A random collection of little happy things....

Hmmmmm....  A mouthpiece and the phone?  (I guess, technically, you could call them both mouthpieces...)  I spent much of yesterday morning on the phone.  I caught up with a good friend whom I haven't seen for a while.  It was such a joy to hear her voice!  She is going through a lot right now, though.  When the call ended, that familiar crushing feeling of wishing I could wave my arms, call in a miracle, and go to band practice with her crashed into me.  Bittersweet.  But wonderful to hear her voice.  (You can read some of Lucie's writing at http://greenbananascancerblog.blogspot.com/  Her work is beautiful.)

When I hung up the phone, we had a message.  FROM MY BEST COLLEGE BUDDY!!!!!  Oh my gosh!!!!  We hear from each other a few times a year.  Well, I hear from her.  Ummmm... can we say I write her a whole lot of letters?  But somehow they manage to be mostly in my head?  And when I actually do put pen to paper, I usually manage to write a long chatty letter, gather a bunch of photos, and.... ummmm.... neglect to actually *mail* the darned thing.  Naughty, naughty me....  Oh!  And I lost her e-mail address a couple of years ago when we had no internet.  So she couldn't even follow our family on Facebook or by this blog.  Ooooops.

We talked for a couple of hours.  Just as easily as if we were back in college.  What a blessing to have a friendship that just picks right back up where we left off a couple of years ago!  (Ooooops... haven't seen her in... ummmmm... seven years....)  It was also funny to realize that there are still so many parallels in our lives!  In a nutshell, our kiddos are all in school now (one of hers is in college!) and we are at "career crossroads."  Our lives are wonderful.  Everything for which we've always hoped.  And we are wondering, what's next???  With the brunt of kid-raising done, we both have a little time and a lot of creativity.  In a funny twist, we both decided to start writing!  (Well... not that she would believe that I am in the habit of writing....)

Hmmm... did I mention that we still have a lot in common?  And that we made a date to get together again?  Yup.  Hopefully October!  And... ummm... I will mail those darned letters and the five-and-a-half-pound stack of pictures....  Tomorrow.  Or sometime....  Or maybe today....

Soooo... the other mouthpiece!  I have a humongous trombone.  Oh!  It is a beauty!

But it is maybe closer in size to a tuba.  With a slide.  The mouthpiece is gigantic.  I can play a few songs in the upper register, then my lips resort to quivering like jello for the rest of the night.  Not usually a problem.  I happily play second part which means most of my music is comfortably in the middle range.  But I've joined a second band.  And wound up with several first parts.  Oh dang!  What was the conductor thinking???  I brought my saggy-lip dilema to a friend of mine who actually knows something about trombones.  (I just happily and rather naively enjoy playing the thing.)  He loaned me a mouthpiece to try.  A smaller-sized mouthpiece with a built-up shank (the part that plugs into the rest of the trombone).  Did I mention that this trombone is enormous???  It could eat a regular mouthpiece for breakfast.  And suck my lips in for snack right afterwards.  I didn't have high hopes for that upper register.  No pun intended.  Well... maybe a little bit...

Yesterday afternoon, I popped the new mouthpiece in and ran through Band #2's music.  An hour later, I realized that my lips were still going strong.  Unbelievable!  Yup.  I'll be investing in a new mouthpiece.  And an interesting bit of trivia... I looked down the throats of the two mouthpieces (mine and the loaner).  The loaner is *much* smaller.  I guess I don't have such a big mouth after all :o)

(If you know me, you might be chuckling at *that* conclusion...) 

 

A couple more happy bits.  Our garden produced the first peppers and tomatoes of the season!  Sorry... the big, plump pepper and cheery red tomatoes were very pretty.  But we ate them.  Without taking photos first.  I am a *very bad* gardener.  I throw some seeds or plants into the ground, then mostly ignore them.  So I am disproportionately happy when they actually grow and produce something wonderful!

And, speaking of old friends that go back 20+ (cough! cough!) years, my husband's best friend from highschool visited with his family a couple of days ago.  As always, we had a wonderful time!  And we must have been infants in highschool since we could not possibly be a day over 20 yet!  Certainly not pushing 40.  Ouch!

And Dave's wife, Lori, will be getting her blog address to me soon so that I can link to *her* writing!  (Lori....Hint!  Hint!  Dust off that blog and start writing!  I'm looking forward to following!)

Ah!  A good couple of days!

Have a happy day!