I've been watching a bunch of marching band and football movies and tv shows lately (because I'm working on a college marching band story that is just different enough from the type I'm watching that I can still watch them).

Earlier, I watched Varsity Blues, which is so, so terrible and cheesy in so many ways, but still hits me right in the feelings at a couple key points. (Also, I used to listen to the soundtrack during music competitions in high school, when I needed to clear my head from what we were actually playing. I have this sharp memory of stretching out in the sun a couple hours before my district solo competition one year and listening to "Horror Show" and "My Hero" on repeat.

I'm in the middle of Drumline: A New Beat (which is still pretty much the perfect college drumline story for me), and it is a little bit too close to what I'm actually writing for me to really want to be watching it, but I've already been sucked into the rewatch, so I'll finish it. It is so much fun, and I was charmed anew by the fact it actually addresses gay black men and the intersectional identities they have to navigate. (I wish it did the same for queer black women.)

This is my favorite time of year because of marching band (and Halloween and family holidays), but it is a difficult time of year, too, and I can feel myself slipping into a depressive cycle. I'm hoping to be able to keep writing this draft; I'm about 30k into it, and I think it will finish at around 75k, so I'm well underway.

It is that time of year, guys. Less than a month until college football starts. Aug. 30 my team kicks off against Utah, and players would pretty much have to die on the field for us to have a worse opener than last year, so I have hope. Slight hope. Even though I might not be at the game, because I may be traveling into enemy territory to visit a friend, or I may be back with my family, depending on scheduling. (And actually asking people if they have plans for the holiday weekend.)

Still, college football is coming, and I am thrilled. Of course I have season tickets, and I have to admit, I considered trying to get tickets to the game against The Enemy even though it is at The Enemy this year. I may wait until it's at home again next year, my last season as a student.

I'm really looking forward to the Wisconsin game, which is at home this year.

It's almost football time, and marching bands, and autumn weather, and the Big House, and cheering in the stands with my fellow students. It's the best season of the year up there.