Well folks, I'm back! Thanks to everyone for your wonderuful luck messages! They came in handy.

We all had a wonderful time. We drove up Friday night and stayed in the Marriot. Whoooee! So nice. The minute we got there we all went swimming. Then I discovered that they had a weight room, so I went back up to my room, and changed into my workout clothes and worked out for an hour. (Don't mean to bore you guys, it's just, I'm trying to build you up to the competition) Next morning, we went downstairs, and had a wonderful buffet breakfast. Then we went to Fullerton to see other bands play. Saw some really cruddy ones in our division, some really good ones in other divisions. Went back to the hotel, changed into our concert dress, which was long black pants, black shoes, black socks, and a black long sleeve dress shirt. Might I add that it was 90 degrees out? Anyways, then we went back, heard some more bands play, then it was our turn. Heh heh heh. We warmed up. I practiced some solo riffs, etc. (I had at least one solo in every song) Then it was our turn to play. So we went on stage, set everything up, then launched into our first tune, Sing Sing Sing. Boy was that a hit! We played it perfectly for the first time ever! We ended it to wild applause. We then started playing our second song, Summertime. This had been a great arrangement, but we cut it up, so we could have the vocalist, so it was even better! More wild applause. Then we started our final tune, A Night in Tunisia. Wow that was good. We played all our tunes SO well, that at the end of our set, we got a standing ovation. The first one that night. So after that we all packed up, then rushed over to the awards ceremony, where we saw another great, but non-competitive band, right before the ceremony started. Finally it started, and they got through most of the sections. Finally it was our sections turn. (We were High School Advanced Combo) They said, "Fifth place, blah blah blah. Fourth place, blah blah blah. Third place, blah blah blah. SECOND PLACE, UNIVERSITY CITY BRASS AND ELECTRIC! (which is what we used to be before we changed it to San Diego Brass and Electric) So in our first ever performance, which, of course, was our first ever competition, we recieved second place! We were SOOOOO psyched!

So, once again, thank you all for your kind words of encouragement and luck. They were all with us while we played, and I do believe some of them, if not all, worked! Thanks!

~Barky