Friday, the 10th
So after being woken up at six a.m. by my cabin mates to get ready for our eight o'clock wake-up call, I headed to the camp bathrooms to take one of my first showers at camp.
While, you might be thinking, "Huh. Why would she wake up that early to get ready for eight? And just to take a shower?", allow me to explain a few things about our band and the camp itself:
1. Our Festival Corps is about one hundred and sixty people strong. Divide that up evenly, it's eight girls, eighty boys. Now ALL of these people have to take showers to start their days.
2. Imagine how much hot water would be needed to supply to these one hundred and sixty people. That is why my shower was freezing.
3. There are four shower stalls. Lines form quickly.
4. There is a six cabin to every bathroom complex ratio.
The most logical conclusion to all of these factors put together was to wake up early and shower before everyone else, not later that morning or at rec time because then there would be lines and I hate waiting. So, I wake up at the time mentioned above, stumble around in my cabin in the dark for a bit to gather my things, trip over and put on my flipflops (trust me, YOU would want to wear sandals in the showers there, too), then head out into the fifty degree morning air and start to run to the showers because it was just to darn cold not to. In typical fashion, all of the stalls were taken but there was no line (yay!), so I just waited a bit until one opened.
So this was the chronological order of events that my shower occurred in:
1. I get into the stall and place all of the things I need on the shower bars and on top of the door.
2. I place my clothes on top of the stall.
3. My clothes fall into the puddle of water at my feet; then my bar of soap falls outside of the shower and I can't reach it. Crap.
4. I use my foot to grab my soap and turn on the shower.
5. I start shrieking because the water is MUCH colder than I expected and I gingerly wash my hair and my face.
6. I turn off the water, turn around too fast, bang into the door, and drop my towel and my clean, ahem, undergarments into the puddle at my feet. Thankfully, the clothes landed on top of the towel so they stayed dry, but the towel was soaked.
Needless to say, my first shower experience at Monticello was painful, but memorable.
So I got dressed, wearing the sweatshirt I packed but didn't expect to use since it was FREEZING, went and visited my other friends' cabins, shopped around for some free food (☺), then went back to my cabin and we headed out when Ben Hunter started to play the wake-up call. We took roll call, did some of the stretches the drum majors had planned for us, then waited at the mess hall for breakfast (the trumpets were serving, which meant I was going to be sitting at my sister's table).
So my friends and I had breakfast at Jill's table (pancakes, bacon, and cereal!) and annoyed her to no end (hehe) then went back to our cabins to prep for our rehearsal.
Rehearsal was mostly sectionals, then we continued the drill to the first part of the halftime show! Another three hours later, we finished three-quarters of the show and completed a playing test to Part One that was pretty much essential for you to pass. I did! I also joked around with my friends during breaks and fooled about half of the trumpet section with the sweatshirt I had on; my friend Karen was on the Varsity Badminton team and her sweatshirt was too big for her to wear, so we swapped and everyone thought I was on Varsity Badminton! It was pretty funny to watch the looks on their faces when they would read my sweatshirt.
So at lunch, it was the infamous TACO DAY!!! And let me say, the tacos were delicious. My friend Sam served us and we gave him grief the entire time since he was the slowest server in the whole mess hall.
Lunch broke up with rec time following it! But of course, my friends and I all want to go rowboating and we make plans, and they ditch me! So I had to sprint down to the boat house in flipflops (dirt was everywhere), and my friends and I had to hastily switch plans so there was room for everyone in two boats. I ended up going with my friends Matt and Austin in a rowboat (Poor Austin, he did ALL of the rowing! Matt is the epitome of the lazy life) and our friends Sam and Ashly went in a canoe. Once out on the water, a splashing war and several races ensued, and once my sister joined us with her friends, it was not pretty!
After rec time was over, we continued to the drill field and rehearsed in sectionals and re-set most of the coordinates we had marked on the field that day. When rehearsal was over, our director, Mr. Lauff, asked us to gather 'round and he let us know that the "trotters" that evening for dinner (the people who serve the food and clean up at your table) were going to be the mellophone and FLUTE sections!! WOOHOO!! OK, not really, but I was excited to serve and get it out of the way.
So we headed back to our cabins to clean up then the two sections headed up to the mess hall to start preping our tables for dinner (pizza night!). And let me tell you something, trotting before everyone enters the mess hall is an event. You have to take down the chairs, set the whole table (making several trips in the process), make sure everyone has everything needed for dinner (trust me, some people can have no utensils or a cup for dinner and its the trotter's fault), then divvy up a half-filled water pitcher into ten regular-sized cups. There was more ice than water in most of those cups I filled that night.
So the bell is rung for the rest of the band to enter the mess hall and dinner to start and most of my friends grab seats at my table. Here are some the first remarks that came out of their mouths as they took their seats:
"Do a good job!"
"CAITLINNNN!!! I wanted to sit there."
"Trot, trot, trot!"
"Where is all the water?! There is only ice!"
"Go and get our food!"
"You will be graded this evening on how you do. You already have a two point deduction from your final score."
So you can see my friends were very appreciative and helpful to the experience overall. But, I did do very well, nothing spilled, and everyone got what they wanted to eat. I guess I really did serve with a smile!
After dinner, the band went back out to the field and rehearsed for another hour or so, then we were sent back to our cabins to get ready for the DANCE!!! Now, you look at me on any given day, you see a girl who is very intelligent, laughs constantly, and is a little awkward. But whenever there is a dance or party of some kind, I WILL be the first one on the dance floor. I turn into a total party girl and I don't even care, I just want to have a good time with my friends!
The dance started at about eight thirty after roll call, and we got on the dance floor with "Glad You Came". The playlist, created by the drum majors, was made up of current songs and songs that were popular when the seniors were freshmen ("Fergalicious", "American Boi", etc.). There was the traditional dance to "Jump On It" done by the senior class, and the whole band joined in a karaoke of "Call Me Maybe". It was hot and sweaty and it got really dark and the music kept starting and stopping towards the end of the night, but I had so much fun dancing with my best friends. I know we are all going to go in a homecoming group together; we had such a good time and we're all such good dancers!
The dance ended at ten o'clock with announcements made by Mr. Lauff, then he told us that it was really clear night (as if we hadn't noticed) and we could stargaze in the field until it was time to go to bed.
So, the rest of my friends and my sister headed off to bed while I stargazed in the field with Sam and we just talked (he also wanted to hear my "lifestory". Which I told him, of course). We hadn't seen each other in over a month because he had been at the Blue Lake Fine Arts camp and several random family vacations and I had been in New York and he wasn't allowed to use his phone at camp so we didn't see each other for a while. It was really nice just to be alone and talk for a while. I had missed him while he was away because we talk nearly every day and we tell each other a lot, so it was good just to talk to someone who really gets you for a little while.
So, I finished my conversation with him, said good night, then headed over to my cabin to settle in for my last night at Monticello and get ready for my last day there. I really did not want to leave! But I guess all good things must come to an end.
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