Posts from — November 2003

Alumni Band Day was today (well, yesterday at this point in the night). After all the work I put in, I think it went really well. In fact, there is little I could have asked to go better.

I was up until 4:30 or so the night before finishing up the itinerary for the day, going over of lists of things I needed for each part of the day, and building a donation box with duct tape and a box (lots of duct tape!). I left zoellner at 9:30 and headed for the loft. Registration started at 10, and the alumni started coming in in waves. Everyone got registered without a problem, except that we ran out of cymbals (but cow bell is more fun anyway). I was in a huge rush to clean up all my stuff and get my uniform on with my clarinet assembled in time to march in.. I should have made registration start earlier since the game was at 12:30, perhaps.

The alumni band was about 50 strong, and sounded pretty good (as far as alumni bands go). They marched in after we did, and got in and to their seats without incident. Pregame went OK, I marched pretty poorly, but considering how busy I had been with so little sleep, it was no surprise. The first half in the stands went alright… with the usual whining about “we’re not playing enough” and confusion and chaos as to when we can play. Towson never formed any cohesive offense, so the game was rather one sided.

At halftime, the alumni band went before us. It’s always funny to watch them because they made up the drill minutes before marching on, and were still arguing over it as they lined up. They ended up doing some moves on field (more than follow the leader) while playing some fight songs. The crowd loved it for some reason, which I found funny. After that, we marched our drill, which I again didn’t do very well with. The music from one of my flip folders blew out onto the field. I caught one sheet, but then I had nowhere to put it (it was impossible to march and put it back in the folder). I tried to stick it under my thumb, but I couldn’t play and could barely hold the clarinet like that. So, I ended up crumpling the paper and stuffing it in my sleeve for the duration of the drill. At the end of our drill, we formed a block ‘L’, expecting that the alumni would form a ‘U’ next to us. As I hoped, they didn’t do exactly what we asked, and spelled “ALUM” on field with our ‘L’.

My announcements were pretty good today (the halftime ones, at least). This was important because I had gone a fairly long time with relatively un-funny announcements, but there was definitely audible laughter and some people told me they had trouble marching onfield because they were laughing so much (this is the measure of the quality of announcements). I worry a bit that I may have got Sandy mad, but I think she’s ok (haven’t talked to her since then, though). They changed the phrase “beer goggles” to “beverage goggles” or something, which was very awkward. Oh well.

The alumni barbecue went well. We had plenty of food and a fairly good turnout. The weather was excellent for Nov. 1, as it could have been in the 40′s and raining, but it was a beautiful, warm fall day. I was really lucky with this. I was happy to see that about 5 current band members made it, considering it was parents’ weekend.

Stelly (an alum) got me a bottle of “Diet Frosh” Soda and a Zero bar, symbols of the alumni band’s gratitude for my work. I have not eaten either yet, but I will write in here when I find out what they taste like.

Overall I think I actually enjoyed the day. I’m going to miss the alumni if I don’t do publicity again.

Woo- it’s over!