Pioneer Day

So I had originally written this on the 24th of July. But it never wanted to post here is what I had said:

Oh, look at that. Less than a week. Now look here.

I'm on a horse.

Saying Hello

So.... Yeah. Ha. Guess getting in the habit to write here is quite a challenge for me.
How long has it been? I can't tell here because I'm writing this via semi new phone. It's definitely been more than a couple of years.
But in news, It might be easier for me to frequent this place now that I have access to it daily wherever I go. Yay! for technology.

Stray Meanderings is the name of this blog, right?
Well, got a new phone a while back and I'm going to try Texas toast today.

Smiling Fingers

I found a mandolin about a month ago. Saw it at some guy's yard sale while I was out walking the family dog one morning. When I first saw it I wasn't exactly sure what it was. All I thought was, "What a curious looking instrument... it's cute, I must have it." It was only $25 and I had a lot of cash at the time.

I took it home and started researching what it was. The guy said it was Russian so I looked up Russian stringed instruments. The balalaika was too angular, and the other instruments were too strange to be the little thing I was holding. I was starting to think the guy was wrong, but I looked at the maker tag inside the body and that was definitely in Russian. I guessed it was just made in Russia.

That's when I started thinking it might just be a mandolin or a lute, something from that family. I looked up Mandolins, but they either had the funky scrolls or the F shape sound holes, nothing simple looking like mine. Eventually my boyfriend found a picture of an A style Soviet Mandolin that was almost identical to mine. We translated the Russian Text and it pretty much said the same thing.

Now that all the background has been filled in I can go back to "Fingers". They hurt. I never could play stringed instruments like guitars for very long. They always made my hands hurt. I could never reach chords because the fret boards were so wide, not to mention the pain from having to push down the strings. My tender fingers only knew how to push piano and clarinet keys not thin wires. But that is the funny part. Mandolin strings are thiner and a lot harder to push down.

While playing, the strings have actually sliced into the edge of my nail giving them strange toothy edges. You're probably wondering why I don't give up and just make the instrument part of my room's decor... I can't, because it makes me happy. Not the pain in my fingers, but the mandolin sound. It makes me want to keep trying. Every time I attempt to play Irish jigs, Spanish melodies, or any tune my sister throws at me, it gets me excited. I keep plucking and plucking until I find the right notes.

I love my mandolin now. It's small, it's cute, and I can't wait for the *plink plink* sound of the double strings to makes me smile. ^^ Now if only I could get my sister to play her guitar with me.

Ah, well, I guess it came along faster than the 6 months I had previously predicted. Guess being busy with school, although giving me many topics to write on, kept me preoccupied far too much to write anything down. Brain's a little blank right now maybe I'll go and think about what to write next.

Things on my mind: oysters on saltine crackers, cigarette paper (for cleaning not smoking), payrolls.

Blah Blah Blah

So, yup. Don't really know what to say about anything or how my life is going... I probably don't want to say much about my own personal life. >.> I never really understood these blog thingies.
But who knows.
I might get addicted to it for about 6 months before I move on to other things. It seems like a lot of things are like that. Myspace; on it for 6 months until it got infested with crazy guys with crappy profile pics who keep asking to be my friend even though I haven't the faintest clue who they are. Then Facebook; more intelligent than Myspace, but slowly falling into the same trap. The difference is its random invites to the billions of the same apps like Mob wars or Blood Lust or "what kind of random sepia color represents your inner child's worst nightmare from that one time at the wooden playground" application or "if 5o,000 people join I will legally change my name to Starburst Skittle Snickers" group invite. >.>;
So...
Um...
Yeah...
It will be a miracle if I keep this up for 6 months. If it lives longer than that... this blog thing must be something worthwhile. We will see with time.
(Now to figure out all the other little things this can do.)