Flirtin' with Disaster (Molly Hatchet)

I would like to take this opportunity to recount the events of the Marching Tar Heels during this, the week of August 25-30.

On Tuesday evening at 6:00, we gathered for rehearsal. The task at hand was to learn the drill for our halftime show, a show featuring music that can be played in the video games Rock Band and Guitar Hero. The musical selections included Highway Star (Deep Purple), Rock You Like a Hurricane (Scorpions), and Flirtin' with Disaster (Molly Hatchet). This evening set the trend for a very wet week. We rehearsed virtually the entire two hours in the rain - soaking ourselves, our drill charts, our music, and (in some cases), our instruments. At this rehearsal, we not only practiced our show, but we practiced being teammates. We, the Piccolos, in an effort to protect our instruments from the inclement weather, rehearsed the music portion using our voices rather than our piccolos. During this time, we stood in the rain proudly, along with the rest of the band, and sang and marked our hearts out. Our first 2 hours of practice.

Then on Thursday, we gathered again on what promised to be a wet evening, but turned out to be quite lovely. We discovered at this rehearsal that we had ill-learned the drill during our previous "damp" practice. We spent a great deal of time attempting to correct mistakes that, alas, persisted throughout the rest of the week. For a few of the Seniors in the Piccolo Section, this rehearsal was met with great frustration as we attempted to assist our section-mates and even reached out across sections to a few clarinet players, but failed to see any improvement in the quality of the show. Thus the total hours of rehearsal comes to 4.

Friday presented a few problems of its own. Our rehearsal took place earlier in the afternoon, which presented a certain amount of heat we had heretofore avoided. We continued to suffer from problems in the drill of our halftime show, now convinced that people simply weren't putting forth the effort that they could. Finally, as rehearsal drew to a close, we returned to the material we had learned for our Pregame show, hoping to choreograph the event with the Cheerleaders and Dance Team. Alas, this too presented more difficulty than the students could foresee. The proposed landing of several parachuters required a significant adjustment to our Pregame show, and also required an additional 40 minutes of rehearsal. Now thoroughly "moist" with sweat, several members had to transition straight into a performance for the Men's Soccer Carolina Classic. During which, a good time was had by (mostly) all. Rehearsal time now totals 6.5 hours.

Finally, we reach the climax of our story - Game Day. Our day began at 8:30am when we reconvened on the steps of Wilson Library to take pictures of the band in our lovely uniforms. (Hottie wore them band overalls...). Several hours of waiting, taking pictures, and more waiting brought us to our final rehearsal time for the week. We ran a quick dress rehearsal of the day's performances - Tar Heel Town, Pregame, and Halftime. At this point, most of the band was "glistening" profusely, and subsequently dehydrated, and just plain tired of being on their feet. Total rehearsal time at this point was 8.5 hours.

A lunch break filled the time between this rehearsal and our first "performance," which was our warm-up in the Pit. At this time, the first Game Day jitters began to appear for some - mostly in the form of goosepimples as fans joined in singing Victory, Hark the Sound, and even Aye Zigga Zoomba. Our traditional performance schedule (Team Walk Through, Drumline in the Pit, Trumpets and Tubas at Dey, band in front of Wilson, parade down Stadium Drive, and Pep Band performances at various locations, we reached the final stage of this performance - Kenan Stadium and Game Time!

After an exhilarating Pregame performance, the band took their place in the stands to cheer our Tar Heels on to Victory. But the game would not proceed as planned. With 12 minutes left in the second quarter, the game was "temporarily suspended" for weather. Everyone was asked to evacuate the stadium and bide their time in the concourse. The band proceeded out of the stadium with the rest of the bewildered fans. And there, in the concourse, they waited. The band waited for 1 hour and 48 minutes. What did the band do during that time? It will not leave the concourse...

Please note that play resumed at 8:40, 12 hours after the Marching Tar Heels had gathered on the steps of Wilson for their photo shoot.

Finally, an exasperated band took their places once again in the stands, still prepared to cheer their team on to Victory. However, their team was not prepared to lead the Tar Heels to Victory. A great deal of football jargon should ensure here, relating how the Tar Heels failed to play football correctly while McNeese appeared to execute with precision and accuracy. Thankfully for the band, our football team turned things around. The Tar Heels regained their bearings and won the game 35-27.

Finally, the band concluded our day with a Carolina Victory. The official end time of the game escapes me, but it was somewhere between 10 and 11, bringing the total number of hours spent in band-related activities for the week to 23!!!!

I love band.

The Cupid Shuffle (Cupid)

So the Cupid Shuffle came on my iPod just a little while ago. I got up and started dancing, and one of my roomies danced with me. Then I was just sitting here thinking how nice it is that I've had some time to grow up since I started college. And by "grow up" I mean "realize what it means to have a good time and get over myself."

I like who I've become over the last several years. I like that I'm willing to get in front of a group and make a fool of myself. (See this video...)


And I'm wondering if I would have become the same person if I had been dating someone all along. I think I can see how it was good for God to give me time to be comfortable in my own skin (which I'm still working on, granted). I will do a much better job in a relationship now that I have sort of figured out who I am, how I work, and can find joy in the fact that God created ME!

That being said, it doesn't mean that I'm totally ready for a relationship. Just that I'm grateful God has been at work in me - I can see it in myself, which is exciting :)

Now walk it by yourself.....walk it by yourself.

Wanting Memories (Keali'i Reichel)

I'm in trouble right now, because it's 4-something in the morning, and I think I'm supposed to be getting up to go shopping in the morning.....but I have to get this down while my mind still has the dots connected.

Normally I would've rather stuck a piece of tape on myself than use the same song for a blog title twice, but it just so happens that the song "Wanting Memories" is what I want to write about. So I find it more appropriate to keep the title. And as I think about tape again, I have changed my mind and decided that this is far more painless, and less disgusting :-P

I looked up the lyrics to this song for the first time tonight. And there's one verse that's kind of bringing together something that has been on my mind for awhile now. Like years.

I think on the things that made me feel so wonderful when I was young.
I think on the things that made me laugh, made me dance, made me sing.
I think on the things that made me grow into a being full of pride.
I think on these things, for they are true.

I am sitting here wanting memories to teach me
to see the beauty in the world through my own eyes.

So the basic premise of my train of thought goes back to when I was a middle schooler. I had these devotionals called YouthWalk. We did them as a youth group for awhile. Then I started doing them on my own when our youth group made a transition. I just remember absolutely LOVING those devotionals. I literally could not wait to go to bed just because I knew it would be time to read that little snippet and spend some time with God. I was filled with pure joy at the thought. It "made me feel so wonderful," if you will.

I think my biggest struggle as a Christian is making it a priority to spend time with God. And because of that lack of time, I've found myself wading deeper and deeper into sin over the past 8 months. I continue to kick myself because I would love nothing more than to return to the pure joy I felt in those days - the joy of just having a few quiet moments to myself to share with the one who had all the answers to my boy problems, my school problems, my family problems, and my "me" problems. Where has that gone?

That's why the Bible tells us that we must have the faith of a child.

I was watching a documentary today about the olympics. The reporter interviewed a member of the Chinese gymnastics team. She competed in 2004, and is hoping to compete again in 2008 (I don't know if she actually is). This gymnast talked about how much harder it is for her to train than her younger teammates. She's just tired. Her body is worn out. And that raw energy and enthusiasm is gone.

I've seen a similar trend in myself since I've grown up in the band. I used to want to go on every trip and play at every event, but now I'm too tired to bother sometimes.

But it's so much more dangerous to become weary in our spiritual journeys. If it's important to maintain our physical health as we get older, how much more so should we strive to maintain our spiritual health? But in a world that is driven by outward appearance, which do we actually devote ourselves too? Honestly, I think more about my weight than I do about my heart. I'm more concerned with what other people think of me than I am with my vertical relationship with God.

At times, I miss the days when Mom and Dad would say, "it doesn't matter how well you play on this concert, just do it for Jesus." But when they DO tell me that these days, it seems juvenile, grates on my nerves, and I slough it off.

I just want to kick myself over again for being so stubborn and not maintaining my spiritual health. For not taking my own advice and going running back to the "memories to teach me." Time with God brings great joy. It's a command, but it's also a gift. We have to be idiots NOT to accept that.

So I'm irritated with myself. And I want more accountability like I had this summer - a friend who would e-mail me and ask me what I was reading. Why don't we do that more often for each other too? It sounded cheesy with Lizabeth offered that to me back in the spring, but when it was organically offered over the summer, I wanted that help and encouragement. And I still want it now.

So if you're reading this, and it makes sense to you, let me know, and let's see what we can do about it together.

From Isaiah 40:

28 Do you not know?
Have you not heard?
The LORD is the everlasting God,
the Creator of the ends of the earth.
He will not grow tired or weary,
and his understanding no one can fathom.

29 He gives strength to the weary
and increases the power of the weak.

30 Even youths grow tired and weary,
and young men stumble and fall;

31 but those who hope in the LORD
will renew their strength.
They will soar on wings like eagles;
they will run and not grow weary,
they will walk and not be faint.

And from Hebrews 12:

1Therefore, since we are surrounded by such a great cloud of witnesses, let us throw off everything that hinders and the sin that so easily entangles, and let us run with perseverance the race marked out for us. 2Let us fix our eyes on Jesus, the author and perfecter of our faith, who for the joy set before him endured the cross, scorning its shame, and sat down at the right hand of the throne of God. 3Consider him who endured such opposition from sinful men, so that you will not grow weary and lose heart.
4In your struggle against sin, you have not yet resisted to the point of shedding your blood. 5And you have forgotten that word of encouragement that addresses you as sons:
"My son, do not make light of the Lord's discipline,
and do not lose heart when he rebukes you,
6because the Lord disciplines those he loves,
and he punishes everyone he accepts as a son."