Xmas time is (almost) here

Hope everyone's recovered from the holiday by now. It's the last day of the long weekend (or not if you work retail, where there essentially are no weekends from here until after Xmas) and I plan on enjoying it to the fullest. It's kind of rainy out anyway, so it'll be a good day to stay indoors and get stuff done.

I didn't have any gigs last week due to Thanksgiving. Which presented me with the perfect opportunity to finally take my poor alto in for some maintenance. I practically have no low register anymore and some of the pads on the upper stack look as if they've been through a minefield. My wonderful repair tech is suggesting a repad, but I'm opting to just get the thing in playing condition for now. I'll have more time to leave it for a complete overhaul in the spring when I'm on "jazz maternity" leave.

This coming weekend the Xmas parties begin! I have one scheduled for Sat. night, and a couple for the following week. I guess this is an indicator that it's time to start writing Xmas cards, dragging out the decorations from the basement, and thinking about shopping. I enjoy everything except the shopping part...dealing with crowds of people, standing in line for 12 years, and trying to find a parking spot are not among my favorite things to do. This explains why, over the past several years, I've started making a lot of gifts (and not entirely because I detest the shopping experience...this rather adds a personal touch, dontcha think?) and occasionally cruising Amazon in my online purchasing endeavors. But there's always something that can only be obtained from a retail establishment, and that's when I take a deep breath, grab my shopping list, and plan my routes around town so that the most efficient paths are used. If there's one worse thing than dealing with in-store crowds it's driving along Veteran's Parkway, trying to change lanes to gain access to one of the thousand, brightly lit strip malls, and dealing with people that are too stubborn, rude, and just plain anal to let you into their lane. It's a good thing I don't live in Chicago...I might end up on trial for doing something terrible to these people.

Sorry to go all bah-humbug on ya. I think it's because I'm hungry. Ate breakfast #1 about 2 hours ago and my stomach is rumbling for more. (Ah, the joys of pregnancy.) But I'd better be smart and forgo picking at the leftover stuffing and such and stick with my plan to snack nutritiously...a cup of yogurt with a few Grape Nuts sprinkled on top should suffice. And I'd better eat this away from the keyboard, else I'll end up with those micro-sized Grape Nuts wedged between the keys. Which would NOT make my dear husband very happy. So I'll sign off for now. TTFN....