ImPerceptibility

Posts Tagged ‘music’

Yeah, I know. I been neglecting you. I’m sorry. You see, I’ve had this problem. In the grand scheme of things it isn’t a terribly big problem, but it was a problem none the less. I woke up about three weeks ago and realized that summer was almost over and it really pissed me off. This is the last summer before my oldest turns into a teenager. It was the last summer before my youngest hit double digits in age. It was the last summer before I got yet another year older and it was the last summer before next summer. I wasn’t happy and it quickly became apparent that no one else was gonna be happy either. It wasn’t good. It wasn’t good at all. My heart wasn’t where it wanted to be.

So, I drank whiskey in a bar.

I smiled and blew kisses at a man with a snake.

I left the kids with a friend and drove 2.5 hours to see a man play a guitar.

I drank beer.

I walked at night on strange streets

I made jokes about Scottish bagpipe techno gansta music.

I made out with MyHusband on a bench under a street light.

I high-fived drunk 20 something yo boys.

I screamed louder than anyone else to my favorite songs.

I sent and received drunk text messages.

I pounded on the table and stuck my fist in the air.

I listened to stories.

I tipped the bartender way more than he was expecting but less than he was worth.

I got tears in my eyes when the last song played.

I stayed up until dawn too excited to even think about sleeping.

I ate lumpy oatmeal out of a paper bowl.

I saw the sun shining on the top of a mountain.

In the distance I heard the long soft whistle of a train and felt my heart heading home.

Now I’m back. I feel better now and I think I’m ready to be a responsible adult again. I’m actually looking forward to it. My oldest is off to start seventh grade and my youngest is working on Spelling. I’m thinking about making cookies. My garden needs to be weeded and MyHusband isn’t working late tonight. Things are good. I’m feeling happy and I had great summer. Hope you had a great summer too. Bring on the fall!

e-e-f-g-g-clunk-f-e-pause-d-cc-d-ee-d-d wait where was I?

That is the sound coming from my daughters room. She’s just finished her second guitar lesson. She’s been playing around with a guitar since May and last week she decided she wanted an electric guitar. I told her if she learned to play an acoustic guitar I would get her one. Ten minutes later she was sitting at the dining room table with the yellow pages, the telephone, and a sheet of paper to write down information. She called around to all the local music stores and asked about lessons. Then she decided to go with the least expensive lessons – so I would have more money left over to buy her electric guitar and because the guy on the phone didn’t talk to her like she was a stupid kid. Yes sir, I am raising that child right.

When I picked her up from her lesson the teacher smiled at me and told her to show me her thumb. She had a tiny blister on the tip of it. “I’m encouraging her use the pick more” she told me. I shook my head and laughed. That’s my girl.

She is very proud of her blister and the rough spots on her pinky and middle finger of her other hand. “It means I’m a real musician.”

“They’re like a trophy” her little sister explained.

e-e-f-g-g-f-e-d-c-c-d-e-d-c-c YES! I’m moving on to Yankee Doodle. That has 8 notes on three different strings!

I wonder if the guitar shop has a payment plan.

Today I took the kids to Hurcamp park for one of their Concert in the Park days. I was happy to be going because I misread the schedule and I thought Catfish Hodge was going to be playing. I was looking forward to it and I even wore clean underwear.

As we were walking up I caught the distinct sound of Buffett, Jimmy Buffett. I have a tendency towards denial and I assured myself that they were playing a tape until the singer was ready to sing. We got a bag of cotton candy and some lemonade. After talking with a few friends we went and sat down. It was five o’clock somewhere. I talked with the girls for a bit and then a Volcano was about to explode, but we didn’t know where we wanted to go.

Slowly reality began to set in and when the singer began to sing a Kenny Chesney tune I began to cycle rapidly through the five stages of grief. Once I landed firmly on stage 5, acceptance, I asked the girls if they wanted to sing along. “No, not really” they told me. We hung around for a little bit then we walked down to Caroline Street for some ice cream.

There was a man in the ice cream shop and he had commitment issues. We waited as he sampled flavor after flavor of ice cream. It was starting to get on my nerves. Finally I got a chance to order.

“I want a single scoop of rum raisin.”

No sample! I’m wild and crazy like that. It was good.

As we walked back I cursed Jimmy Buffett. “My ice cream is a frozen rum concoction! He’s in my head. He’s in my head!” I scared the hell out of that dude on the Harley but the kids and I thought it was funny.

I want to make it clear that I’m not a Buffett hater but when you’re expecting this and you get a barefoot guy with a tambourine named Island Jimmy, who happens to be asking people to form a conga line, there is a large chance of disappointment. The worse part is I have no idea if the guy has his own music or if he just does Buffett/Chesney covers. He had a nice voice.

But we made the most of it and all in all we had a good day. Except for that guy on the Harley. I think he may have peed his pants.