Life at the Nerd Tables, Part 4: "Katrina Very, Very Confused!"

You know, before I move on with the actual people for today, I want to give a shout out to my breakfast table peeps who weren't exactly nerdy enough to make it.  Maybe it's because we were all still in a half asleep state or something.

Sorry if the guys ever thought anything more interesting than this was going on.

Anyway, you guys are awesome, and I love you a whole bunch, but for some reason, you just don't fall under my category of "nerdy."  At least not as nerdy as the people I've been talking about.  Or at least you aren't at 7:32 in the morning.

However, the next group I'm about to discuss have levels of nerdiness Katrina cannot in a million billion years begin to comprehend.  Like, if I was confused an average of once every two weeks with the techies, these people confused at least two or three times as often.  And I would still keep coming back to these people no matter how crazy or confusing they got.  I mean, they were my friends, despite their...weirdness.

Yep, I'm talking about...

THE MUSIC PEOPLE!

I know next to nothing about music.  Yes, I had some piano lessons back in the day.  And by "back in the day," I mean between the ages of about six and nine...and then we moved and life got busy, and I kind of forgot nearly everything.  I mean, something about "All Cows Eat Grass" and "Good Boys Do Fine Always" and the fact that there's a note called Middle C--that's all in there.  But for the life of me, I can't tell you whether cows are eating on the treble clef or the bass clef or even what black keys Middle C is next to.  And let's not even get started on me singing.  I thought of recording a clip to show you how bad it is, but...I 1) didn't want to torture you and 2) didn't need you telling me I'm not too terrible just to make me feel better.

So why was I even around these people?  I mean, I'm not musical.  They are.  What could we possibly have in common?

Because, allow me to break one GINORMOUS, HUGE, FALSE TO THE MAX stereotype about the music people:

MUSIC IS NOT THE ONLY THING IN THEIR LIVES!

Believe it or not, they are well-versed in a number of subjects, not limited to, but including:  technology, Rubik's Cubes, practical jokes, drama, hunting, crazy travel stories, football, movies, oh, and some of them are also wonderful at encouraging you beyond anything you would ever imagine.

"But they're this stupid little clique, and you've got to be in the right group to, you know, hang out with them."

Okay, I think I just said I'm not musical, like a few paragraphs ago.  I was never in choir or orchestra or music lessons or...anything like that.  And they still hung out with me.  Once you get over your little hurdle of who the music people will hang out with, you can have an absolutely awesome time.

I mean, really, these people have done some of the most hilarious things to each other while traveling, but I am SO not typing them up, because those are their stories to tell, but...seriously, these people are hilarious!  And they're wonderfully encouraging people to talk to.  And some of them are really, really smart about stuff.  And I like that.  That's probably my nerd side coming out.  But, seriously, these people are amazing in every way.  And you don't need to understand music to hang out with them!

Okay, that's a bit of an exaggeration.  No, not the parts about them being hilarious or smart.  The part about not needing to understand music.  Because, seriously, this multi-panel "Katrina Can't Draw" Comic will demonstrate exactly what could and does happen.

Okay, in the first panel, they are dramatically confessing their latest adventure, whether it involved squirt guns or Silly String or lemon bars or...what have you.  It's a wonderful time.  I mean, who doesn't love a good story in which one of their closest and dearest friends gets completely pranked.

Moving on to the second panel, though, they begin to discuss all the work they're putting into Christmas concert.  Or spring concert.  Or their junior or senior recitals.  And, you know, I like hearing about it, and it's kind of interesting, but at the same time, I hope that they're not getting me all hyped up and then I'm going to hear it and have all my expectations crushed...because that happened...several times.  They just had me all pumped up, and then...I didn't like it.  And I felt terrible about it!

And then comes the worst stage!  The stage in which they go on and on about musical terms like vibrato and fortissimo and euphoniums, and I'm like..."Huh?" because I really don't understand what they're saying.  Okay, maybe a little, but I can only handle one music term per every five sentences.  Otherwise, my brain explodes.

Four years of hanging with these people, and I still don't know which is the viola and which is the violin!

Fortunately, they'll eventually reach something Katrina kind of understands.  And by "kind of understands," I mean the fact that in high school for history class, I had to learn the names of a bunch of composers.  Unfortunately, all that stuck was their names.  I have no idea what music most of them wrote.  All I know is Handel wrote Messiah, Tchaikovsky  wrote The Nutcracker, and Beethoven is mentioned a lot in Peanuts!

This is a good summary of how music people defend their favorite musicians.

But, you know, even after I've been confused halfway to Gallifrey and back...I still come back for more.  Because I love them.  And because they love me.  And despite their eccentricities and their way of getting me completely lost, I will hang out with them and defend them as being "more than music people" to anyone who says otherwise.

Because they spent so much time knocking that into me that the message must be spread.  And also because if I ever believe that again, I'd probably have a Majesty Music hymnbook hurled at my head.