Sigh

Frustrated and depressed today. For the past couple weeks I've been looking forward to going to taiko, and today we finally got to the new space and I was all happy and excited because we were working on slant stand kata, hitting big lefts and rights, paying attention to the little things like knees and knuckles and how to plant our feet. And I look up and there's this guy scowing at us through the fence, and at first I try to ignore him but I know he's trouble. When we stop for a minute, he starts yelling at us through the fence. He's all mad because we're violating his right to wake up and drink coffee and read a book in peace because our playing is so loud and invasive and, I quote, "random." Ugh, there were a million other things he said, but thinking about them makes me angry. Janet handled it much better, listening to the guy and trying to hold a civil conversation with him, whereas I would have pulled him through the chain link fence by the collar and shook him, because that's what I want to do to people who so blatantly push their entitlement around, going wah wah wah, you're violating my rights as a citizen! A citizen of Alameda!

Sigh. Do taiko players really have to banish themselves to remote islands in order to play their music? We muted the drums (remember that from before? We played a whole year on rubber and elastic covered drums, and then finished that off with the big November concert? We didn't even get to hear what we sounded like till, literally, the day before the concert.) and got through the rest of the rehearsal, but geez, it sucks.