S is for...

7th Rrrrregiment!!

Like that wasn't obvious!!  The 7th Regiment Drum and Bugle Corps is an Open Class drum corps based out of New London, CT.  They were founded in 2004 and continue to push their way to the top every season since.

Now, I'm not biased or anything like that, but I absolutely love drum corps as an activity.  It combines the best of... everything!  It has music and arts and dance and athleticism and pure entertainment!  Not to mention the family and friends and memories and jokes and everything else involved with living/ working with people for an absurdly long time.  I myself have been with the corps for the past four years, and this season, 2012, will be my fifth and final year with the corps as I am aging out.  As per DCI rules, anyone ages 12-21 can march, and I have finally reached the magical age of 21 and will thus be ending this chapter of my life at the end of the season.  Yes, this is upsetting, it's been the majority of my life for five years now, but it's also a little freeing.  I can now go on and explore other interests.  Of course I will miss it, but there's not much I can do, so I'll make the best of it.

For those of you who don't know, drum and bugle corps is a performing arts ensemble consisting of only bell-front brass, percussion, and colorguard.  They are independent organizations dedicated to developing strong leadership, character, and integrity in young adults.  During the summer they travel across the country, competing against each other and performing for thousands of fans.  I like to describe them as marching bands on steroids.  But whatever you do, don't call them a band.  They are corps, plain and simple. 

P is for...

PABLO!!

No, not that one...

And not that one either!  The Pablo I'm talking about is less of a person and more of an entity...

He was spawned in the summer of 2008.  He quickly sowed awe and fear and even hatred in those around him.  It didn't take long, however, for people to realize just how awesome he truly was.  Pablo completely transformed my first summer at drum corps.

Pablo was a piece of fabric.  An extremely LARGE piece of fabric, but fabric nonetheless.  He was the main feature to end the 7th Regiment's 2008 program 'Mexican Landscapes.'  In the show we had the desert, the green wood, and the river.  Pablo WAS the river.  After the three main movements were done, it was Pablo's turn to shine.  He sat waiting at one end zone and was carried by two colorguard members, weighted down by four more, to the other end zone.  He would first engulf the entire drum corps, and then they would run under him until it was their turn to drop out one by one, forming a river across the field.  The first time Pablo was used, in Rome, NY, the audience went crazy.  Which was extremely rewarding because we probably spent around 6 hours working on it that day alone.  By that point the six guard members (myself included) who had to run with him were hating the entire world.  Pablo would stick to people's sweat and it would transfer.  So then, when we were running him across the field and we'd get slapped with a sweat soaked piece of fabric in the face and it was not easy to dislodge.  Let's just say I wasn't a very happy camper.  On that note, are you ready to meet Pablo?

7th, Sun, and Sand- The Proper Way To Start A Summer

Hello there, Everybody!!

I would like to apologize for the lack of blogging lately!  Although it's only been a little over a week, it feels like it's been much longer.  As some of you know and others do not know, I returned home from NZ quite safely last week.  I was home for a total of two days before I was gone again, this time with my lovely family at The 7th Regiment Drum and Bugle Corps.  I re-joined with the corps after 5 months of being away.  Let's just say that I knew about 50 counts (i.e. 20 seconds) of the over nine minute show.  I had a lot of learning to do.

I rejoined 7th on Thursday June 30.  It took me exactly 4 days to have the show learned.  Granted I did not have it as learned as I usually would at this time (for example I don't know my entire dot book like I usually do), but I know the work and I can march the drill.  That's pretty freaking good if I do say so myself.  I even managed to perform in both of the weekend shows- the first in Lynn, MA where we scored 63.900 and the second in Bristol, RI where we scored a 64.500. 

The main thing I want to say about this 5-day experience (we also did 3 parades on July 4th) is that I am so super proud of my corps for all of the hard work they put into the weekend and the entire season so far.  This show is amazing!  I also want to commend myself (I can do that since it's my blog) for learning an entire drum corps show in 4 days.  It wasn't easy, but it was my goal and I am quite proud to have achieved it.  Now my next goal is to have it learned like I would in a regular season.  Hopefully that won't take too long either.

After finally returning home for a decent period of time (3.5 days) I will say that I am happy to be home.  I do wish that home was a little closer to NZ than 9000 miles, say 0 miles, but it'll do for now (laugh mom, it's a joke).  It's still hard to believe that I won't be rejoining all my sweet as new friends in the fall for another primo year at Massey, but alas it is not to be.  I will instead have to concentrate on the important things, and the things that only matter for those crazy enough to consider it (aka drum corps). 

Also in the near future I will have a beautiful niece to concentrate on.  Hopefully she'll be here any day.  I'd like to be home on the day, but at the same time, my sister-in-law is already 2cm dialated and I don't want to prolong the pain.  Speaking of nieces and nephews, here is a lovely little video of my nephew that I took today at the beach.  He appears to be a little upset at how sandy his feet are...

pain

So, how many of you have done a really ridiculous workout, or maybe a really long day of yard work?  How many of you had trouble walking around the next day?  Welcome to my day.  Don't think I'm complaining, well ok, I guess I am, but I knew it was coming.  I just got back from my first camp of drum corps for the 2011 season.  IT WAS AWESOME!!  Besides the ridiculous muscle pain, I'm doing just fine.  No flags to the head, didn't jam any fingers or anything like that.  Just worked my butt off.  I'm so absolutely excited for this season.  I'm not sure where the staff is going to take the show, but from the tidbits I'm hearing, it's going to be amazing.  Painful, most probably, but absolutely amazing. 

The two main reasons, I believe, I'm in so much pain are, 1) Pliés, and 2) Our sick nasty opening dance.  The pliés account for my legs, and the dance accounts for the neck and back.

Now, you should all realize by now that the muscles in your back are extremely important.  Hurt one of them (or overwork it, say by whipping your upper body back and forth with your head locked into place) and you're basically screwed.  Well, let me just say I can hear the muscles from where my neck connects to my head all the way down to my lower back.  And you know what they're saying?  "Why would you do this to us?!"  Well muscles, here's my answer.  I do it out of love.  I do it out of love to my corps and love of the activity itself, and of course, out of love of the people.  This activity has changed my life, so of course I'm going to put my all into everything I do there.  Even when that means I won't be walking or turning my head comfortably for a few days. 

To continue the story of my day, on the trip back to school, we took some of the sketchiest back roads in the state of Pennsylvania.  On a dark, rainy, foggy night.  Horror movie much?  Yeah, that's what I was thinking.  Luckily we made it back to civilization safely.  Once in civilization however...  The first thing I did after arriving back at school, waddling over to my building and getting inside was put my bag down to get out my keys.  I unlocked the door, opened it, and pulled it right into my face.  Result?  An awesome lump in the middle of my forehead.  Way to go self, way to go.