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JESSICA FINCH Associate Editor

• I DO - Some of you may remember when I wrote about my upcoming "wedding season" of eight ceremonies. This weekend I reached the halfway point.

After a bridal shower in Syracuse for my best friend, Sara, I drove with two friends to Alexandria Bay for the wedding of Brian Davis and Cassie Radley. Davis is the Amherst varsity baseball coach and teacher at Windermere Boulevard Elementary.

It was a perfect day for an outdoor ceremony along the St. Lawrence River. The two were picture perfect with the sun and water as a beautiful backdrop.

Next on the list - Cheektowaga Bee Editor Keaton DePriest, also an Amherst resident. He will say I do on Aug. 4 with fiancee Caitlin Briggs.

• PAY IT FORWARD - It was a special treat when my parents would give me money for candy at the EMW sports park in Elma. I was always nervous about having enough for my item of choice. I would count and recount as I waited in line. I remember one time being short but was bailed out by a nearby patron. A few weeks ago I stood behind a young boy in his baseball uniform waiting in line at a convenience store with a bottle of Gatorade. When it was his turn the clerk told him he didn't have enough money. He said he thought it was $1.50 but learned that was the price for each when buying two. Without hesitation I pulled out a dollar and handed it to him. He thanked me. I knew he needed the sports drink on such a hot day. My memory flashed back to the times I was in his shoes. I just hope that one day he will do the same for a young person who forgot about the tax or just happened to come up a bit short.

by ELIZABETH TAUFA Reporter

• A TUNE FORGOTTEN - A while back I interviewed Amherst Symphony Orchestra trombonist Neil Stillman for our Someone You Should Know column. While setting up the interview, I could sense his hesitation to discuss matters of his history in music with me, seeing as I am 68 years his junior. Little did he know, I had an edge. I started playing the trombone at age 9 and played almost every day until my second year of college. I spent one year as a music performance major, but I eventually burned out and forgot why I had started to play in the first place. I turned to English, graduated and started working in journalism.

While interviewing Mr. Stillman the subject of my musical past came up and his enthusiasm for the interview grew. He offered me a spot in a trombone quartet that meets weekly. After a few months, we finally nailed down a time that would work.

With my first rehearsal set, I broke out my trombone, which had been sitting in its case for two years (much to my mother's chagrin, because it cost, as she puts it, more than a small car) and began practicing and was amazed at how much physical pain I was in. Five days later, I found myself on the familiar side of a music stand having a better time playing music than I had had in years.

While my childhood dreams of orchestral glory are no longer in the forefront of my mind, it was refreshing to remember how playing music used to make me feel before I considered it work or an unwanted burden in my life. I look forward to holding on to that.