Trippin'

As promised, something about my trip to dear, dull, boring Ada, Oklahoma. In fact, the only not boring thing in Ada is my son! *chuckle*

Mom and I headed out from Houston on our 8-hour (including a lunch break) trek by car, since there's no other reasonable way to get there from here. [aside - by plane, it's a 2 hour wait at the airport, 2 hour flight, assuming no extraordinary delays, 1 hour to deal with the rental car, then about 2 hours to Ada, assuming I don't manage to get lost] I now have several earworms from listening to Mom's collection of Dad's favorites for 14 hours. Not grousing too much, but That's Amore, Chirichiribim (I think that's its name), Racing with the Moon, and others along the same line almost put me to sleep. Not a good thing when in the driver's seat!

Once we got to Ada and connected up with the son, we had an opportunity for some interesting chatter. This is his last semester of undergraduate work, in a major that he detests! The political science class he's taking is a 'hands on' kind of class appropriate to the current political season - it's a group project where they were assigned a local race and are documenting it. Andrew chose his preferred candidate in the race by the fact that the guy gave him a t-shirt (or that's what he said ... knowing him, it went a bit deeper than that). Turns out the guy won by 2 votes. Good thing my son went to the polls!

The purpose of this marathon car ride was to hear my son's senior trombone recital. He was so nervous! For various reasons, this was the first time in a year that he's performed solo before an audience. He did a fine job and the profs were pleased with his performance, but it wasn't perfect, so he's a bit down on himself right now. The problem with these recitals is that they are focused around technique (not a bad thing in and of itself), so the music chosen tends to be along certain lines- obscure classical. Once he got the really stuffy stuff out of the way, Andrew finally got comfortable with the last two pieces and was more himself.

My son is actually more of a performer than a technician, and he got caught up in the expectation that he be a technician. *sigh* What schools will sometimes do to a performer in order to impose standards! ARGH!! When I hear him play, I can imagine him joining in a Chicago extravaganza or one of the retro-Big Band era groups, or even in a jazz combo (although it's not my favorite). He'll get there one day. From Ada it's on to a master's degree in performance, most likely. He's not figured out where yet, but he may end up down here for a while. Maybe not - I think the possibility of residing with me, even if it's for just a while until he makes friends and finds another place, is a bit binding on him. Believe me! I can understand that! (especially after living with my mom for over a year while seeking a call - tough stuff for an adult who was in her 40's and had mostly managed on her own, much less a very independent 20-something son! *chuckle*)

I enjoyed visiting with my son and getting to spend some time with him. It was a good way to spend part of my vacation!