Because You'll Want More

"Honey, it ain't gonna zip." This was the last thing I wanted to hear on the morning of District Music Contest. I was already running late, as usual, and I still had to retrieve my band uniform, choir robe, oboe, and music before the Encore bus left for Nebraska City in roughly 9 minutes. Poe wanted Encore dressed and ready to perform before we left the school. It took three people to get my dress zipped. Two to push my shoulders back, and one to zip it up. The zipper was about halfway up when Mikayla asked if there was another dress in the uniform closet that I could wear. Unfortunately, the only dresses that were left were sizes 3-4, 17-18, and 22. Frankly, none of those were going to fit me. We finally got it zipped, but I could barely breathe. The whole way to Nebraska City, I had to sit up perfectly straight because when I bent my back, the two wires that run down my stomach/chest would dig into my skin. I had bruises from it.

When we arrived in Nebraska City, we basically walked into our homerooms, dumped our crap, and left for warm ups. In the warm up room, there was an entire wall that was covered in mirrors. "If you are mature enough to handle it, you can warm up facing the mirrors." Ms. Poe said sarcastically as we entered the room. Let's just say, we weren't mature enough to handle it. Let me rephrase that... Our tenor section was not mature enough to handle it, the rest of us were. As we walked onto the stage, the announcer came up on stage. Apparently we were the first group. I looked out in the audience and saw an entire section of Syracuse  people. There were 108 of us students total. "First up, we have Syracuse. This is their madrigal group." she turns to Poe, "I don't know what you guys call yourselves." Ms. Poe turns toward the audience and says, "Encore: because you'll want more." And then she turns around to cue the starting pitches of our a capella french song. Perfect timing. Encore went amazing, and we received a 1+, despite random grimaces of pain from poking wires. Seriously, what idiot puts pointy wires there?

As soon as we arrived back at the homerooms, we had like 10 minutes to change and then get into robes for Women's Ensemble. The practice went terrible. Absolutely terrible. I was almost crying. Somehow we managed to pull it out of our rear-ends for the performance, and we received a 1+ as well. It was amazing.

As soon as we arrived back at the homerooms, we had roughly 7 minutes to get ready for band. Somehow I managed to put my silver braid thing on the wrong arm, so I had band moms practically attacking me after I got my uniform on. Then I received a long lecture that entailed, "You are a sophomore in high school, it is time to learn your left from your right." (This is something I really struggle with. For my driving test, I had to  write L and R on the backs of my hands. It was quite embarrassing.) One thing I forgot to do was remove my "Encore lipstick", so I managed to dye my oboe reed pink. It is really pretty. Band went pretty good, it wasn't our best performance, but it also wasn't our worst. We ended up getting a 2, the best thing is that I didn't break my reed like I did last year at contest! I also ditched the water cup! Saliva is perfectly acceptable. No more Dixie cup for me! (I was so sad, I didn't have anyone to randomly switch oboes with this year. I miss my wonderful oboe buddy, Micah!)

After band we had an entire hour before choir, I took advantage of this time to go eat lunch along with some of my friends. During lunch, a wave of nausea and tiredness hit me, so Ally, John, Britton, and I went back to the homeroom. I pulled up a piece of carpet and fell asleep in the back corner of the classroom. I  was woke up by John tapping on my head with his foot saying, "If you don't wake up, you're going to sleep through choir, and we all know that that would be bad." I managed to peel my aching body up off the ground and put on my robe. I looked over at Ally, John, and Shae, and Shae said, "Darlin' you look like you are about to pass out." She came over and started rubbing my back. I closed my eyes, and then her hands were gone. They soon returned to my back. I leaned my head back on what I thought was her shoulder and was just about to say, "Shae, you are a doll." when I realized that it wasn't Shae, it was John. I swear I jumped like 3 feet in the air. "Holly crap, Stazia, what's your problem?" "John, you scared the crap out of me, I thought you were Shae." That dummie was laughing at me. Just then Ms. Poe said it was time for choir to warm up. Warm ups were sketchy, at best. It sounded wonderful, but I felt like I had just been hit by a bus. All of my Alto 1 babies were doing wonderful, so I didn't have to make very many comments.

As we walked on stage I felt even more sick. Festival Sanctus cheered me up a little bit. I love the part at the beginning when each section enters with "Sanctus!", it is so pretty. That was the best performance we had ever done of that song, and the basses and tenors didn't screw up the part that they had never done right before! Next up was Sure On This Shining Night. This song makes me cry. The guys only part at the beginning is just absolutely beautiful. Our guys section can actually sound amazing if they apply themselves. I stand right next to Britton, and he has an amazing voice. I was crying before we even got to "The late year lies...". The song was just absolutely beautiful. Emotions do weird things to me, and that's all we'll say about the end of that song. As we were walking back to the homeroom, I was hysterically crying. Poor John, I think I scared the poor kid. He asked me, "Stazia, are you okay?" I took my hands away from my eyes and said, "John, I'm an emotional wreck right now. What do you think?" Then he said, "I meant physically." "Oh, no, I feel like I am going to vomit, keep your distance." That dummie didn't talk to me for the rest of the day. Choir ended up getting a 1+ as well. Jazz Band got a 2.

Today was the small ensemble day. I participated in a solo song and a duet. My solo and duet both got 1's! It was a very successful weekend for the Syracuse Choirs, as for band, not so much.