On Tour with Blue Stars Part 2: Living

I mentioned in the last post that actually LIVING on tour is much different than working during the day on the truck and going home at night. 


One of the most important things to know is that it will always look like you're living in a refugee camp. Always.

This actually looks fairly neat and tidy.

The picture above is misleading because the gym is big. In some of the smaller gyms they stayed in it's literally wall to wall air mattresses. Towels dry from the basketball hoops. There's daisy chains of power strips and cords everywhere to charge cell phones. Here's Brian and I's personal corner of the staff refugee camp at one school:

We were on the auditorium stage next to drama props. Suitcases, backpacks, towels, blankets, bed. Pretty tidy!

On tour they only get to do laundry about once every two weeks, so there's lots of Febreeze. One guard girl was very ingenious during rehearsal: 

I'm sure these were as good as new when she got back from rehearsal.

Sewing world is set up in the nearest hallway that has tables and outlets. **Note: I was supposed to also be sewing when I was on tour, but found out the physical therapist was sewing genius. I managed to not have to sew one thing until the second to last day of tour!!!**

There's Sally sewing! The kids lose so much weight the uniforms have to be taken in almost constantly at the beginning of the season. 

I've mentioned the schedule is grueling. Here's a typical day: 

Couple things to note: 


--E/S/L is "Eat, Shower, Load." If we're not staying overnight again at the housing site, you have 2 hours to eat dinner, shower, and pack and load all your stuff. Because after the performance it's onto the busses and driving through the night to the next housing site. The fourth meal is typically eaten at the show site. 


--Bus sleep is kind of counted as "half-time sleep." So you should be getting about 7 1/2-8 hours of sleep a night. But any of those hours spent on the busses only count for half. When you get to the housing site and set up camp (takes less than 30 minutes before we're asleep on our bed) you then get floor time till you've made up the 8 hours. 


When we travel we have a whole entourage: 4 charter busses (3 kids, 1 staff bus), 2 semis (equipment truck and food truck), a box truck, souvenir van pulling a souvenir booth, admin van and two RVs (one for staff and one for volunteers). 

4 of these puppies and the staff got the best driver of them all--Pat! 

Bus living is very interesting. Bungee cords become your best friend. You can string them up in front of your seat to hold your wet shower towel, snacks, shoes, anything really. The kids seem to have a lot more stuff to keep track of than the staff: 

Look at all the bungees!

Shower organizers are also very handy on the windows.

When I was first on tour our volunteer RV was broken so we had to sleep in the back of the huge 15-passenger vans. Each person got a bench to themselves. It was actually the best sleep I got while on tour. It's like a little cocoon laying down between the seats. I could stretch out to my full height. I downloaded a white noise app and listening to static all night actually made it really easy to fall asleep. Dex and Gary kept me safe in the back of the souvie van so I never had to worry about what would happen when I fell asleep. Sleeping in THIS, on the other hand, was a nightmare: 

Top right bunk was mine for a time.

The thing about sleeping on the top bunk in the back of an RV is this: even if you have a spectacular driver, it will always feel like you're going 100 mph. So you lean way over and look out the front window and realize you're only going like 55!! How is that even possible?! And when you're towing a trailer with a quad runner on it, the back of the RV will shake and make a noise that sounds like the back is about to fall off. There were times when I would catch myself on the shelf from a dead sleep to keep from rolling onto the floor. The first time we started moving and I was on the top bunk I couldn't do anything but laugh hysterically for the first half hour. It was so comically dangerous I couldn't believe I was actually supposed to fall asleep at some point. But, you saw the daily schedule. I eventually fell asleep. 

The thing about tour is there's lots of drama. Living in these conditions with the same people for months can be pretty insane at times. See practically everyone on tour is extremely passionate about drum corps and the Blue Stars in general. And everyone also thinks they have something vitally important to contribute to the corps (and most genuinely do!). So by default, these passions are bound to clash every once in awhile is such close quarters. The nice thing is that the season ends, banquet is sentimental and heartfelt, and there's just enough time before November camp for everyone to forget their spats and let bygones be bygones. And then they do it all over again for the next season. :) 

Are we going to be at Blue Stars next summer? Are we going to be involved in a professional aspect of drum corps at all? These are all questions that will be sorted through and answered in the coming weeks. Regardless of what is on the agenda for next summer, I know this one that this one will be one for the record books. I can't imagine there's anything quite like your first summer of drum corps. 

Congrats to Brian!!

It has been a whole week since my last post! I blame the holidays. :) I hope you all had a wonderful holiday and relaxation time away from your jobs and school. 


Brian received some big news the week before Christmas, news he's been waiting to hear for a couple months now: He made it on staff with Blue Stars for the summer!!!


Some of you are reading that and thinking, "Wow! That's amazing Brian! Way to go!" The rest of you are thinking, "What's Blue Stars? And what do you mean by 'staff'?" 


Blue Stars are a Drum Corps (a "professional" marching band if you will), and in the top 8 (Elite 8? Or is it too early for college basketball references?) of all the corps in the activity. Brian will be teaching the baritones (that's a brass instrument. It's big and heavy) all summer as they tour the country. When I say all summer, I mean that he'll be leaving for Blue Stars camp when high school lets out at the beginning of June, will come back for his own away band camp in mid-July and then will go back on tour till the season ends towards the end of August. All summer. 


***I'd like to take this opportunity to bring up two important points!***


Point #1: This summer, if you would like to hang out, have sleepovers, talk to me on the phone, invite me to your home, etc. etc. I ACCEPT!!! Right now, in advance. This is going to be a challenging, crazy, quiet, very alone summer. I think it'll be good for me. I think it will be a growing and learning experience for Brian and I. But when it comes down to it, it's just going to be plain old hard. 


Point #2: You may have noticed that I just let the world know I'll be by myself for most of the summer. So for any moronic creeps out there thinking it would be a great time to rob the house or attempt harm to me or my fur children, here's what I have to say to you: 

This is me. And this is my shotgun. It lives next to my bed. Do you know what I use as a coaster for my water glass on the bedside table? A box of deer slugs. See the smile on my face? That is how much I love my gun. I've taken a concealed carry course. Trust me: I know what to do to defend myself while incurring absolutely no legal repercussions. 


Need any more deterrents? Check out my sweet knife skills. One of those lives next to my bed, too. Okay one more? A solid miniature Louisville Slugger bat. (I've listed my weapons in order of most lethal.)


Well, now that that's out of the way, I found some really great videos on YouTube when I was searching for examples of the Blue Stars to show those of you who still have no idea what I'm talking about. The Blue Stars are out of La Crosse, Wisconsin, and man do those people love the Blue Stars. They make these promotional packages every year when the Blue Stars come back to town to rehearse. They're very well done! It gives you a sense of the corps and the activity in general. These first two are a couple years old, so please excuse the old ugly uniforms. 

One of these also has a really horrific drumline feature. Please excuse it as it's early in the season and the news people putting together these packages have no idea what they're listening to (i.e. that was embarrassing don't feature it on the news and then put it on YouTube!)


**Also, a funny note, especially for any Milford band grads out there. Our very own Brian Kraft is in that first video! Wearing a Bengals jersey, told the corps they sucked at something and to do it again. Cracks me up. :)**

These last two videos are packages from the 2010 (last season) corps. You can see how much improvement they've made in just a few short years from the first videos up to the present. I'm so proud of Brian and so excited for him to be a part of a wonderful group of young people and staff!

I'm personally very excited because I plan to go to camps and on tour for at least a week this summer (and perhaps various weekend trips) to help cook! There's a cook truck and lots of mouths to feed 4 times a day or so. They need lots of volunteers to make this activity work. Plus, I'll get to see Brian more that way. Yay for exciting things in the future!!

Helllooooo Business Cards

Hi Everyone!


It has been one rough, emotional week with Brian's band parent, Pete, passing away on Monday. But one cool thing has happened, and it's really made us feel like maybe God uniquely placed us at LaSalle solely for this period of time right now. And if it's for no other reason than what's happening now, I'd be completely fine with that. Pete's son and his girlfriend are just wonderful kids, and they've been reaching out to Brian and I for support. We are so thankful that they're reaching out to adults, and honored that they've chosen us to help them in any way we can. 


In other news, I have been super busy getting some loose ends tied up with the business. I ordered my first BUSINESS CARDS today! I feel so legitimate. It was extremely cool to be like "Oh, I'll upload my business's logo, thanks...." What's really awesome is the site where I ordered them: MOO. This site is incredible! They just strike me as the coolest, most down-to-earth people. I've decided to order my business cards in two phases. Tonight I got some "mini-cards," which are a fairly new thing (possibly started by these Moo people?). They're small, almost like calling cards. (If you don't read Victorian historical fiction like me, a calling card was something that would be left at a house if the family was out, or for a lady by a gentleman who had come calling [get it?] to spend time with her.) Today, sometimes there is just a name on it or maybe an email address or website as well. These little suckers are genius: sweet mini cards. 


Next, I'd like to get full-size business cards here: big guys!. The really amazing thing about this company is that they do sweet things to your business cards because they think it's fair to help make your product really nice at a reasonable price. They put them on a heavier premium stock, print 4/c process on both front and back at no extra charge. And there's this free thing called printfinity that allows you to upload up to 100 images that go on the back of your business cards. So you could put your entire portfolio on there, or samples of your cards, like I did. It rotates through them for whatever quantity you get. I also added some really nice photographs we have taken since we bought our good camera. And one or two cool things from our wedding. It took FOREVER to upload all those images and crop them correctly, but it was totally worth it. These are going to be so amazing. 


I took a page out of my Mom's online shopping book and googled "moo.com promotion codes" and found a 15% off code that worked! With the priority shipping I'm hoping they arrive by Friday. Hope to see you soon so I can show them off. ;-) 


And since I don't have any photos of the business cards yet, I'll post a photo that I put on the back of one. Isn't Vivienne such a babydoll? 

P.S. Aren't you glad I figured out how to change links into text for this post? It looks so much better than URLs hanging all over the place. 

Sad Day

Today started out like any other day. It's a Monday, and I try to keep those low key. Within about three hours of getting to work, I heard two things that made me really sad. 


1. The daughter-in-law of a friend at work recently miscarried a few weeks into her second trimester. 
2. One of Brian's band parents died unexpectedly this morning. This parent was one of the first super-supportive ones. He was a musician, he got music, you know? He understood how much Brian was challenging the kids. It was such a happy experience when we met him, together, out in the parking lot. I remember it pretty clearly because afterwards we just looked at each other like "WOW. There is hope here. This can be built up to a great program." And I really think it started that evening, with knowing that there was at least one person 150% on our side. 


What I spent most of my day thinking about, and preoccupied by, was his family. His son is one of the field commanders in the band--the leader. He's about to start his senior year of high school in two days. I thought about all the dreams and hopes and plans his dad had for him that are just gone. And about the plans and dreams and hopes he had for his own life with his wife. Those just don't exist anymore. They are gone from the universe forever and will never have a chance to play themselves out. I had such a sense of finality and heavy, heavy sadness. 


It also made me that much more determined to do whatever I can to create free time in my life to spend as much time as possible with Brian and the friends and family I love. I will not be consumed by expectations of how much I should be working or what kind of job, or even how much money one needs to be really happy. (From my perspective it's really only "How much less student loans.") You just really have no idea when it will be your time. I'm beginning to wrap my brain more and more around the idea that every single day is super special, and should be treated that way. I'm trying really hard not to be upset by petty things, or let negativity in any form take away from the gift of another day in my extremely blessed, lucky, happy life. 


So I had to go shopping today for sympathy stamps, because I really only have one or two that might remotely qualify, and they're more on the "make you smile side." Not the caliber of emotion I'm looking to convey. It was hard. I kept thinking about how the potential cards would make me feel if I received them; quite a sad experience. I've never had such an emotional craft supply shopping trip. I feel lucky that I haven't really had the need to buy these kinds of stamps until now. I've been trying to feel the appropriate amount of grateful for that all day. I hope you're not having a sympathy-stamp worthy kind of day today. 


Here's the card I ended up making for both situations. I just liked it so much I decided to use it for both. I also bought a stamp that says "Mere words cannot express the Hurt my Heart feels for You in your time of Loss." I love it. It is just so darn sincere--and that's something that can be hard to find in a generic "Hallmark card." Also, I'm not sure if you're able to see it in this picture, but I got a glitter pen tonight and it's awesome, and way overdo. I colored in the punched out "stars" with it and outlined the words "stars" and "shines" to give it an extra "something."