Blackbird

I didn't necessarily miss church. Rather, I had to skip it to practice last second for my informal recital at 2:00PM.

I pulled into the parking structure and the toll booth had a glitch of not giving me a ticket, which the workers would acknowledge later. Yay free parking! Some kid was too scared to play piano in front of everyone that he cried. Ha. As I got up there, management collectively asked me what I was playing.

RYAN: Blackbird by - Who's it by? Is it by the Beatles?
VIOLIN TEACHER: It's by the Beatles, right?
BOSS: It's Beatles.

The grownups thought I was weird for being unsure. Despite a miscued start and a do-over, I rocked it. Vahik played accompaniment. He even made a mistake, but I kept it together for both of us. People applauded. It was almost perfect. Almost ... BUT THEN Vahik had the "bright" (sarcasm) idea to give them more on the spot by going into a song I didn't rehearse. After continuous botches ...

RYAN: (Freaking out) Wait, stop! I didn't rehearse this! I didn't rehearse this!

And then violin teacher, whom I've never looked at twice because she's not a looker, took my place with Vahik to perform Perfidia. All of a sudden, due to her nice vocals, she wasn't so plain looking anymore. Also, there was some older woman in the crowd, whose name I overheard as Kristen. A white chick with long, dark brown - and a few gray - hair. She's in my database due to affirmative action of not having enough cougars. And I took home a certificate.

VAHIK: Sorry. I shouldn't have approached the other song.

I went to the mall. No one in the database was working. Boo. I stepped into Hot Topic. The manager Jose shared that he didn't even start Christmas shopping yet. I met up with mommy at the end of mass so I can "clock in" for church. Ate dinner at Outback Steakhouse. That waitress Lindsay was there with a nice shorter haircut. (See entry 11/14/10.) But we had some absentminded waiter. Then I bought shirts for baby nieces Samantha and Maxine. One is a list of bitchy rules while the other reads, "My dad can kick your dad's ass." I spoke with this freerunner Tony who's always at the mall. He wears red contact lenses. Nataly snuck up on me again.

RYAN: Are you stalking me?
HER FRIEND (BRENDAN): She is.