Alive and okay...

The latter part of last week was viciously hot, ending with an obscene day on Saturday where the temps and the humidity level were probably matched. I don't do well in this weather at all.

Saturday night was the final competition for DCI at Gillette Stadium. Ivanna and Joe came up, and Sarah, who was a member of my pledge class in Eta Gamma so many years ago, came down from Maine with her elder daughter. I hadn't seen her since 1996, and really had lost touch with her. Sadly, we didn't have a lot to talk about. But Ivanna and she did, which was good.

Our seats were in section 315 in row 25. This meant that we were literally the second from top row of the stadium. Nosebleeds? Indeed. During playoff season in January, I can see those seats causing literal nosebleeds. They are FARKING high up there. My fear of heights was in overdrive. As much as possible, I stayed seated. Even when clapping for the individual corps.

The show was pretty good. I had a good time. Only a couple of performances really grabbed me as extremely interesting, however. Ivanna commented that our seats had a good deal to do with that-- especially with sound. Perhaps. I wasn't into the music, though, for most of the shows. I hate the concept of voice-over work during the shows with a mic-- to me, it defeats the purpose of having a corps with musical instruments. And I didn't agree with the outcome of the scores. Erich enjoyed himself, but found it pretty long. I told him that we'd hit a smaller, local show sometime next summer. Finals is a pretty intense show to start off with. And of course, since my mom lives a half-hour from the stadium, we'll hit DCI East in Allentown next August. :)

Ivanna and Joe spent the night. The two of us were up well before the guys and chatted a bit over morning hot drinks before nudging the guys out of bed. They left to pick up relatives and head back to Jersey in the early afternoon, and despite all attempts to do otherwise, I spent most of Sunday sprawled on the couch, dead to the world.

Yesterday, I knew I was in trouble-- despite drinking water, I was feeling really dehydrated and knew I was going to pay the price for it. I ached all over, and wasn't ruling out heat exhaustion from Saturday night. Sure enough, today has been one of those "joy" days with visits to the bathroom. Lovely. Thank Goddess for Fruit2O so I can get the stuff in my system faster. I'll be chugging it the rest of the week.

But I am okay. And I'm alive.

But I'm never, EVER sitting in Gillette Stadium in that weather ever again. Sweet Jeebus, it was hotter than hell.

I'll write a better entry later this week... but just wanted to say I was alive.

~ Mel.