All right, well let me get down to business! So we got to NYC about 2pm yesterday, and pretty much all we got to see of the city was our bus ride in, that's it. We went to the Manhattan Armory which is I think on 25th and Madison Ave...I'm not sure though, but anyway, we got out, got our instruments, and were taken downstairs to the big huge basement area. There was about 100 of us total (out of a 300 pc. band) and so we all hung out there for a few minutes and then they talked to us for a little bit, and we came upstairs and had about an hour, hour and a half long rehearsal on the runway.

They told us that Marc had this idea when he was in Paris recently, because the theme of his show is like "all american" (the floor of the runway was like a high school gym floor, and the seats on either side were like gym bleachers, even the celebs had to sit in them!) and he decided that all american meant a marching band. apparently he'd heard of us and wanted us really badly and was glad it worked out so well. so we rehearsed coming on and off the runway, and playing our song, which was smells like teen spirit, (marc's personal choice. he's apparently responsible for the whole grunge movement in fashion, and was personal friends with kurt cobain and is friends with courtney love) and getting off the runway quickly after that. At about 5 pm they brought us back down to the basement area, and fed us a catered dinner and there were celeb makeup and hair artists there ready to make us up! since we had to wear our stupid hats, they couldnt do much with the hair but put it up in a nice bun, but the makeup was cool, even guys had to wear it. one lady doing the girl's hair next to me got a call on her cell asking her to do makeup for The View, but she was like "i can't! i'm busy helping out with Marc's show!" anyway we had a dress rehearsal then at like 7, and they wouldn't even let us go up the stairs, we had to go the back way and be taken up in freight elevators coming up backstage. The thing was, we were a huge secret, nobody except the people involved in the show knew we were going to be there. So that's why we couldn't go up the main stairs, even thoguh guests weren't there yet, they just wanted to practice it like it'd be for the real show. So we ran through it like 2 times then went back downstairs, and theeen we weren't even allowed to use the bathroom! cause the bathroom we used was the same one for guests. we'd met a bunch of the show's models in there earlier which was cool, they told us they'd heard us rehearsing and that we sounded great! they are SO THIN.

anyway, then it was time for the big show! we had to be super quiet and take the freight elevators up and wait for a little bit behind these giant black curtains. And when they finally announced the beginning of the show, we all danced out there onto the runway and everybody was so surprised! the runway is like 12 feet wide, if even that, so i was like literally 2 ft. away from the first row people...which just happened to be P. Diddy! Anyway, there were celebs ALL OVER, i didn't get to see eeeeveryone but i saw most of them, including: Charlotte from Sex and the City, Carmen Electra, Cameron Diaz, Drew Barrymore, Kelly Osbourne, Lindsay Lohan, Selma Blair, Uma Thurman, Venus and Serena, Lil Kim, Mary J. Blige, Jude Law, Kate Bosworth, even David Spade, hah. They were all taking pictures of US! What a switch!! David Spade shouted "Yeah Bones!" to the trombone section. There were probably lots more but these people were sitting up towards the front i think. So we played for like 2 minutes then danced outta there in front of the media section of like 200 camera people, and had to go back downstairs and put stuff away and wait for it to be over. When it finally was, we left, put our instruments away and back on the bus, and headed to the private afterparty!

It was somewhere near Columbus Circle and the Museum of Sex, and I think the Empire State building...like i said i didn't ever really know where we were. Anyway we had to wear our uniforms which at first we thought sucked, but then we started thinking about it and what would we have worn otherwise? our old navy shirts? gap pants? these people are wearing blouses that cost like $700...it turned out that wearing our uniforms was AWESOME because everyone at the party kept coming up to us and saying how great we looked and how much fun it was to see us, etc. Anyway, we got off the buses, got ushered past all the people waiting to get in, and were inside this huuge, totally SWANKY party, fullll of celebs and models and fashion people. there were projector screens all over, and they just kept playing US over and over, us playing and marching on and off and stuff. we got to stay for an hour (from 10-11, cause we still had to drive home) and it was like the coolest hour of my life. we just walked around, saw michelle trachtenburg (girl from eurotrip, harriet the spy), selma blair stopped me and my friend kathryn and said what an awesome job we did. kelly osbourne and lindsay lohan were there but stayed up on the balcony for the most part. We stood riight next to Pharell Williams and Mary J. Blige, we hung out and talked with Gay Dan from Real World Miami for like 15 minutes, he LOVED us, kept talking to us about how great we were and how "This was the big time, this was the hottest party in NYC and the biggest fashion show of fashion week"...it was just totally surreal, everything was just like a dream, so weird. We saw a few other people but couldn't remember their names, hah. As we were walking out, Lindsay walked right by us, and my friend amanda said "hey Lindsay!" and she turned and said "hey!" to us. then as we were waiting for our buses, kirsten dunst like drunkenly stumbled into my friend molly who in turn ran into me. Then she got into her huge car as pictures flashed and stuff. we all got these marc jacobs shopping bags full of stuff, including a $60 Marc jacobs watch, some like $85 marc jacobs perfume, a Lil Kim tshirt (he and Lil Kim have this partnership for this charity thing), a Lil Kim CD. We left after that, and didn't get home till about 430am, which sucked but the whole thing was totally worth it. Definitely a once in a lifetime opportunity, worth missing classes for!

Thaaaank you if you are awesome and actually read all of that, sorry it was so long but i wanted to make sure i remembered every detail! If you want to read about it, just google "Marc Jacobs Marching Band" and then read the news articles it comes up with, i'm sure there will be more in days to come. AND, if you want to see the video of the thing (its SOO COOL) go to www.marcjacobs.com, and click on the "spring/summer 2006 video" and it's us!

okay, i'm done for real! wooooo!