A beautiful weekend of lasts...

[candyland]

...is anybody out there? *words echo into the void* Yeah, haven't posted on here in a while, I know! Been uber-busy lately.

Thanks to all who left me presents in my Christmas stocking! Those are some smurfy presents, guys, and I treasure them all! Also, another reminder for anyone who wanted a Christmas card to leave me ze screened comment here! MWAH!

And now, since I'm on a break from studying for my last final (which is Visual Basic, which I don't think I'll do well on anyway, but I'll try), onto the events of the weekend--this past weekend I had my last band concert, and my last Madrigal.



Confused yet? Good ^^ "Masters in This Hall" is the name of the song the Madrigal Royal Court sings as they process up to the High Table. "Scootin' on Hardrock" is one of the songs we played for the last band concert--freakin' awesome piece, once we learned it.

Saturday consisted of three major parts: Madrigal rehearsal, moving, and band.

Madrigal was first. We had a rehearsal in the hall at ten-thirty AM. No costumes--just a run-through with the brass and the bell choir and the skit. PK asked John and I to wear our crowns and our capes of Awesome so we could get used to moving with them. And trust me, it took some practice--those suckers are huge. We ran the program with our solos and everything. The skit was short and cute--had some chuckle-y bits, but it was more cute than funny.

The rehearsal ran through the lunch hour, so everyone was getting up during the down-time and going to get bowls of food from the scurvery servery and bringing them back to eat during practice. The whole thing took until noon-thirty. It was a pretty good run-through, all things considered. But by the end, we were all tired.

I walked over to Edson with Little Sister to pick up her costume, and then went back to my room to get the rest of my stuff together. Mom and Dad were coming up to pack up my life and move it home...for the last time. That's the sucky thing about college: you have to pack up your entire existence and move it around a few times a year. But I'm moving out of my dorm room and moving home for student teaching. So everything I could live without for a week had to go.

...I was amazed at how little stuff I really had. I mean, the majority of a dorm room compressed into some furniture, three boxes, a plastic tote, three sets of plastic drawers, and two suitcases. Granted, I still have some stuff to pack up and put in my car--books, papers, desk stuff, the rest of my clothes/laundry, toiletries, my pet Kaito-fishie...wow, it's really sad when the majority of my worldly possessions can be compressed into this short little paragraph ;-;

They left a little later than planned, so they got here around two-thirty. They called me as they pulled into town, so I moved the stuff down to the lounge. They brought me more boxes, so I packed up one more box...and I have three more boxes to get the rest of my life packed up. But we got it loaded up into Daddy's truck in pretty short order. Then we gathered up Little Sister and went to Boswell's for a late lunch/early dinner. It was tasty--we figured out Christmas Eve/Christmas Day dinners and such ♥

Then we carted on back to Swope so I could get to band rehearsal at five-thirty. We did a quick run-through of our band concert, and then I trucked back to Swope to relax in my depressingly-empty dorm room ;-; Changed into my Hefty bag concert-formal dress and headed over to get my euphonium tuned up for my last band concert.

Our concert program was: "Ernst August" (a German march, in which the euphonium part is screeching merrily through the rafters), "Nabucco," (in which I got to play a solo featuring the melody of one of my favorite arias EVER!) "Contre Qui, Rose," (by Morten Lauridsen--slow, but beautiful) "Scootin' on Hardrock," (a David Holsinger piece that will get stuck in your head--uber-fun to play!), INTERMISSION, "Fanfare and Hark! The Herald Angels Sing," (Mannheim Steamroller--nuff said) "Concert Variations on In Dulci Jubilo," (a nice easy piece, 'cept for the six-eight part) and "Have Yourself a Merry Little Christmas" (...he cut Sleigh Ride for this?? RAR!)

Traditionally, we close with "Sleigh Ride." Mom was kinda miffed that we weren't this year, at their last band concert EVER. I told Jerry that, too--told him my mom wanted to see him in the parking lot after the concert about it. He seemed kinda tickled by the idea, and did say something to the audience about it.

...I got a little misty at the end of the last piece, because I have a tendency to sing the lyrics along in my head. The last verse starts with the words, "Through the years, we all will be together..." And yeah, I teared up pretty good. It sort of hit me that I was done. That was it. My last band concert. *sigh* Well Jo...it's your section now. Take good care of it, good luck with them, and make sure you corrupt the new generation with games of Hang-Man in which you use dirty messages such as "I like it when boys touch boys." ...ahem.





Sunday belonged to Madrigal--I think I've explained it, but it's a big dinner where we feed everyone a five-course meal (if you count the wassail and fruit). We dress up in medieval/Renaissance costumes and sing Ye Olde Music while speaking with really bad fake British accents. The performance is always a lot of fun.

So anyway, my plan was to get up at ten to get my hair in rollers, and then take a shower while my hair was setting--for those who don't know, I'm hair-stupid. So it's always really fun to get it to do what I want. Well...my body took the alarm clock as a suggestion, and I didn't roll out of bed until closer to ten-thirty. Got my hair pulled up and in curlers and wrapped a bandana around it and went to shower. I helped ashleymouse get her hair braided the way she wanted it, got dressed, got my hair fixed, got my make-up done, the whole nine yards. As some of you might know, I'm a really lousy girl--I suck at doing my hair and make-up and stuff. But I managed (except for blush--I can't do blush).

And then ashleymouse and I went down for breakfast around noon. In our Madrigal dresses. The Queen's dress is white and looks like a Victorian nightgown. That was an adventure...and it was also really fun to see how many weird looks we got in our Madrigal dresses and headpieces--I had the crown on with the ponytail in the middle of it, so the curls were piled up over the top of the crown, and I had my bangs parted at the front so it looked like I had a hairline ^^;; We ate, and Ash helped me get my Big-Ass Cape on, and we scampered off to rehearsal.

Rehearsal ran from noon-thirty to about three. Full run-through, except we cut a few of the solos short to save time. I spent about ten minutes at the beginning helping people pin their headpieces on, too. It was a good run-through.

We had to be there at five-thirty for warm-ups--which wound up being more of a photo op than anything else. The performance started at six. I got uber-nervous right off the bat when PK started the opening fanfare before John and I had gotten to our spots--we were supposed to walk in last o.O But then we began the processional to the front, and the whole thing got underway. It was amazing how good it sounded.

Poor John...he downed half a glass of wassail (which is this apple-cinammon-y drink thing we use for the first toast and sing a song about--I think it's traditionally alcoholic, but we're running a PG show here), and then realized that he had to sing his solo. Once he got through the first verse, though, he was fine, and it was pretty. We had a good little chuckle about it when he got back to his seat ♥ PK mentioned that it's always really nice when the king and queen are friends because they can get into their roles and play off each other--and we DID.

There was one moment during the night were I nearly started to cry. My solo was "Breath of Heaven," a beautiful Amy Grant song. I had to beg PK to let me sing it, and I'd worked really hard on it. I was ready. Walked up to the microphone, put my hands together as though praying, and waited for the intro. Deanna (our accompanist, who is absolutely AMAZING) started...my heart was pounding like crazy until I sang the first note, and then it was fine. I know there were a lot of flashbulbs going off (my parents, and my friends' parents).

After I finished, the applause...oh my god, the applause just went on and on. I took my bow, and turned to return to my throne...and the entire Royal Court is on its feet behind me. I nearly started to cry...but instead, I walked back to my seat with the biggest smile on my face, turned around, and took a second bow before it began to die away and the court sat down. I didn't want the moment to end. I found out later that one of the other senior girls had passed the word up and down the High Table for everyone to do that--after the performance, I sought her out and gave her a HUGE hug.

The show went on--the skit performed. John had some lines, and Megan (sitting next to me) was in the skit, and I was supposed to sit up there and look pretty. Hardly--I started improvising =D At one point, John talks about how the scribe is going to recite a poem about his "greatness and bravery." I started coughing loudly, and he turned around and ad-libbed a response ("Later.") before returning to the front. During the skit itself, Megan and I were bouncing lines off each other left and right: during the duel, I said, "Oh, they'd better not get blood on the floor!"

For audience participation, we had a Christmas Carol Contest. One side of the hall sang "Jingle Bells," and the other sang "Joy to the World," and John and I were to judge the winner--but call it a draw, because the prize was dessert ^^ So we choreographed an entire argument about it, and it was hilarious...and then Tom opens his mouth and interrupted right before the best part. I wanted to swat him D: But the audience really enjoyed it--they were cheering and booing and standing and clapping along and laughing...it was wonderful ♥

The rest of the show went wonderfully. We always conclude the show with "Silent Night." The audience was on its feet as a TON of hugs, hand-shakes, congratulations, compliments, comments, and photo ops. More than one person told me they cried during my solo :D It was magic. Wonderful, beautiful magic.

Mommy and Daddy came through for me again with dinero for dinner (hee...I made a pun!), so ashleymouse and I went to Hardee's for dinner, and then went over to Edson for piano practice. Was there for about an hour, then went back to my room and got on chat for a while until I fell asleep around midnight. And I slept like a baby.



I'll leave you with that INSANELY LONG NARRATIVE for now. I might post about the rest of my week later--and hopefully, I shall have Madrigal pictures shortly. I have two right now: a "queenly portrait," and a senior picture. But this past weekend was beautiful and wonderful and...well, that's the way a senior Madrigal should feel when you're done with it, I think ♥

...and I just found out that Peter Boyle died of heart disease. He played Frank Barone on Everybody Loves Raymond for ten years--one of the greatest characters on TV, in my humblest of opinions ;-; He was seventy-one years old.