1- The Bowl game was amazing. For all of you that missed it, the Utes "Rolled" all over the Alabama Roll Tide in a 31-17 victory. The marching band flew out of Millionaire airport at 0630-ish on 31 january. The staff there are amazing, and check-in went pretty well. So touchdown in to new orleans and bus ride into the city. Our hotel ws right on Canal Street in the heart of the city. After arriving in the Hotel, I again realized that Bowl trips aren't the vacations everyone expects. Within minutes of dropping my bags off in my room, I was in Uniform and running down the the bus for the first pep rally. After loading the bus again we drove to the french quarter of New Orleans. Now at this point I had still not even seen my tuba, let alone played it, since rehearsal three weeks before. I wasn't worried though, we were playing the basic songs for about ten minutes. Easy gig!!!
After the pep rally, it was back onto the bus and over to the Super Dome. Even during all of this loading and unloading of my tuba, never one did I wish I played a smaller instrument. It may be a pain to take the tuba apart, put it in the case, then load it on the bus, but I wouldn't trade it for the world.
The Super Dome is amazing. We all stared in awe as we walked in for rehearsal. I threw my tuba on braced myself for a very long rehearsal. Four grueling hours later (and by grueling I mean that I hadn't carried my tuba for that long in a month, and my shoulder was hurting really bad) we loaded back onto the bus and headed back to the hotel to enjoy a night off. New years eve was fun, but I really attempted to stay away from areas where I knew there was a lot of partying. 
A group of us went out to this amazing cajun restaurant where I ate frog legs, gator, catfish tails, fried clams, and mud cake. Needless to say, I ate way to much. We walked over to Bourbon street, where all the partying was and ventured down a little ways till we agreed that we had seen a sufficient amount of New Orleans most famous street. There were live bands, lots of beads, and firework over the river at midnight.
day 2 was actually relaxing. We starting out with another rehearsal in the super dome, lasting about 1.5 hours. We had about 5 hours of free time before another pep rally, so a group of us went out to lunch. we walked around the french quarter and found Cafe DuMond, where I had Beingnet's for the first time in my life. They were so beyong good... I can't even begin to explain. I had 6....
Next Pep rally was in the Hotel in the Grand ballroom. Initially when we arrived I was worried that we wouldn't have enough fans, but after seeing this room filled up with thousand of utah fans, I realized I had nothing to worry about. We marched into the ballroom to thunderous applause, and formed up into the concert arc. The tubas stand in the back, and I was in the middle. We played a medly of our famous songs (utah man, u pep, don't stop believing, etc...) and oddly enough, the whole time I had cameras following me. I would turn around and someone would want a picture of me. I can't even imagine how many scrapbooks i'm in, or how many facebook pages i'm on. There were news cameras everywhere, and one followed me for at least 2 minutes while we played. It was scary!!
The day of the game started off with rehearsal with the Alabama band and the high school bands that were playing with us. The director that conducted the combined piece was terrible, and should be fired. that's all I'll say about that.
To keep this short... WE WON!!! GO UTES!!! back onto the bus, hurry up and wait, then flew back to snowy utah. It was the greatest band trip i've ever had the opportunity to go on, and I'm so gratefull for all my friends that made it worth all the hard work!!!
2- The band got invited to play for the presidential innaugeration. Why we aren't for sure going? I have no idea. If it's a matter of money and the university just doesn't want to pay for it, i'm goign to be extremely angry and they will get a nasty letter from me. Granted, I didn't vote for sen. Obama and I don't even like him, everyone knows that. But what an honor it is to be able to play for at a presidential inaugeration. How many people get to do that? So I'm really hoping someone makes the decision fast.
3- The moment i've been waiting for has finally come, my mission papers are in and my call will be coming in the next few weeks. The reality hasn't really set in yet, but it might when i'm lying on my bed in the MTC wondering what i've gotten myself into. But I know that I will be doing the Lords work, and there's nothing else I'd rather be doing. If anyone has any guess of where I'm giong, i'd love to hear it!!! I'll post more when I find out where i'm going!!!
1 comment:
Who's the cute blond holding the Tuba? DARLING! cjb
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