Hi! It’s me! Lily!!!
Well, first thing’s first. We did have a practice today. It didn’t really go well. But I didn’t expect it to. I was trying to keep a good rhythm going, Crystal is very much not used to playing with other people and still has to think about the chords, Beth was trying to sing and ended up, well, not, and well, you know how they say in church “Make a joyful noise?” We ended up dialing the amps way down because the neighbor dogs were starting to howl, and Marie wasn’t all that happy either.
Crystal was really discouraged after, but I told her that this is part of a band, getting to know how the other plays, and sometimes you’re just not as good together as you think you are alone. I told her to keep practicing.
Beth was a little discouraged too for other reasons. She’s not a bad singer, but she doesn’t know how to listen. But she doesn’t really know how to listen in everyday life too, so it’s a skill she needs to learn. As for me, it was interesting. I have experience accompanying, so I kind of want to follow, but as a drummer, my job is to keep things on an even keel and provide a solid rhythm for them to follow. I have to get used to that. I don’t really drive the melody or harmony or anything, but I keep the rhythm going. If they lag or lead, I can’t try to adapt to them, I just have to keep whaling at a good beat and let them recover themselves.
So there’s that.
We’ll get together again next week. Maybe Ai and friends will be there to give us an audience. They’re Japanese, so they probably won’t tell us directly we suck. Probably something like “well, you’re trying your best”.
Liz came over and played her violin too. I’m not sure if she really wants to be a member, but she seemed to have fun, and she’s about as professional as I am, and maybe the band needs that.
Crystal really didn’t do too badly for as long as she’s been playing, though. She really does have potential. And a lot of drive, too.
A couple of boys walking by stopped and looked. That was funny. Crystal got flustered. She, umm… really needs to lose the rocker attitude and keep that finger down…
Crystal’s lyrics are really good though. We all kind of gushed over them, and Beth really likes singing them. Even the ones that are a little edgy.
So, after all that, we had a birthday party for Sabby tonight. All the girls from the shop came over too, even Katie and cat-girl. Baker made a nice and very decadent cake (she used company resources and we paid for her time but I approved that and told Sabby to shut up when she protested – it’s part my company too and she deserves it). There weren’t any letters or professions of love, but we got her nice presents and all told her how much she means to us. Even cat-girl who said that she’s put up with far more from her than she probably should have, and bowed Japanese-style. I wonder where she picked that up.
Aftewards she went up to take a bath but not in the “Sabby’s pissed” way but in the “someone got me a nice bath product and darn well I’m gonna use it” kinda way. Dave followed her up, and the rest of us finished the cake and played party games. Katie brought her kid, too, so everyone was cooing over her. Katie’s coming back to work soon but we have to figure out child care.
Eventually everyone left and, well, here I am. It was a pretty good night, and it’s nice to have something to do on Sunday that’s not listening to someone talk about things I don’t understand.
Okay!