Not only did my drum teacher call me back-he surprised me!! I start my lessons back at the music store the first week of July AND he offered to work with me some evenings during the week! Totally unexpected-totally! I continue to practice, going through my old lessons and reviewing. It's not going as bad as I expected. Working on perfecting the movements of my hands and wrists and trying not to get that carpel tunnel pain that tells me that I'm doing something wrong. It's so hard for me to play softly. I spend a lot of my practice time starting slow, getting as fast as I can then slowing down again. Also playing as soft as possible which really isn't very soft at all. Being right-handed, my left lags behind. I wonder if I will ever get to where my left hand is pretty equal to my right. My daughter says no. Well that makes me even more determined to make it equal. Don't tell me no!!

Then I throw on the head phones and try to copy the drum beats and fills. There are a few jazz tunes from my lesson days that I can keep up with for the most part.  My dream is to be a professional though . I know I'm a long way from that but I've got the rest of my life. I'm planning on living to 120 so that leaves 80 years. I gotta live that long to make up for the first 40 that I screwed up. I figure an average life span is about 80, so I want 80 more years to do things the right way. The first 40 were my practice years. Now is my real life. Thinking that way keeps me from getting down about the past which is real easy to do.

Yesterday I moved my drum set upstairs into my empty loft-area bonus room space, as I like to call it. Left over from my long marriage is this 3,000 square foot house. My ex gave it to me without any fight. He didn't even get a lawyer. I guess the variety of strange young crotch he samples was a whole lot more exciting than a dumb old house and a wife. So I've got this big old house all to myself with two kids away in college. It's been up for sale, but in this market it has hardly been shown and no offers. Last night I decided to make the most of his infidelity gift and utilize all the space FOR ME. My drum set has been in my master bedroom for the past year. My daughter and I hauled it upstairs in pieces and viola! I have an official studio. I am a real musician now with a real studio. It's huge up there, so I figure I can add a baby grand piano one day when I find some desperate soul trying to keep from going under in this economy and they are practically giving it away to keep from starving. But for now I love my new studio AND I created another space for myself downstairs. My daughter and I half carried and half dropped my prize chaise lounge and cedar chest I had sitting in the loft. They were pretty much swallowed up by that large space and lonely because I never went up there. Now they are looking dandy as part of my new bedroom. I created a sitting area with the beige paisley chaise lounge, a table, another end table and a lamp I had tucked away in a closet. This morning I found a red pillow and fluffy blanket to throw across the lounge. Three years into it and I'm starting to like this single and independent new life!