*ices fingertips*

Ok. Here's the story. No, not of a lovely lady who was bringing up 3 very lovely girls. This one is about my first night of guitar class. :)

I got home from work, choked down a turkey sandwich, almost threw it up because I was so nervous, grabbed my guitar and headed out the door. The class was supposed to start at 7:30 and I showed up about 10 minutes early. I walked into the designated room (it's held at a local middle school, about 5 minutes from my apartment) and there was a woman sitting there strumming her guitar. I was surprised that there weren't more people, but I figured it was just because I like to be early for things. I sat down and we started chatting. She was probably in her 50's, even though she didn't look it, but she has a 30 year old son. Her name is Sheila and she was very nice and easy to talk to. She has been taking some private guitar classes, but didn't really like her instructor so she thought she would give someone else a try.

7:30 comes and goes, and it's still just me and Sheila. No teacher. No other students. We start to worry that the class was cancelled and we were not informed. A couple minutes later, 2 other women walk in. They were Hannah, 16, and her mom Sandy. (I'm writing their names so I don't forget them next week. Heh.) Hannah's mom was just dropping her off, but once she saw that there was no teacher she decided to stay a little while just in case no one showed up. We chit-chatted for quite a while longer. Everyone was very nice. Hannah and Sheila are both very talkative, which is good for me since I'm not so good at conversing with strangers.

We were still chatting at 7:45 when we heard some keys jingling in a side door. Some very odd little man came in and mumbled some stuff about people going to the wrong building. What people? The teacher? Other students? We didn't know. He was very hard to understand. Sheila asked him if we were in the right place and he mumbled something that passed for a yes, and then something about them being on their way, so we sat patiently and chatted a while longer.

Around 8:00, which was going to be my cut-off time for waiting any longer, we heard some footsteps coming down the hall. It was a man and a woman that turned out to be the teacher and his ??? He said she was his boss, which she laughed at, so I'm thinking maybe it was his wife? It wasn't clear. Heh. He apologized for keeping us waiting, and explained that he had gone to the place where he taught his last class by mistake. He said he would still like to get in the full hour if none of us didn't have anywhere to be. We didn't. :)

So, he started into his speech. He was a little bit of a douche (talking about how his technique is better than anything else, informing us that he has a cd coming out soon, telling stories about his backwoods Uncle Dave, etc.) but for the most part, a likeable guy. He kept making football references and old cowboy movie references and I looked around at the other two women that he was teaching and they didn't seem to be getting it either. LOL. He was funny though, and by this time I was starting to relax a little.

He talked for a while, he played a little bit while he was talking, and then he played this cool song medley for us. I didn't recognize many of them, but I did hear "Play That Funky Music" lol, some really pretty classical piece that I don't know the name of but I recognize it, and of course "Stairway to Heaven". *snort* He seemed like he was pretty good.

Then came the part where we actually learned stuff! Woo! He taught us 3 different chords and we just practiced getting our fingers placed correctly, and going back and forth between them. I was a little bit slower than the other girls, because they had both at least picked up a guitar before! LOL. He could sense that it was making me nervous, and he was nice about it, and kept telling me that I was doing good. We did that for awhile, and then time was up. He just told us to practice those 3 chords, even just for 5 minutes a day, to get used to the finger placement and feel of the strings. Damn the strings! My fingers are still hurting! LOL. It's going to take some getting used to, but I am looking forward to the next class. :)

Oh, and I am really surprised that they didn't cancel it since there were only 3 of us there. It is better this way, because we will all get much more personal instruction, but I was a little bummed. One of my hopes for this class was to make some friends my own age. Oh well. Both of the other students were really nice, and that is good. And I just really needed to get out of the house and try something new, and I'm proud of myself for going through with it.

Thank you all for encouraging me, and for not making me feel stupid about being so nervous. Love you guys! *smooches*

(I feel like I'm forgetting something I was going to say.... grrrr.)