Food . . . Fun . . . Marching Band Finals!

Well it is that time of year again, marching band state finals. This years finals competition took place at East Bay State University in Hayward. The day began as any other band competition weekend . . . Way To God Damn Early!!!! We arrived at the school at 6:15am and proceeded to load the equipment and various other items for our adventure. This included enough food and water to survive in the wilds of the bay area for a good month or two. After the loading of the two trailers we were off to the races. The travel time was about an hour and a half and we arrived at about 9:30am. We set up our usual awesome base camp which is usually the envy of all of the other schools. The band was to step off into competition at about 11:30 am so the kids went off to the practice field for a warm up and run through of their show before the actual competition. The adults scoped out the route to the competition field so we would have an idea what our old asses were up against when it came to helping the kids with all of the various large instruments and carts that are used in the "Pit". We were surprised to find that our camp was actually located at the summit of Mount Fucking Everest and the field was located at the base of the mountain a mere 100 miles away. Okay so I am exaggerating a little, but it was about a mile from our camp and every bit as steep as a surface street in downtown San Fransisco. After our investigation of the route we were approached by a couple of the Modesto High School parents asking if it would be okay to use our drum major podium as theirs was broken, and wouldn't you know it these two lovely people were driving a quad. The deals were stuck and it turns out that in return for the use of the podium they would pull our huge drum cart full of equipment up the steep ass hill. Things were starting off great then we found out that the bathrooms were about a half a mile away down the other side of Mount Everest.

Well it was time to leave for the competition we gathered all of the equipment and headed out down the mountain. There we were looking like a shit load of Sherpa's packing everything down from Mount Everest to the Base Camp. We got to the bottom and it really wasn't too bad. The kids performed as what only be call their best show of the season. We exited the field and began the hike up Everest. We soon found out that even though we may have resembled a pack load of Sherpa's . . . we weren't, but we sure could have used eight or nine from where I was standing. At any rate we started our ascent only having to stop for oxygen two or three times. After huffing and puffing and blowing phlegm out of our asses we arrived at the safety of our camp. After a quick rest, drink and pee break lunch was served.

After lunch the adults cleaned up and relaxed while the kids went to watch some of the bands compete. The weather was perfect for sitting around and telling stories and general socializing. It was approaching the dinner hour and this dinner was the senior dinner where the graduating seniors get to be first in line for food, get to eat on real dishes with real silverware, and sit at a real table and chairs. The band alumni were in charge of the food for dinner and man did they deliver. They fixed tri-tip, baked potatoes, pasta salad, garlic bread, fruit and two cakes for dessert. Everything was delicious and enjoyed by all. Afterwards we all cleaned up and broke down camp. We then went to watch a couple of hours of competition before the awards. We got to see quite a few bands from Southern California and they were pretty impressive as well. Well it was finally 9:45 pm and the tension mounted as the announcements started with the awards for the single "A" bands. This is our division and had sixteen bands competing. The top three bands would be advancing to finals that would take place on Sunday. As it turned out we were barely edged out of third place by 1.5 points . . .SHIT!!! Fourth place is still respectable as far as I'm concerned fourth in the state in our division is AWESOME AWESOME AWESOME!!!!! As we wound up our evening by arriving at the high school at 12:00am to unload all of our stuff the realization of the fact that we did not have to be up at 5:00am to leave for finals that the disappointment quite a bit. We had an awesome season and we are looking forward to the winter drum line season that starts in a few weeks. Until we meet again "May the force be with you".