The LaValley’s Blog

Well, I’m beginning to check some seriously big items off the college portion of my to-do list.  The most recent items to meet the mystical red pen in my minds eye? Moving in and drumline auditions at LSU.

So, moving in:

Newton had a law that kinda sums up the entire moving to college experience for me -  For every action, there is an equal and opposite reaction.   Apparently this applies outside the vague and unfathomable realm of the physics classroom and automobile crashes.  This stuff happens in my life a well.  Packing up seemed to drag on.  It was weeks of “Huh, will I need this and where should I store that” and quite a bit of “Seriously, how do I have this much STUFF to sort through?!?” thrown in the more quiet moments, just to keep things interesting.  But unpacking… that’s a whole other kettle of fish.  It’s wham, bam, thank you ma’m, and suddenly I’m chatting with my RA (who’s really sweet, btw), have a PO box for the year,  and am looking at my 95% unpacked room realizing that I hadn’t thought of curtains before now.  Actually, I probably wouldn’t have noticed for about three days unless my family had been there – acting, as always when I get a little tunnel visioned  (which is unfortunately just how I have to pack if I ever want to finish), as the other half of my brain.  Thank you guys for all your help!  Not to be cliche, but – It all happened so fast!  But yeah, I’m done for now – moved in and everything.  I like my room, which is (of course) small, but I think it’ll be comfortable for the year.

Once that was done, it was on to thinking about my drumline audition…

And, here’s a couple stats to paint a basic picture: 4 instruments to audition – 4 judges – 50ish auditionees in total.  Objective?  Fill a drumline with spots for 9 snares, 6(?) tenors, 6 basses, and 9 cymbals.  Auditions begin at 1 pm.

7 and a half hours later, I get called in for my cymbals audition, which lasts approximately 2 minutes.  Tops.  Followed by another half an hourish of waiting to hear the cymbal line get announced.  The time leading up to my audition kind of plays out like a day at the DMV.  A lot of waiting, a lot of practicing, a lot of making small talk – all to this underlying fear that your request is going to be rejected.  So yeah, I didn’t make the cymbal line.  Considering that I am a bassoonist, who hasn’t marched a show before, and there were 10 new people (the rest – percussionists) auditioning for 3 spots if you assume all the cymbal line veterans made it – I wasn’t exactly expecting to make it.  I had hoped to, but I’m just too excited to be disappointed.  I met a big group of really amazing musicians, got to help teach some cymbal technique (which I really wasn’t expecting, but was glad to help), and still have a ton of great opportunities ahead of me.

After that, I opted to take a few more days vacation and have already had the chance to discover something new that I love doing: kayaking.  Not super suprising since I love canoeing, but it’s something else I can look into pursuing on campus.  And now I’m moving on to preping for my bassoon auditions – which I will definitely update you all on once they happen.  Wish me luck!