22 August 2006

Non sequiturs

I was on my way to the kitchen when Mom stopped me with, "Claire."

"Vitamins," I replied, looking at her. "Or I could just call you, 'Mom.'" She looked at me blankly, as usual missing my small joke or finding no humor in it, so I explained, "That's what I forgot I need earlier. I'm just saying it out loud because I keep forgetting it."

"Speaking of saxophone reeds at Walmart," she began--I'd pointed them out over four hours before, "you have a saxophone, right?"

"Yeah." If that was her attempt at a segue, I wasn't getting the new thread.

A section of newspaper was dangling from her hand over the edge of the recliner. "Did you want me to look at that?" I walked over, picked it up and started reading about the Share the Joy of Music Campaign.
Donate musical instruments to help New Orleans musicians recover from the effects of Hurricane Katrina. When you donate musical instruments, SOYJOY will work with the nonprofit Steven Spring Foundation to ship these contributions to New Orleans and put them in the hands of local musicians, students and children. Feel free to personalize your gift by including a photo, note or story about the donated item. Who knows? You may be responsible for inspiring the next great jazz artist.

Check it out at /www.stevenspringfoundation.org and www.SOYJOY.com.
When I finished reading, Mom looked at me expectantly and asked, "What do you think?"

Over the years, I'd considered selling my sax or donating it to my high school (where it spent a lot of time because I had a knack for sight-reading and rarely took it home to practice), but I never got around to it. "Yeah," I nodded, "Sure."

When I was in stage band, my band teacher used to tell me that all I needed was to be in the back of some smoky bar with a whiskey and I'd be great. Out of context, that sounds so wrong, but it was just his way of addressing the stage fright which filtered into my playing. I never had much tolerance for smoke, and I don't care for whiskey, but maybe my sax will have a chance to get there now.

One year ago at TTaT: tip of the week- Bug Me Not
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4 comments:

  1. Good for you. I'm sure your sax will be loved and appreciated in the hands of another player.

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  2. There was a message today in my e-mail, from the State World Language Teachers' Association list-serve, from one of our members (and Tech Specialist) who just returned from a trip to New Orleans, where his sister lives. In this e-mail, he relates how still incredibly devastated New Orleans is, and that it may take years to get back to normal, if it ever does. So, yeah, doing anything is great.

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  3. Michele: I just have to think of what to put in the case with it now.

    Sizz: Sax is good. ;)

    Kev: ahem. I was 1st chair for at least the last 5 of 8 years I played, and was soloing in the high school stage band starting in middle school.

    If anything my mom's commentary is: are you going to do something with that sax in the basement you haven't played in a decade?

    Elisabeth: Absolutely. There is so much left to be done along that whole region of the Gulf Coast that was devastated last year.

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