"I Would Buy Myself A Grey Guitar And Sing"

It's been one of those busy days. Work wasn't too bad, thankfully, though tomorrow is going to be one of my long days (8-12 and 4-10). After work, I went over to my aunt and uncle's place and hung out, mostly in an effort to convince my cousin's daughter to get used to me. Bailey always seems frightened to death of me for the first ten or fifteen minutes I'm around, and then she suddenly seems to remember who I am, grab me buy the hand, and drag me around the house to play. We've decided there are two possible reasons she's always initially so scared of me: one, I look like some member of her mother's family who has, somehow, mistreated the child (if that's the case, blood will be shed. But I seriously doubt that this is the case, as I really don't look anything like any of my cousin's wife's family). Two, I'm just a wee bit imposing to a two year old. I'm one of the biggest guys in my family, both in terms of height and weight. Clif is taller, but Bailey is never around him except when it's a big family gathering. My cousin was apparently frightened of our great-uncle when he was Bailey's age (granted, my great-uncle is a rather imposing individual himself--fully half a foot and a hundred pounds larger than I, with a deep, booming bass voice. If you didn't know he was such a teddy bear, you'd be scared to death of him...and since I know he was a cop in Tulsa and once took out a length of chainlink fence with a guy for resisting arrest, "bear" is probably a fairly accurate description in many ways). My cousin is a slight young man, and his parents are neither tall nor large themselves. His wife is no taller or larger than he. My grandparents aren't really all that big, either (though my grandfather is a tall man and exceptionally strong and well-built, he seems smaller than he is...plus, he's Papaw. It's tough to be scared of an old man who will still get down on the floor and play horsey). I'm the biggest person she encounters on a regular basis. I'm also the only one with facial hair, something which we're pretty certain Bailey just really doesn't like anyway.

So I may end up shaving the goatee off. Been thinking about doing so anyway for awhile now, just for a change. We'll see.

I'm actually seeing improvement with my guitar abilities. I was changing chords this evening and not completely sucking at it, which is a vast improvement over yesterday, when I was playing a chord, stopping, switching to another chord, playing that one, and switching to the next. Hell, by the end of the month, I might even be able to play a real song. Of course, that's assuming I can get the strumming down. I swear, I didn't realize that strumming would be that difficult. I strum too hard, I'm not very accurate (I miss the strum sometimes...I miss the freakin' strings. I have no idea how I do it). It all looks so easy when I watch Clif or my dad or my uncle play, and I'm kinda frustrated that it's not that easy for me. But I keep reminding myself that they've all been playing for years (Clif for about four or five years now, and my dad and my uncle have been playing for longer than I've been alive). I've been playing for a couple of weeks.

Anyway, I've a headache, tomorrow's comic is already scanned and uploaded, and there's really nothing keeping me awake at the moment. I'm off.

~chuck

Song of the Moment: Counting Crows, "Caravan"