Great Lesson
I had a pretty damn good guitar lesson, which was just what I needed after some weirdness I was feeling yesterday. Which to talk about first, the weirdness or the lesson? Well, I'd rather end on a good note, so I'll proceed with the weirdness.
I was finishing up work yesterday, I had to stay a little late as I was working on upgrading our e-mail filter server to the latest version. I had been working with the vendors tech support to get it up and running and just got it finished when my cell phone rang and it was Elena. We talked for awhile. I said she must be glad to not be in London right now and she said she just missed it. I said by what, 10 months? Then she said the same thing happened 9/11, as she was living in lower Manhattan for school and graduated in May before it happened. I said that's not missing it either. My brother's friend Jay, he worked in the World Trade Center (everyone in his company got out OK) and he was late to work and came out of the subway to witness everything. That's just missing it.
Then she proceeded to ask me if I was dating anyone. I said I was taking a break from the whole online dating thing as I didn't want to pay to contact people as I'm trying to save to move out. I then made the mistake of asking her the same question. She said she had been hanging out with someone, and they were having fun, but she didn't want it to be anything more than that. They had the relationship talk and agreed to just leave it at having fun, and she hasn't heard from the guy since. Hearing that made me feel very weird and uneasy. I was really jittery for a good portion of the ride home and whatnot. I'm debating on instituting a no talking about relationships policy with her, but I don't want her to know that it affected me like that. I guess I'll just wait and see as time goes by. She also busted me on the fact that she's always the one calling me and not the other way around. She ended by saying she'd talk to me later, when I call her. Just weird.
So I went home and messed around on my guitar while my little brother played some XBox, and that made me feel better. We had a moment of rare bonding, which was nice. Its amazing just how therapeutic I find playing my guitar. Even though it causes frustration as well, it just feels good to pick it up, play and tune out everything else and just concentrate on one thing and one thing only. We so rarely get to do that, you know? I also felt better because I IM'd some girl I saw on JDate and we had a nice long talk before going to sleep. So much for not talking to people, right? Whatever happens, happens, as far as I'm concerned.
Anyway, so I had to go into work for awhile this morning to replace a mother board in a server. The extra few hours of OT will be nice. Since I've been waking up early to exercise I've also been able to get to work early again, so my last paycheck had some nice OT in it. Every penny helps as I prepare to move out and live independently of my parents. After work I headed home, relaxed a little and headed out to my guitar lesson.
I played what I could manage of DMB's "Crash Into Me" and it wasn't bad. I had it down, almost, and was a lot better eliminating a simple up-strum on a chord change. But I had the rhythm down nicely and was changing between the chords pretty well. I brought along a chord tab for Jimmy Eat World's "Hear You Me" which I had been playing around with on the side for a week or so. I wanted Reuven to listen to make sure the chords were right and help me out with the strumming and chords in the chorus and interlude. I don't know if it was because I was messing around with it for a week prior to bringing it to my lesson or if I'm just getting better, but it was honestly the quickest I've ever picked up stuff on the fly like that. Well, sort of on the fly. Some of the stuff he heard was different from what I'd been messing around with, but still good.
I left feeling really good about myself. Reuven said I was progressing really well considering I've been at it for only a little more than a month. He said a lot of people just don't get it and probably never will, but that I'm showing promise. That made me feel really good. I let him in on my master plan of purchasing an electric. My plan is thus, and its relatively simple. Stay out of debt. Now that I've paid off all of the major heavy hitting balances on my credit cards, its totally up to me to keep it off. I only use one now for gas and my cell phone. So the real key is to curb the spending of $100 at a time at Best Buy on crap. I know I'll have some expenses when I move, but without having to make huge credit card payments every month I can save that money now for when I move in two months. So, stay out of debt and at the end of the year when I get my holiday bonus buy a nice electric. Hello Gibson Les Paul? I'm calling your name. If I base my bonus on what I got last year, it should cover it. Last year it was enough for a down payment on my car. This year, a Les Paul. Makes me glad I don't have a serious girlfriend, because she'd bitch about spending $2000 on a guitar instead of putting it towards an engagement ring.
After my lesson I went with my older brother to see Fantastic Four. It was entertaining, or at least I thought so. My older brother said it was dumb, or stupid, or both. I thought it was a good summer flick. It had enough action, back story, plenty of Jessica Alba (DAMN!!! That girl is amazingly hot!) and it was funny too. Most of the comedy coming from the guy that plays the Human Torch. I'm definitely getting that Sin City Jessica Alba poster when I move. No doubt about it!
Alright, off to relax for the rest of the night. Tomorrow I have to go to my mom's office to fix a busted PC. Should be fun. Have a great weekend everyone!!!