About the only "music" I produced during our lesson was a C major scale. It's frustrating how something so easy and automatic for me to play on piano is extremely difficult on a new instrument. I already knew the tunings of the strings and that each fret represented a half step, but translating that into playing in time was not as easy as I'd hoped. Obviously I need to practice on a regular basis if I have any hope of actually learning this. In any case, assuming I get the strings soon, I'll probably start biweekly lessons in mid-April.
Sunday I went shopping to find something to wear for my concert next Monday. I truly hate shopping for clothes, but I had a gift card for Macy's, so headed to Union Square first. Unfortunately Macy's was closed for Easter Sunday. H&M was on the next block and I'd never been there, so I decided to check them out. They were full of inexpensive clothes and people much younger than myself. I picked up a bunch of solid-color halter tops and a belt for $5.90 each, but could not for the life of me find any pants in "petite" or "short" length. I'm 5' 4 1/2" which is not that short, or so I thought, but nothing I could find fit me. When the guy at checkout asked if I'd found everything OK, I told him this, and he looked puzzled when I said "petite-length pants" as if it was a foreign concept.
Since I almost never go shopping, have I missed some important development in women's clothing or body sizes? I ask because I went to the Gap next, and they also didn't have any pants in petite or short length - they had something called "ankle", but not in the pants I was looking at or in the size I thought I needed (14 - although I was hoping for a 12, none of the 12s I tried on at H&M fit. I do hate hate hate women's clothing.) I went across the street to FCUK, saw a pair of pants for $160 and another for $128, and walked out the door. As I Twittered later, for that price I expect a built-in vibrator.
Across the street, found that the SF Shopping Center was also closed for Easter. Tried out the one short-length pant I found at American Eagle Outfitter's - "low-rise" = terrible, terrible fit. Helpful signs noted that different lengths were available at their online store; maybe that's why I can't find anything that fits anymore? Last stop was Old Navy, where I actually thought I might have some luck as I finally found pants of shorter length (although a couple were really capris); everything I tried was too loose in the waist but too tight in the thighs. I gave up. I'm going to try Mervyn's at lunch today or later this week; I've had good luck finding pants there in the past. Hopefully they haven't moved all their "petite" inventory online too...
boyziggy and I then went to Cha-Ya and had wonderful vegan Japanese food. The CityCarShare we rented was filthy, so Ziggy was a good car-sharing citizen and washed it before we headed to another rehearsal. We got through the set twice again, and it went mostly OK, though I had a disagreement with the guitarist over the ending of one song and I got somewhat unreasonably angry about it. I'm over it now though. Should still be a great show. :-) 