Short Nights, Long Days and Mistakes

For me the day had started off early on far too little sleep. But that was okay, the reasons behind it are well worth it. My first major task to accomplish was dumping a full load of used shingles that were occupying my truck. The day before I had loaded the shingles (okay, with some assistance) and was already feeling sore from it. My thighs, lower back and elbows were killing me but I had a short time to get this done because there was a free lunchtime class at TCC (Tulsa Community College) called “Don’t Know How to Play Guitar” that I really wanted to attend. Every semester TCC’s Metro Campus offers a series of these introductory classes on various topics. This class advertised teaching beginners two or three chords and giving them a foundation on the guitar which is something I drastically need. I mean the cheap beat up acoustic I’ve had for about fifteen years continues to sit unused so it’s high time I buckled down and actually did something with it.

After a quick shower I jumped in my truck and raced to the campus and jumped into the first parking spot I could find. Grabbing the guitar case with its broken handle I hugged it to my body and fast walked my way into the building and through the door. It was then that I noticed that none of the people sitting in the large room had a guitar. It turns out I had my dates switched up. Today was “Don’t Know How to Draw Portraits” not the guitar class I was expecting. Feeling disappointed (and a bit embarrassed) I decided to stay and have something positive to show for my time. The class goal was to draw a portrait of actor Tom Hanks using pencil and then charcoal. Even though it’s been quite some time since I have drawn, especially something of this difficulty, I leapt into it, disregarding most of the instructor’s suggestions as I did it my way, on my timetable for better or for worse.

To me the finished product looks more like John Travolta than Tom Hanks but you be the judge. Maybe I need to get back into art, at least just a little and then things would actually look like they should. After stuffing the still unused guitar and the sort-of-looks-like-him portrait in my truck I had a quick lunch and a (far too) short nap before driving to work where a full, busy night awaited me. That’s life……………… and I’m still way too sore. The actual guitar class has to go better than this, presuming of course I remember to go on the right date that is.

Written and Published by Don Leach. May not be used without permission from the author.