Maybe it's the changes I made to the blog that have been keeeping me away... I open the page and after so many years with the same design, it just doesn't look right now! I'll have to mess around with it some more. Of course that's not really why I've been absent, but the new format surprises me every time I log on!
...Okay, so I tried to sit down and post over a month ago. The above was my beginning...
It's harder to actually sit down and write something after so much time. Not for lack of things to share, but some how I've lost my momentum and the inertia of not writing just pulls me away time and time again.
Recently, though I do have two very good excuses for being so absent from my blog: 1. Emily and I downloaded Duolingo to learn French and I must say I now fully understand my dad's obsession with the app! 2. I've just recently rejoined the city band, which is trying to make a come back after several years with very low membership.
Where French is concerned, I'm having lots of fun. I have always wanted to learn German actually, but since Emily will be taking French in school starting next year, I thought we might as well get a jump start. And I think that beginning all over again with a new language will help me to be a more understanding and perhaps better language teacher myself. Emily and I take turns doing the exercises, but of course I go ahead without her when she's at school. I have to watch my obsession because several nights I've been up late trying to score my way to the top of the division. It's a pretty fun app and I think it's pretty good for learning too since it listens to your pronunciation in speaking exercises. I have even written a few WhatsApp texts to my fracophone friends in Belgium. ;)
The band is something that's been a long time coming. I have been saying for at least a year (maybe more) that I'd like to join again, but always making the excuse of no time or Emily... So it wasn't completely on a whim that I decided to join when I was cornered at a birthday party by several members whose good-naturedly teased me about holding out on them. After three whole practice sessions we had a concert! (Can you believe it?!) It was a very special event because it had been organized to honor the ex-director of the band who had just retired. He had been here in La Roda as head of the city band for more than thirty years and was the director who welcomed me into the "fold" when I was a newbee in La Roda. It was an emotional concert, and one that I think I pulled off pretty well considering that it's been over 10 years since I've picked up my trombone!
Now the band has been hired last minute to play on Thursday in the Semana Santa procession here in town. There hasn't been a "Holy Week" in Spain since 2019 so this is a big deal; but the pandemic has wreaked havoc on the bands. Many bands have low membership, or they just aren't in shape to performe in the processions. The band that this particular brotherhood had hired cancelled on them about two weeks ago... just about a month away from the date. Finding a replacement band at the last minute was going to be nearly impossible. However, we offered to step in after having joined forces with a neighboring town to be able to cover all the voices in the marches. Now we are practicing our lips off for the next week and a half! The good news is, I can tell I'm getting better. Even my standmate has comented more than once that I'm starting to sound really good. My chops were pretty shot after that first 1.5 practice a few weeks ago, but I'm getting there. ;)
Other news is that my parents came here at New Years and my mom is coming on Wednesday! She'll be here all of Easter week and also for my birthday. :) I am so happy that our visting schedule is beginning to look a little more like pre-pandemic normality.
Okay, I'm going to say bonne nuit et à bientôt. I am sure it won't be another six months before you hear from me again.
