Where to begin? On what I thought was going to become a really disappointing band trip, I had one of the best times ever. After taking (and hopefully passing!) my Chemistry lab final, I headed for the CPA and we bussed it down to Cincinnati and flew to Alabama. I had the best flight ever, sitting between Justin and Christina. FYI, Justin is secretly in love with Jason Fox, a.k.a. Beardo. We don't think Jason's really feeling the same way about Justin, but I figure, that's okay.

After we got to Mobile, Christina, Phil, Lindsey, Scott, Steve, Adam and I went to see LOTR at Midnight. It was pretty good. Then, at 3:30 am, we had to stand out in the freezing cold and wait for our taxi to come. We waited for about 35 minutes, huddling together (yay for Baritone lovin' inspiring the other low brass!) Then we went back to the room, getting there at about the same time as the second charter flight, which hadn't left Ohio until 1 a.m. Yuck.

On Wednesday we played a concert for the Mayor's Luncheon and then Christina Justin and I went to this nice little restaurant and Beardo followed us. An interesting conversation ensued, as I'm sure you can imagine. Just a note, all three of them are Westerners. So you know what I mean. Then we had all came back to the HUGE room Christina, Anne, Molly and I shared and took naps. All of you who got stuck with little hole in the wall rooms, I'm sorry, but our room was great. A gigantic living room, a big bedroom, and a good-sized bathroom...we used it well, though. Justin came in and said, "how did you manage to make this big of a mess in two days?" Well, what can we say? It's just the way we are.

After our naps we considered skipping the Mardi Gras parade but if we had we would have missed the BEST parade ever. In the Mardi Gras fashion, people were throwing beads so we all got a pretty good collection, even though not everyone was EARNING their beads, and some of us weren't very good at sharing and called people mean names for trying to get the cool ones. The parade was just fun to march in because you could just have fun instead of being serious and worried about being on tv. That was good for my line because the right side has some serious guiding issues. It's like they can't figure out how to stand next to someone in a straight line.

After the parade, Christina and I went out with Kim and Rachel and had pizza, and then we went to a place called Charlie's and this dance club...and it was lots of fun. I think Christina and I decided it was one of our most fun nights of college so far. On Thursday we had rehearsal and I had to take Nathan's spot in pre-game. Why, you ask? Because the airline lost his luggage. Christina and I have this theory, though, that really he just didn't bring it so he wouldn't have to march. Clever. He was thinking ahead. We went out for oysters for lunch and then went to the game and had the best time ever. If you read this, Kira, I got another picture of Ben Roethisberger! He directed the band in the fight song after the game.

I was really tired that night so I went back to the room, played cards with Steve and then watched Dogma until 2 am when Christina came home and let me tell you, she must have had a really great time Thursday night because Friday morning she was having the worst time ever. It didn't help that I am most definitely not a morning person and since we all had to be up at 4, we didn't get much sleep. We were fighting until we got on the plane, when we all finally got some sleep and were feeling...better.

We returned from the 50's and 60's of Alabama to the ice and snow of Ohio to spend a whopping 40 minutes in Oxford and head to Dayton airport for Christina's flight. She got there with 20 minutes to spare. Luckily she did get there though because the roads were bad and we did a little 180 on the airport exit ramp, which made me oh-so-eager to drive the rest of the trip. As luck would have it, Monica and I ended up stuck in the same traffic in downtown Columbus and we stopped for dinner. After that the roads got even worse and so, after 7 hours of driving and 16 hours total of travelling, I was finally home, to find my sister eating lettuce as a snack. Isn't that weird? I think she is a rabbit. She also likes to eat sprouts. That's my Alabama story, I hope you all liked it.