A Moment to Breathe!

As the title suggests, I have been incredibly busy as of late. Last weekend wasn't much of a weekend at all. Really, this week has been two weeks, essentially.

Last week (week of the 10-15), I had an Intro exam (music theory/music history combined class) in the middle of the week, so the first part of the week was spent studying...a lot...for that exam. I also had a couple assignments due at the end of the week for my music ed class. Then on the Saturday it was our 4th home football game in a row. It was the Troy game which was rescheduled from September 6, thanks to Gustav. It was also the homecoming game. Because there was not a football game originally scheduled for that day, it was also the first game of the season for the men's basketball team. Normally, a 60 person pep band, the Bengal Brass, would play for this game. However, since there was a football game as well that day, the band directors decided it would be nice if the full 325 member Tiger Band play for the game. So that day began with an EARLY practice at 8AM followed by a meal. Then the basketball game. All 325 of us in the PMAC, a domed basketball arena with a capacity of 10,000. After the basketball game, we ate again, and then went to do our usual football gameday routine, which involved a short concert in the PMAC, followed by the march to the stadium and then the football game. Needless to say, that was a very long day.

Sunday wasn't much better. It would've been nice to get some time to relax, however, I did not get this opportunity. My Sunday began with a dress rehearsal for the Trombone Choir concert. This was followed by a required recital, the Percussion Ensemble concert. That was a very enjoyable concert. After the concert, I had a short period of time where I did get to relax a little and get something to eat. But I didn't have much time, because I also had another dress rehearsal on Sunday, this time for Tiger band and our "Tigerama" concert. Tigerama is a concert that the Tiger Band and the top two concert bands, the Wind Ensemble and Symphonic Winds, put on as a fundraiser. The Tiger Band plays all of its show music from its various shows from throughout football season, as well as the numerous school songs that LSU has.

After the long days of Saturday and Sunday, I had to return to my normal class schedule on Monday, which is probably my busiest day of the week this semester. That evening was the Tigerama concert. Then Tuesday, my second busiest day, was the Trombone Choir concert. After that you think I would have gotten a chance to relax the rest of the week, right? After all, my two busiest class days of the week are done, and it only gets easier throughout the week. Nope. I had another round of math homework and quizzes due at the end of the week, as well as ANOTHER Intro test coming up this Monday, just over a week after our last one. Oh, and today was our 5th straight home game in a row. Unfortunatley, it was also our 3rd conference loss in a row. Georgia on Oct 25, Alabama on November 8, and Ole Miss today. At least we came back from a 31-3 deficit to beat Troy 40-31 last week!

Next week, I also have a dress rehearsal for the Symphonic band concert on Monday, the concert being Tuesday. At least next week is Thanksgiving and I'll finally get a real chance to really relax for some time! Too bad the week after that is "dead week" which is the week before finals where basically nothing is allowed to happen. Followed by finals. After finals, I go to San Antonio for the December camp for the Crossmen and the 2008 season banquet, then I get to go home for at most two weeks, depending on our bowl selection.

Now that Ole Miss beat us today, the Cotton bowl is looking very unlikely, as it will probably choose Ole Miss over us. Our best realistic hope now is the Chick Fil'a Peach Bowl against an ACC team, which at this point could be any team, because they are all about even this year as the ACC has no dominant team. At least with us probably not going to the Cotton bowl, that means we won't have to worry about being slaughtered by either Texas, Oklahoma, or Texas Tech, whichever one gets left out of the BCS.

It will be interesting to see which teams go where, especially if Oregon State wins the Pac-10, forcing USC to have an at-large bid to a BCS bowl. If that were to happen, then there is a good chance that Ohio State will be left out of the BCS and play in the Capitol One bowl, most likely against Georgia, who, if the trend continues, should beat Ohio State pretty easily, as Ohio State is now what? 0-8? 0-9? against SEC teams in bowl games? It'll be interesting to see how things play out over the next two weeks.