Gafoo’s Blog

5 months. She is 5 months. Now I am officially freaking out. Of course, in my own calm and collected way. Everyone asks me now how she is doing and I starting to get a taste of what Alyssa means by feeling subjigated as a person. Right now my life is a conduit to her life. Not that I mind, of course. It should be all about her. It’s just a little wierd and maybe proof that I really am a narcissist.
So there are a few names floating around. My favorite so far being Aurora. We am gonna try and avoid the traditional naming schema my parents came up with (bible names) while at the same time, not choose a name so wierd that she is ridiculed all her life ($1 to Leif and Valiant, your parents didn’t give a chance at being normal). I will leave it up to Alyssa if she wants to give any more names. I have told a few people the other names but we are trying to keep it kinda under wraps for now.
So drum corps season is over now and I have hit withdrawls badly. I am teaching for 2 high schools but it’s just not enough. I want to be back there with experienced members again, working to get things clean. The big news out of the drum corps camp this year for me was the insane progress of the Dream Drumline. We literally got out drumline set in mid June while most of our competitiors are getting organized in March/April. Our championships are at the end of August. We had 5 members in the drumline who had never marched drumcorps before and 1 person who had never even picked a marching drum before. The odds were definitely against us and we came out of it all with the highest drum score this group has ever scored in it’s short history! Almost 3 points higher than last years score. In fact, on prelims night, the battery percussion (marching drumline) scored 2nd place. We were litterally 2 tenths of a point away from bringing home a national drum title. This is the biggest success I have ever had and certainly the largest and quickest improvement a drumline of mine has ever had. When I was rehearsing with them on Prelims and Finals afternoon, I was in tears out on the field as it hit me that the season was actually ending. I haven’t been that emotional about a group since I left Bakersfield and South High. I couldn’t even hold my composure in the parking lot as we were warming up and playing through our last run through before we hit the field. It was very intense and I am proud of the progress the Dream Percussion section has made.
With how close we got this year, we turned a lot of heads in the drum corps community and I think Dream is really on track to another succesful run at the title. Because I am jonesin so bad for more drum corps, I have been thinking about what it’s gonna take to go that extra mile next year and TAKE the drum title home. It was fun to be that close and we partied like rockstars after such a successful season but next year I don’t want it to be that close. I want to head back East and take the trophy home in a landslide victory. I want to give the groups in open class a glimpse of the future when Dream finally makes the jump and starts edging their way up the leaderboard. At any rate, look for me to be out with a vengenance and really pushing the percussion section as hard as I can to victory. I can’t wait….

Well, it looks like this is getting a bit long so I will wrap it up with a few things…

The new Foo Fighters album is awesome, go buy it today (if it’s out, not sure myself as I get music through bittorrent)
Pick up a case of Steelhead extra stout beer. It has a choclate aftertaste and will put hair on your chest.
Riding the subway to work is an awesome way to meet interesting people. Peace out Adonis. Hope your family is okay back in New Orleans.