Snow Snow Snow

So White Christmas opened last night - complete with 2.5-3 feet of snow! Holy cow. I spent the morning frantically digging out our truck - our driveway is about 1/8 mile long, which doesn't seem too long unless you have 2.5 feet of snow on it. It was exhausting and J was awesome, but about 10am we realized there was no way we could possibly finish before 12, when I needed to leave for dress rehearsal. Our one other rehearsal was cancelled Thursday night due to...Snow! Ironically, this show is all about how this resort in Vermont has no snow (til the very end) and the annoying stuck-in-my-head song is Snow Snow Snow.

Anyway, called the neighbor's son and paid him handsomely to bail us out, and even with the three of us killing ourselves it was a near thing. I am extremely sore, and could barely lift the cases of my instruments (with lovely HEAVY stands). This doubling thing s@cks. But kinda fun too, in a masocistic kind of way.

Got out driveway, some wonderful neighbor had plowed our main road (one tiny lane, you just hope you don't meet anyone coming up!) but we only go on that about 1/2 mile before the "big" road. This had been plowed about a foot of snow ago. Glad we had the 4wd, but only one vehicle so J dropped me off with M who brought her Suburban - she plays bari/bass clar for this show. Fun to carpool too - although J had to wake up D and come get me at the freeway at 11pm.

Finally we made it to the show - with 10 minutes to spare. Which is great if you're a trumpet player, but I (and M) had 3 horns to get out, get reeds wet, and harness up. Oh, wait. No harness. Crap. This is the harness I got when I nearly killed my back playing tenor 2 weeks ago - and after the 5 hour workout I was really worried about playing tenor anyway. There is NO WAY I could play without some sort of strap, so I asked the conductor (who teaches there at the college where the show was, as do I) if he had access to any of the student horns that might have a strap. No. None of the other saxes had an extra...except M!!!! What a goddess - she had her bass clar strap which I tied knots in until it was short enough. Thank goodness.

Rehearsal went ok; M also loaned me her spare $300 clar mouthpiece which made quite a difference over my $10 stock mouthpiece! If you read a previous blog L (who is Reed 1) had loaned me his $300 tenor mouthpiece - I'm so lucky to know these fabulous players. I actually played a solo on tenor (2 measures) credibly, although it went better in rehearsal. But just wait until tonight. We only have 2 more shows, but hopefully the others will be easier to get to at least! Although our forcast if for another storm tonight....