Back to School

Ok, so I'm not really going back to school. I'm still paying off the 30 grand of debt I accumulated from my last school. I am, however, looking for things to learn (beats, rhythms, two-handed coordination excercises, claves, rhumbas, 6 time patterns--whatever), and making a list of the things I want to learn, and printing out and downloading and copying out the things I want to learn. And I'm learning some of the things, and I'm planning on learning the other things, and it's all good. I have this habit of wanting to learn things, and then figuring them out, but then I don't really get them into my system. So it's like yes, playing a clave is easy enough, but can I remember it? Do I walk down the hall playing a clave pattern to my steps and do I tap out claves on my desk, and clave the time away while I'm sitting at a red light with my blinker on? No. That's the difference between knowing how to play something, and really having it in your arsenal to recall with ease when it comes time to play that solo or whatever.

Learning is different when you're doing it on your own. By the time I was almost finished with grad school I was sooo ready to be done with school. I remember thinking about how nice it was going to be to just sit down with a book and not have to underline in it and analyze it to death and think about thesis ideas for the next 25-page paper. I read some good books after that. But I think my problem is that I like the pressure of having to learn a pattern by such and such a time. Plus, when you get the pattern down, then you get to play with the other guys and then all the patterns come together and, if you all did your homework, they lock. But I guess all this is preparation for the future, and I need to get the basics down before I can really move on.

Oh and guess what? My friend and I signed up to run Bay to Breakers on May 21. It's a 12k. Did you hear me people? That's right, a 12k. For those of you who suck at math, that's something like 7 miles. Basically we're going to start out on one side of San Francisco (the bay-side) and run all the way across the whole city (which has a giant hill in the middle of it. Giant. Hill.) to the ocean (the breaker-side). I'm telling you, it's insanity. Some people dress up in elaborate costumes. Some people don't care to dress at all. All I want is to finish, and I want my friend to finish too, but we'll see about that. I think they take your picture as you cross the finish line, and I'll post that when it happens. Until then, I'm officially in training.