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There’s a bit of Meighan in all of us.
You better get your Meighan out.
Swing your Meighan.
When you say Meighan you’ve said it all.
Oh my goddess, it’s a Meighan.
Bigger. Better. Meighan.
Meighan, it’s a kind of magic.
It’s not a dream. Meighan is real!
I wish I was a Meighan.
Meighan, whiter than the whitest!
Meighan, the secret of women.

Sloganizer

Around Christmas, I brought out my violin to play simple carols for Tommy and Athena. I knew I hadn’t played in quite a while, and that the last time I tried to play I sounded pretty bad, but I figure, hey, they’re simple songs, how bad could it be?

Short answer: It was bad.

REALLY bad. I sounded like I was just beginning– squeaky, unsteady, wrong notes, wrong finger placements. Granted, it’s been at least 5 years since I really played; however, I used to be really, really good. In 7th grade, I placed 4th chair in the city’s youth orchestra. Most of the people seated behind me were older than me. (There are usually around 30 violinists in an orchestra.) I stopped auditioning for the youth orchestra in 10th grade, and dropped out of my high school Strings class starting in 11th grade, but I continued to practice at home, at least occasionally. While I was no longer as good as I used to be, I at least was decent.

Fast-forward to my leaving for Hawaii. I was limited in what I could bring with me, so my violin got left behind. (In all fairness, I’m not convinced that if I went to another school, I would have brought it with me, either.) It was 2 years before I returned, and although I brought my violin back with me that time, when I tried to play, I was dismayed by how bad I’d gotten. So I didn’t play because it was painful to hear myself, to see just how far I’d fallen.

So now, after even more years of not playing, I’ve gotten to the point where I sound like I did when I first started out. I wanted to play something simple for my children– both for their enjoyment and in the secret hopes that they’d someday want to learn to play, too– but found myself incapable. Because I stopped using my talents, I lost them, and it would take a lot of work to get back to where I was. I don’t know that I have the energy or motivation to devote to that, so it seems likely that I’ll never really regain that lost talent.

I can, however, continue to hope that my kids decide they want to play.

Yes, today (or at least this morning) was a crappy day, in more ways than one…

First off, our apartment parking deck is being fixed, so during the day we have to find street parking. I got lucky yesterday and found parking after 3 swingarounds, but today after 4-6 times around the block, nothing had yet opened up. I had a doctor’s appointment later, so I decided to just go up to the deck, park next to the door, run inside and grab a few things, then head on out to the hospital, where I could wait an hour or so for my appointment. Since I was parking where I wasn’t supposed to be, I was in a bit of a hurry. When climbing back inside the car after returning from my apartment, I managed to hit the back of my head hard enough to leave me feeling woozy, with a headache lasting for several hours afterwards.

When I got to the hospital, I sat in the car and fed Athena for a while. While doing this, she starts to poo. I figure I’ll wait for her to both finish eating and pooing, then I’ll change her. But of course, once she’s done and I shift her to get out of the car, I discover that the poo… leaked. REALLY leaked. All over her clothes, all over MY clothes, on the car, on the ground… I even discovered some on her bag later, while walking to my doctor’s office. And yes… that means I had to go to an appointment covered in poo. I had no change of clothes, after all. I washed off what I could in the restroom, so I don’t think anyone noticed, but still. It’s GROSS. (And yes, that is why I say today was a “crappy” day. A ha ha ha ha ha ha…)

After my appointment, I go back to the car, only to discover that the jerk next to me parked over his line, leaving me so that I couldn’t fit Athena’s carseat through her door. I had to crawl in from the other side, struggling to get over Tommy’s carseat, just to get her inside.

Luckily, my day improved after that. I found parking right next to my building, and didn’t even have to swing around. I got a good nap, Toby brought me some yummy chocolate peanut butter cake, and we went out to the mall. So aside from a difficult morning, I had a pretty good day. Hooray for chocolate peanut butter cake!