I managed to miss an anniversary last week. Fortunately, it's not one that involves Tiffany. On March 6, I marked 25 years of playing the saxophone.

When I transferred from Sacred Heart Elementary School to William Morris Intermediate School in March of 1978, one of the options that became available to me was to learn a musical instrument - Morris had an excellent band program. I decided that this appealed to me, so the next step was to pick an instrument. My first instinct was the trumpet, but I was scheduled to get some orthodontics in the near future, so we thought that a woodwind would be more suitable. You really don't want to be pressing a metal object to your lips on a regular basis when you have a mouth full of braces. Turned out that the orthodontic work I got was a removable retainer, and I didn't get it until high school, but the specter of braceface had already wielded its influence.

And 25 years later, I'm still tooting. I've played the alto, tenor, and baritone saxes at one point or another, though the sax I own is the alto my folks gave me in 1980 as a graduation present. I've been fortunate to be able to keep playing in bands, especially after leaving school, because I'm basically a Sunday hacker who does it for fun and doesn't like practicing too much. Oh, I take performing seriously, but if I couldn't play in a group like the Rice MOB I probably wouldn't play any more. I don't get the same joy from playing solo, and I don't have the time, patience, or talent to turn myself into a featured performer.

So I'm happy with how things turned out and I'm happy that I'm still able to play after all these years. And of course, I can't leave this subject without noting that I've been playing the sax for longer than Mike Tremoulet has been alive.