As some of you may know, my family has a long history with the University of Texas… loyal fans, multiple Texas-Exes, Saturday tailgaters for about 12 hour, ect. On Friday night, I was pleased to go to the UT Football Banquet.  My whole family was very excited to meet some of the players, but I was even more interested to see some of the band people behind the giant orange marching suits. ;-) walking away from getting a signature from Sergio Kindle (how awesome?!) I ran into two UT band members. I congratuated them on a great year, and looked forward in seeing them in years to come… They were very appreciative and were about to walk away when I consciously, nonchalantly added that I was from the Dripping Springs Band.They immediately launched into a volley of praise! How impressive we were and how awesome it was that we put so much time and effort into our successful season. I got that response throughout the night! It meant alot to me that these people would take the time to talk to me and knew from first hand how great band truly is… and they happened to mention they know people in our band as well! It was really fun to see that our acheivements have been spread farther than JUST the high-school world, and to see that people really do pay attention to a tiny little town in Texas ;-) Oh, and I even got a souvenier clarinet reed! (Great, I’m a FLUTE player!! What could I POSSIBLY do with an unwrapped clarinet reed?! Well, I appreciate it anyway) ;-) Since that wonderful night, seemingly so long ago, I’ve really had some fun with the recognition Dripping Springs has! I’ve been wearing my show shirt around, and I hear people behind me murmer in recognition of our show! That just thrills me to death! Even if they’ve never seen us in person, they’ve heard of us on the news (thank you KVUE for the film in class!) and they’ve seen viedos on Youtube, and they’ve heard by word of mouth. HOW AWESOME IS THAT?! I actually got the UIL video of state, and watching all the performances again not only made my day, it made my entire week! Heck, it made my month!! :-) Well, I can’t wait to start the new chapter of band! We have some really interesting pieces that I think will do really well!! Well, till next time, BYYYEEE!!!