Band Geeks Going Pop

For those of you treating this blog as one big "I Spy" game- you may have noticed my saxophone case rotate through the room.This is one of those heftier items (both literally and figuratively) that probably isn't going anywhere anytime soon.  For those of you who haven't spotted it, once you know what you're looking for, it's kind of hard to miss. I put giant flower power stickers on it back in the 7th grade (1995 for those of you keeping track). There are also a few Blues Clues stickers, as per my ironic fandom of the show. I joined band in middle school and played all through college. Like dance classes, basketball, and learning the German language, this was one of the many time consuming hobbies of my youth that I have rarely used in my adult life. And as such, I have a lot of crap associated with it at my parent's house. 

If you were in band as a middle schooler, music books were the cool things to have.

I know you're still trying to wrap your head around the paradoxical location of the word "cool" right after the phrase "in band as a middle schooler". I'll give you a moment. 

This is the kind of thing we did for fun on our down time. You would spend all fall learning to play Sleigh Ride. In the spring you'd devote large chunks of time to fumbling through Stars and Stripes Forever while marching through the school parking lot. In the mid 90's, nothing said summer fun to a band kid like letting loose with the latest Disney movie hits.  The pop music on the right is from late middle school/ early high school, when I got really cool. 

28 Top Hits for the Alto Sax

Smash Pop Hit

I'm a little sad to see these gems go, but hopefully some young kid has picked them up from the Bennington Transfer station and is so excited that she can finally learn to play "Every Heartbeat". The table of contents on the left might be worth clicking on to enlarge. I'm pretty sure I marked off all the songs I was working on. Apparently I've blocked out that I was an avid Ricky Martin fan.

A Change of Pace

Happy Winter Break!

For the second time this year I drove my luxury vehicle, a 1999 Chrysler Cirrus, from Virginia to New Hampshire and back. I took the time at the end of my stay to tend to the old room. My cleaning spree did not last that long. I tore through my room in about 90 minutes.  I filled the trunk and backseat of my car. I skipped out on part of my New Year's weekend plans to ensure that I could make it to the transfer station on Saturday. then I filled the car again with stuff to take back to Virginia.  This was not the slow, methodical process that is the starting point for most of these posts; nor was it one of the numerous times I set things aside to get rid of, only for them to simply inhabit a different corner of the room.  I was driven after having an experience that was both new and familiar.

For the first time in over five years, I had to sleep in this room.

Everyone in my family was home for Christmas. My brother and his wife were in his room, formerly known as the main living quarters of my Penthouse Suite. My sister and her family were in her old room, which I had secretly dubbed Storage Room B. That left my fiance and I to maneuver around each other in about six square feet of usable floor space. For four days.  By the end, I was itching to clear out some crap.

I snapped a handful of item specific photos as I cleared everything out. Those will make their appearance eventually. For now, here's a brief series of before and after shots.