I got my drums today (as you can see). I was going to wait until after the week-end so that my parents wouldn't say anything about how much it cost. But one of my loan checks cleared yesterday, and it was way more than enough to pay off the balance on the drums. I was tired of playing on desks... I wanted to hear how I actually sounded. And I decided that I'm NOT feeling guilty about buying the drums. Technically, the loan money is my money (although I think I'm really supposed to use it for education-related expenses...), and I think I did the right thing by getting these for myself... I wanted to keep going with the gift Dave had begun in me. Drumming is a good outlet for me too when I feel like I can't sit still or when I'm upset about something.
Anyway, since I'm not ashamed of having bought the drums, I see no reason to keep them secret. My parents can be upset about it if they want, but I don't expect them to be. At the most, they'll probably tell me not to spend any more of my loan money on big-ticket items.
I'd never put a drum set together myself before. Dave had told me it was important to know how to do it so that you can set up at gigs and again when you get home, but he'd never pushed the issue... I'd helped him set up but he mainly told me where everything went.
The main thing, for me, was remembering where all the pieces go... I knew enough to know that you sit behind the bass drum and snare, but beyond that I wasn't sure. Luckily the drums came with instructions--I kept looking at the pictures to get an idea of what should go where. I had trouble putting my snare on its stand and I put my hi-hat clutch on upside down at first but eventually I got it together.
I have a small "porch" off my living room... there's a door that goes directly outside and the other door goes back into the living room. That's where I put the drums. They took up a bit more space than I thought they would... mainly, the problem was that in order to have room to play the bass drum I had to move it forward more than I wanted to. Right now my CD player is just a little in front of the bass drum... I may move it because it's not great for the sound, but so far its working. I also took the set of plastic drawers that I'm not using for clothes out of my bedroom and put it in the drum room so I could have a place to keep my drum key and tools, as well as the instruction booklets and spare batteries for the CD player. I didn't have a place for the cymbal bag that came with my cymbals, but for now I slid it behind the set of drawers. I also put a fan in the room--it's closer to outside, which makes it hotter, and drumming can make me hot!
I wish the room was just a little bigger so I could take a picture of the whole thing. Unfortunately the wall between the living room and the drum room is in the way... if this was a Sims 2 house I would be using the build tools to get rid of the friggin' wall! I can't get my drums all in one shot, to my disappointment... I had to take the picture on top of this post from the side.
It's 8:30 now so it's a little late for playing :( I did get a chance to play a little earlier. I tested out the CD and drums. It sounds so good to play real drums, as opposed to tapping on the desk. The snare is rattling a little. Tomorrow I'll look on-line for informatin about tuning so I can take care of that.
I can't wait to begin lessons. They gave me a phone number at the music store. Next week I'll call and see if I can make arrangements. I hope it's not too expensive. I'd better find a job SOON if I want to keep this up...
In the meantime, as I said, my parents are visiting for the week-end. They're leaving early tomorrow morning and plan to be here in the evening sometime (They're driving because they want to bring me my grandpa's rowing machine, which got donated to them and which I want to use.) If they get here early enough, they'll eat dinner with me. I'm planning on making a vegetable lasagna and another banana bread pudding tomorrow. I haven't planned my menus for the rest of the week-end. On Saturday we may go to the movies or the mall or something. I was going to take them to Red Lobster (across the street from the music store) one evening. There's also a really nice-looking Chinese restaurant next door to the music store. Chinese food is my absolute favourite... too bad it's s high in calories! I still have leftovers from last Sunday because I'm being very careful about my portion sizes.
In addition to getting the drums, I got out another 5 submissions today. I'm running out of printer paper so I will have to get some more before I can go on with the submissions process--I'm reprinting my manuscript each time, which is probably a waste of ink but is far better quality than I can get off the copy machines at Staples. I'm hoping to get out 10 submissions tomorrow since I doubt I'll be stopping by the Post Office while my parents are here. That'll bring the grand total to 18... I want to get a total of 25 out.
Tomorrow is going to be a very busy day because I want to finish cleaning up before my parents get here, plus I want to get caught up on my homework. So far I've cleaned the kitchen and bathroom. I feel so much better living in a clean environment... I was so proud of the kitchen I took a picture of it:
Tomorrow I plan on straightening the bedroom and computer room. I need to get rid of a bunch of papers that are lying around looking messy. I also want to clean out the inside of my car. It's FILLED with papers. I can just hear what Dave would say if he were here... "Come on, Professor," he'd say. "I'm gone for two months and you let your car get like that? What's wrong with you?"
Here's another picture of the drums to round out this post. I finally figured out how to get the whole set into the shot, although I don't see any way I could get myself into the picture because I have to hold the camera up to do this. Of course, you can't quite see the snare, but this gives you a sense of how beautiful this set is. I wish it wasn't so late so I could go play...
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