So Beta signed me up for the orchestra. Or, rather, I was automatically signed up as a student at the music school (it’s just a little amateur music school orchestra full, mostly, of kids and some adults) and Beta twisted my arm and said I had to try it this year.

So I said okay, thinking the concert was, I don’t know, sometime way off, in another century. But it is in April, it now appears, which sounds far off but is in fact not too much more than a month from now.

The cello section had its first practice last weekend. There are seven celli. Two of the kids are children of friends. Two of the girls in the group are quite good, one of the boys is nearly as good, at least he can keep up. Another girl never gets yelled at, and two freckled boys appear to be worse than me, at least they kept getting upbraided and I didn’t.

The way I see it, if all goes well I will learn all the parts and do okay. If things do not go well, I’ll just sit in the back and fake it, as there are 6 other celli to take up the slack.

I realize, of course, that there are at least two little boys thinking the same thing, and perhaps one girl, but that leaves three, maybe four competent celli so no big worry, I imagine. Plus there are enough bass players to fill things out.

It is a real ass kicking experience, that I can tell you after a single practice of only the cello section. But I went into it without having practiced anything even once. All the notes I saw there I had seen for the first time. It was very much the holy shit this looked easier than it actually is experience.

The first practice involving, theoretically, the entire orchestra is next week. I can’t wait.