#needtopracticemore

[timmajorsdj]

Not bad for like 4th time welding. 🤣🤣 #ItWillDoTheJob #Welder #NeedToPracticeMore https://www.instagram.com/p/Bn1mMP-lFJR/?utm_source=ig_tumblr_share&igshid=1hzmk85ybjzot

[gathererofwords]

Time to Start Writing Again...

“The living room?” He chased after her, “but you haven’t finished your last project.  At this rate, there won’t be a spot in this place that is livable.”

“Not true.  The kitchen is finished and so is the master bath.  Two most important rooms.”  She grabbed her sledgehammer and busted through the living room drywall with ease.

Asa tried to stop her and nearly got hit with the hammer in the process.  That was as far as he was willing to go.  When Dessa got in these moods, it was best to stay out of her way, unless you wanted to end up demolished along with the house she was supposed to be remodeling rather than completely destroying.  He never really understood her process, but somehow it always seemed to work out for her.

“Alright!  Fine!” He threw his hands up in surrender.  “When you’re ready to calm down, I’ll be in the kitchen, at least it’s safe in there.”

The corner of Dessa’s mouth twitched into a slight grin as she continued to tear down the wall between the old house’s small living room and adjoining sitting room.  Asa was always there for her and he may act annoyed but she knew he was just trying to keep her from spiraling into a funk.  To prove that, he turned on her stereo and started streaming her “Pissed Off” playlist.  With the sound of Five Finger Death Punch’s “Jekyll and Hyde” blaring, she was in her zone.

The images of the night flooded through her mind as she brooded on why she was pissed in the first place.  It was Nate.  He got under her skin in the worst way.  That egocentric asshole had to undermine her at every turn.  How the hell had she ever fallen in love with him?  Thank God that ship had sailed, and to think--she almost married that control freak!  He found out that she had been flipping houses in the two years since they had been together.  She was damn good at it, too, but that didn’t mean he would say that.  No, that man had to push every damn insecurity she had to demean her.  And he knew the ones to push.

Every swing of the hammer brought her back from feeling worthless, which is how he wanted her to feel.  He was charming and damn good looking.  She used to think she was the luckiest girl in the world to be wanted by Nate Graves.  Hardly.  It took her too long to notice her worth, but now that she had she’d be damned if any man, let alone Nate, ever take it away from her again.  The sad part is that most people fell for his charm.  He could qualify as a sociopath with as well as he played people.  She was his puppet once.  It took him cheating on her over and over before she broke herself from the mental chains of his control and abuse.  He’d never physically harmed her.  No, that wasn’t fun for him.  Nate preferred to take vibrant people and build them up and then slowly tear them down until they relied on him for their own value.  

Not. Any. Fucking. More.  Now Dessa was smiling.  It had been two years since she’d last seen him.  She moved away.  Partly ran away, to be honest.  She needed the space to find out who she was and to find out what she was worth to herself.  Dessa had always felt average.  Average height, average build, average face, personality, ability...you name it.  When she hit her breaking point with Nate, she’d called Asa first.  He had been her best friend since they were eleven.  There had never been anything more than friendship between the two, but Nate always started a fight when she would talk to Asa.  He was so threatened by another guy in her life and Asa was the one person Nate hadn’t been able to completely separate Dessa from.

Asa travels for work a lot.  For a single guy, it’s a great gig.  Two years ago he was in Colorado, so that’s where Dessa went.  And, God, it was refreshing!  After she got past the altitude sickness, that is.  She got a job helping a contractor then and soon fell in love with the process of fixing up old houses and bringing them back to life.  Most wouldn’t want to hire a woman, but Dessa was strong and determined.  She proved her worth quickly by her work ethic--something her parents had instilled in her since she was a child.  Her father, an Army veteran, and farmer had taught her manual labor since she was old enough to weed a garden.  Her mother, on the other hand, taught her how to take care of a family as a single mom.  Divorced since she could remember, her parents were strong characters and she would forever be grateful for the way that they raised her.

Dessa wiped the sweat and bits of drywall dust from her forehead.  The wall was down, save the support beams.  Her tension was almost completely eliminated.  She hated that she let Nate get to her, but she should have expected his jabs.  She just didn’t think she would run into him so soon after being back in town.  When the old Munson house came up for sale, she couldn’t pass it up.  It was her dream remodel, and a big risk, too.  It disgusted her how pleased Nate had looked to see her at Dawn’s Diner earlier that evening.  He had passed off his undermining comments from two tables down until he could confront her alone and then had tried to persuade her to go over to his place to screw him.  She got pissed when he put his hands on her like she was his once and belonged to him still, like property.  Pompous ass.  She’d never be his, or anyone’s other than her own.  

So, yes, she may have been pissed at Nate and the fact that she would see him regularly in this small Oklahoma town, but she was even angrier at herself.  Angry for ever being with someone so foul and angry for giving him the power to affect her the way he had tonight.  Asa had noticed it, and while he would have happily knocked Nate down a peg or two, he realized that this was something Dessa was going to have to overcome on her own.  She had accomplished so much in two years.  She had slowly climbed out of the depression that had gripped her when she’d first come up to Colorado and she had made a name for herself up there.  

Unfortunately, as the song goes, “you’re always seventeen in your hometown” and Dessa wasn’t proud of the girl she was at seventeen.  Thank God she’d grown up since then.

[13ksho]

Lella Concarneau, France,1947 Photograph by Édouard Boubat #art #sketch #needtoimprove #frenchphotographer #edouardboubat #lella #needtopracticemore #sketchbook #drawing #failedattempt

[satanskitchen-blog1]

After a late night failed attempt at sketching, potato people became my new motivation in life. #potatopeople #latenightdoodle #doodles #doodle #getyourheadinthegame #needtopracticemore #potato #drawing

[crobin13]

Getting that rhythm. You can possibly hear my niece laughing in the background. I think she was laughing at something else and not me 🤔 #bass #notthefish #slapadabass #needtopracticemore #basserson

[noriakihosoya]

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#practicing & #transcribing a solo from #JohnPatitucci. This is only 75% of speed. #NeedToPracticeMore #Music #Jazz #JazzSolo #JazzTranscription #BassSolo #bass #electricbass #bassguitar #JazzMusician #BassPlayerLife #adamovic #adamovicbass #adamovicbasses #6string #6stringbass #6stringbassguitar

[leecox717]

#banjo #blues #music #needtopracticemore #beginner #country #folk