"None of their beards match their hair."

I went to eighth grade info night today to help out with the band presentation. My job was to take questions from parents and students that Mr. Burn couldn't get to, and to pass out forms to anyone who didn't already give Mrs. Verissimo their information to pass along.

I ended up talking to four parents. Only two of them had questions, and I already knew three of them. Laura's dad wished me a late happy birthday, which led to this conversation later on:

Mr. Burn: Guess where I was when she was born.
Mr. Marra: Where?
Mr. Burn: Here.
Mr. Marra: Guess where he was when I was born.
Me: Where?
Mr. Marra: Here.

"Yeah! ...Isn't he dead?"

I was in my room today trying to make it less of a disaster area, and I found this letter in my "keep" pile:

November 22, 2008

Dear Susan,

Congratulations! On behalf of the faculty and staff at the University of California, Clarinets, I am thrilled to offer you admission to the most selective college for the greatest clarinetist and other people who come close to your awesometasticness.

UC Clarinets has much to offer you, and we look forward to your becoming a part of our crucial enlightening community. We at UC Clarinets deem that our impressive academic reputation, musicianship, and marching band will satisfy your educational dreams. Although our marching band may not be as good as Homestead High School's marching band, it sure kicks the other colleges' rear end. In fact, our incoming show is called "Villains and Heroes and Clarinets." You will meet others, like yourself, who are enthusiastic and fabuful at the clarinet, saxophone, and life. Our campus has spontaneous sculptures reflections of Spiderman, metal works of Chuck Norris, and flight paths of Superman.

Again, congratulations on your admission to one of the finest institutions of higher education in clarinet. We hope you will join us soon. Welcome to the UC Clarinets community!

Sincerely,
Supaman Awesometastic Clari-saxo
Director of Admissions and Protector of Clarinets

This has reminded me of two things. First, it reminded me how "awesometastic" the clarinet section was this year. Then, I realized that the real UC admissions decisions are released next month.


I'm only slightly terrified :/

"No, that way will take us to the teleport station."

Things I find when I clean my room:

-An assortment of cards from birthdays and other occasions
-Three AMC free movie passes. Anyone up for a movie?
-My Gov textbook. Whoops...
-A laminated picture from some getting-to-know-you exercise in second grade
-Two bass clarinet reeds (in my sock drawer?)
-Programs from almost every concert or play that I've seen/been involved in
-Electrical wires of some kind
-Three years of mail from colleges (CSU Monterey Bay and a few others are still stalking me)
-An old photo album with pictures spanning from 1992-2005 (though the years 2002-2004 are missing)
-My World History notebook, which I used to track how many times Otto said the word "OK" in a lecture. The record was 217 in one hour.
-The funny quotes book I kept on the Japan trip over the summer. Taken out of context, a lot of them sound a little questionable. Actually, even in context some of them are questionable (that's what I get for hanging out with only guys for two weeks)
-A cheap snow globe I bought on the New York trip
-The first CD I ever bought, which I really wish I hadn't...
-A fork. Seriously, a fork?

"I'm not gonna be very happy when they put the shrimp on the barbie."

Those of you who know me know that I'm not a very good singer. There's a reason I joined band instead of choir.

Despite this, I've spent some time in the privacy of my own room (where no one can hear me) attempting to hum/sing along with some of the songs on my iPod. One thing I've learned from this is that for some reason I can sing with the male singers slightly better than I can with the female singers. It's not much of a difference, but a difference nonetheless.

The exception to this would be any song by Queen. That's just impossible.

Somewhat related quote-from-several-months-ago:
(singing Jazz Police)
Me: (singing bari part) Da da dada dada da duh dah duhdah duh da da
Dayv: (singing alto part) Bwaa daaa, bwaa daaaaa, bwadaaa bwee duh ba bow....
...
Dayv: It might help if my voice weren't lower than yours.

And another:
(singing A Whole New World at last exchange concert reception)
Dayv: (aside) Yes, keep modulating higher.

"But what was he donating?"

I had completely forgotten that today was Valentine's day until I went to the kitchen for breakfast and saw a little teddy bear with a red bow tie sitting at my usual place at the table.

In case any of you want to come see the Wind Ensemble or Jazz Band perform some time in the coming months (of course you do), here's our schedule:

Friday February 27 - Chabot College Wind Festival (WE)
Saturday March 7 - Chabot College Jazz Festival* (JB)
Saturday March 21 - CMEA Solo/Ensemble at SJSU (my quartet is playing Rossini's "Barber of Seville")
Thursday March 26 - SJSU Jazz Festival (JB)
Saturday March 28 - CMEA Band and Orchestra Festival at Saratoga HS (WE)
Friday-Saturday May 8-9 - Santa Cruz Jazz Festival somewhere in Santa Cruz (JB)
Thursday May 14 - Spring Concert at HHS (WE)
Saturday May 23 - Spring Concert with alumni at HHS (JB)
Sunday June 28 - "Bon Voyage" Concert at HHS (WE and JB)

*Mr. Burn mentioned in Jazz Band that he accidentally checked the "competitive" box when he registered us to perform at the Chabot Jazz Festival. If we are among the top three bands at the festival we may get a chance to perform as the opening act for Gordon Goodwin (who will be one of the judges) later that night. The chances that we'll actually score high enough to be considered are pretty slim, but the idea is exciting.

"Is ring finger a euphemism?"

It's kind of strange to think that I'm going to college soon. I opened my email yesterday and was greeted by a link to a video of a group of happy Cal Poly students shouting "Congratulations!" at me. I don't plan on accepting their offer (though it all depends on who I hear from next month), but it's a little comforting to know that I have somewhere to go next year.

In other news, I now have two jobs planned for the summer. One involves cleaning and play-testing rental instruments at West Valley Music to prepare them for rental season when elementary and middle school band programs start in the fall. The other is one I've been waiting a year for. Last year, on closing night of "Urinetown," Mr. Kelly told the pit that we were all invited to play in a show he would be conducting this summer with a professional company. I'm only a substitute, so I won't perform every night, but it's my first (and most likely last) paid gig!

And now for a quote-of-the-day:

Mr. Burn: Be gentle! It's Valentine's day!
Lyndsie: Valentine's day is two days away.
Mr. Burn: Be gentle! It's Lincoln's birthday!


Actually, that was a quote from yesterday.

"It's the raisins that make the raisin bran so great"

Katie and I had to go to various spots along Steven's Creek today to collect samples of the water for APES, and one of the sites we chose to wade around in was the area next to West Valley. We weren't actually able to get across the bridge because it was fenced off on both sides due to construction, but we decided to hang out for a bit afterward anyway. Her sister Emily was there, and as she was talking about fifth grade drama (some kid named Saul asked a girl in her class out on a date, which is SCANDALOUS) the conversation turned to our own elementary/middle school days. One of the subjects that came up was Science Camp....

STORY TIME

I went to CMS for sixth grade, and was the only one from my group of friends to do so. By the time Science Camp cabins were being selected, I still hadn't made any [female] friends, but I did know two girls slightly better than the other sixth graders. I wrote their names on my slip of paper, and they wrote their own friends' names. We ended up in a cabin with a few other girls, and I didn't know any of them.

Things got interesting fairly quickly. First of all, our cabin leader seemed to think we were significantly younger than we actually were. Every night she would read us a bed time story and sing us a lullaby about a cowboy and jackrabbits. While that was a little weird, it was well-intentioned. The really weird part came after the lights were off. I was having trouble sleeping, so I started to get up to get a drink of water or take out a book. As soon as I sat up, the cabin leader got out of her bed and roared "GO BACK TO SLEEP!" Terrified, I dove back under the covers and tried really hard not to move at all for the rest of the night.

Later in the week, I realized that my cabin-mates weren't exactly the best of friends. After the first night, my cabin almost exploded from the overload of preteen girl drama. I don't remember what they were fighting over, but every few hours there would be a screaming match of some sort. It got so bad that our cabin leader and one of the other volunteers staged an intervention where they tried to get us to get along and do team-building activities together instead of going on one of our scheduled hikes. It was actually kind of fun, and for a few minutes I thought maybe it would be safe to finally introduce myself to the other girls.

The effects of the "intervention" lasted for about five minutes after it ended, at which point they were at each other's throats again. The week wasn't totally lost, though. At least there were newts. The newts were cute.

I don't think I learned much at Science Camp, and I lost contact with everyone from my cabin (including the two girls I kind of knew) pretty soon after it ended. The rest of sixth grade was blissfully uneventful, but after a while I started to miss contact with my peers, even the screaming ones. Not having many friends (and only being allowed to see my friends at West Valley once a month) freed up a lot of my time that year, which I filled with homework, discovering the internet, and practicing clarinet a lot.

Now that I think about it, as useless as I thought it was at the time, sixth grade was a pretty significant year...

First post?

I already have a LiveJournal, which I'll continue to update more often than this blog. But since everyone else is doing it, I guess I'll make a few posts here.

I'm guessing that most of what I write here will just be copies of my LJ entries (the less personal ones, that is), but who knows? Maybe I'll switch over here completely...