September 26, 2007: Skirt Day

I feel remembered and loved!

Skirt Day

"so i think you can call yourself a legend of the IM field, and a great friend, and an amazing person when 16 people dress up in skirts in solidarity with you. lots of people asked us why we were all in skirts, so now even if they weren't lucky enough to know you, they now know ABOUT you! wOOt."

~ Lauren
(far right)

For four straight years my name was "Skirt." Initially, my marching band nickname (even JJ our assistant band director was calling me Skirt!), the name Skirt has spread throughout my social circles and to my new friends overseas. Some people even think Skirt is my legitimate middle name!

So where did the name Skirt even come from?

...my freshman year of band camp I wore a skirt on the first day. Among other marching band faux pas, I was prone to dancing in my spot and being generally wacky and silly.



This irregular behavior attracted the attention of two very cool saxophone players, senior Eric Burlingham (on the right) and sophomore Blake Tierney (on the left). Up until they met me, they referred to me by a code name: Skirt Girl. This fact would later delight me beyond belief and we became great friends by the end of the week! We took a road trip to San Louis Obispo and on Eric's suggestion, I shortened it to its catchier form, "Skirt."

Fast forward five years later. I've graduated from UCLA, I'm sitting in San Francisco hundreds of miles away. I receive a Facebook Wall message from my trumpet-playing friend, Kyle. It read:

"Today was Skirt day, Skirt, everyone missed you :)"

I sat stunned in my seat! SKIRT DAY???? I thanked him for telling me about it, but I never heard anything from the clarinets, so I just let it be.

Yesterday (October 13), Lauren Sanchez, my dear co-clarinet, Facebook-tagged me in the picture you see above. Skirt Day was REAL! My face flushed, my cheeks quivered and then I BROKE INTO THE BIGGEST SMILE IN THE WHOLE ENTIRE WORLD..........!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

There they were, my beautiful clarinet friends, WEARING SKIRTS! They're so beautiful! A good third of these clarinets haven't met me before, and they still joined in on the fun! That amazes me! Michael, their section leader, is rocking a KILT!!!!!!!!!!!!!

I now have a high resolution version of this picture as my computer background. It feels like they're surrounding me for a big GROUP HUG. I miss it so much. I miss band!!!! I miss my clarinets!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Thank you, clarinets, for remembering me and for making me feel so special and loved. Skirt Day has TRULY made more than my day....!!!!!

So Much Community Service in One Room

Oh, Project W.I.L.D. whenever I am with you life is so good...

(post-edit: 5/20/07)

That night, we had our annual Community Service Commission banquet with all 22 community service projects. Two tables were filled by us alone! Support and energy was high! Project WILD was second runner up to the Project of the Year Award by only one point! Project WILD had never gotten that close to winning the award ever so GREAT JOB WILD!

Farheen, our Commissioner, gave us each a huge hug because she knew how hard we had worked for our kids that year. We all knew that real prize was improving the program for the kids... it's "all for the kids" as we like to say.

But that's not the end!

Somehow, I managed to escape with an award: I was voted as
Most WILD Director!

I was running and dancing up to the stage like a crazy woman! They gave me a certificate and a toy tiger that ROARED when you pressed a button on it's belly. I felt so honored by my co-directors, my friends, to have been voted for the award. Seriously, my heart just about exploded!

The whole night was just an amazing SHAKEDOWN with the entire Community Service Commission. So, much love for the community in one room!

Dinner With 1 Becomes Dinner With 20

SURPRISE!

It is three in the morning and I am still giddy from tonight.
Who knew that dinner with one could turn into dinner with 20?
At my favorite restaurant of all time - Cafe 50's
Celebrating and reminiscing on good times past
and many more to come.

Facebook album of photos with detailed captions now available!


(post-edit: 5/20/2007)

In a breath - Adam (to my right) had been planning this dinner for more than a month! He organized all the people, the restaurant, the balloons, everything without me even having a INKLING of anything suspicious going on! At the party, my dearest clarinet friends presented me with a series of beautiful and personalized gifts... with the crowning glory being a book of personal notes from each of my friends. They wished me a happy birthday and described their favorite band memories with me! I laughed, I cried, I EVERYTHING'ED.

The title of my photo album says it all,

"Not Everyone Knows What Love Is, but I Do."

I LOVE YOU, CLARINETS + Marie!!!!!!

Smile Like You Mean It

This afternoon I went to a series of lectures entitled Peace and War in Africa. After the event had concluded, I approached a man that was selling "Stop Genocide in Sudan" t-shirts and smiled, asking if I could get two. The first thing that he said was that I had a beautiful smile, and he said it with such kindness and sincerity that I was almost taken aback.

Not to trivialize this website, but this really made my day - not then and there when he had said it, but when I came home and looked in the mirror. I had a chunk of food in my teeth!

This man was kind enough to look past the turkey to give a compliment that really did make me feel special. Thank you Zeke.