Rockin and Fencing

Monday night is lessons night for Inga and Erik. I got smart this year and managed to schedule them all on 2 nights...well two nights and an afternoon. Last year there was a lesson four nights a week. Inga takes bass lessons and voice. Erik takes guitar, drumming, and fencing. He is angling for bass lessons but overlap is a bad thing.

Inga and her friend Zack were working on starting a band. They wrote some songs together, got some other kids, and they used to have band practice. Zack's dad is a guitar tech/stage manager for various bands ( REM right now) so his house is like Rock and Roll day camp. Big amps. Inga scored 100 percent on the state chemistry exam and for a reward we bought her a bass. I found a bass teacher. ( He used to play for Foghat and also the Outlaws) But AP Global studies involved so much work she found it hard to practice. Things kind of petered out. She kept taking lessons and playing for fun.

Meanwhile Erik started playing Karl's drum kit in the basement and we turned around and Erik was playing in Zack's band as the drummer. I think Zack was worried for awhile that Inga wouldn't speak to him ever again but it worked out okay. She forgives him. I think. The new band jelled together pretty nicely and I turned around this time and I was hauling equipment to shows. "Band Mom" is way cooler than "Hockey Mom"! Erik and his band have played four gigs so far.

When Erik was at the private school all of his friends took fencing. So we signed him up too. Odd I thought but okay we will go with it. I hoped it wasn't like Ta Kwan Do. That Ta Kwan Do guy took himself way too seriously. Fencing has worked out great. The teacher is good with them. Patient but firm which good since they are playing with swords. Erik is starting his third year now. This year they had a choice of weapon and Erik and his group picked sabers. Sabers are less flexible than the regular foils and now they can strike any part of the body. Heads are fair game. When I watch them warm up and do drills I am reminded of ballet. Actually they even have "positions" just like ballet. The shifting of weight and emphasis on hand positioning, the drills across the floor, all these things are remarkably similar to ballet but I won't say anything..