Tofurky, graveyard shift and Obamarama

1/15/08
Maybe its the night schedule. Maybe it's my cold, or my bad tooth. Whatever it is I decided to try Tofurky. In fact, I did more than this, I decided to try Tofurky and some veggie salami-wannabe at the same time.

Lesson learned: I should not grocery shop sleep deprived.

Night float is what it is. The hard work I can handle. And I've worked longer hours. It's the loss of the daytime that gets to me. Between Inauguration preparations, a wedding in rural Oregon, an out of town visitor, a dental disaster (three trips to the dentist in two days!) and a mean case of the rhinovirus I have to say I'm feeling a tad run down. But adrenaline and excitement goes far. Tomorrow I head to DC. Hard to believe since I still have to finish this shift, go to bed, wake up, pack, and then work for another 12 hours first, but it really is tomorrow! I arrive in DC around 11 PM EST. Saturday I kick back with my cousin and his kidlets. Sunday and Monday practice all day. Tuesday the schedule states we start preparations at 4AM and after a lot of credentialing and such we are at the staging area around noon. Then, after it's all over, we probably celebrate a little, then, pre-crack of dawn, I'm back at the airport to fly home. I get in around 11:30 PM and have 8 patients scheduled into my clinic a mere 2 hours after I land... what is it they say about the wicked and rest?

I have been practicing diligently in the call room between admissions. The janitor caught me one night, kicked back playing Sousa with my Harmon mute, the digital metronome ticking away at 112 beats per second on the computer. I wanted to memorize the pieces but don't think it's going to happen. I almost have two or three of them down but would need a few more weeks to really know them by heart. Thankfully, I think I know them well enough to learn to march the inauguration committee's massive regulation 28 inch step.

LGBA has been receiving a lot of press. Locally the Seattle PI printed something in their Jan 15th edition that is also available online if you click here. It made the front page! How cool is that? A news crew also came to band practice this week and did some interviewing and filming. I was, of course, here at Tacoma General Saving lives and Making a Difference so will redeem my 15 minutes of fame at some later date. I would not recommend reading the comments section of the news article. Lots of homophobic crap on there. Depressing. Instead, check out my band friend's inauguration blog here, much cooler.

I am thrilled about DC. The adrenaline is pumping. I have my Sudafed and my DayQuil, my trumpet and couple changes of clothes. I'm packing light - just a backpack (crammed to the gills with warm clothes) and my trumpet case for the next five days. I will be doing a lot of moving around and have lay-overs so I feel better bringing only what I can carry.

Tofurky aside, this should be an amazing inauguration weekend!

1/16/08
Things as things have been predictably hectic. Additionally, I just found out my flight was delayed nearly three hours, meaning a missed connection. But the friendly folks at NWA rebooked me with their new partner, Delta and I'm back on schedule, I just lay-over in Atlanta for 40 minutes instead of Detroit for more than an hour. I leave a few minutes later so had time to publish this entry. Send me good vibes everyone! I hope I don't trip and send the entire band crashing down in front of Obama!