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The trip started with an interesting series of events. Go figure. It wouldn’t be a Pride trip without snafu! The bus planned on picking up the Cincinnati crew around noon and then picking up the Indianapolis crew around 2. Well, the bus left Cincinnati late because Brian locked his keys in his car. I still love you Bri! So, while that was happening in Cinci, we were having our own drama in Indy. Rachel Harcourt usually takes Yoshi to Pride rehearsals and so forth because he doesn’t have a car. Well, Rachel asked Whitney if she could pick Yoshi up. Whitney agreed and called him…no answer. She called many more times…no answer. She even went to his house and knocked on the door…no answer. Whitney came back to our house and told Christina and I that she had no idea where he was. We didn’t want to be late to the church where we were meeting the bus (since Charlie said it would leave us), so we left. We got over to the church and no one had Yoshi. No one knew where he was. Finally, someone gets in touch with him and he’s at his house! That’s on the opposite side of town. So, Charlie told all of us to get on the bus and that he would go get Yoshi with the van. Glad all that worked out.
Once settled on the bus, we put on Dreamgirls. It was quite the sing-a-long. We finally arrived in Merriville, IN where we grabbed some food. A bunch of us headed to Bennigan’s while others did the whole fast food thing. We had one hour (again Charlie told us the bus would leave us) and you know what…it did! Those of us lagging behind in Bennigan’s walked out of the restaurant to see Lakefront Lines (our bus) pulling off. TRAGEDY! We ran so fast, across a street, and luckily caught up with the bus. Whew! We drove for about 45 minutes and made it to the Michigan City armory where we were staying for the weekend. We drug all of our luggage inside then got everything out of the Ryder truck. We pulled the tarp out and it didn’t fit. They gym area was just a bit too small, so we had to fold over the sides of the tarp a little. We got our rehearsal attire on and started stretching. Jonathan Schwartz, Johnny Amos, Andy Toth, and Charlie Gumbert rehearsed us from about 7:30 to 11:00. Rehearsal ended with a stand still run thru. Then, we showered, ate, and passed out. Saturday we got up at 9am and started rehearsal at 10. We rehearsed until 12:30, then we packed up all of our show stuff and headed to another practice site – the official WGI practice site. When we pulled up, Whitney reminded me how she and I both had been to this particular school before – in the STUDY 2005, we stayed at the same school for the Chesterton regional that year. Anyways, we unpacked all of our stuff and set everything up. I had a surprising run-in with Katie and Michael Townsend. Northview High School was rehearsing at the other gym in the school. Fun times. Bart Woodley arrived and we rehearsed for about 3 ½ hours and had a great run-thru. We showered, ate, got in costume, and hopped on the bus for a 3-minute ride to the show (it was right across the street). Once we checked in, we headed over to a hallway and put our stuff down. We had about 15 minutes to walk around and check out the scene, then it was back to the hallway for Pride body. We did some stretching, some Ethna (our warm-up), some across the floors, and some greatest love. Once that was all over, it was time to head to warm-up. We went through inspection and while we were waiting in holding to go into our warm-up area, Phantom Regiment walked up behind us. We were all so excited to see our friends. There were so many people that I have marched with in that guard that I was really looking forward to seeing. We waved, made faces, yelled randomness, and wished them a great show…then it was our time to go. We got into warm-up and did some ending dance then broke up into sections. We threw some sabre 5’s, rifles did some tosses together, and then the staff played the show music and we took what we wanted. Time was up and off to the performance floor we went. When we walked into the gym, I got sooooo excited, as if I wasn’t excited enough already. I remember being in the same gym 2 years prior with the STUDY and watching Pride “Everybody Hurts” and imagining what it was like to be in that guard…and now, I’m there…with Pride! So incredible. Pride of Cincinnati…you may take the floor in preliminary competition… We had a great show! Tons of energy and the crowd response was awesome! We got off the floor, had a quick chat, grabbed all our stuff, jumped on the bus, went back to the armory, ate KFC (yum, thanks Toni and Charlie), and, of course, passed out. We woke up the next morning around 7:45 and packed all our stuff up for good. Bye Bye Michigan City armory. We headed back to the same practice site as yesterday and had less than a 2-hour rehearsal. Things went so smoothly. We did some section chunks so we could perform for each other. Everyone looked amazing. We did a run-thru that I thought was absolutely incredible and got ready for the show. Headed over to the school and did the same thing as yesterday. POC body was fun. We stretched to Danity Kane’s “Show Stoppin”. How hot is that?! Once that was all over, we went to official warm-up and did what we needed. Then, show time again! When we walked into the gym and started pulling out our floor, the screams started. There were so many people yelling for everyone…”Get it Rachel! We love you Nathan! We love you Whitney! Yeah Rachel! We love you Jeff! Go Phillip! Yeah Christina!” You get the picture. It was insanity. I spotted the Lawrence Central and New Palestine kids that I teach. Maybe I gave them a little wink and smile combination. We set all of our stuff up in a quicker fashion than yesterday (we did good, right Bart?). When the announcer (who happened to be the DCI finals announcer) said, “and next on the floor from Cincinnati, Ohio, the Pride of Cincinnati” the audience erupted. I mean there were 3,000 people in the stands! I felt on top of the world. We started the show and it was on…I could feel so much energy from everyone around me and the audience was so enthusiastic. When we finished, I was so happy! My show was amazing. I couldn’t have asked for anything better. We changed out of our uniforms and got to walk around and see all of our friends. I went straight to the Phantom area and got to see two of my best friends from Crown 05 and 06 – Tavius Cooper and Erin Patton! Love you two! I also got to see Erin England, Garry Hilton, Lauren Harper, Adam Dalton, and Danny Acevedo. So awesome. I love colorguard reunions! Well, the weekend came to end and everyone got on their respective buses and headed home. Maybe there were a few teary-eyed goodbyes, but we all know that we will meet again in Dayton…which is in 5 weeks! I can’t wait! Good luck everyone with the rest of your season! See you at WGI!
Back to the 2007 Diaries page!
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