Catching up

Played a concert tonight for band. It’s a little surprising to me how tiring it is to play well.
I’ve always prided myself on my endurance on tuba. I ‘member freshmen year, summer band on trumpet, and for 2-3 days, I was pretty sure my lips were going to fall off, we were playing so much. Compared to that, tuba is a breeze. My lips have never hurt (much) near as much as I ‘member, and I always felt like I could play another tune.
Only over this past school year have a really gotten into what I’m doing, though. Not to say that I was a bad musician before (I think), or that I’m a great one now, but actually playing music and doing all the other stuff to make it music is tiring. Music is pretty exhaustive. Not quite so easy when done right.

So my mom went to an interview with my sister in Georgia this past weekend, and I got left home alone. The last time this happened, when she went to Hawaii, it kind of sucked, since I couldn’t drive. If I wanted to do ‘nething, I had to bum a ride from someone. Kind of a pain for them and me. But not, so this time.
I never thought that I’d really enjoy driving. Practically, it a useful thing, to be able to go places on my own. It isn’t particularly exciting, and takes an awful lot of concentration. I derived quite some satisfaction from driving around this weekend, however. There’s something really cool about being “in control” to go where I need to be on my own. Not having to wait around for a ride, and instead just popping the keys out of the pocket and getting in the vehicle. That’s a pretty cool feeling.