills that we were going to have to teach the next day as part of our leadership training. I was with Ryan (I think), our drum major, and he taught us stair-step right, more commonly known as traverse right (with a twist).

Lunch came around and we had a quick lunch and Haydon and I got back to our dorm and we caught a cat nap before sectionals. In sectionals we finished memorizing our music and we worked on "Proud Mary" for the first time. I really began to enjoy the music now that people were starting to be able to play it.

A leadership session and a dinner later, we were back on the field and it was hot, and it wasn't only hot, it was humid, and sticky, and nasty. Sweat was just pouring down my body and by the time we had finished, I was just as wet as the night before from my sweat. We were feeling the "love" Mr. Troyka would say. Yea well, love burns.

We marched and played the first four sets that night and then we finally got off that field and we made our half mile journey back to our dorms. I didn't have much trouble falling asleep that night.

Wednesday
Wednesday was the hardest day to get up. Nearly half of the campers were late to aerobics and Mr. Troyka wasn't to happy with that. I finally got my nametag! I still didn't have a book though. Aerobics finished and we headed to the leadership session but instead of staying in the music building, we went to the parking garage and we got into groups and began teaching each other and evaluating each other. I got an average of about four out of five from my fellow campers, so I think I did okay, but I know what I need to work on.

After lunch we went into sectionals and fully memorized our music and had a somewhat abbreviated rehearsal so we could head to the stadium. It was even hotter at this rehearsal. But we got the rest of our sets memorized and put music in up the set 8 which was the end of the first half of the piece (La Virgen de la Macarena). Aztec Fire was all we had left.

After rehearsal we went to another leadership session where I finally got my book! Then dinner, where I found out Josh and his band had gone to state with Gavorkna his freshman year. Then we went for another marching rehearsal that pretty much got us nowhere because people forgot their sets and music and weren't paying attention. Mr. Troyka didn't leave the rehearsal to happy. When it was over. Haydon, Josh and I began our long journey back when Haydon's band director, Mr. Castillo, waved us over. He gave us a ride back to the music building which I think kept Josh and I from dieing (Josh didn't have a handle on his case and I had one of the heaviest horn cases).

In celebration of our last night together Haydon and I finished off the cookies and Dr. Pepper then we slept quite soundly that night.

Thursday
Thursday finally came around and we had our final breakfast and aerobics session. This was by far the best session complete with double grapevines, revolving doors, and jump ropes. Afterwords, we skipped our leadership session and went straight to the stadium.

Everybody worked much harder today and we managed to play through the entire show a couple of times. It made us all feel a little bit better now that we weren't going to embarrass ourselves. We finished up the rehearsal with a short leadership session where we finished teaching our skills.

Then we had our final lunch together. But the Belvin wasn't expecting us so it started forty-five minutes late, causing the leadership session to start fifteen minutes late. But after lunch, we headed straight for our final session where everything was wrapped up and Mr. Troyka gave us our final advice.

Wehn that was over we put on our camp t-shirts and blue jean shirts and headed for the stadium. We got everything unloaded and all the stands for "Proud Mary" set up. We arranged ourselves in the concert arcs and warmed up. And then, out of nowhere, a thunderstorm came. Complete with rain, wind, thunder, and lightning. That meant no performance. That really stunk. We had worked and worked and gotten chewed out and worked some more, and now there could be no show. But, it's okay. That's not what the camp was all about. There's always next year anyway. We headed back to the music building and performed the music for our parents. Then the camp was over. We were free! I said bye to Josh, Anthony, and Dexter and went back to the dorm with my mom. I got everything packed and loaded into the car and I said good-bye to Haydon. Then I turned in my key in the Gibbs House and we headed home.

I am so glad I went to this camp. It was certainly a once- well, possibly three-in-a-lifetime-experience. I learned so much and made some amazing friends. I probably missed a lot of details but I'll be more than glad to talk about it with you. Yea, I'm definitely doing it again next year.

By the way, as for the evening activities (movie night, game night, dance), I never heard much about them. I knew they were there but I had no idea where or when they were, so they obviously weren't mandatory.