Lame.

What happened to me?

When did this happen? When did I become a bassist?

I had practice with The Lava Rats (that's my band for you kids keeping score at home) tonight. It was the first time I'd played guitar instead of bass at a band practice for the first time in probably six weeks or so. Guess what?

My fingers are killing me.

No fooling. Two hours of playing guitar rather than bass for a change. Two hours and my fingers are a wreck. Yes, the weather is cold and dry. Yes, my strings are slightly old and ever so slightly crusty, but still. I used to be able to play rotten old acoustic guitars for longer than I played tonight and my fingers would feel roughly this bad.

I've lost it. I'm a wuss. I can still make the notes sound the way they're supposed to sound. My fingers are still nimble as ever, but those skinny little guitars strings are doing a number on my otherwise stout calluses.

I feel like an amateur. So I'm going do to the only thing I can do: I'm going to bed. Then I'm going to play more guitar in the next week or so, then I'm going to practice again and I'm going to show those scrawny guitar strings who is really the boss.