Guitar Woes

This is looking hopeless. I picked up the guitar back in February- 4 months ago now... In those four months I've mastered the ABC's of guitar (I use the term 'mastered' loosely). There are cool things I can do, or things I thought I wouldn't pick up quick, like playing chords and reading (some) music. That is cool. I really jumped in the deep end with reading music, because I've never looked at a sheet of music in my life. So I'm learning to play guitar and learning to read music at the same time - not that the two should be separated anyway...Back to how dismal this 'guitar' thing has become.

I attempted (in vain) to change the strings. I thought I had it, and then they kinda unspun when I turned around, and there you go. The Ursula the sea witch, cat whisker-looking, bowl of spaghetti that is my guitar head :(

One night when I got in bed recently, I threw the covers off and in so doing, cast my metronome across the room. It's proverbial guts splattered all over the floor, and when I put it back together again... it was dead. This is bad for two reasons. One: It cost me $20. Two: I cannot keep time to save my life.

Which brings me to my next point. I cannot keep time. At all... My guitar teacher says that I need to learn independent rhythm. I think he is assuming that I can 'learn' any rhythm at all. I missed that train when I came out the womb...

The pinkie finger continues to sabotage me by hiding behind the neck. Actually, my entire left hand has decided to revolt. I've moved on to bigger and better chords, like F and F#maj7. These are hard. And my hand is ridiculously uncomfortable in these positions. They're flat-out awkward... I just wonder how I'll ever move past the first three frets. That doesn't seem like it will happen anytime soon. If I were a quitter, this would be the week that I would quit. (But I won't, so don't worry, teacher :) It would be nice to be able to sing and play- who knows maybe God will use that in Tanzania or somewhere one day! Nosiree! I guess I'd better not quit now...