Day 84

Date: August 6, 2011
Time: 11:41pm (EST)
Playing on iTunes: "Piano Concerto No. 5 In Eb, Op 73, II. - Adagio" by Ludwig Van Beethoven


Location: East Rutherford, NJ
Recent Trip: 21 miles

So this morning we woke up at 6:30a so that we could get a head start to the day since we had to drive to our rehearsal site. Today was the DCI East Coast Regional and somehow we lost our Allentown housing...not sure how. But in turn, we got to rehearse at the New Meadowlands Stadium. This $1.6 billion stadium is brand new as of April 2010 and home to the New York Giants and New York Jets. It was very exciting rehearsing here because this is where the TOC Finale is going to be tomorrow night. A great opportunity for us to get a good sense of the sounds in the stadium.

Day meeting on the field

The pit got the morning to ourselves outside of the food truck. Which is my favorite place to rehearse since we get to smell the food during our rehearsals. Mmmmm....a little distracting but more motivating since it gives us something to work for at the end of our rehearsal. In the morning block we practiced our warmup tunes to start off since we have Vic Firth (drum stick company) coming tomorrow to record us for their podcasts on iTunes and their website. It's going to be a great opportunity for us. I'm very excited to get videotaped for them since that's how I always was able to see the Cadets online. I'd go onto vicfirth.com and watch the Cadets videos and say to myself, "If I was ever in the Cadets, I'd be able to get videotaped and have everybody see me in the Cadets. That's be awesome!!" Well, here we are, and tomorrow it's going to happen. I cannot wait!!

Here's a few cool shots in the stadium:

The tunnel to the stadium 

The pavilion on field level.

Seats on field level inside that have doors leading
right to a fence behind the players bench

Tonight was our DCI East Regionals. It was also the Cadets homeshow in Allentown, PA at J. Birney Crum field. This is the field to play at when you're a Cadet. It's your home field and it feels great to play at home. I was also going to be able to see my Uncle Dana as well as all of my friends from home. Tonight for me was great because once I got there and was unloading the truck, I turned around and saw my best friends from UMass in the distance. I stood their, waved, and saw them run over yelling, "I WANT THE FIRST HUG!! NO, I WANT THE FIRST HUG!!!" Hahaha it made me laugh, but it's so humbling knowing that your best friends are so excited to see you. I was very excited to see them as well. 


Waiting to get on the field, I see my Uncle walk over and say hi to me, it was great to see him even though I wasn't able to talk with him until after the show. Our performance was amazing even though it was drizzling a little bit. The crowd loved it and definitely was excited to see what the Cadets had done over the past 3 months.


After the show, we started loading, and here came the rain. Starting with drizzling, then raining, then...pouring. It got to the point where I just didn't care how wet I was anymore. But that was the more fun I was able to have seeing everybody. Give them a nice big wet hug!! I finally got to see my Uncle after the show which was great. He came all the way up here from Georgia and I really appreciate that. He really enjoyed the show and was glad he came. 

Uncle Dana and I

Some of my UMass friends soaking wet after the show

The corps had an amazing show and despite the scores, they knew they won the crowd vote and to me that's bigger than whatever the judges have to say. I felt amazing after the show and as long as that keeps happening, I'm happy.

East Coast Classic

1) Blue Devils - 95.25
2) The Cadets - 95.20
3) Carolina Crown - 93.70
4) Santa Clara Vanguard - 91.05
5) Boston Crusaders - 88.25

Only one more week left of tour!

Thought of the Day: "Although the world hates change, it's the only thing that has brought forward process."