I always wanted to use the word “nigh,” but the opportunity just never presented itself until now.
Oh, sure. I could have said things like, “My birthday is nigh” or, “I’ve been really sick of my job for nigh onto eight years,” but let’s get real. Those things just aren’t worthy of nighness. NABBA, however, is nigh. I’m talking NIGH, babe.
Did you ever notice that after you use a word about twelve times in a very short time, it begins to look completely strange. I’m tempted to grab a dictionary now to confirm that “nigh” is a word.
Nigh nigh nigh. Nigh. Nigh.
I can’t stop typing that.
Etch-a-Sketch time for the old gray matter.
So anyway, the GBB and I had our last rehearsal last night and fortunately spent very little time on the contest pieces (for those of you in the cheap seats, those’d be The King of Elfland’s Daughter and Resurgam). We did do a late run-through, but the majority of the rehearsal was spent on a number of other pieces that we’ll be playing in concert this Friday night at a church in Louisville, KY.
Saturday afternoon, we’ll drive about 20 minutes into Indiana to compete in the North American championships at Indiana University of the South in (I think) Albany, IN. 4BarsRest, a website that tracks this sort of thing, has predicted that we’ll finish third behind the New England Brass Band and the Triangle Brass Band (Raleigh, NC). New England won the thing last year. I’m not sure why Triangle is picked to finish ahead of us – they’re a good band, but I’ve never been overly-impressed with them.
I’m not sure what the Vegas odds are.
The winners will be announced at a gala event on Saturday night, after which I’ll probably hit the road (or not), as I’ve got a gig on Sunday night with my quintet in Atlanta.
I learned last weekend that the incredible rehearsal schedule since December has actually been quite beneficial for me. I played a couple of Easter gigs on my CC tuba – which I hadn’t touched since about January – and I must say that I kicked butt. Not back to college form, but I’m definitely better than I was when we started ramping up for the competition last December.
In other news, Maria is now firmly entrenched at Fort Bragg (I’m assuming that she’s not planning any sort of putsch against the government) and I have indeed lined up two guys to replace her as my roommates. Dennis Hamilton and Keith Ackerman have been in my circle of associates since the early 90’s and they’re scheduled to move in on April 25th. While “working” from home today, I managed to shampoo the carpets and clean out both guestrooms so that everything’s ready for them.
I also cut a hole in the bottom of my bedroom door so that I can close the door and the cats can still go in and out. They drove me crazy when Maria was here. Everytime I closed my door, the cats went crazy either trying to get in or trying to get out. So I ended up propping the door open with a sneaker while holding it shut with a box of towels. It was annoying.
A week or two ago, I bought a new refrigerator. My old one came with the house (8 years ago), and never worked right; so when I got my bonus I splurged and bought a great big brand new one. I must divulge that I got it for $600 off because it had a paint scratch. The horror.
The coolest part about it is that it’s got a beer rack built into it. I mean a soda rack.
Get it? I said “the coolest part” in reference to a refrigerator. Ha!
At this point, I have nothing more to say. This is what we call, “A boring life – nigh to pathetic.”
TWD