One more stripe for the tiger...

That's what I always say when my friends and family startle when something new happens to me. And it's just that since I was little there was always something going on with me.

I was born with a Umbilical Hernia. I don't know why, never asked either, all I know is that I was born with it but as I grew my body absorbed it and that was the end of that.

I was hardly breastfed. My brother Gonzo, who is a little more than a year older than me got sick and still breastfed when I was 3 months old so the doctors told my mom that since I was so little she shouldn't breastfeed me to prevent for me to get sick.

Those are little examples about things that had happened to me since birth, so, when I got something new I say One more stripe for the tiger because I'm use to that, and I take it with humor and laughter and why wouldn't I?

To the point, on Monday I cracked my lip open. While me friends joke about that someone bite me, I knew the real reason, I was playing oboe and it just happened!

Remember when I said that the life of a musician is not easy? Well, the picture speaks for itself. But again you might be wondering, how did that happened?

Well, I play the oboe, you know that, it's a wind instrument and I use my mouth to make it sound. The Reed is the part of the oboe that makes the instrument sound, without it, you can play it.

It takes years of practice and experience to perfect the technique of the oboe and the Reed itself. You have to place your mouth, your lips in a way that allows the vibrations of the fibers of the Reed to resonate and produce sound. It sounds fancy but it's quite simple to accomplish, although there is a downside: if your reed is too hard or you don't keep track of your study, you might end up damaging your sound or in my case, cracking a lip.

On Monday I had rehearsal and I didn't warmed up first and my reed was too hard, something I could've fixed right there but didn't, thinking that I could end up screwing it up for the concert. So, I played like that and by the end of the rehearsal I had the first crack.

Happily I didn't gave much thought to that, it wasn't the first time and as long there wasn't any blood I would be fine. On Tuesday I got late to rehearsal and started to play again without warming up, and we started with the longest and most technically demanding piece. By half of the piece, my reed was covered in blood. I'm was in trouble.

I couldn't do anything, I had a concert yesterday and nobody to take my seat, and on top of that I didn't find anything to make the wound close up enough for me to play comfortably.

What to do? Nothing, I played like that, and my reed got a bright red color from all the blood. I scraped off my lip and put ice on it to calm the pain an stop the blood, and it worked.

Then, after the concert, we had another rehearsal for another concert which is tonight, and I'm playing like that.

Is worse actually because I changed the posición of my mouth while playing to prevent the wound to open up more, and I ended up with my lip cracked on the inside because of my teeth. Lol there's no winning here!

I laugh because this hasn't happened to me since I was a toddler with my oboe, and through my career I have played 3 hour concerts day in and day out without this sort of thing happening. Maybe it's a sign that I'm getting old, or perhaps is a reminder that I have to warm up first and be on time for rehearsal.

What is true in this story is that this won't stop me from doing what I love. I might be uncomfortable and in pain, I'm always in pain so what's new? Besides, the feeling of doing music with your friends is more fulfilling than any amount of pain.

So, cheers to more music, even with a busted lip 💋

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This is 100% Original Content.

The images are both mine and screenshots and we're send to my and I have permission to use them.

The bright red lips image is from Unsplash and provided by this site.

See you next time.

✨✨ Blessings ✨✨

@rebeysa85

December 16th, 2021.