Dir_en_X Posted December 11, 2009 Share Posted December 11, 2009 I joined in 08 as a hole-filler, but my first weekend with the corps was a doozy. It was mid-June and the corps was scheduled for three parades, two on Saturday and one on Sunday. Because of a number of things, I went from a contra to a trumpet for the first parade. We had a bit of time between the two parades, so the hornline went into an arc to work. I get handed a euph (Note: I played saxophone and this was my first foray into brass) and my arms were killed the rest of the weekend. This was also the same weekend my shower story happened. There was a problem with one of the showers so the girls showered first and the guys after them. Before the 2nd parade I and a group of guys go to the showers unaware that the other ones had been fixed and the guys were supposed to shower in the now working ones. We now go to my post in the shower thread: I accidentally walked into the girls locker room once and the three thoughts that ran through my head were, in this order: Oh #### I'm in the girls shower, Oh #### some of them are changing and a LOT younger than I am, and OH #### I GOTTA GET OUTTA HERE BEFORE THE STAFF FINDS ME. The icing on the cake is that the one person I saw in all her glory was someone I went to school with at the time and didn't know that well. It was really awkward for me the next few days... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
year1buick Posted December 11, 2009 Share Posted December 11, 2009 "There was this one time, during winter camp..." ...when I was with Sky Ryders in 91, where they got a special group rate for out-of-towners to split the costs of double bed rooms at a local motel. My room had 3 guys and, since I was the first to get there, I claimed the single bed and the other two had to share. Well, kinda late after the Saturday night rehearsal, we got a knock at the door--it was one of the corps staff. (Might've been the director, but I can't remember...) Apparently, there'd been a snafu and some people who weren't getting in until Saturday hadn't been accounted for in the planning; unfortunately, by this point, there were no more available rooms in the hotel. There were 2 people with him; would we mind being a little over-crowded so they could have a place to stay? Sure, no problem! So... I was sporting enough to let these two colorguard girls bunk with me that night. (Esprit de corps, you know?) Nothing untoward happened--I was a complete gentleman. And they were pretty cool too--didn't seem phased a bit by the situation. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
year1buick Posted December 11, 2009 Share Posted December 11, 2009 Audition camp last year. Thanksgiving weekendFlight out of Chicago O'Hare was supposed to depart at 9:00pm. I got automated calls on my phone for flight status updates from orbitz, and the first one came around 7:00 saying it was delayed 30mins. I think ok, no big deal. 9:00 comes around and I get another call, flight was delayed another 30mins. From there on, it seemed that every half hour I got a call that said my flight was delayed 30mins. We ended up boarding the airplane at 12:30am. Everyone gets on board, they begin to de-ice the plane, while they de-ice, the pilots tell us that if we don't take off by 1:00am, then we can't fly because the pilots would have flown too many hours in 1 day. SO, they don't de-ice the plane fast enough, and we all get off of the plane. By now I'm ###### as hell, and now I have to stand in line and wait 30mins to reschedule a flight back home. I end up getting a flight to a place 3.5 hours from my house that leaves at 6:30pm the next day. They gave us a discount for a hotel of a whopping $8 (woo hoo!). I get to the hotel at 6:00am, crash on the bed. I spend all day Monday missing my classes and sitting in my hotel just watching tv. Flight out goes fine but my bags were sent my original destination....but they transported my bags home for me so that was good. At least I didn't get cut. I also had some O'Hare fun after a winter camp. First, we were delayed getting out of Rockford on the American Eagle flight--apparently, they had to rearrange the luggage so the weight was evenly distributed. (Left me hoping the rubber bands in the engines were new and tightly wound...) We got to O'Hare with just minutes to spare and, of course, our connecting flight was out of the absolute farthest gate. Me and the other few people on the same flight ran like idiots and made it just in time. (They were about to close the door.) So, we got settled in, they turned the seatbelt sign on and....pause... turned it off again just a few minutes later. The captain came on and said there was an engine warning light that they couldn't diagnose, so we had to de-plane, wait for a replacement, and re-board. When we were finally on our way home (I think it was a 2 hour delay) we started to make an early decent. I could see that someone was having a problem up front, and one of the flight attendants came on the PA and asked if there was a doctor on board. Soooo, we landed in St. Louis and an ambulance drove out to the gate to pick up the passenger with the medical issues. Then the captain came on and said that, since we were already on the ground, we might as well fuel up again--another 1 hour delay. I thought I'd never get home that night.... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Drumcorpsfan471 Posted December 11, 2009 Share Posted December 11, 2009 Mine is when I was traveling to a Spirit camp in '04. Basically it was about a 2 hour drive to Jacksonville from my house, so I left right after school. As I was getting down the road a bit, I got really REALLY sleepy. Well I try turning the radio up, rolling down the window, etc....but nothing worked. I kept feeling my eyes close, and next thing I know I feel a huge bump. Apparently I fell asleep and drove into the median. Luckily I didn't hit anything or mess up my car or anything. The best news was that i veered into the median, and NOT the other direction....cause there was about a 50 foot drop. Scary stuff. But I had a great camp from what I remember! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ouooga Posted December 11, 2009 Share Posted December 11, 2009 So... I was sporting enough to let these two colorguard girls bunk with me that night. (Esprit de corps, you know?) Nothing untoward happened--I was a complete gentleman. And they were pretty cool too--didn't seem phased a bit by the situation. That's a terrible ending! I had such high expectations too. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
tommyfromhowardst Posted December 11, 2009 Share Posted December 11, 2009 We got to O'Hare with just minutes to spare and, of course, our connecting flight was out of the absolute farthest gate. I have never seen a flight out of gate 1--always, always out at gate 143... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
tommyfromhowardst Posted December 11, 2009 Share Posted December 11, 2009 Mine is when I was traveling to a Spirit camp in '04. Basically it was about a 2 hour drive to Jacksonville from my house, so I left right after school. As I was getting down the road a bit, I got really REALLY sleepy. Well I try turning the radio up, rolling down the window, etc....but nothing worked. I kept feeling my eyes close, and next thing I know I feel a huge bump. Apparently I fell asleep and drove into the median. Luckily I didn't hit anything or mess up my car or anything. The best news was that i veered into the median, and NOT the other direction....cause there was about a 50 foot drop. Scary stuff. But I had a great camp from what I remember! My cure for this is singing--never fell asleep while singing on the road and I sang (really loud) from Nebraska to Illinois on I-80 from 1 am to 10 in the morning. Didn't really make any friends with my nasty voice but I am alive to tell the story. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
bccadet09 Posted December 11, 2009 Author Share Posted December 11, 2009 My cure for this is singing--never fell asleep while singing on the road and I sang (really loud) from Nebraska to Illinois on I-80 from 1 am to 10 in the morning. Didn't really make any friends with my nasty voice but I am alive to tell the story. A simple thing I do to keep from sleeping is chewing gum. Helps a whole lot because if you don't stop chewing, you won't sleep.... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
horndevil Posted December 12, 2009 Share Posted December 12, 2009 Going to the Beach - Virginia Beach, VAGo Skiing - Massanutten Ski Resort, outside Harrisonburg, VA Have Big City Life - Northern VA or VA Beach Have Farm Town Life - Buena Vista, VA (heard of it? Me neither). Everything in-between - Everywhere else in VA Don't hate on Buena Vista, VA, Keyo... I worked there for 2 years. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
CrunchyTenor Posted December 12, 2009 Share Posted December 12, 2009 (edited) For those of you picking up some helpful hints here... 1) Don't blame the airline for the weather or other incidents out of their control. 2) Don't book through discount sites (Orbitz, Travelocity, Cheap Tickets, etc.). If you book through the airline, they build their connections with enough time for you to make it. There's no guarantee with a discount booker. Also, the airline will give you a higher priority for solving problems if you book through them. If you're using a discount booking site, you're pretty much on your own if problems occur. 3) The last extra long day of driving I did was back in 2000, from Eureka, CA, to Phoenix, AZ (about 1100 miles). I only made the last 350 miles from Riverside to Phoenix with the help of SCV, BD, Spirit, Scouts, etc., and Cheech & Chong and Jeff Foxworthy. I don't recommend those long drives. The potential hazards far outweigh the price of a bus ticket if flying isnt an option. Garry in Vegas Edited December 12, 2009 by CrunchyTenor Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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