The Instruments...

I thought I would write something about the instruments I have right now.... not about them in terms of what they are, more in terms of how I imagine them to be... some of you may wish to institutionalize me after this post--please don't.... =p

Just to be clear.... Ishara is my normal horn--a standard double. Bastien is a Baroque horn, and Monster is an oboe.

Ishara thinks she's special. She was here first dammit, and she gets to ride on my back. The others don't get that honor. She goes with me to the university the most, is currently getting played in three orchestras, and has been on far more trips than the other instruments. She enjoys getting special attention--being let on planes she doesn't fit on, going shopping with me on our way home for the University, and being admired, because she really is that pretty. Shara puts up with the boys, but doesn't like to share her practice time.

Bastien is a wee bit of a curmudgeon. He's the eldest, and is constantly referring to how things were done in his day. Shara usually ignores him, but Monster hangs on to his every word. Perhaps because of this, Bastien is more tolerant towards Monster than Ishara, and sometimes will even let Monster ride on his back. Bastien is suspicious of anything with valves: he consideres this manner of instrument too complicated. He has his good old honest crooks, and that is plenty for him.

Monster may be small, but don't let his size fool you. Monster is in every way the baby, an annoying attention hog who is always up to something. He likes to play practical jokes, eat his reeds, and play tug of war with the cleaning cloth. He's developed an unlikely friendship with Bastien, perhaps because he knows that Ishara will never accept him as her equal, because he's not even in the same genus, let alone the same species of instrument. Monster is also a sucker for a good story--telling him one is really the only way to keep him out of trouble.