Day One

Ready, Set, College!

Here's how things went down today. I woke up at some ridiculous hour of the morning, showered, packed the last few things, and was ready to go around 6, I think. We left just after that. Needless to say, I slept like a rock in the car, even though I had about 14 inches of seat in the back, squished up next to my clothes, trumpet, sub woofer, and a backpack. And a few other things, I'm sure... it was all blending into the general "college stuff" pile by then. The six boxes, guitar, and bike just barely fit into the bed of Dad's frontier. That thing just doesn't qualify as a truck, honestly. Small bed, ok cab, but still small... its a diet truck, if anything. Anyway, I'm not here to complain about the Japanese in this particular post.

We got to Waco and ate breakfast at ihop, because it sounded like the smart thing to do. So after I absolutely stuffed my face, we went the 100 yards over to Penland, my dorm, and proceeded to do some heavy lifting and unloading.... just exactly what my newly filled stomach wanted, I'm sure. I could tell by the way it was silently screaming at me.

My room is right next to the shower. I can't decide if I like that or not. It's gonna be really convenient as far as getting to it quickly, but I dunno how noisy/smelly it could possibly get. The concrete walls should be enough, but we'll see I guess. Penland is pretty empty for a few more days, so I won't have an accurate idea of what I get to put up with until all the non-band-kids move in on Wednesday and Thursday.

Ok, so all the boxes get into the room, Mom is still being a little flipping pill.... all is going according to my worst nightmare's predictions. Ok, maybe not. I didn't loose a box, I have a room, a working key, I didn't forget too much... things are pretty ok. But Mom is being a bit... well, like herself. She's trying to control the situation where she is obviously not in the know. She'd been on my nerves since she woke me up at that ungodly hour that morning, and the way she was being all bossy just ticked me off that much more. To top it off, she found a few fireworks that I packed and flipped more.... and absolutely forbid me to keep them. So I wrote a small note to Connor, explaining the situation and to keep them save for me. And then told my dad to give the bag of fireworks to Connor and only Connor... probably not the safest move, but I think I can trust him enough to do that for me. (I guess that sentence applies to both Connor and my dad... take it as you will.)

Then dad ran to home depot with mom to get me a few other things like shelves and food, all while I started putting things in place and setting up. They got back eventually, we put up shelves, then we had to go check in with the band. Band is band, as usual. Same personalities for the most part... just slightly more mature, with the exception of the trombones, of course. They fed us lunch, gave me some free stuff (its baylor, after all), and then I went off to finish setting up.

We decided it would probably be smart to buy that 9 million dollars worth of text books while the parents were there with a credit card, so dad and I went and did that... it turned out to only be like, $600, but still. That's just wrong. $600 for all used textbooks. And I'm not even taking english this semester.

A bit after that my parents actually got around to leaving. It was a very guy-leaving-home moment, I think. I was like, ok, lets get on with this, I have somewhere to be, but not so much so that I didn't properly say bye to my parents... Dad gave me one last "don't screw up", and mom just gave me a hug. She wasn't close to tears or anything. We all knew this whole not being at home anymore thing needed to happen. So I left and went to band and it was all good... we had a big meeting and then a music rehearsal... all together. on one stage.

it was loud.

(And yes, I can hear the toilet flush from my bed. Its not intolerable, just slightly annoying. Thought you should know.)

This was the first time I've actually felt like a freshman. I guess its because this was the first thing where they integrated us into the group. We had orientation and line camp, but those are directed at freshmen and for freshmen, and besides the leaders, we freshmen are all there are. This was the first time there were people there who weren't my leaders, but were upperclassmen. And they knew things I didn't.... like the fight song. Or any of the other songs. Or the horn movements that go with them. Or that random pause that you never saw coming, simply because its not actually written in the music, but you're just supposed to know its there. I hate being a freshmen in that sense, where everyone can tell you're a freshman because you just really don't have a clue what's going on. It's a learning process this week, though, so it's all good. Slowly but surely, I'll fit in. I can tell its gonna be a lot of fun, and it'll be easy once I get the hang of it.

Which reminds me, I really should be getting ready for tomorrow's rehearsal instead of doing this... I should be putting together a flip book and reviewing some of that music so I don't fail so badly at it tomorrow. Oh well.

After that was dinner with the section. Anna, you'll love this.... we went to Chick-fil-A. I now know where the Chick-fil-A is. My life can continue in Waco. The problem is, it's like, a 10 minute drive. And I don't have a car... just a bike. Taking a nice little ride over there just isn't very plausible... again, oh well. I heard there's actually one on campus... I should look for it.

The freshmen had their own marching rehearsal tonight to get the basics down. It was supposed to be outside, but it started lightning, so we got to go to the really, really nice indoor football stadium that ONLY the football team gets to use most of the time.... it only has 90 yards. That explains a lot about the Baylor football program, don't you think? But yeah, we got to go inside, which was kinda awesome. I don't think I even broke a sweat.

I won't bore you with the differences between Mason band and Baylor band, but it's like being directed by a pair of Mr. Davis', with no pressure of any contests at all. And they don't really care how you march. They talk about precision, and we're trying to look good and be a pretty legit band, but really... its just not at all the same level as high school band. It's so much better.

Then we went to a frozen custard place back down on Valley Mills, over by Chick-fil-A..... I learned something important today. Everything I need is on Valley Mills. Everywhere I want to go off campus is on Valley Mills. This is just something they don't teach you in line camp, where they don't let you off campus at all, or at orientation, which is all about Baylor. There's only one way to figure out where everything off campus is... get here to stay, make upperclassmen friends.

But yeah, that was Day One of my life. Not too shabby I suppose....

Things I'm looking forward to: Roommates moving in, knowing the music, friends from line camp moving in, school starting (believe it or not), sleeping in (comes with school starting), and the cafeterias opening up, so I can stop eating out and blowing all my money.

Yep, that sums it up.