updates

Holidays in StL - AWESOME :) I started running again on the treadmill in STL and my foot was ok, so I didn't end up getting better running shoes . . . I guess I'll wait until it starts hurting again and reconsider.

Reupholstered chairs:


Bought a jenky piano for $150 delivered, broke it some more and then fixed it a bit:

Piano

I'm kind of working on tuning the piano myself, but it's proving to be more difficult than I anticipated - mostly b/c the tuning hammer I bought is too big for the pegs :( I did find, however, that the smaller sockets from my socket wrench set use a connector that's only slightly larger than the pegs, so I've tuned a couple notes using a smaller socket paired up with my hex wrench. The lever arm is kind of short, so fine tuning is actually pretty hard to do. I'm probably going to hit home depot sometime soon to see if they have something else that fits a little better or at least a super long hex wrench. I'm thinking this piano should keep me occupied for a while yet.

I received some news recently that threw me off balance. I knew it would happen sometime and thought I'd be totally ok with it, but it ended up affecting me a lot more than I expected and a lot more than it should have. Actually, I'm noticing a developing trend in which I react strongly to things that really aren't that big a deal.

I think that these overreactions stem from the lack of variation in my daily life - like the highs and lows are so closely correlated that a dip seems absolutely catastrophic when considering the uniformity of all the other events. Back in college, there was always drama - always something to be excited or angst-y about, but with work it's easy to settle into a familiar and stable pattern. A pattern that develops into a slow inward spiral toward seclusion and solitude in an attempt to avoid the bumps and dips that send you (one) sprawling. To pull out of this spiral I've decided to try to inject more variation into the monotony of working life.

I'm working on trying new things, even if they do mean putting me outside of my comfort zone. Something that will probably help is Jazz band. The lead alto position was passed to me after the 1st chair alto player (who previously covered a vast majority of the alto sax solos) was promoted to the damn-near-professional 8 O'Clock Daddios band leaving me the sole Alto 1 player. As you may or may not know, I really suck at improvisation. I never really learned to read chord changes and the scales/licks that accompany them, so every solo is an adventure :) At the last performance I was on the verge of a panic attack when my solo rolled around, but somehow ended up in autopilot and a total freak-out was narrowly averted. All but a couple of the charts we're performing this quarter call for Alto solos so hopefully we can quell these freak-outs as performances approach.

So all in all, I'm still a little off balance from the aforementioned news, but I think I'm starting to catch my stride again. Wish me luck, eh?