Sucks-a-maphone

Another thing happening in my life currently is practicing saxophone for Dave's high school band concert. No, I am not in high school, and no, I do NOT play the saxophone as I've discovered increasingly over the last few days.
There are not any saxophone players in the high school band that Dave teaches so he has enlisted the help of two 8th graders and me to help out on a couple songs. He told me about this two weeks ago. Originally he was going to have a flute player do the sax part but she decided not to two weeks ago which is why he asked me then. I play flute and the reason it shouldn't be a horrible transition is because the fingerings for the two instruments are very similar, the reason it is horrible is my tone is awful and I play with too much stress. We've been trying out different things to improve my "honky honky" alternating with squeaky tone. More mouthpiece in the mouth, less in the mouth, tilt the instrument this way, now that way, tuck lips in, tuck one in, don't tuck them in... I should know more about this but it seems like nothing is making it better. The main thing is that I need to relax. Those 8th graders are going to school me on sax.
I also need to forget about trying to play it like a flute. I know it's obvious, but my mouth just wants to pull back and the instrument feels sort of bulky. The last few times I've practiced have resulted in mini-tantrums (one ended with a combination of many notes being blasted out and raspberry sounds). The concert is this Tuesday. The plan is to play as much as sounds good, and let the 8th graders take over if I start getting too squeaky.

Today I am working on the yarn wig for my costume. It is more work than I thought, maybe because I originally skimped on the yarn (one skein rather than the two + it's going to take). I think it's almost there though so I'm hopeful, it's the last part of the costume.
I also got some pharmacy training done online so I feel good about that since I've been putting it off for some time now. Since Halloween planning is winding down I should have more time to do that training in the evenings. Now I just need to schedule keeping this place picked up, after the costume work the place looks like a tornado hit it.