Two Buddies, No Bike? Ah well, Quack Attack prevailed anyways!

As usual I have been quite the busy bee. Per che posso! I suppose it is my nature, even though I have been attempting to devote more time to practicing, running, and riding Max. So here's the rundown (eventually I'll get back to that point where I'm writing more than every 2 weeks and can do better than an itemization)

1) Last weekend (11 July) started on Friday with my typical pilgrimage down to The County to go to the River Concert. This concert featured Brian Ganz (il Gnoccho!!) and Giuseppi Nova- the head of the SMCM Italian Music counterpart. He brought along a couple of the staff I met in Italy. Brought back memories, and more power to them for wearing a suit in the oppressive heat of a SoMD summer. I found that my command of the Italian language is not nearly as proficient when used domestically. The college was beautiful as always and the musician after-party was a glorious reunion.

2) 12-13 July I travelled to Richmond for MUDDY BUDDY!!! FANTASTIC time. Unfortunately, Team Quack Attack had a bike malfunction in the first minute of the 7 mile race. What was supposed to be 2 buddies, one bike, quickly morphed into 2 buddies, four feet. Kate and I ended up running the whole thing, but we finished! My run time was actually pretty good, 7 miles in just under an hour including obstacles (climbing and balance beams). And of course the Mud Pit you had to army crawl through was GLORIOUS. Check out the pics: http://www.brightroom.com/view_user_event.asp?S=20&EVENTID=36760&PWD=&BIB=1405&DIVISION=&TEAM= This event lead to my new aspiration to form a Ragnar Relay Team for the end of September (http://www.ragnarrelay.com/) and also an Eco-Triathalon - return of Team Quack Attack! Eco-tri's consist of running, biking, and kayaking.

<--Before -->After--> 3) Last week was fairly uneventful. Mainly highlighted by another awesome snare lesson with Joe McCarthy (principle percussionist in the Navy Band.) Friday I headed down for another River Concert and mostly just wandered around and chatted with people (OK that's what I do every week in reality.)

4) Saturday 19 July I had to wake up REALLY early and go from St. Mary's to Owings Mills (by 9Am) for an all-day drumline rehearsal. Then returned quickly back to DC afterwards to prepare for the 212 Rhode Island Moonbounce Party. Really there was no moonbounce, but the party was awesome and lots of people showed up. The highlights:

a) I got to wear my kitch Italian LBD (mentioned in an earlier blog) that was an utterly unfounded splurge, but is awesome nonetheless.

<-- Me, Steph, and Sam- the 212 RI NW Moonbounce Team b) Mark drinking a fifth of Captain (with some help from BJ) in the 45 min before he left to see Poison

c) Chapman telling me that I am utterly and completely Batshit Crazy, but cool, because of my random activities (he was three 40's of OE into the evening and we all knew I was Batshit already!)

d) Sten and Chapman deciding it was a good idea to play the Electric Shock game. This is a REAL game from Spencer's (http://www.spencersonline.com/fun-and-games_shocking-games/lightning-xtreme-shock-game/). This predictably culminated in Chapman shocking Sten's face and Sten making a jab at Kevin's cahones

5) Sunday spent my entire day running and then practicing

I've been fairly boring lately, but trying desperately to spend some quality time practicing for auditions (coming up in October) and memorizing Baltimore Ravens' music (1st pre-season game Aug 16.) I swear I will make these entries more frequent and interesting soon!

Three parades, One Wedding, and a Funeral

Well, its been quite sometime since I have written in my blog. My apologies to the few and faithful. For the last month I have been attempting to finish up my blog entries about Italia, but things keep getting in the way. Like real life. However, I intend to rectify acknowledging to existence of real life in due time. For the time being, I will skip the last month and start with last weekend. Don't expect to get out of not hearing about the last month though!! So the month of July has gone as follows thus far: 1) Thursday, 3 July, I hastened home from work to throw together my marching band summer uniform (a dashing combo of purple cotten, too-large black athletic shorts, knee high white socks, white shoes [mine are called 'Betty Whites'], and a black ball cap.) After that, I drove out to my fellow drumliner, Julie's house in Catonsville. She charitably offered to provide me with a more Baltimore-centric place to crash, given the 6am call time in Owings Mills. I got to meet her wonderful dog Jack:-)

2) Friday 4 July: Donned the snazzy Ravens' summer uniform and my 75 pound drum and proceeded to survive 3 parades (total of about 7 miles from what I can estimate) in Dundalk, Towson, and Catonsville. Dundalk is a *special* place. For those that are familiar with the reference, it is kind of like 7th District tossed into southern Baltimore. Only without the excuse of being in the middle of nowhere to account for its pure white trashiness. Towson- rather non-descript and mostly uphill. Catonsville- really quite cool. Some house gave us use of their washrooms, as well as rehydration and candy. So we gave them and their large array of guests a personal concert. I DID get plowed into at top speed by a bass drum twice. Kind of painful, but all of those years of riding and rugby have taught me to take a hit. All around a rewarding experience. 3) On the night of 4 July, I discovered I was too tired to put up much of an effort, plus I correctly anticipated an extremely hectic weekend. I wandered over to Jeremy/Greg/Josh/Kevin's house in NE DC for some food, beer, illicit fireworks, and, best of all Rock Band!!! (I am ADDICTED!) Didn't stay too late, and subsequently discovered when I got back to my house that, in DC, there is no real need to go anywhere to see fireworks. This is because, DC's fireworks laws are quite lax, and what DO exist are not really enforced. This is evidence from the wide array of ground and aerborne incendiaries that alit in AT least 3 different locations a half-block from my house. It was rather nice watching fireworks through the skylight above our jacuzzi :-)

4) On 5 July, after getting about 4 hrs of sleep, I awoke at 4am to drive to Dulles. This normally wouldn't have been such a terrible trip, except Daniel, my faithful British GPS seems to be rebelling and will not power up. Regardless, I got to the airport on time and boarded a TINY commuter plane for Detroit. Landed without incident [insert Eminem "Lose Yourself" theme music here]. Erica's brother Kelsey kindly picked me up from the airport and after a brief stint at her house, I was whisked off to the salon in downtown Plymouth to watched the chaos of a bride, a mother of the bride, 8 bridesmaids, and a groomswoman having their hair done by a mere two very talented hairdressers. Everything came together in the end and we dashed off to the church in Grosse Pointe to watch Erica wed Hawkeye (ok his name is really David, but he resembles Hawkeye from "M.A.S.H.", so this is what us SMCM people call him). Erica was gorgeous and the ceremony was beautiful, only to be rivalled by the reception at the exceptionally posh Grosse Pointe Yacht Club. As usual, us SMCM folks turned the whole occasion into a very SMCM QA-esque dance party. Shelbert and I corrupted Erica and Hawk's younger relatives by teaching them the proper way to honour the noble tradition of get-away car decorating. First, stealing toilet paper, handsoap, tampons, pads, and mouthwash cups from the women's room. The night, appropriately finished up with a rendition of Shelbert, Ricky (Erica) and I singing along to "Friends in Low Places", starting a kickline, and adding the mysterious 3rd verse. Finally got back to Erica's house about 2am and crashed.

5) 6 July: I awoke about 8am, grabbed a shower before one of the other 19 people staying at the house could get in, and started helping Erica's parents and her aunts clean and cook for the post-wedding brunch. It was SO good to see everyone again. Erica's family (for those that don't know) adopted me and fed me dinner once a week when I lived in Canada. I miss them alot but am terrible about keeping in touch. Grandma and Granpa Helland send me a Christmas card every year that never fails to choke me up. Mid-year resolution: be better about that. The rest of Sunday was low-key and pretty much involved chillin' with Erica, Hawk, the family, and my SMCM bridesmaids.

6) Went to bed about 2am and had to wake up at 4am to catch a ride to the airport with Mr. Helland. ugh 6am flights. Got back to Dulles by 7:30am and had to immediately drive down to the County (St. Mary's) for the funeral of Mrs. Kathy McFadden. She was my first music teacher in elementary school and is in the hunt club. Truly a southern belle and a lovely woman. Since she touched so many aspects of my life I knew MANY people at the event. Pretty much everyone that I told my future plans to (going back to school for music) said that they weren't sure why I hadn't been doing that in the first place. I guess it just takes some of us longer than others to figure out what our true calling is. The resident Hindu Priestess in the Hunt Club said that I wouldn't regret that decision and would always be happy doing what I loved. I figure you can't ignore advice from Hindu Priestess! So in short (ok not really) that was last weekend. This weekend: a return to the River Concert, and Muddy Buddy!!