Pluggin' Along

I've been assigned to play bass clarinet in the Symphony Orchestra. I was originally a little nervous about it because I've never played bass clarinet before, but I was excited for this additional opportunity. However, when I went to go check out my bass clarinet, Judi told me that that particular bass clarinet was in repair. And for the piece I'm playing on, the Performance Library didn't have my part, so they had to rent it. Every rehearsal day, I'd call up Judi in the Instrument office, "Hey, is my part in yet?" "No, we're still waiting."
But yesterday, when I called, she said, "Guess what! Your instrument's ready! And we have your music!" Great! So I bustled on over there and checked out that honkin' clarinet and awkwardly crawled over all of the violin players, the harpist, squeezed myself between the french horn stands and found my spot. Then they passed me over a chair and a stand, and I could finally start getting my instrument ready. Holy huge. The bass clarinet is big. I had a hard time figuring out how the bridge keys hook together, and there are some extra low pinky keys that I had fun figuring out.
But here's the best part. The Symphony Orchestra is playing three pieces. Out of those three pieces, I have a part for one piece. That one piece has three movements. I play on one movement. And out of the 40+ notes on the bass clarinet . . . I play two of them.
Hoorah.