Tax Season Is Over! Big Band Is Back!!

It's over.  April 15 has come and gone.  I survived.  Went home and took a big nap, followed by a good cigar.

The CPA firm I worked for me likes me a lot.  They want me to show up on Monday to discuss further work for them.  They have over 100 tax returns on extension, and no doubt need help finishing them.

Yesterday I went to my big band practice, and it went very well.  The band is beginning to gel nicely.  The songs are tighter, we all seem to know what to do.  I feel increasingly confident in my ability to play bass with this band.  My ability to read notes gets better and better.  When you are playing music, and you intuitively know the chord changes, and your playing melds with that of the other musicians to create a joyous musical harmony, it is definitely thrilling.  You feel alive in an unusual way.  You are one with your instrument.  The music flows through you like electricity through a cord.  There is no better feeling.

One of my favorite sounds is trumpets with mutes.  The mute gives a very different sound to the trumpet.  One of the songs we play is "Don't Get Around Much Anymore."  The original big band recording of that song makes use of mutes for the trumpets.  (Have a listen here.)

After practice, I swung over to Aldo's Italian restaurant in Los Gatos, only five minutes away from the band's practice site, to join the after-tax dinner put on by the CPA firm, my new employer.  April 16 was, for me, an excellent day, with everything going right.  The high point was the band performance, but being seen as a valued employee by the CPA firm was a close second.  Both my bass skills and my tax skills are at a zenith, the highest point of my life.

So for today, I will enjoy my recent accomplishments.  At least until my wife insists that I do my laundry, which is piling up, and vacuum the dog's fur-ball contributions to our house.  And straighten up my music room.  And shred old tax documents.  I'll do it though, with a smile on my face.