It was around 4:30 PM, and the first All-State Band rehearsal would be starting at 7 PM. The rehearsal would be held in Toronto for some reason (In the dream, I didn't notice the contradiction that I live in New Jersey and also that I was playing in an All-State Band, not an All-Province Band.). Anyways, I asked my dad how long it would take to drive there, and he said at least two hours (many more in real life). That meant that we needed to leave soon. However, I ended up procrastinating (probably by Xangaing and web surfing), so we didn't leave the house until 5:30 PM.

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   I had set my alarm clock for 7:30 AM, but when my alarm awoke me this morning, I remember thinking to myself that it seemed unusually dark, which was odd because 7:30 is after sunrise during this time of year. Also, I felt really lethargic and not very well-rested. After using the bathroom, I was planning on returning to Dreamland, but then I decided to write down this dream, lest I forget it upon revisiting Dreamland. Thus, I've been awake ever since. Anyways, when I went back to my alarm after the bathroom visit to check whether I had permanently turned off my alarm clock or whether I had merely snoozed it, I noticed that the time read 5:34 AM. I was like "WT?" I could have sworn I set my alarm for 7:30 the previous night. After writing down part of my dream, I realized why my alarm time seemed to have changed itself mid-way through the night. The way my alarm clock's buttons are set up is like this:

   In order to change the time of the clock, the A alarm, or the B alarm, you have to hold down the respective button while adjusting the time using the left and right scrollers. Using the "Alarm Mode" button, you can cycle through the six alarm modes and choose the one that suits you best. Now, the A alarm is the CD player. However, I never put CDs in the player anymore, after discovering that the player scratches the CDs. Thus, I always use the B alarm. The B alarm has a choice of either a default buzzer or the radio. The buzzer is at a fixed volume, which I do not consider sufficiently loud to arouse me from my deep sleep. The radio alarm mode turns on at the volume you have set on the volume knob. Thus, I always turn up the volume to max and choose the B alarm radio mode.

   Last night, I had groped around in the darkness for the buttons on my alarm clock. Since the buttons for Alarms A and B are right next to each other, I accidentally set Alarm A to 7:30 AM, rather than Alarm B. I now realize that the reason I woke up late yesterday from my afternoon siesta was because I had also made the same mistake then of setting the A alarm rather than the B alarm. That was why I arrived so late to the melodrama and ended up getting backrow seats.

   The B alarm was still set to 5:32 AM from the last time I set it, which happens to be Friday, October 6, when I wanted to wake up early to study for the AP US test I had (one of three tests plus a quiz) that day. On a side note, I actually woke up around 6:45 on Friday, and when I opened up my backpack to get out my AP US binder and notebook, I couldn't find them! They were actually still lying on the floor of Mr. Kleinbaum's room from the day before. On Thursday, we had done Part 1 of our two-day test. After frantically wrapping up my "Assess the validity" essay after the bell had rung, I had rushed out the door without taking my AP US stuff. I realized my mistake in Mr. Kocot's class the following period, but since Mr. Kocot's class always requires all my mental capacities, by the end of 8th period, the memory of the forgotten AP US materials was completely obliviated from my brain. Thus, I ended up studying for precalculus instead Friday morning. I studied AP US throughout my morning classes and during lunch with Lillian Zhou.

   By the way, the radio station my alarm clock is set on is pretty weird. I think I actually have my radio set between two stations, allowing me to hear broadcasts from two different stations simultaneous, along with some static. I can hear news reports and Yankee game broadcasts from one station while they're talking about childbirth, malignant and benign tumors, and lung and liver cancer on the other. I've also heard Chinese newscasts on this inbetween channel, along with orchestral classical music.

   Anyways, that was a pretty huge tangent - um...actually, this whole section is a massive tangent - from the actual deam I was telling you about, and I've decided to extend it further :-). On Friday, we concluded our discussion of Beowulf in Mr. Talarico's class. In our discussions of Beowulf, Mr. T. pointed out that Beowulf often goes off on tangents, so that if the storyline were visually represented, it would look like this:

   in some places, where the horizontal line depicts the narration of the glorious battle (or rather the drawn-out build-up to the battle) and the loop represents the tangent; or in other cases:

   which represents multiple tangents (a tangent of a tangent of a tangent (haha, reminds me of second and third order derivatives)). So...finally, back to my dream.

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   So, I was just leaving home, late, for All-State practice in Toronto. Apparently, it had reached 7 PM, and my dad and I weren't anywhere near Toronto. Shortly thereafter, I received a call on my cell phone. I picked up but could not comprehend what the caller was saying. I passed the phone to my father and asked him if he could understand. It seemed that he could because he started responding in what sounded like a normal conversation. After the call was over, my dad told me it had been a call from the All-State Band manager, who was calling to ask why I was not at the rehearsal yet. The guy said I was only one of two people that had not shown up. Due to my tardiness, I was to be booted out of the band.

   We had no choice but to turn around and head home. At first, I was both scared and mad. I thought that this incident meant the termination of my legibility for All-State Band in years to come. I also knew my clarinet teacher and my band director Mr. Sabatino would both be furious at me. However, during the long car ride home, I had much time to reflect and calm myself. Once I calmed down, I started thinking rationally again. I reasoned that no All-State Band meant I would have a ton of additional time to prepare for my other activities, such as the Academic Decathlon and the FBLA regional and state competitions.

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   In another portion of dream, I was in my basement with what felt like the ISP (Independent Study Project) group from last year. However, I only remember seeing Lisa Kawamoto, Jess Chung, and Max Chang. Also, Mr. Sabatino was our conductor. We were rehearsing a piece, which I vaguely recall as being a classical piece, and I was accompanying on both clarinet and cello. I have no idea how to play any string instruments (unless you count the piano), so don't ask me why I was playing the cello in the dream. After the piece began, my first entrance was on cello and my first note was an A. As my entrance approached, I realized that I did not know how to play an A. Then I remembered that there was an A string, which would produce an A without any left hand fingerings. I guessed the string on the far left (from my, the player's, perspective, with the strings-side of the cello facing away from me, the way it's supposed to be played), and when I plucked it, it turned out to be the A string. In real life, I have no idea whether there is an A string on a cello or where it is located, if it exists.

   When Mr. Sabatino stopped us in the middle of the song, he told us that someone else was actually supposed to play the clarinet part. I was only filling in temporarily. However, some of the cello and clarinet parts overlapped, so I wasn't able to play both parts. Mr. Sabatino asked Max Chang who he thought should play the clarinet part. Max then started thinking out loud, and somehow during his thought process, he came to the thought, "Anthony forces me to run 3,000-meter races."

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   In a final dream segment, I was in my kitchen with Kayla Keating. She was ranting to me about this new type of clarinet reed that was soooo über sweet because its tone production was a lot better than other reeds. She told me that she had gone around to other clarinetists to mooch off their samples of this new type of reed. Alexandra Gargon happened to be sitting at the kitchen table, and I watched as Kayla approached her and then asked her for permission to take one of the new reeds. Allie let her take one and Kayla was thrilled.