All of the work and effort of putting
together a marching band, the practices, and an amazing fundraising effort came
together today for an hour in the Disney World spotlight for our little town
and band!
If you’ve never done anything like that,
there is no way to describe what that feels like. Representing our town and school on such a
huge stage is part of that; showing off to such a huge audience was great too;
and getting to share every moment with Michael and our friends was absolutely
amazing! I’ll guess that the vast
majority of the spectators watching the parade today won’t remember the name of
our band or town in a week, but we really are going to remember this parade and
trip forever. Thanks to living in a
small town where we know everybody; this will also be one of those ‘remember
when’ stories that will get talked about for decades to come too.
I’ll offer my apologies if you’re one of
the people that have to hear those stories over and over again in the future;
but will still be happy to tell them anyway! ;^)
While I wanted to start this update with
that bit of parade news, before I get to the rest of the news of the day; let’s
take a moment to back up to the news I didn’t write about at all yesterday –
the Super Bowl!
That’s right; I intentionally didn’t
include that sports news even though we didn’t completely escape football
yesterday. The boys even watched the end
of the game while we were on the bus back to the hotel – and kept tabs on it
while we were at Epcot. I’d offer my
congratulations and condolences to the Patriots and Falcons respectively; but
can’t really do that with any sincerity; so I won’t bother. The Lady Gag halftime show got talked about a
lot too, but to be honest, if we hadn’t been too busy having fun here in
Florida; I’d have rather watched the Hallmark Kitten Bowl if I’d had to pick
between that and a football game that worked out so perfectly for the Patriots’
come-from-behind miracle that it was possibly too good to be true. Before the football fans reading this freak
out, I’m not making any accusations, but pro sports is entertainment, and if
the first-half trend had continued; nobody would have been talking about a
fifty or sixty point blow-out – except for the Falcons’ fans. Fortunately for me, football season is done
with until Tim gets the early start to summer training for our team; so I’ll
just be glad to have that break!
Getting back to the news for today, Michael
and I were up early for a repeat round of Tai chi by the pool; we didn’t go for
a swim after that because we didn’t have time for that; and our breakfast was
another round of McDonald’s fast food that we took to go because there weren’t
any open tables available by the time we got there with our group. We did get to be among the first on the
buses, though; so that worked out – and we still managed to do that despite
helping out with loading the band gear into the storage compartments while waiting
for the rest of our group to finish breakfast and join us. We also needed to have our band uniforms with
us, but thanks to the hot weather; that was easy-enough for most of us. I put my pants and tee in my saxophone case –
along with Rowen’s; since her flute case is a bit small for that.
We were back at Disney World ten minutes
ahead of opening; we were set free to play at the Magic Kingdom until we needed
to get together and ready for the parade; and Michael, Tim, Rowen, and I spent
all of that time with our group – and with some extra friends that we crossed
paths with along the way as we went on rides and caught some shows. As always, we love the extreme rides the
best, but the classics are always worth revisiting – even if some of our fellow
teens don’t agree with that sentiment.
The boys in our group didn’t have a problem with eating a big lunch, but
the girls all took it easy ahead of the parade.
That wasn’t because we were worried about looking fat or getting sick
because of stage fright – we just didn’t want to feel full while marching and
playing the music.
I really would like to do a better job
describing what it was like being in the parade and marching along Main Street
at Disney World, but I really can’t put my emotions into words. Our music wasn’t perfect, but we did sound
great; I doubt that any spectators would guess that we’d only been a marching
band for less than a year; and the applause and cheers and singing along with
our assigned Disney songs was all a blur of wonderful. Marching next to Michael made everything even
better, and while we weren’t close to Rowen or Tim; I know that they loved
every moment of the parade too. There
was a bit of work before and after the parade – including getting changed at
least once for all of us; but I had fun with all of that too – and it was cool
getting to see just a bit of the behind-the-scenes action that goes into the Disney
entertainment every day. I could totally
see Michael and I spending a summer working in one of the shows or doing
something else at the park here, but Mom would never let me do that; so it’ll
have to stay a really nice daydream.
After we had our gear back on the buses
after the parade, Michael, Tim, Rowen, and I decided to do our own thing for
the rest of our time at the park. We had
dinner first; and then hit every extreme ride we could get on until the park
closed and we got together with our band for the fireworks show. We had a blast with everything we did, but by
the end of the evening; I was feeling just a bit sad that the Disney World part
of our trip was done – even though we still have three full days of fun still
ahead of us. Once we were back at the
hotel, some of us went for a swim; Michael and Tim did another fast food run;
and then we had that bedtime snack in our room before splitting up for the
goodnight hugs and kisses. Rowen and I
both wanted to have showers again tonight after our busy play day, so the rest
of our night has been a near-repeat of last night – except that I had my shower
first and am writing this update while Rowen is still in the bathroom and doing
her hair.
She’ll be done that soon, and I’m ready to
wrap this up anyway; so I expect that we’ll both be sleeping not long after she
climbs into bed with me. Tomorrow is our
trip to Cape Canaveral – one of the ‘official’ educational segments of our
Florida adventure; we’ll need to be on the road a bit earlier than the last two
days; and Michael and I will need to be up even earlier for our Tai Chi workout
– especially if we want to have a swim too.
There is some rain in the forecast for tomorrow, but I’m hoping we’ll
either be indoors or on buses when we do get that rain – and it is still
supposed to be another beautiful day the rest of the time when it isn’t
raining.
I’ll write all about that with the next
report, though, and you can read on anyway while I wait to live the next
twenty-four hours or so; so I’ll just call it a night and move on to the
bedtime girl chat and a decent night of rest so I’ll be ready for all of the
fun and adventures ahead of us!
Until next time...
...May the Magi Force be with you!
