birthdays, drumline, babies...

Much to talk about, much to talk about!! Where do I begin?? Well, I did have m,y birthday in Feburary and it was a special occasion because 3 of my cousins that i NEVER get to see from Michigan were conveniently located in San Deigo with my grandparents at the time. So
I went with my parents, Samantha, The 3 cousins, and my grandparents to California Adventures (its right next to Disneyland and is an amusment park also). After much fun in the sun and bad times to go on water rides, we headed home. Now throughout this whole time (even a couple of blogs ago), my sister in law (sister really, she fits so perfectly with our family) has been pregnant. I didn't tell you earlier because I was sworn to sercrecy. But the word has already spread so I might as well continue it. Megan is now 6 months pregnant to a very active baby boy. Most call him Q, couple of my friends call him BBQ (beastly baby quentin). But the name descided is Quentin John Palmer. He is very active already, just like his father and loves to move. I look forward with a steadfast eagerness torwards my new to-be nephew. Now we land in march, the ify time between Spring and winter. March in traditionally not a month that I look forward to, the month i call dreary and long, because in boston its usually cloudy, the snow is gross, and it gets in a weird stage of weather. Also there are no school breaks AT ALL in March!! But this year was different, this year was the first year of high school drumline. So two weeks ago was my very first compition and we packed up la Canada and drove our way 7 hours to Union City, which is right next to San Fran. After our failed attempt to go skydiving 3 times, it was time for the show. We had warmed up, everything was looking up, we had had an excellent warm uip, and we were pumped up. So we ran on and set up, only to have the pit's sound system BREAK. So we trudged our way through pretty well all-things-considered. Example, the sound system wasn't working so our synth wasn't working, and so we should've just collapsed, but we pulled through. Anyway we got a bad score, but it still wasn't the worst! Afterwards we watched He's just not that Into You and watched YouTube forever. On Sunday we went to Alcatraz (I know, ur jelous) and I might get pictures up if I ever get around to it. After that we went the Fisherman's Warf and ate at Bubba Gump which was delicious. We finally headed home with a good experience to cover up the disapointment of the show. And then yesterday we went to Fontana (about 45 min to an hour away from La Canada) to go to our next show. This time we were determined not to screw up. Once again we had an exellent warm up and we pumped up but a bit more nervous. We went and preformed, with no malfunctioning of the sound system (to our great joy). We played amazingly and were satisfied with our playing and impatient to find out what we got. No one would tell us our score until the award cerimony to we all waited through the delays and everything, miracuasly keeping most of our hair in tact. Finally our coaches came to sit with us as the awards started and they looked mad and said that we should've done better, thus furthering our tension. As they called out the placements from bottom to top, we all held our breath and squeezed each others hands as placement after placement was called with their schools, and we were not there. Finally the fourth one was called, and the coaches were like, that should've been us and bla bla bla. Every1 was on the edge o their seat with adrenaline pumping and the want to scream. The judges paused for what seemed forever before anouncing 3rd place. They said that 1st, 2nd, and 3rd place groups got such outragiously high scored that they were being places in the next highest level. They called third place, and by this time our coaches were starting to break with their facial expressions. We were not called. Our reps to recieve the awards were tapping their feet with impatience as the 3rd place people took what seemed like forever to get their trophie. They called out 2nd place, and they called out La Canada!! Everyone in drumliune immediatly stood up and were screaming and hugging we were so happy!! One of the reps had to actually retrain the other one because he tried to run up he was to esatic. Then, they called first place, and we had lost by 7 tenths of a point, thats .7 compared to the 3 point gap between 3rd and 2nd place. But we were so happy we did't care!! Well that's the climax of the story. I shall write sometime hopefully in this month, it all depends.
ps.
Read my brother's blog!!
It's really interesting

-Caroline