Just Remember, You Asked For This

I’ve been mulling over something for a week now.   I’ve been messaging a friend back and forth, getting his advice since he’s a professional in this area.   It would have been easy to not do it, but sometimes you’ve got to go with a gut feeling.

This morning I looked up what time the store my friend had suffused would open.   It didn’t open until noon, which I though was unusual, until I remembered it was a music store and probably those musicians all worked late nights which meant opening later in the day was better for business hours.

The store I went to sold drums.   Just drums.   I didn’t know there was such a thing as a store that sold only drums and not other music instruments—but there was.   The store was big.   There were more drums and cymbals everywhere.  

I asked the man who opened the store for help, saying I wanted to get a drum set for my children.   And because I’m not particularly shy, I told him I knew zero about drums.   There were, I knew, drums and "cymbal thingies" in a set, but that’s all I really knew.   He laughed at me, which was what I was going for, believing it is better to intentionally look ignorant than accidentally.

He showed me the various sets, what the names of the different components were, what they had for sale new and used, what he though would work well for my seven- and eight-year-old children that would also grow with them and not wear out in a year.   I wasn’t going for a children’s toy set.   I wanted real drums, hence the specialty store.  

As we talked the other two men who had come in were giving me advice too.   We collectively decided on a set and then I picked the cherry red over the muted blue set.   Would it fit in my car?  Sure, he said I cold probably get two sets in the car given how they break down and stack.   They did delivery and installation for fifty dollars, but he said he’d show me and I could easily do it myself.

I took pictures, which I’m glad I did because some of the heights and relative positions I would have gotten wrong when I set it up at home.  It’s all set up now, waiting for my children to get home.   Will it be used a lot?  Will the children and their friends want to have a band?  We set the keyboard of mine circa 1990 beside it and moved the tall table to another room, dedicating it the new “Game Table” for all the monopoly and other games we’ve been playing.   We have an electric guitar Uncle Eric gave my daughter some time back.   All we need is a band name now, right?

I sent a picture to my friend who helped me with all the advice.   He replied, “nice looking set.  When they won’t stop playing it and you’re tired of the loud noise, just remember, you asked for this.”  He’s promised to come over to give my children a lesson soon.   I tried playing them myself.   I’m going to need a lot more than a single lesson.   Regardless of my ineptitude at playing the drums, they’re so much fun to play.



The Big Boy Tiny Girl D&D Update:  My children found a Dungeons and Dragons game on Alexa recently.   It follows how real D&D is played based on my memories from when I was younger.  They sit at the bar in the kitchen and pay rapt attention to which cardinal directions they can move, what their options are for attacking or defending against mobs and try to get further each time they play.   Alexa tells them what roll they need to get on the dice in order to be successful for each given action.   She uses the same dice used in D&D including dice with four, six, ten, twelve and twenty sides.   I went downstairs last night to the big bowl containing my dice collection that resides on our bar, got one of each type of die and brought them up for the children to see (or feel).   They were rolling the dice along with Alexa this morning while they played and ate breakfast.