Tuesday, May 12, 2009

She survived to see another day...

We made it back! Bandcon Lalapalooza Fest 2009! Wow...were we wiped! It turned out to be an interesting experience. Got some great girl time with a couple of dear friends, and some quality time with Chris. I missed Scott, but I'm glad I went. The bus wasn't even that bad...had my Ipod...my cellphone for those ever-essential texting purposes....my buds Liz and Patty. All in all...not much to complain about. They even gave everyone a goodie bag as we got on. In it was a band t-shirt that all of the women found uncomfortable. We dramatically improved them by performing surgery with scissors. Good idea Patty!


We stayed at The Residence Inn by Marriot in Sunnyvale. I was so impressed by this place. I highly recommend. Wish I could have tried the hot tub, but there was zero time. I roomed with another mom named Kate. :) After we got to the motel...ate some Subway....chilled for something like 20 minutes (you think I kid?), we loaded the fancied up (think tuxedos and gowns) kids back on the bus and headed to Milpitas High School. The men's and the ladies ensemble choirs performed for the judges. It was so interesting to watch these judges. They both talked through the songs into a recording device. I guess their ears are tuned to hear what they're looking for. The rest of us thought it seemed rude. The day was filled with a lot of standing around and waiting. I'm not sure how many other schools participated, but it seemed like 8 or so. After the choirs, the instrumental band got to perform a couple pieces.


Once we were finished at the high school, we loaded back up and went to Home Town Buffet for dinner. Wonder who picked this place? It appeared that several of the other schools had the same idea. It was packed with scads of impeccably dressed young people.....filling their tummies with chicken a la king and 10 different types of jello. I must say....this place....not so good. We were hoping to get some decompression time after we got back, but we were running late. Only got half an hour before lights out. I was assigned a room full of girls to look after. I got a couple of panicked phone calls at lights out time regarding important stuff like manicures and french braiding.


The next morning was an early one. We were supposed to be cleared out of our rooms and ready for breakfast by 6am. Chris's chaperone Tom came to me and said Chris was the first one up....got himself showered without any reminder. He was so impressed! So am I! When did he grow up? Later, Chris confessed that his room played video games until 2am. Smart boys...real smart. After breakfast, we did the bus thing again, only with full marching band uniforms (polyester....toasty!) The band marched in front of Milpitas High for what...30 seconds? With a police escort no less. Our tax dollars at work. Then....a bunch more standing around until the jazz band performed their 3 songs. They sounded great! I'm such a proud mama!




Once the kids changed, it was off to Great America for the day. I haven't been there since I was probably 18? It felt pretty much the same. The junior high kids had to have adult chaperones (which they were not too pleased about!), so Patty, Liz, and I spent the day together with 8 of the precious darlings. Some were more enjoyable than others. (Code for...man, these kids are being bratty!) Chris has never been much of a ride rider. The anticipation of it makes his stomach hurt. I don't push him. I must say, he was so great that day. He never complained...at least not to me. The only thing he wanted was a funnel cake. By the time we tried to get him one, the line must have had 50+ people. I felt so bad. He shrugged it off, and said he'd wait for the fair. Such a great kid I have!



At 5:30 we all met up at the Nick Theater for the award ceremony. RVCS received 5 trophies...all first place...all categories! It was awesome! It says so much about the music program at our school, and especially the leadership of Jim Humphreys. He really gets these kids to give there best! I was so proud of them!


It was time to go at 8pm. We were exhausted from not only two jam-packed days, but from all of the whining. It was a pretty quiet bus ride home. I think Liz was the first one asleep. You should have seen Chris all curled up in a fetal position on that little bench. Me? I texted my honey the whole ride home, as I was starved for his attention. Something tells me that's what Miss Patty was up to too....Alan :)

2 comments:

Anonymous said...

awww, sweet entry (must be the funnel cake)... Sounds like it was handful but some of the most difficult events are the ones that stick with you throughout life and you think about them...

PattyAnn said...

Oh, Katy, if that was only the case! After all these years, our communication is short, sweet, and too the point. So I called him and said we were leaving the park so he could have an approximate timeline, but the texting was actually Megan, just across the bus and a few rows down. She wanted to chat and didn't want to make a big deal about it, so texted instead. Sweet girl! :)