Peppin' it Up...

All right, so last night was our second home football game of the year. BUT, it was the FIRST game I got to play at! (We had a church youth conference out at Uncle Richard's lakehouse the weekend of our first home game).

For those of you who didn't know yet, I play the trumpet:







I started in 5th grade and played up through 7th, then for grades 8-10, I didn't play at all, because I was doing school on the internet (or, in the case of last year at Foss, didn't get right back into band), and I didn't play much anyways because I'd heard my braces would make it hard for me.

But I got back into band this year, under the impression that my braces would FINALLY come off (hasn't it been, like, 3 years?), and yes, I did start out behind everyone else, but it only took a couple of weeks to catch up. My trumpet I used for my first years of "trumpeting" was given to my Mom by a co-worker of hers who was leaving for somewhere, and it wasn't in the best shape, but it's gold compared to what it is now, what with the disconnected parts (along with a zip-tie to hold one thing together) and my slide moving when I don't want it to?


So Dad went to the same music store he and Cindy bought Ellysa's flute at, and I got one that wasn't brand-new, but was still in WAY better shape than my first trumpet. It makes better noise, too.


Anyways, fast-forward to last night...


Dad dropped me off at Mt. Tahoma High School (Foss doesn't have a stadium of their own, so we go to Mt. T for our home games), and along with my trumpet and pep band music, I also had my laptop bag, my winter coat, and this Andrew Jackson biography I have a book report for Junior English, due on 10/25 (Mom was picking me up and taking me to her house after the game, so I had to take all of my stuff that was going to her house with me).


I've never been a football fan, but I decided since we wouldn't be playing music for the WHOLE game, I'd watch just to keep from being bored during those short breaks in playing.


It was a long time before the game started back up again (we came just in time for 2nd quarter), and while the teams were practicing, we played our fight song, "Iron Man", "Land of 1000 Dances", and "Rock and Roll, Part II" (in our sheet music for it, it's simply called "The 'Hey' Song"). Mom showed up just a while before we started playing, and was sitting one row up from me, close to the rest of the band, but no one seemed to mind her sitting there at all, so, no biggie. She got a chance to talk with Mr. Byrnes, my band director, and they got along better than I had expected.

We were supposed to play the fight song every time we scored a touchdown, but not a whole lot happened during the 2nd quarter. Ironically, we got the 3rd quarter off, where we scored a touchdown, but we weren't there to play, yet during the final quarter, we just sat there waiting and waiting and waiting...

"Look, Foss is going to make it!... ohhhhhh, Wilson intercepted the ball."

"Oh no, Wilson's going to make it!... WHOOO, WE INTERCEPTED THE BALL!"

That second one brought up some big cheers, probably the best part of the game if it wasn't for that last touchdown we made at the very end (other than that, it was a LOOOOOOONG 12 minute quarter). We got to play at half-time and after the game ended, but that was it. I really don't want to dwell on the negative about all of this: it was actually pretty fun just being there, but I just expected to play a little more.

Oh, and we lost by one point, 13-12. Oh well, there's always the next home game...

From Andrew Brinkerhoff, trumpet player, to YOU.