Ahoy hoy,

Ok ok ok, so I'm a little behind. But before you get mad, it's not my fault. This is the first time I've seen this thing since , my last entry. So there, now everything is all better, I can continue with my final entry of the 2004 season.

A lot has happened. I don't even remember what I said on my previous entry. I hope things aren't repeated. Orlando was fun because it was a great trip back into being a spectator of Drum Corps. I must say a big thank you to Phil Filipeck. I hope a spelled that right, and without you, it would have been really crappy. Thank you very much for a great free day Orlando. Got to see the movie King Arthur, and it was great. It's the greatest story, in my ipinion, and this made it even more enjoyable...a whole new look on it.

In Alabama, sorry to anyone from there, but I've had the worst experiences there, and the final visit there just topped things off. I got attacked by fire ants, and made my ankles all swollen. I had to sit out of rehearsal because I could barely walk. It was great only because I got to see the show I've been working on for months. It was so much fun. That little taste of being a spectator again. I enjoyed performing the show more so after seeing it. Everyone should take a run-through off to experience it and truly know the package we're giving.

When it comes to the drumming portion of my life, things went great. We kept on getting better and better. Run-throughs got more consistant, and the only things that were rough were small errors. But becuase of us drumming so well, those little things turned into big things. That's the problem we had for the rest of the summer. Always working on the errors. What else should you work on while on tour. But it was all in fun but very hard to do. Never worked so hard in my life to be the best.

While in Murfreesboro, Tn, I must give a great big thank you my good friend Kevin (BD Pit 2002). He hooked up the entire percussion section with gatorade, and he hooked myself up with a nice good shower and a bomb burrito. Thank you so much.

Funny moment in parking-lot:
Indianapolis, Indiana - warming up for the show. Arrived a little late because when we got there the staff was told our gate time is sooner than originally told. So we were having a short warm-up, and in the middle of it we had an interesting fan. She was a little intoxicated...ok, very intoxicated and was yelling for one of our quad players, Tim Jackson (I&E Champion 03, 04). Kept on yelling and screaming for him. A little annoying, but our stress came off when in the middle of a tap off to an excercise she yelled, "Tim Jackson Corner Pocket!!!!" We all just broke down in laughter. We needed it. After a good show we asked Tim what it meant, and he had no idea...which made the story even greater. He still has no idea what she was talking about. The end.

The finals performance couldn't have been any better. Leaving the field, hearing the loudest applause ever, and playing the crap out of the show with 16 other people brought tears to all of our eyes. We worked so hard to have that show. We did it. I love this game.

Thank you Mom for all the food you brought. The drum line loved the burritos. Thank you for the star bucks. But most of all, thank you Mom for everything you did to help me to make drum corps. happen to me. I love you so much.

A list of other people to thank as well:
Pop, David, Mario, Roy, Nina&Nono, Nicole, The Fellaz, Mike Jackson, Vern Johnson, Gary Goins, Jason Chevalier, Mike Collins, Ernie Miranda, Mrs. Shafer, Brian Stockard, Dave Henkle, Scott Johnson, Sean Vega, and Gary Locke. Haha, it's like a list in music albums. But I've been saying thank you this since I started this activity and I meant it every time. Thank you. I'm done.

Fernando Miller

Well....fianly home again. Werid. Don't get me wrong, it's great to be back and sleep in a real bed, see my folks, go back to work, but its really still, well...werid. I just feel this really crazy cluster of emotions at the close of this summer that I feel the need to share with every one who is willing to listen.

I don't know when it hit me, the realization that this was it. Last week it was all just starting to feel like it could be over, with the excitment of finals week always comes an intense amout of pressure, both internaly and externaly. I was all about living in the moment, not letting any small detial pass me by. I was fighting so hard not to get sentamental, telling my self that any extra emotion could do little more than get in the way. Every day I said to my self "don't cry."

In the end, the foucs paied off, I had on finals night what was eaisly the greatest show of my life. I think a lot of us did. Fans can rest asured that 135 Blue Devils left their hearts and souls out on that feild that night in Denver. You want to talk about over whelming emotion. Coming off the feild I stoped to do a breif interview with the DCI people. Again, over and over in my mind "don't cry, yet, just a miniut...." In between talking to the host and catching my breath I came to the startling realization that the corps was now well past the tunnel and I was the only Blue Devil standing one the feild.

I was no where near alone, but I may as well have been. Two steps away from the camera and I broke down tears and ran up the tunnel to look for the group.

What was likley two miniuts felt like an eternity. I was able to find every one right before we broke from attention. No one could talk, we were all too bussey holding each other and crying. Even the staff was in tears. Its so odd to me still that all that time, all that effort could come down to just one breif moment in time. Even odder still that that one moment could compleatly negate any of the pain, frustration and exustion that had lead up to it. Those were tears of joy.

This past week with TOC I allowed my mind to wander a lot more than I had the week before. I found my self becoming sentamental over the oddest things like the paper ball fight we had on the Hound and wheeling my stuff into a Gym at 5 in the morning. Every thing I did I asked myself "when am I ever going to get to to this again?" Never. My life will never be this simple again. Never again will I be able to leave my real world behind, hit the road, and simply just be a performer who eats, sleeps and breaths this activity every day. Walking off the feild in San Jose last night, I turned aroud to watch the Corps playing "Chase the Coulds Away." There is somthing so right about a Blue uniform in front of a lagre croud. All I saw was pure emotion set to music. I knew in that moment I was walking away from a massive part of my life. I cried, and didn't stop crying untill I fell asleep. Those were tears of sadness.

Today I did the things that normal people do. I did laundrey. I went to Wal-Mart. Tonight at some point, I'll wake up in my sleep and wonder first where every one else is, then where the heck I am, and fianly realize "oh yeah..." and doze back off feling sligthly more alone than I did yesterday. Tomarow I will get up and go back to my students with a renewed hope that maybe I can help them to find the same joy trough performance that has been so instrumental in shaping my young life.

Theres so much more I could say, so many stories and people that will be with me for the reast of my life. To all future members of this corps and all corps may I say: live it up, it will be over before you know it.

I guess all thats left to say is thank you Jerry. May we all contine to honer your memory by every day living out the dream you so delightfully designed for us. It ment the world to me to be one of your Blue Devils.

Hey again, just got back from the show....to be honest I'm realy annoyed not so much about the scores but by how our run went. It didn't seem solid there were some bad forms and I don't think we locked in very well as a full ensemble. I would be upset by the scores if we had a good run, but we handed it to them on a plate. It's crazy to think how easy it is to mess everything up. We had been rehearsing today on a field that was marked up to be the same as the stadium but when we got on the field it seemed all different.

Well that's my ranting done with.

On a good note we scored a 20=perfect score in brass. And I got to see a few of my english friends that came out to watch.

I know tommorow we are going to push more then ever and be a different corps at semis.

Well I need my beauty sleep, so night night all.

Wow we had a great day of rehearsal and we had the best run of the year. Now I'm realy excited for our appearances at denver. It's getting easier to breath, but my bodys starting to ache, my age is showing haha. It's my birthday on the 8th so hopefuly there will be some celebrating to do hehe. Well take care people, and be ready to see Blue Devils tare it up.

I didn't catch the name but thankyou very much to the alumni guy that sent us the gatoraids and also the 5 bux for free day. As you know it means a lot to us especialy on tour. Thankyou.

Good night people

Quarter finals day!! The last leg of our summer is here and we are more than ready to get out there and give it all we've got. Denver has been nothing but nice to us....a great place for nats week.

The weather has been wonderful and our facilities are awesome. We have one more block today then we head off to mile high. Personally I am more than ready to do this!

Well lunch is over...sorry so short but our days have just been hectic. Ill write more later.

The corps just woke up just 15 minutes ago. Many of them with determination in their eyes even whil pulling their heads from their pillows. I had a hard time sleeping last night it must of been the excitement of it being the biggest show of the three nights. If we nail this one it will put us on a good track for friday and saturday.

Last night the corps had it's best run through of the year to date. Luckily it came at a perfect time. But we will deffintely continue to progress and get better and will not peak until saturday night. The gauntlets are off and the blue devils are coming out swinging. " what you gunna do cavies when the Blue Devils run wild on you?".

Since the season is coming to a end and so are these journal entries I would like to extend a very big thank you to some people that have read my diaries and helped to make my summer a great one ; Jim Hagar, Leo DeL Fuente, Danny Fallon, Harry Zahlis, Brad from England thanks for epcot, and of course to my wonderful family and Felisha. Thank you to all.

I hope everyone that attends finals enjoys our program. We will put out the best product for you the fans. So while we are in denver we have 3 more uniform run throughs oh wait I forgot one after the score are announced..........................12.

So it is here nationals week. So far the guard has been working hard and really good. As for me I'm having a harder time, I'm having some family issues and sometimes it is hard to focus. I know that for myself it is going back to why I love this activity and why my family loved watching me do it, I know that's what my grandpa would want. On another note the weather here is amazing, alittle hot but nice. Today it was sunny and blue sky and out of no where it started raining just from one cloud in the sky, it was one of those moments on nationals week I'll always remember. We worked out some tan lines today, I guess if you call getting burnt working them out hahaha. Tomorrow is rookie day which should be fun, I can't explain it to much just incase any of yout readers are going to be future BD guard members, it will take away all the fun! So far all is good in Denver...

Hey people, I can't believe it's finals week my body aches and I'm ready to get home for some fish and chips. But before all this we have a job to do and this is one which I am looking forward to. We are in denver now, I'm finding it hard to breath but its getting easier and we are running when we can, some of us are going to run a few laps each night. Murfreesboro was our best show to date, we had an amazing run, indi was good also but didn't have the same energy.....both for me were solid shows. Todays rehearsal has been pretty intense both with visual and musical blocks, we have got a lot done. I'm looking forward to thursday as my mum and brother will be here, it will be good to see them again. I always have so much that I want to write in my entrys but by the time I get hold of the computer I forget what I wanted to say.

Lately I've been thinking about all the things I am going to do when I get home, fishing is on the list. I'm going to march drum corps in england when I get back home so that should be fun. I'm not sure when I will get this again but keep writing to me and I will reply when I can. Well take care all hopefuly i will meet some of you at finals.

Hi all! I have a few days to write about this time!

We were in North Carolina for a show and the thunder storms followed us as usual. We were waiting out the weather to see if it would pass, but it didn't. Last year we did a stand still at the show since the field was so wet from the rain, but fortunately we were able to do our full show this year!

The colorguard dressed in all blacks so we wouldn't get our uniforms messed up. It was such a fun performance that night!!! Aside the drenched, muddy field, the crowd was awesome that night- making it such a fun show. I remember doing the jump split in the show and as I landed, water splashed up...it was some good visual effect =D Also, the dancers at the end do a stag leap and water came up and splashed all over our faces...it was so much fun! When we all got off the field, we were all so drenched with mud and water. It was a good idea to perform in blacks that night.

On another note, everything has been going pretty smoothly around here. We just had our dome show in Indianapolis and had a close outcome. It makes nationals so exciting! We're in cleaning mode...making sure everything is in place and ready to go. And Scott's back from his vacation!!!

Now, we're on our way to Denver! We stopped over in Kansas for a day to get some practice time in and also to cut our long drive from Indy to Denver in two. We worked on some changes for the show, so it's ready for Denver! It adds the final effect of it all! We hope you all enjoy it!

I can't wait to get into Denver...I get to see some very special people watch my age out performance. This is when I get all sappy about aging out...but I gotta get over it =\ Right now, I'm trying to soak in every bit of this experience, because it has definitely been one train ride this summer. All aboard into Nationals week...Denver- here we come!

Hello eveyone! I hope you all have been enjoying the great news about our progression in the last week. Anyway, I want to start off by talking about our show in North Carolina. Rainy...rainy...rainy!!! But you know what, we waited for that rain to stop and we performed a full on show with drill and all. Yes the ground was wet...yes our equipment was slippery...and yes the probability of members slipping in the grass was high, but we had one of the most energetic performances ever. The audience was very enthusiastic and loving. They completely followed the show from beginning to end, and I was very excited. At the end of the show, I had even more fun because there was a group of girls/fans waiting by our buses. I was really excited because they personally wanted to meet me, and one of them said she couldn't take her eyes off me as soon as we got on the field.....COOL!!

The next place we performed was at Sevierville, TN. Guess how the weather was there?? Yup...rainy...rainy...rainy. But what did we do? You got it...we waited the rain out and performed another marvelous show full of energy and enthusiasm. But before the show, we did a lot of useful cleaning on color guard choreography and it is definitely paying off. And before that, we did laundry in the morning. Laundry was tiring!! I had a lot of clothes that needed to be cleaned. So Isleen, Melissa, and I all did our laundry together. You think that working together would be the more efficient thing to do. But somehow we still ended up being one of the last ones to finish. I guess we all just had too many clothes to clean. Oh before I forget, our laundry stop happened to be by a Wendy's and a K Mart, so that was cool to have nearby. Finally, today we were here in Murfreesboro, TN. Guess what happened with the weather here?? Yup..right again. After two blocks of rehearsal and in the middle of hosting a DCI clinic for the nearby high school students and fans, it rained like crazy!! But we did we do? Of course, we waited the rain out and cut the clinic down to it's most enjoyable part...the run through performance. So after hectic chaos of having everyone hide underneath the bleachers and evacuating the stadium in case of lightning, everyone returned back to the stands and we gave them a powerful, energetic show that they will never forget. Our run through was awesome to say the least. Finally, as the night arrived, we were voted to perform last for the evening. I'd like to take this time to say thank you for your voting and support. We all truly appreciate it!! Our show tonight was incredible! The energy and enthusiam this drum corps is producing is not only unbelievable but encouraging at the same time. I am truly excited for our show because everything is finally becoming clearer to understand. I have faith in this show and this group of people. This is definitely an amazing season so far. I hope tomorrow in Indianapolis, IN goes even better. We can do it!!

On a different and more perosnal note, I just want to share one more thing. So for the last week, our instructor/program coordinator/god has been out handling business. (We really miss you Scott and we can't wait to see you again). Anyway, before every show Scott takes the color guard out to a spot where we can isolate away from all the chaos happening around us. Then he calms us all down and gets us into the focused mind set for the show by guiding us through some breathing exercises. For anyone that has worked with Scott, he is the perfect person to get you concentrating for the task at hand simply by taking you through his breathing exercises. After learning from Scott for the last 8 years of my color guard life, I took it upon myself to make sure that the color guard was still focused and concentrated for each of the shows that Scott wasn't here. All I can say is that I hope the color guard benefited from it and that I did Scott justice. I tried my best to do the breathing exercises just like Scott would to almost the exact detail. I want to say that it has worked so far! All of our shows since I've tried doing it has been pretty successful. Tonight especially was a great one! We had a really great time out there on the field and you could see it. Knowing that tonight would be my last time to do the breathing exercises ever, I tried my best to get the whole guard in the focused mind set. I was really overwhelmed to find some of the guard members telling me how much they really appreciate the breathing. It really touches me and it meant a lot to me when a few of them told me on the side that they really respect me as much as if Scott were doing it. It really is an honor for me to do it. So thank you Scott and I hope I made you proud.

That's it for now everyone. I'll talk to you all later.