i trekked to souix falls this weekend for my cousin brittany’s wedding to her beau, aj. happy couple, fun reception, good time all-around. but the real bonus was that it was on my dad’s side of the family. along with being a formidably sized group, we’re intimidatingly spread out. add in the factors of people have families, schedules, so on so forth, and it can amount to quite a task to bring all of us together.

we didn’t pull it off in this case, but some of the more hard-to-reach relatives showed up. namely my cousin gary. plus it was nice to see gary’s and deb’s kids: gary, gabbie, jared. sadly, cheryl and donny were absent. but, two of their three kids are overseas (military tours), and the third is too cute for existence. they’re a fun little group, but they’re also a perfect illustration on how big my family is: cheryl, my cousin, is a few years younger than my dad. her kids are a few years younger than my sis and i. it’s a bit weird when you step back and look at it, but simply diving in and having fun throws all that out the window.

changing gears.

i really want to buy a drum set. back in junior high i would tinker on the school’s set, but never bought one or took lessons. now with the advent of rock band, it’s only wet my appetite and brought my fire to a boil. although, i live in an apartment with an incredibly noise-sensitive downstairs neighbor. a real set would, i’m sure, get me an eviction notice. however, i saw an electronic set today on ebay. i bid $50. i’m sure i’ll be outbid, but you never know.

on the rock band note. i personally think that performing the songs on expert is easier than performing them on hard. there’s notes left out whilst playing at a lower difficulty, and some of those notes are essential to someone who learns by ear. hopefully others agree with me on this point.

more as it comes.