Getting To Know You, Getting To Know All About You

[Tom Wall]

Tom wrote: 
> >Things you do when not staring at the computer:
> I used to play the tuba and was a bona-fide band-geek for eight 
> years, but since brass instruments are so expensive (and I don't 
> own a tuba,) I don't get to play anymore. 

Melody replied:
You played tuba? Oh, how cool were you. I played percussion for
seven years in middle and high school and in the marching band in
college for four. My best friend in high school, a very stubborn
girl, played tuba. Married a tuba player. Both were in the marching
band at Texas Tech. So, cool. Anyway....

I respond:
No way! Did you ever have all the corny old band jokes?

A tuba player walks into a bar and says `ouch.' 

How do you know when the stage is level?
The drummers have drool coming out of *both* sides of their mouths.

Were you by any chance affiliated with Kappa Kappa Psi or Tau Beta 
Sigma? They're co-ed band service organizations ... we had a local 
chapter at B.U.... and I believe that there was a chapter at Texas 
Tech, and I know that there was one from Baylor, `cause I met one of 
their brothers at our National Convention in `99. Aww, nostalgia for 
band-geekdom is rearing its head... Oh. Then I remembered parades. 
Forget it. ;-)


I wrote previously:
> >Education/Work:
> Double B.A. in Philosophy and the Classics from Boston University. 
> Normally I'd just say `B.U.,' but apparently there are lots of
> those out there. Very frustrating to tell someone I went to `B.U.'
> and get, in reply, "Baylor?" No. Not Baylor. ;-)

Melody replied:
Hey! Now, now. Baylor is a wonderful school. So wonderful, that I
went there for four years then graduated. :D 

I add:
Yeah, I know Baylor is a great school – but from my Massachusetts-
centric perspective (I grew up and went to school there,) one grows 
up only knowing of one `B.U.' In that sense, I was surprised that 
people out there use the abbreviation to refer to tons of schools. 
I've also gotten "You went to Binghamton?" Nope. "You went to 
Bowdoin?" Nope, that's a college. "You went to Bates?" Sorry. "You're 
from Birmingham?" Unh-unh. "Didn't you go to Boston College?" ARGH! 
Boston College?! No, no, and triple no!


Melody wrote:
Oh and I learned how to cheer for a lossing team too. The poor band
had to go everywhere with the football team and find ways to cheer for
things like "no more fumbles" or "run the other way". :) 

I reply:
Yeah, me too on cheering for the losing team – B.U. was so terrible 
at football that they cut the whole program, leaving the band in 
quite a lurch. After all, "what's the point of the band (they 
argued,) if not to play at the football games?" Close call, that was. 
Luckily, we have a good hockey team, and the band plays at those 
games, too, so we weren't discontinued outright, simply marginalized.


> >Favourite HP book:
> GoF, definitely. I can reread `The First Task' over and over and 
> over again – the descriptions of the Hungarian Horntail are so 
> delightfully vivid, and the scene has so much tension it's 
> overpowering.

Melody replied:
To this I completely agree. The tension and writing in that chapter
is so well done it still gives me chills every time. That arc of
story is magnificent. Good call.

I add:
Just reread it again this weekend. ;-) I love the way JKR describes 
Harry's tension, too. It's just so apt, you know, and so true to 
life... "He saw everything in front of him as though it was a very 
highly colored dream." Wowee... right on, JKR!

I'm still catching up on the weekend's discussions (and the ones that 
came before that,) and hoping to reply to Cindy's post by the end of 
the day.

Isn't it fun to have two lists to check now? ;-)

-Tom