Lost in the thoughts Michael J. West

Now that the season is finally over, some of you may think that the website is dead and has no purpose. Wrong! While the season might be over, the random and nonsensical thoughts still occur with in the mind of marching section leader of Michael J. West. So enjoy the following two stories to pass the time until the next marching season.

Story 1: The Fate of Bob Mecozzi


It was the dismal morning on January 8, 2008. Clouds covered the sky and appeared as the brushed metal of an inner sink. An odd storm passed through the previous night. It wasn't the regular winter storm that brings with it the grammar school children stomping through the thick pack of snow, suburban businessmen shoveling out their SUV's trying to scury away to make it to their morning presentations on time, and mothers making coco with marshmallows. It was a storm that tore down loose branches of dead trees and robbed power from schools, well-to-do-businesses, and the few Christmas lights that still hung waiting for their owners to take them down from their embarrassment.

Michael laid in his basement watching "The Price is Right" (with the new host, Drew Carey) in the late morning, when the house phone rang with the custom ring tone of Beethoven's "Fur Elise". His mother had answered the phone from the kitchen. As a moment passed, Michael realized that he needed to finish his laundry before traveling downstate back to the loyal University of Illinois in Champaign. As he walked upstairs and through the family his mother told him that Mike Mecozzi just called.

Mike Mecozzi was the prinicipal of Michael's high school, Carl Sandburg High School, his freshman and sophomore year. After that Mike Mecozzi moved up to the assistant superintendent of the district, but what was odd about this was that Michael never met Mr. Mecozzi. Yet he did meet Mr. Mecozzi; Bob Mecozzi that is. Bob and Michael met and became close friends in college. Out of all of Michael's friends, Bob was the most athletic. He was easygoing; it was a rare site to ever see him in a state of rage. Bob was a modest man and always helped those who needed it despite the hectic schedule of his life. Both Bob and Michael had a passion for music, and while Michael was not studying music at the university, Bob had recently left the school. He was student teaching with another music director back up in the suburbs of Chicago.

Michael missed Bob. As Michael continued through the family room of the house, he wondered when the next time he would see him. So when his mother had mention the call from Mike Meccozi, it struck him as an oddity. What Michael didn't know was that Mike Mecozzi had called because a transformer blew at the high school while school was in session. The rest of class had been canceled and Michael's younger sister was on her way home. While Michael should have realized that Mike Mecozzi was calling about something related to the school district, Michael did not reach the appropriate conclusion. Michael's train of thought works similar to most other men and women, but occasionally there is that error in logic or irrational jump in reason. Sometimes these thoughts are embarrassing, irrelevant, or just plain stupid. Michael will occasionally voice these thoughts before his mind can filter them, but most of the time logic kicks back in and prevents Michael making himself appear as the rear of a horse. However, on this fateful day the thought that entered Michael's mind upon hearing that Bob's father had called his home was, "HOLY CRAP BOB IS DEAD!"


Story 2: Even in Dreams Chris Preston Ceases to Amaze Me

For the past week I've been having extremely vivid dreams. They began with a particular dream about our dear friend, Chris Preston, or as many of you call him "Scooter". Within in my dream, we, the Marching Illini, among other people were in a studio audience for a TV show. For some reason or another, ESPN felt it was appropriate to have a battle of the marching bands for the Rose Bowl. So we are all sitting there as they film and they describe how this battle is going to work. There will be a representative from each band, the Marching Illini and USC. Scooter ended up being our representative. They will go through 3 competitions. The first of which is a singing competition. For marching bands, I guess this sort of makes sense. Scooter is choosen to go first. He walks on stage in full uniform minus the Sanko. Greets the host and is handed a mike. USC's representative is standing just off to the side outside the shot (in uniform as well minus their helmet). Scooter begins to sing, but he sings as if he just had a stroke as to mock the USC band member. USC gets pissed and comes out from the wing and start yelling at Scooter to knock it off. Scooter continues to sing. Eventually ESPN security is called in to take Scooter down. Scooter is being grappled by two guards. He stills refuses to stop singing. The guards are unable to take Scooter down. He begins slowly walking towards the audience while singing when the USC band member jumps on his back. Again Scooter refuses to stop and keeps walking towards the audience while ESPN still televises this. So he has two security guards on his sides, a USC band member on his back, and he is still singing like speech-impeded Neanderthal. For some reason or another, the USC band member now thinks that he is somewhere really high like at the edge of a cliff, but he is still just on Scooter's back. The USC band members starts yelling because of that, "I CAN'T GET DOWN!!! I CAN'T GET DOWN!!!" The whole Marching Illini is cracking up now. Only after all this does ESPN cut the feed and cancel the rest of the show. Pete walks up to Scooter as to condemn his actions. Scooter gets real quiet and can't even look Pete in his eyes. Moment of silence. Pete then looks right at Scooter and says, "That was pretty funny, wasn't it?", and laughs.