Susan played xylaphone that year (Oh, yeah??? You think mallets are dumb??? You try carrying a 50 pound instrument while marching in a polyester uniform in 90 degree wheather WHILE PLAYING for four miles!!! ) And I played bells. (Have you every tried to play something that's reflecting BRIGHT sunlight into your face?)

Mallets
At the beginning of this season, Susan and I each had one pair of good, nearly indestructible mallets. These things could survive a fire. They were also ours, not the ones the school provided. Unfortunately, someone wacked one of Susan's against something and broke it. So. There were also (eventually) four pair of mallets that the director bought for us. These were....how to say this tactfully.. JUNK! Thsy worked fine for me, because I only used them for the quiet part in our song that used four mallets and in one cadence that needed four mallets. Susan wasn't so lucky. She had to use them constantly, and on top of that, the directors kept shouting, "More Xylaphone!!!" So Susan broke five pair of mallets before the season was over.

Brunhilda
Besides this whole mallet problem, Susan and I were both missing instruments!!!! I had had the same set of bells for three seasons, and they just disappeared!!! No one had any idea as to where they could be!!! Our drumline instructor kept promising that I would get a marching set (I was playing on an indoor set that couldn't be worn for marching.) This didn't actaully happen until A WEEK before our first parade. It takes a long time to build up enough endurance to carry that sort of thing for a couple of miles. I nearly died the first parade!! Worst of all, this bell set wasn't mine!!! After the first parade, I came to practice to find another bell set sitting in the hall. It was mine!!! She was back. No one knew where she had come from, but I was happy to have her back. Not long after that I named her Brunhilda, meaning "strong and womanly." Perfect!!!

Herold
At the same time I named Brunhilda, Susan was pondering on names for her Xylaphone. She finally decided on Herold, a very worthy name, in my opinion. She got her xylaphone about a month before I got my bells, so she had longer to adjust to it. A good thing, since it weighed more than Brunhilda.

Neighborhood Wake
Susan and I decided we needed to have a sectional without the auxillary section so that we could work on our parts. We had some really hard runs, but they were also really fun so it was o.k. Susan came over to my house, and we decided that playing outside would be less likely to make our ears ring. So we started playing. And practicing. It seemed, however that we had forgotten one very important point. We are VERY LOUD. We didn't really notice the full implications of this until the neighbors shut their windows. Then we giggled and continued practicing. About that time we noticed we had an audience. Accross the yards, there were people watching us. They clapped when we stopped. From then on we tried to hide behind some trees, but that didn't help much. Then my neighbor who is our age came over and told us that one of our fans had been videotaping us!! How embarrassing! So we woke up the neighborhood.

This was also the time when we took Herold and Brunhilda apart and touched up their paint jobs, replaced pads and, in Susan's case, keys. Not only had she broken mallets, but she also broke a good many keys. And as we made them all pretty, we came up with their names. A very important day in any parent's life!

New York
Last summer, the Osseo Marching Band went to NYC for tour. One night, we were all going to a broadway show. The problem? It was to be right after a parade. No time to go back to the hotel and oh.... CHANGE... take a shower (contrary to popular belief, marching bands have a tendancy to smell bad after a parade) that sort of thing. "No problem!" the directors told us. "We'll just change on the bus!" Normally we wouldn't mind. Changing on the bus is normal for us band geeks. However, this was dressing up. It was also in the middle of Times Square! But we survived the expierence.

More Mallets
Ok, so I called Susan last night, right after she had winter drumline practice, and she proceeds to inform me that she broke THREE mallets that practice!!! Can you believe it?? I never broke that many! Ever! So now Susan is continuing the tradition.

I miss Brunhilda!!!




Mallet Killer!!!
A certain boy, who shall remain nameless, decapitated one of Chiquita's mallets in Percussion Ensamble last thursday!!!! Bad boy!!!!!!! And worst of all, this was not the first time the boy has done so! Those mallets had their heads taped on! He's a mallet killer!!!!! boo!!!!
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