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Give me the beat, boys.

I always get anxious when I think about playing music with someone new. I basically grew up playing songs with Spencer and Kit; doing that now, almost eight years later, is second nature. It's a trust thing, I guess. You know what to expect and it's okay to branch out and try weird things. It doesn't matter if you screw up because everybody is a good friend. They don't care.

With new people, you have to worry about making a good impression. About playing as well as you think they can. About living up to the idea that they have of you. About not screwing up. There's a lot of, "Are they going to dig this style?" and "What if they get bored because I suck?" and general insecurity and self-consciousness that goes along with it.

And it's all a bunch of bullshit.

I'm jamming with Thomas tomorrow afternoon and I am anxious. The last time we played together was in high school with Spencer, and I was playing keyboard. I couldn't even sing and play at the same time. It was fun, but I'm pretty sure the experience didn't live up to his expectations.

It didn't live up to mine. But it was fun just getting together and hanging out.

I crashed my bike today. I say 'my bike' only because the bike in question apparently belongs to nobody. So it's mine. I was riding it around my backyard, jumping off of whatever I could manage and trying to do wheelies and manuals. I have never really been inclined to do tricks on bicycles, so I'm not really sure what drove me to do that. The plan was for me to jump off the terrace in my yard and try to land and wheelie all over the place. Instead, the bike went shooting out from under me and I dropped onto my back and watched clouds drift by over me. The bike rattled and clanged out of my line of sight.

It was excellent.

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