Peace and Quiet

The sound of 5,000 pins dropping

Despite the war, the news media hype, and everything else going on, it’s been relatively quiet in my life lately. Last week and earlier this week I had to help prepare for my company’s Chamber of Commerce After-Hours Party, but that was easy work. Recovering from a hangover the morning after the party was not, however.

Took up a new hobby, and resumed one I haven’t worked on in years. Anyone that knows me understands that I absolutely hate physical labor, let alone getting out of my cushy leather office chair to go to the bathroom or get something to snack on. I’m a lazy Leo, and I certainly won’t deny it, which is why it comes as a shock to most people that I’ve taken up the sport of Bowling.

Yes, Bowling. The throwing-a-12-pound-ball-at-plastic-pins-in-rented-shoes kind. Oh, did I suck at first. An average of 60-75 a game, sometimes much worse. I finally dragged my roommate with me last Tuesday and he gave me a few pointers that brought my game up to a 124 by the end of the night! (For reference: a perfect game is a score of 300)

The other hobby I mentioned is pictured on the upper left corner of this very blog. Yes, my beautiful black Fender Electric-Acoustic 6-string Guitar. Isn’t she lovely? Her voice is even lovelier than her body.

I started playing off-and-on about 5 years ago with a cheap $100 classical acoustic I bought at a pawn shop here in town. It was a decent learning guitar, despite having a warped neck and frets that wouldn’t stay wound any longer than a week. So last weekend I finally decided to break down and buy myself a decent guitar. I felt it was time, and I had really been wanting to play again. (The old one finally gave out altogether)

I never knew how big of a difference it would make. Before, I would play the guitar for about 10 minutes and get either bored or until my fingers hurt. The constant pain of re-tuning a guitar every time I picked it up plus the general flat-sound the thing produced turned me off most of the time. The other night before bed, I picked up my Black Beauty and just picked a few chords over and over again. Before I knew it I had my eyes closed and was off somewhere else completely, just relaxing and picking this little somber tune. I’ve found that out of all my activities and talents, that just sitting and playing is the most relaxing of them all.

So drinking, hangover, bowling, and guitar. That’s been my life for the past two weeks. Now i’m going to spend the next hour or so finding some new tunes to play. There’s only so many times I can play “Fake Plastic Trees” or “A Letter to Elise” before the desire to play something else hits me.