Rock Stars in the Family

A couple of weeks ago Josie announced that she had saved up enough money for a bass, so we piled everyone in the car and headed up to the Trading Musician. As soon as we walked in the door, Josie's parents recognized that their limited musical knowledge wasn't going to be any use at all in this environment, and that in fact their daughter would prefer that they keep their big fat embarrassing mouths shut in any case. So after we found a likely salesman and assured him that yes, this extremely excited 11-year-old really did have $230 to spend on a bass, we stayed out of the way while he walked her through the available instruments and plugged her in to try out a couple of them.

It turned out that Josie's uninhibited, fresh-faced eagerness was extremely endearing to the salesman, and to everyonen else in the place, really. We suspect that a significant percentage of the Trading Musician's customers are way too cool to express much in the way of enthusiasm, let alone to squeal with excitement when the first notes come twanging out of the amp. Our girl quickly fell in love with this lovely red Ibanez GIO.

While Josie and Andrew got in line to pay, Mikala took Simon upstairs to grab a pair of drumsticks, not realizing that she was walking into yet another world of expert knowledge and cryptic choices. Check out the cymbals!


"We need some drumsticks," she announced to the guy behind the counter.

"What size?" he asked. What size? Drumsticks come in sizes? Gazing in awe at the floor-to-ceiling rack of at least 30 different kinds of drumsticks, she put her hand on top of Simon's head and smiled hopefully.

"Small?"

We made several more stops before heading home: Red Light Vintage Clothing (a jacket for Andrew, a dress for Mikala, and a bullwhip for Simon), University Book Store (where we discovered an old French kids' series called Nicholas, about which more later), and our new favorite Bubble Tea shop, whose name escapes me at the moment.

When we arrived back at the house with wallets & spirits considerably lightened, Josie was still quivering with excitement about the bass. Before the rest of us had even dragged ourselves up the front steps she was inside, plugged in, and practicing "Just Like Heaven" and "Ziggy Stardust." We'll post some video soon!