lukeryu

Mental Screamings
2007-04-16 07:28:03 (UTC)

Patriotic Cowboy Hat

I got back from choir tour today. I'm not sure how I feel
about being back. On one hand, I'm glad to be back. My
voice is tired, my back is sore, I'm lacking in sleep, and I
have a lot of work to get done. On the other hand, I had a
wonderful time and really dont want to go back to work.
Either way, I'm home. The trip started on Thursday morning.
I got there a little before 8 (the buses were supposed to
leave at 8) and got on my bus (bus 1) and sat down with my
seat buddy, Emily, who would learn to hate me over the
course of the trip :). I'm sitting there and I get a
voicemail from Rachael, who is on the other bus. She called
to make sure I was up and on the bus. I called her back and
got her voicemail, so I left a message that said “Tag, youre
it”, indicating that at this point we were playing phone tag
and that she should feel free to call if she got bored on
her bus. Little did I know that this would start a game of
tag of epic proportions.

So the buses left and went to Granite Falls. At Granite
Falls, we did an exchange with Mr. Iverson's choir. We were
sitting around in the auditorium waiting for the students to
come in when Rachael yelled from across the hall “Hey Sam,
tag, you're it.” At this point, I realized we were actually
playing tag. Then the students came in, we listened to
them, and then Ken worked with them, and then we did a few
songs. We were fed pizza for lunch and then we packed up
and tried to go to Slayton. The started on one of the buses
died and so we all had to pile on one bus for the trip to
Slayton. At Slayton, we had an exchange with Mr. Felton's
choir students. I think it was during this time when I
actually, physically tagged Rachael, the only physical tag
of the game. We also went through a tornado drill, in which
we filed out into the hall and ducked and covered. I dont
know why we couldnt just stay in the auditorium. It seemed
stable enough and there was no windows in there, but I guess
there is something I didnt see, so we had to go out and come
back in. After the exchange, we had practice and then free
time. Emily and I went down to a local coffee shop and sat
around for a while. Then we walked back and ate the pot
luck dinner that the school moms provided for us. It was
fairly good. After dinner, Rachael and I went for a walk
and talked for a while. Then we all got dressed and did the
concert. The concert went well. The house was absolutely
packed and we did a nice job with our performance. After
the performance, I changed and then sort of hid. I knew a
lot of Rachael's family was there, but I thought it would be
somewhat awkward with them, so I decided just not to deal
with it. I learned later that it wouldnt have been as
awkward as I thought and that they were all wearing “Rachael
Fan Club” T-shirts, which I found amusing. I got picked up
by my host family and went out to their house for the night.
They were a very nice family, but one of the sons was a
little to enthusiastic to try and keep us entertained. But
I got to watch Casino Royale, which was a pretty good movie.

The next morning, we got a ride back to the buses. Rachael
was waiting to ambush me. She handed me one of her
grandmother's sticky buns, and then called her mom over, who
gave me a big hug. It was unexpected and slightly awkward,
but was good to know I didnt have to worry about them. We
piled onto buses and went to Des Moines. As we approached
the city, I got a text from Rachael, first saying “Tag,
youre it” and second asking if I wanted to do lunch, to
which I replyed I would. We stopped in a shopping district
in West Des Moines, and Rachael and I went out to a Buffalo
Wild Wings, a chain in which I had never eaten (I guess that
is some sort of 8th deadly sin). The food was pretty good,
and so we sat and ate and talked and then I picked up the
tab and we went and explored other stores. We went in and
explored Bed Bath and Beyond (watch out for that Beyond
section...) and looked for stuff to furnish Rachael's new
house next year. We searched the store for a while, and
then we wandered over to Best Buy for a bit until we had to
return to the buses. We trucked over to a church in the
“bad part” of Des Moines. During the trip, I determined my
next method of tagging would be via note, a la Jr. High
school girl notes, so I fixed that up and had one of the
girls on the bus help me fold the note. We got to the
church, unloaded, practiced, and then ate a rather fancy
dinner fixed by a chef for the church. It was tasty. We
got ready and did the performance. The church in which we
performed had wonderful acoustics, so it was a joy to sing
in there, despite the crowd being rather small. We were
sort of surprised that the audience was predominantly white,
when the ethnic makeup of the neighborhood in which the
church was built was predominantly black. We finished the
performance, packed up, and then I gave Rachael the note.
We got assigned to our homestays. I got assigned to a
education professor at the local university. She brought me
and the other three people she was hosting to a local cafe
called the Mars Cafe. There was some girl playing and
singing there. She did well enough, although I got the
sense that she had a bit of an ego to her. I ordered some
tea (which was really good) while I was there and sat and
listened to the performer and talked to our host. We sat
for about an hour, at which point we hauled ass across town
to her house and she set us up with sleep accommodations. I
watched David Letterman, which had Bill Cosby as a guest.
He has become somewhat senile and incoherent in his old age,
but the main ideas are still funny. After Letterman, I went
to sleep.

We got up the next morning and went back to the church. I
talked for a while with the host of a different group of
students. Then I loaded my stuff on the bus and talked with
my fellow basses. Rachael came up after a bit, and we
talked about our homestays, and then she tossed me an
orange, which I promptly dropped on the ground, picked up
again, and stuffed into my pocket. I got on the bus and we
were off towards the twin cities. Just south of the border,
we stopped for a bathroom break. Rachael asked how I liked
the orange and I told her I hadnt eaten it yet because it
hit the ground. She told me I should try it. We talked for
a bit, and then I went back to the bus, and carved into the
rind of the orange was “Tag, youre it.” I proceeded to show
this to the people around me on the bus, and they started to
give me ideas on how to do her one better in this game.
Most of the ideas were crap, but I took one of the ideas
that I thought was good, fleshed out the details, and
figured out how to do it. I needed markers for the idea, so
I asked Emily if she would buy me a permanent marker (so
Rachael wouldnt know), and gave her a couple of bucks. We
had lunch and then got back on the bus, got to the cities,
checked in, and went and explored the Mall of America.
Rachael and I wandered about the mall, looking for a
swimsuit for me and for other random items of interest. We
spent too much time shopping so we couldnt get food. We
went back to the hotel, where I was given the markers I
needed. I wrote “Tag, youre it” on one of the white shirts
we are supposed to wear under our tux shirt, then packed it
with my shoes and socks in a bag and brought it to the
church. We set up and got in concert attire (with me
wearing the tag shirt under my tux shirt). We did the
concert, and then after the concert, we were sitting out in
the lobby, and I was like “Hey Rachael”, and undid my tux
shirt to tag her. It was brilliant. My parents were at the
concert, so they came out and congratulated us. Then we
went out to TGI Fridays for dinner, because Rachael and I
were hungry. We ate and conversed with the parentals, and
then went back to the hotel and wandered and conversed for a
while. Then we stopped in the hotel lounge and talked with
some of the choir members there. We talked for a long while
and then Rachael went to bed and I investigated the choir
party in the hotel for a bit, which I quickly decided I
didnt want to be a part of and left and went to bed.

This morning we got up and sang at two church services. We
all sort of agreed that it was stupid of Ken to plan the
8:30 am service. He knew that we would be drinking at the
hotel and that we would be in no condition to sing that
early, but he made us do it anyways. In between the
services, Rachael got me back. She made one of those
chinese fortune teller thingys in which every solution was
some variant of “Tag, you're it”. And I fell for it. I
fucking fell for it. I am so fucking gullible, and it was
so obvious, but I fell for it. We sang our two services and
then loaded the bus to go to our afternoon performance. We
were all just dead at that performance. We tried our best,
but it was easily the worst of the performances we did. We
just had no energy, our voices were tired, and it was in the
afternoon, which in itself always is a little odd when we
are used to singing in the evening. But we made it through
without any major errors, and then we came home.

So here I am. I have one more performance left in my
college career. I'm tired and sore. I'm lost as to what my
next step in the world will be. I'm losing at tag. I've
come up with three ways to gain the upper hand again, but
none are really good. The first just doesnt match up to
anything we've come up with in the past couple days. The
second one will be incredibly difficult to execute. And the
third one...my trump card...well, lets say there is a reason
I've nicknamed it the atom bomb. So with no good choice at
this point, I may well concede this game. But we will see.
I have a few more hours until the last concert. Maybe I
will come up with the idea I need.

My bus buddy through the trip was Emily. We constantly were
quoting from Dr. Tran:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ea7oIraV2Q0
It was fun, although I am fairly sure that I've annoyed the
living snot out of her for it. Of course, it was her fault,
because she introduced me to it and was the one who started
quoting it before I did. I just modified a few sayings and
BAM, instant fun for me and so much annoyance for her. So
great...

G'night




Ad: