I'm back...

Tour is done and I am back in my room at last. Huzzah!
And it was a lot better than I thought it would be. I mean, it had its stinky parts. Like getting up at 630 in the morning, having a day of three concerts, playing 10 concerts in the span of a week, wearing concert dress all day for two or three days (it freaking reeks and needs to be cleaned...), and not really having free time.
But my home stays were pretty much awesome. I ended up rooming with Ashley F. since the group I signed up with was a threesome and they needed more twosomes. It ended up being a lot of fun, we got to know each other pretty well and we have a bit in common. Three of the houses we stayed at had cats, which made me very happy. Two of the three houses had cats that really liked me. One had a cat that tried to crawl in bed with me and scared the crap out of me-I ended up screaming and scaring it off. Poor kitty. The people were all very nice. One of my host sisters at one point was a sixth grader who JUST started band and was *so* excited to have band people at her house-she was a sweetheart!
One of the more exciting parts of the trip was when we performed in Rice Lake and my aunt, uncle (aka godfather) and two cousins got to come and see me-the last time they heard me play I was in jr. high and they'd never seen me perform in a group before, and I hadn't seen them since the summer after graduation. One of my cousins, Julian, is 13 and plays the flute, piccolo, bass guitar and piano and even composes his own songs for all four of them. Holy cow.
Chicago was amazing as well. I felt very much at home. We (Megan O., Kat, Mallory, Connie, Kayla A. and Jen N.) spent the day wandering around together, and we went to Navy Pier and wandered around Michigan Ave where all the shopping is. I found the cutest sundress ever at H&M for $5 (normal price-not sale price) and a mother's day gift for my mom at Borders that I'm very very excited about. =] Sandy met up with us halfway through the day. We ended up just chilling in the hotel that night, which was a lot of fun. For dinner we decided to order a pizza since we were tired of walking at it was raining, and nobody but Sandy and I had had Chicago style deep dish before. And Gino's East delivered. HUZZAH! It was happy.
The last concert (last night) was interesting, since I nearly passed out in the middle of it and had to leave the stage for two songs. It was a combination of being overheated, having a headache and being completely exhausted (I'll be catching up on sleep for a while). Once I had some water and time not playing life was happy.
I also bawled my eyes out along with Melissa H. The end of band this year reminded me SO much of the end of a season of MK. I'm going to miss Melissa more than I can tell next year. It was a sob fest. And I forgot the waterproof mascara, so I was interesting looking. =]
There are also a lot of traditions in WE that aren't in symphonic band. One of them is the writing of prophecies by each senior for each band member. Melissa H wrote mine, and it's absolutely hilarious. If you ever want to read it, just ask-if it wasn't written on both sides of the paper, I would probably frame it. Another tradition is the willing off of different things by the seniors, and Melissa willed to me the continuation of the tattoo tradition for the flutes. And I felt very warm and fuzzied. Because that's what I do.
I've also walked away with a completely different view of the band itself than the impression I got at band bonding last year. There is a bit of a family aspect, particularly in WE, that I really enjoy. Kind of a bond between the members of the band. I love the different traditions that we have. But one thing that has completely changed is my view of the director and his involvement in my love of the band. It's lessening a lot. Mainly because of band banquet. But also because of different things that are done and said in his pep speeches and interactions with the audience, as well as views on the women in the band. He's very very old fashioned, and I don't agree with that. That's his view, and that's fine, but when it's impressed upon me then I have a problem. The dress code and the fact that whenever *anything* needs to be lifted the lifting is asked to be done by a guy and the way women presidents are treated differently than man presidents bothers me. I'm also a very firm believer in the separation of church and state, so when we did a little clinic at a public high school during a school day and sang Praise God from whom all Blessings Flow in front of the students and did our usual concert ending, along with a 5+ minute long discussion on the fact that Wartburg is a Lutheran school and there are a lot of very Christian traditions in the band, rubbed me the wrong way. A lot. If we were going to do that no matter what, a brief statement that Wartburg is a Lutheran school and we have Christian traditions and this is one of them would have been way more than enough-not the speech. There are a few other things. Just seeing this side of him as opposed to the side of him that's shown in symphonic band has really changed my view on him overall. He's a good director and a good teacher, and that's about how far it's going to go for me.
Speaking of Christianity, I think I've finished figuring out my views on religion. I really don't consider myself Catholic any longer. It was the introduction of 7 new sins by the pope that kind of did it for me-yes, littering is bad, but does it really need to be labeled a sin? I don't think so. And all forms of cloning-including all forms of genetic research-are sins, too. I could see the cloning being considered that by the church (I'm not for cloning anything just to clone it. I agree with stem cell research, and that's the only case where cloning is ok in my world). But genetic research? That can, will and is doing so much good. What on Earth is the problem with that? I don't get it and I don't agree with it. Others probably do, and that's fine, but I don't. I kind of sealed my decision by taking communion at the Lutheran church we performed in last Sunday (since Catholics aren't supposed to take communion from any other religion). I'm not sure which protestant religion I'm going to go with, if any-I'm not a huge fan of established religions with set views on everything. I like making my own decisions on what I believe. I know exactly what those beliefs are, so I'm going to see which form of Christianity-if any-matches them, at least somewhat closely.
Quick update on my grandma: she recognizes everyone again, but still has difficulty with conversations (and that's pretty much not going to change). Life in a nursing home is going well for her so far. Things are OK at the moment, which is a very good thing.
That's about all I have right now...
The new season of Doctor Who is pretty much the most amazing thing ever, and it's only one episode in.
And life is happy once more! =]