Kind of a dull day, except for the afternoon.

Shinju apparently had some sort of disagreement at the bank at work and took the rest of the day off (you go girl :p) and decided the best way to waste it was to burn it off with us. Heh. Collared me at home - no classes today, I was busy wrestling Sena's song (that beautiful piano piece he plays at the concert hall during the exam in the Long Vacation J-dorama) - but the others were out of bounds (Itami's an overworked hotel chef and Izumi's a cog in a huge textile multinational).

Where do you go when you're missing half your regulars? To a place where they don't care, of course. Apok's was perfect - this side of town, and mostly deserted on weekdays. Programmable boards won't really substitute for people, so I warned her that the fancy stuff was out unless she really wanted to wait a couple hours for me to arrange things.

"Aww, and I so wanted to do Himitsu no Date," she complained, and I threw a drumstick at her.

"I need 8 hands for that, and that's with all of us around."

She pouted. Shinju's good at that. Drives her boyfriend wild. Sometimes I want to bite her myself.

Kidding.

"Alright princess, you want to be the star, you get the guitar." Nodnod. "I'm good on anything." Nodnod. "Not drums though, I don't enjoy them like Itami does." Nodnod. "Well SAY something!"

"Two guitars then. Classic?"

"Huh?"

"Judy and Mary, peach. We haven't played them for a while." She drags out the opening riff, then shakes her head. "Maybe not." Then all of a sudden she goes country.

I guess the song in two seconds flat. "Sakura Diaries, princess? Ok I guess." Koi wa Kaze ni Notte, the ending theme, is a pretty easy song and setting up the drums and bass for it is a cinch.

We butcher it for a couple of minutes, then drift off into a couple of random riffs before she decides she wants something even slower.

Shrug. Komm, Susser Tod. Hardly anything for me to do so I switch to the keyboard and fill in for piano. I get a few bars wrong before remembering. Shinju gets the lyrics wrong but there's nobody to care.

Then she gives me the evil eye, and launches into Cliffs of Dover. Her Eric Johnson is passable, while I struggle with bass after getting the drum track. Her 2:45 solo is flawless though, and I'm reminded again of the difference between specialists like her and the rest of us. Sure I can play more instruments than I have fingers, but I'm merely good. Shinju on the other hand is a maestro. Why she went into banking still beats me. Some people stare from the recording booth. I'm just jealous.

We quit early to avoid the friday scene, and I take her to Itami's place. We're not allowed to wander into the kitchen so we just leave a message with a waitress friend.

Turning in early tonight. Big weekend tomorrow.

- Ce.