Think of Top Chef or Chopped. To be on TV would be a disaster for me because I’m a mess in front of people and cameras. Yes. I was on camera several times over many years trying to gain dog-friendly parks.
As a kid, girlfriends and shopping took over my interests over violin and piano. Yes, I became a gymnast, not a great one but I was made captain in two weeks. I was a better leader than a gymnast.
I had to learn violin and piano as a child, and ballet. I gave them all up. “Santa” gave me a cheap guitar at age 12 and I created a band and we actually sang on stage once. Luckily they didn’t have cell phone cameras back then. Even with the three of us, two tone-deaf, I believe we came in at 2nd place. Imagine that.
On April 15 at age 50 after turning in our income taxes I went out and bought a guitar and started taking private lessons. It was the wrong guitar and I found a new one, a preacher teacher, then new drummer teacher, and found a part of me.
They didn’t let me learn. One was about religion, the other was a drummer so he was always about the beat. I was in an unforgiving state, the religious zealot left me. Forget my learning basics. I was learning on my own and one day sang the drummer the last stanzas of American Pie and did a riff. Then I learned another and started singing harmony to him and he followed me.
Then he got mean, and he said “you have perfect pitch.” Yes, I’ve been told that by my father who has relative pitch and by a few music teachers in grade school and high school. That was the end.
I’ve a beautiful guitar now, that I keep hydrated. It’s a Seagull Artist Folk that I’ve not had the heart to take up again until I read lyrics and imagine the chords. It may be OK to play and sing for my husband and kids. The artistry is in my mind and voice, not in my fingers. I play at the guitar, I do not play it.
Retired now, I like to be able to imagine and even do any lyric I read, any recipe or cooking idea I come up with. I’m retired from consulting, lobbying and government. It’s been a great ride and so is volunteering, 20 years. It may be time to take up the Seagull again.
When I awake, I may do so with a song. I translate it to notes in my mind and ways I can make it sing. It depends on the song what I play. Dee
ps Thank you WP for making my trip not a safe one. The typo above has been corrected about 100 times but WP keeps adding to it because they’ve nothing else to do. How about ping pong? Or would you like a nice game of chess. Cheers, Dee
Cooking with Dee 