Day 68

Date: July 21, 2011

Time: 10:01pm (CST)

Playing on iTunes: "Hello, Goodbye" by The Beatles

Location: Houston, TX

Recent Trip: 500 miles

Houston...we have a problem. It's a little too hot for my liking! Just kidding. I'm used to the heat by now. It's actually pretty cool in Texas for it's normal temperature. Only a slightly humid 95 degrees. It was worse in Nebraska! So how today was going to work out is that we would rehearse all day at the stadium where tomorrow night's show is all day (which is a huge advantage for us) and then sleep our housing site about an hour away at night. Then tomorrow we'll go back to the stadium for rehearsal all day and perform in the stadium tomorrow night! Great chance for us to get used to the stadium before the performance.

We arrived at Richard E. Berry stadium around 9:30a and got a little time to get anything done we needed to, so I went to CVS with Taylor and got a few things. I could not believe the size of this sports complex building. It's for a high school!!! Unbelievable. Check out this place!

Absolutely unreal. Texas has way too much money to spend on their school systems. But ya know, I guess it is going to a good cause. 

The pit found an amazing shade spot today. A very beautiful backdrop with the trees behind us. We worked a lot on our usual spots in the show that we have to keep daily maintenance on because if we don't play them everyday, they will not get any better!

Welcome to Drum World!!

So unfortunately, due to a snare drummer's injury, the battery is going from 8 snares down to 7. This requires rewriting of drill and moving people's spots around in the battery. So since the decision was made to go to 7 snares, they have been working hard to making sure the drill works with the new changes. So the pit and battery got together today for "percussion stadium". We worked an enormous amount on the drum feature to make sure that was perfect from the back on the field to the front with the new drill spots. Essentially, all of the drill in the battery was changed, which means they needed a lot of practice getting used to the new spots. Everything seemed to go very smoothly and we're ready for tomorrow night's performance!!

CPit Spotlight 2011

Here is our section leader, Ms. Vanessa Wudyka (wood-ih-ka). She is 21 and lives in Wrentham, MA. She is the center marimba player as well as the section leader. She fell in love with the Marching Arts her freshman year of high school in marching band. Through marching band she also found a love for percussion. Before the Cadets, she marched East Coast Jazz 2006, Spartans 2007. She then moved to the Cadets in 2008 and has been here ever since. Currently she is a Music Education and percussion performance major at the Hartt School of Music (University of Hartford). In the drum corps off season, Vanessa, loves teaching (music), shopping, hanging with her friends, playing mini golf and most importantly eating ice cream!! Here's what Vanessa has to say about this year's Cadets: "This year has been very enjoyable. This pit meshes with each other very well, and I love this group of people. The show this  year is truly remarkable. The drum corps acts differently when the show is this much fun to perform. There is a lot more self-motivation among each player and we are just having a lot of fun. The feeling of family throughout the whole corps is very rare and this is a great way to go out of the activity after 6 long years. " She would like to give a shout out to:  My parents I love you and thank them for all the support to my brother and I through the years in this crazy activity is amazing. They are the best! Also Hi Matt! Love youu!"

Thought of the Day: "Life isn't about the goals, life is about the process."