Goodbye Guitar

So, it's farewell to the purple velvet marshmallow. I looked into getting a hard case so the guitar could travel on the airplane today and there were a couple of problems.

1) There were no hard cases for 3/4 size guitars in all of down town Norwich.

2) The full sized cases cost more than the guitar did when it was new.

Based on these facts I am forced to conclude that although my lovely guitar has served me well the time has come for us to part. It is not meant to travel abroad.

As for my playing, do you think if I played air guitar on a street corner with a hat out I could raise funds to buy another real guitar?

Actually I have access to a guitar at home until I can save up for a nice one.

Worried Girl

John and I are about to embark on our Amazing England Adventure (driving around for days in the rented car) and to keep the mold from completely taking over the flat while we are gone I decided to clean the bathroom. I've managed to not catch John's cold so far but I'm afraid the cleaning chemicals might have irritated my sinuses enough to give the germs a foot hold. Let's hope my mucus membranes rebuild themselves and kick the germs out!

I convinced John that I deserved to see a movie because I worked so hard this morning. So, we finally went to see The Boat that Rocked. The ads for it came out a while ago, so I feel like I've been waiting forever. I enjoyed it!

I've still been working away at my guitar playing. Since I decided to learn guitar I've been harboring some vague hope of writing the occasional folk song, but like David Rees, with Bush gone I've been wondering what there is to make social/political commentary on. The economy?

21st Century Worried Girl Blues (sung to the tune of Worried Man Blues)

Chorus:
It takes a worried girl to sing a worried song
It takes a worried girl to sing a worried song
It takes a worried girl to sing a worried song
I’m worried now, but I won’t be worried long

I’m looking for a job, but no one will hire me
I’m looking for a job, but no one will hire me
I’m looking for a job, but no one will hire me
They say that Ponzi has ruined our economy

Chorus

I’ve applied all over town but I haven’t heard a thing
I’ve applied all over town but I haven’t heard a thing
I’ve applied all over town but I haven’t heard a thing
You need a PhD to work for Burger King

Chorus

I’ve been goin’ to school for the past 21 years
I’ve been goin’ to school for the past 21 years
I’ve been goin’ to school for the past 21 years
And all I’ve got, is loans up to my ears

Chorus

I ain’t got no way to pay back all these loans
I ain’t got no way to pay back all these loans
I ain’t got no way to pay back all these loans
I hope my folks will let me move back home

Chorus

Surely I am the voice of the 21st century 20-something...

What are you worried about? Leave your own verses in the comments.

Things To Do

Sometimes I feel like I don't have enough to do. But today was one of those days when I did all the little things I should be doing, and of course, I proved to myself that I have plenty to keep me busy.

My day:

yoga
breakfast
shower
trip to co-op
prepare chicken in marinade for dinner
lunch
clean the dishes
start laundry
trip into town to get a new library book, and buy light bulbs, yarn, and a watch
take down yesterday's dry laundry and hang up wet laundry
practice guitar
write in blog

And here we are. Time to cook dinner and relax.

Small Accomplishments

My recent guitar practice has been somewhat frustrating. Having a musical background allowed me to speed through a lot of beginner stuff, but I've hit a wall and have had to slow down to what is probably a more normal pace. Imagine my dismay when I decided to move forward another page and saw F chord looking back at me! I was dreading the day when I would have to learn F. It requires that you hold two strings down with one finger, which is much harder to do than it might sound. So, instead of getting to learn any new songs (because I couldn't play the new songs until I could play F chord), I ended my practices for days contorting my poor fingers and squeezing the neck of the guitar until it hurt (my hand hurt, I haven't gotten any complaints from the guitar). And then yesterday I did it! I didn't play F chord in a song. But I did play it by itself. Progress.

Then, this morning while I was doing yoga I successfully held the arm balance I learned when I was in a yoga class during library school (to be fair, it doesn't look quite like that when I do it). I attempt it every time I do yoga and usually just waver into the pose and then come right back out of it again. But this morning I held it for five breaths. And I really felt balanced.

It can be hard to do the same thing day after day and keep getting it wrong. But the day you get it right it's all worth it!

Down Town

I went into town today to meet with Libby the librarian. I will be telling stories for America week in April, which is pretty awesome. We set up some more meetings to work on the Americans during WWII presentation that I will hopefully be taking to schools.

Then I went to Pilch, which is the sports store owned by Jarrold. It has finally gotten too cold for me to run in the cold weather running clothes I so cleverly bought on sale last summer. I have been making due by wearing a sweat shirt, but that hasn't been optimal. So, I got a jacket that the young man in the store assured me will keep me warm even though it's not very thick. Apparently just keeping the wind off is sufficient when you are moving around. I also got some running gloves because my hands were sweating in regular gloves and it is too cold to go without. And I got a skullcap for similar reasons, except having to do with my head instead of my hands. Coolest thing ever: the skullcap has a hole for my ponytail!

After I got home I practiced guitar for a long time. I did some work on my Wikipedia Song, because someday I'd like to make it more presentable. I wrote out the chord progressions and even looked up some chords in the book I got for Christmas. But then I realized that I haven't quite learned all the stuff I need to so I can make the song truly awesome, so it is still a work in progress.

I'm attempting falafel and couscous again tonight, but this time I bought the falafal pre-assembled. The menu:
couscous with bell pepper, onion, raisins, and seasonings
falafal balls
cucumber with houmous
olives with feta (just for me, John doesn't like olives)

Oh, and here is yesterday's fog. This is a view from the bedroom window which looks out the back of the flat.

Favorite Christmas Song Lyrics

I have been practicing Christmas songs on the guitar like a mad woman. I am playing for the 1940s Christmas this Friday and I am pretty nervous. I don't tend to feel very confident about singing in front of people (although working at the library went a long way towards curing me of that) and I have never played guitar for anyone but John.

When I was a kid I liked practicing songs on the piano that I could sing along to. It made them more fun. When I was in high school and got home before everyone else I usually used that time to play piano and sing (because of that whole not liking to sing in front of people thing). And I've found that playing songs on the guitar that I can sing along to is more fun, too. In fact, on guitar, I do something I never did on piano. When I sing, I'm usually playing chords, so I'm really playing one thing and singing another.

Practicing these Christmas songs, I have done a lot of singing, (well I had to practice that, too) and singing the same songs day after day, I've gotten to know what they are saying better than I did before.

I had never payed much attention to the song "The Friendly Beasts." Maybe I thought it was a little silly. I'm not sure. Anyway, I love it. It's so gentle and sweet. My favorite verse is the one about the doves:

"I" said the dove from the rafters high,
"I cooed Him to sleep that He would not cry.
We cooed Him to sleep, my mate and I."
"I," said the dove from the rafters high.

I think I like it because the other animals give really practical gifts like a blanket or bed, but the doves give the gift of song and a different sort of comfort.

I don't think I was previously very familiar with the additional verses of "Hark! The Herald Angels Sing" either. I really like the line, "Pleased as Man with man to dwell."

I hope that this Christmas we all sings songs of comfort and are pleased to live among men.

Filed Under 'Not B'

My old filing system, in my old office, was to put all the papers I thought I ought to hold on to in one of the desk drawers. Now I don't really have desk drawers, so I needed a new filing system. Thanks to John getting a hanging file box of one size and hanging files of another, I got a free hanging file box! Now my important papers are arranged by category.

I decided to try and learn even more Christmas songs on guitar because, theoretically, I can. I had been practicing about 8 songs, but have upped the number to (ha, I just counted and it's more than I thought) 17. One of the new songs is "Deck the Halls." You should check out the link because Wikipedia has the lyrics in Welsh!

Anyway, I discovered while I was practicing that this addition was maybe a little ambitious because it included two different four-finger chords. I have only gotten so far in my studies and "so far" means I pretty much only feel confident playing three(or fewer)-finger chords. Strangely enough, I had gotten attached to the song in my mangled attempt at playing it, so rather than cut it from the play list I decided to change the key.

Since it was originally in the key of F, I gave numbers to each of the notes in the F scale (starting with I) and then changed all the chords in the song into numbers. "Deck the Halls" calls for the following chords, I, V, V7, IIIm, VIm, II7, and IV. Notice that there are chords based off of notes I through VI of the scale. Since I haven't officially learned any of the B chords, I decided that should be the note to be excluded. There are no chords based on VII, and B is the seventh note of C scale, so my new version of "Deck the Halls" is in the key of C.

Now I just have to hope I can sing it 3 and a half steps higher or 2 and a half steps lower than it was written.

Four Things You Need to Know

1. John is a double esquire because he passed the Georgia and Tennessee bar exams!

2. I finally finished Just Henry and reviewed it in my other blog.

3. John explored our loft. It has a bed pallet in it. Come one come all. We now have two guest beds, one pull-out couch, and one pallet, all in different rooms!

4. About.com has guitar tabs for Christmas music.

On Guitaring

I started taking piano lessons when I was 7 years old. As I recall I had started trying to teach myself with a "teach yourself piano" book I found around the house and a roughly two and a half octave keyboard. My determination to learn impressed my parents enough that they bought a piano and lessons for me, Amanda, and my father. In all the time that I took piano lessons I only wanted to quit once. I now have the mental capacity to articulate that the reason I wanted to quit was because my piano teacher intimidated me, not because I didn't want to learn to play. But I'm glad my parents didn't let me quit and that my piano teacher eventually moved to Florida leaving a void that was filled by much more delightful teachers.

At 24 I have no guitar teacher other than myself, the same determination, and a head already full of musical knowledge. An example: I picked out the tune to the song "Mama Don't Allow" (which happens to be part of Thatcher Hurd's book by the same name). Then I figured out the chords.

But when I try to play it....well it's not so good.

Kind of frustrating when your head knows how to do it, but your fingers don't.

Just a note: I've added John as an author. The time change post is his. If you look at the bottom of each post you can see who the author is. He has also said he will tag his posts with "guest author" and "the hubs."

Hitting my Stride

More and more I feel like I really live here.

I went for a run this morning for the first time since our move. Thanks to all the exercise I get as a consequence of not having a car I haven't gotten too out of shape. I was actually able to run for a full half hour, just like when I was in Athens. I even discovered that there are free pod casts on itunes, so I'm going to try those out for a while since all the audio books at the library are on playaways.

When I was stretching I noticed how dirty the rugs are. Our flat has all wooden floors, but there are lots of rugs covering most of them up. Since I was feeling especially motivated I decided to ride in to town and try to find a vacuum sweeper type thing. I went in two malls and one department store (without getting lost!) before deciding that I was not going to be able to find the one sweeper that seems to exist in all of England for any cheaper no matter how many places I looked. So I got that one and will hopefully have cleaner rugs tomorrow.

I have almost completed the beginners guitar book that I purchased at the same time as the guitar. Well, that is to say that I can play all the songs, but the interspersed chord lessons are not coming along quite as well. I have been forcing myself to spend most of my practice time on chords for the past few days and I am improving, but I also miss being able to feel my fingertips.

Possibly the best thing that happened today was that I was called about interviewing at Build-a-Bear. There is certainly no guarantee I will get the job, but it is a start. It wasn't until I applied that I remembered I applied to work for Build-a-Bear once before. When I was in high school and first started looking for a job I applied to work in their store in the Mall of Georgia (I think?). Anyway, Jeff had applied there not long before and been offered a job. He told me that in the interview they asked him if he ever lied. He said that he did. Everybody lies. They asked me the same question in my interview and I told them that I do not lie (I certainly try not to). I did not get hired. Perhaps this time it will be different.

Rhyme Time

In the wee hours of the morning I awoke to yelling and banging. My first thought was "Someone in a neighboring flat has fallen down the stairs." As I rolled over in bed I realized John wasn't there. So my next thought was "John has fallen down the stairs." I lay there waking up and trying to decide what to do because if John wasn't seriously hurt he would probably rather I ignore his fall. Then I remembered why John wasn't in bed. He was staying up to watch the presidential debate. 9pm Eastern standard time. 2am our time. I asked myself for a moment if anything else could cause yelling and banging. Myself answered yes. I decided, while lying in the dark of the bedroom upstairs, that John was trying to keep himself occupied until the debate started by playing Mario Kart. And he was losing. I opened the bedroom door and came down the stairs where I did not find John in a pitiful pile of arms and legs. I opened the door to the living room to find John playing Mario Kart with the television volume down very low. I told him I had come to turn the radiators down. Oh and also, his Mario Kart exclamations had made me think he had fallen down the stairs. I didn't hear him again.

This afternoon I went to a Tiny Tots Rhyme Time in the children's area of the Millennium Library. I just observed today but I will be helping out with some Rhyme Times in the future. The children in attendance were infants and toddlers. So, some of them said the rhymes and did the actions along with the librarians, and some bounced on mum's knee while she helped them out. The program was all rhymes with one board book of the Incey Wincey Spider. The librarians handed out some rattles and other noise making devices at the beginning and also handed puppets and stuffed animals to the children after they were done using them during the program. When it was over they collected everything. Rhyme Time started with quieter finger play rhymes and progressed to marching and wiggly jiggly rhymes. I recognized about half of them, but even of the ones I knew there were usually some differences.

I like horsey rhymes, so I'll transcribe for you the one we did today (new to me):

Horsey Horsey, don't you stop
Just let your feet go clipperty clop
Your tail goes swish
And the wheels go round
Giddy up, we're homeward bound

Horsey Horsey, on your way
You've made the journey many a day
Your tail goes swish
And the wheels go round
Giddy up, we're homeward bound

On Friday I am going to pirate party to celebrate National Bookstart Day. The National Bookstart program provides free books to children, and they have just added a new package for preschool age children that looks like a treasure chest.

While I was at the library I was also able to check out my first books (since my library card finally arrived in the mail this week). I got Just Henry by Michelle Magorian. (Expect a review of this book in my other blog.) Just Henry is on a reading list for a young adult reading group I will be attending in November. I discovered that the Millennium Library has a huge music collection so I also checked out a guitar book, just to mix things up with my regular practice.

Purple Velvet Marshmallow

I had another library appointment today, this time to talk to the people responsible for library service to schools and branch libraries. I thought it went well because:

a) I left with an arm full of children's books (and a list of young adult books) to read.

b) I am now scheduled to go to all kinds of book discussion groups.

c) I may be able to get paid for some of the things I will be doing.

d) Having an American children's librarian about seems to be making people very happy. And I like when being myself makes people happy.

The day's other accomplishments included getting a cell phone for John (so we can actually talk to each other when neither of us is at home), picking out bicycles that will be fully fitted with racks and baskets and ready to be picked up on Saturday, and starting me down the road to being the next great American folk singer (never mind that I can't sing):















I know what you're thinking.

"Is that a guitar?"

Yes, yes it is. While I am in England I will learn to play guitar. Pianos don't travel well.

"But, it looks kind of small."

It is. I am a small person. I like that my arm doesn't fall asleep while I'm practicing.

"But....it's purple."

I know, and I love it!