Chapter 5: Summer Time

As I mentioned, I'm a band geek; specifically, I play sax. I own a couple of saxes, one is a Yamaha Soprano from their intermediary line with a silver finish. The other is my baby; she's an Eastman professional grade 52nd street baritone, unfinished, and she sounds amazing.

Beside the two saxes I own, I play the tenor and alto as well. I also play the clarinet. For fun, I picked up a didgeridoo and learned to play it. It was via the didgeridoo that I learned and perfected my circular breathing.

I spend a few hours every day playing and practicing. I've even been known to compose some minor sax pieces. Music comes naturally to me. I have relative perfect pitch. It's not the same as perfect pitch, and in fact is better, IMO. With relative perfect pitch, I can match up with anyone and everyone around me without any trouble. I'll notice anyone not in key, but other than that, it isn't a huge issue. I do, however, always work to get those out of key tuned properly. We are, after all, my school's Symphonic Band, not the Concert Band.

Why would I bother getting the others in tune and isn't that the director's job? Well, to answer that is simple. Our Band's Director is my Saxophone instructor, so he knows me well enough to know I can do the job of getting us tuned and warmed up. My fellow band members are all very professional, for being high school students. They don't mess around once we start, and they have all learned that I'm not a teacher's pet, but am (probably) the most professional of us in class with maybe one exception. That would be Stacy, our first chair flutist.

Stacy owns three professional grade flutes, including a Burkart Piccolo, an Azumi AZ3, and finally her Gemeinhardt Ali Ryerson's, which is her baby. I don't know her whole background with music, but I do know that she's won awards since the sixth grade and that her Grandmother is her instructor and the one who got the flutes for her. Stacy will be a Senor this coming year and is going to be, according to her, spending the Summer preparing for and doing live auditions for Julliard and the Curtis Institute of Music. She confided in me, before the end of the school year, that she was sending a request to Russell Pinkston to use his piece "Lizmander" in her auditions. I've since listened to the piece and it is amazing. She's got her work cut out for her, but I have no doubt she will shine. Who knows, maybe we'll see each other when I get out of high school as I intend to go much the same route as her.

Anyway, that's neither here, nor there. It's summer time and that means time for some fun, relaxation, girls, and lots and lots of practice. Mr. Kawasaki, my Music Director from school, and my personal music instructor, lined up an audition for me to play with a local Jazz band, The Blue Moons. If accepted, I'll be playing gigs over the Summer.

It's the middle of June, school's been out for about four weeks, and I can barely move for the pain. It seems I'm in the process of a growth spurt and it hurts like you would not believe. It hurts down in my bones. We thought it was a flu or something like that at first, but I didn't have a fever, I was hungrier than usual, poor mom, and when my shoes suddenly were noticeably too tight over night we sort of figured it out. Mother has known others that have gone through it, so she's been very understanding. So far, I have gained two inches. I've gone from 67 inches to 69 inches tall. It might not be so bad except they happen so suddenly over night. One night I grew one inch. Before that I guess I grew a quarter or half inch each time. The worst part is that it hurts to much to go out today with my friends to the river for some tubing. I just can't take the chance. I have no desire to drown because of a sudden jolt of pain.

Today ended up being a lot nicer than I might have hoped for. Brenda and I split up, on friendly terms. She just hasn't been able to get over the way I put those idiots down. She's a little scared of me, but I think her mother is more so. Go figure. Nicole, on the other hand called and then came over and spent time with me watching a couple of movies online followed up with showing me her appreciation of dealing with those assholes when she was hit. I'm still a virgin, I don't know if she is or isn't (I've never asked), but I do know she is just as skilled as Brenda in the fellatio department. She is also aware (first hand experience) that I am a cunning linguist. Yes, I like puns. Fuck you if you don't like it.

Apparently, there was some evidence left of our little fun time the other day. Today, I woke up to find a box of assorted condoms on my dresser. No note, just the box of condoms. Wait, I take it back, mom wrote on the box to let her know if they were too snug or too lose. Wow, there's sizes? I thought they were all the same size. I've read about how they are supposed to be able to stretch. Time for more research.