Bask In My Awesomeness!

Hello! I have so much to tell you! YAY! Okay, so, to make this easier for you to understand, I will put it in order of time.

Friday:

4:00pm: I get ready to go to Salmon Arm.

4:16pm: Bri arrives home from work with KFC

4:27pm: After eating a few fries, I get picked up by The Band and head to Salmon Arm

approx. 5:00pm: We arrive at Blue Water Music in Salmon Arm and head inside.

approx. 5:30pm: Ryan shows up with Molly The Jam Dog and a haircut, and heads into the Jam Room with the other band (Shadows Deception) while Preston, Darby and I wait in the store.

5:47pm: Auntie Sue and Uncle Des show up in the van with McDonalds for our dinner

6:00pm: We head into the Jam Room and practice each of our songs twice.

approx. 6:30pm: We head out of the store into the parkinglot and realize that our plans to see Zoom on opening night are toast, since the show starts at 6:40

6:43pm: I realize that Shadows Deception is made up of very nice people. Perhaps some that we will be jamming with in the future.

6:50pm: John (Blue Water Music Owner/Ryan's Dad) shows up with the "Blue Water Music Sound Guyz" truck and a run-down "Shuswap Lake Estates Golf Club" float.

6:55pm: We begin the float-decoration process.

7:00pm: We realize that McDonalds wasn't necessary since they ordered us two pizzas. We meet ODD-BALL Dean. Ugh.

7:30pm:Darby and I had been waiting around for half an hour while the "men" did all the stuff that we couldn't do because we are not six and a half feet tall or able to lift about 250lbs with one hand. Yeah, they had to set up two huge light fixtures and two ENORMOUS PA system speakers.

8:00pm: The expected time to finish....did not end up as planned.

8:30pm: We wait around for Ryan, John and Dean to get the sound hooked up and adjusted perfectly.

9:00pm: Dean recruits Darby and I to go over to the gas station and buy ten cans of pop for everyone. Mmmm...someone elses 20 bucks!

9:30pm: After two of the girls and Charlie from Shadows Deception are long gone, we end up doing the sound checking. We practiced all of our songs on the float and realized how hard it was to play on it. it's pretty darn wobbley! (Oh! And yes, we covered up the cheesy golf sign.

approx. 9:37pm: A young couple walking through the parking lot stops to hear us play "Hold My Hand"

10:00pm: After trying to get encored by Robyn (sp?), from Shadows Decpetion, we end up being forced off stage by Uncle Des because...well...we had to go!

10:33pm: We arrive at my house and I try to get some sleep!

Saturday!

7:00am: I am woken by Bri and a gloomy day. I head to the shower right away and wash my hair so that it's not all EW for the day.

approx. 7:23am: I eat breakfast and get ready for the day, being sure to pack a sweater.

8:00am: I pack up my guitar and iPod and throw some product in my damp hair.

8:23am (ON THE NOSE): We head out the door to get to Salmon Arm by nine.

approx. 8:57am: We arrive in Salmon Arm as one of the first float-people-es-s(?). Then, we wait around for about ten minutes for the float to show up.

approx. 9:09am: We find the float and get set up, hoping the tarp that rests on Preston's head while he plays doesn't collapse and dump water on us.

9:45am: We're all set up and ready to go. Too bad the parade doesn't actually start until 10:45.

Okay, so this is where I lost track of time and I'll just tell you what happenend now. Soooo, both bands ended up practicing all their songs...twice. Then, as we were the first ones to go on, we just jammed for about half an hour until nearly 11:00 when the parade actually started. So, when the float started moving, I almost fell over. We started playing when Charlie spotted people and watched all the people smile at us as we passed. OH! AND WE WON A THIRD PLACE RIBBON! I'm not really sure which category we were in..but who cares? Our crap-like float won a ribbon! (Yes. Our float was pretty lame looking, but what was on it was much better!) It was really cool because there were a bunch of little kids when we started and they all watched us so intently! Anyways, we did really well! I also got to play a guitar that belonged to a girl from the other band. It made it faster to swithc off. Anyways, Preston handed out Rockets to the little kids when we were done our three songs and then hopped back on when we were up again. So, our second time around was...different. We saw Jeff and Debbie Cuell (Jeff Auntie Sue's partner on their CD). Debbie was clapping madly! :D Then, we saw the Hippy Guy who gave us this crazy smile and a thumbs up from the driver's seat of his beat up pick-up truck. Then...ugh. There was a float with super-soaker things. So, Dean decides to be weird and go get a water blaster thing. In the middle of Hold My Hand when Ryan's doing his solo, Dean runs by and blasts him (while he's holding another girl's guitar). So, Ryan's drenched, my back got soaked and Darby (playing Robyn's base) also got completly drenched. Thanks, Dean........

Well...that was pretty much the highlight(s) of my last two days. Oh! But after the parade was over, we end up going back around to Blue Water Music...still singing! Shadows Decpetion was playing when we went around again. It was cool because the parade was LONG over but we were still blasting music at people...who loved it! Then, we took the float apart and headed to the fair...where we spent the rest of the day. So that was cool. I just got home about two hours ago. It was great! I'm so glad I got that experience. I'd totally do it again. LOUDER THAN WORDS! WHOO HOO! We got a couple pictures. I'll post them later. I gotta go folks! I still feel like I'm on a float! I'm all wobbley! It's such a cool feeling to feel like you pleased people! YAY! Okay! BYE!

-Kristen