Mandolin madness

Over winter break, I picked up a new hobby: Mandolin enthusiasm.\n Now, I know some of you might not know what a mandolin is, so let me educate you. The mandolin is a mix between a violin and a guitar. It's about the size of a violin and has four sets of double strings tuned like a violin, but it is held and played like a guitar.\nI'm sorry to say that the masculinity of my mandolin has been called into question. Actually, I suppose it wasn't an attack on my personal mandolin, but rather an attack on the instrument in general. True, it's rather small. True, it makes a high-pitched sound, but what other instrument has the word "man" built right in? I can't think of one.\nThe problem with learning how to play the mandolin is that the chords are different than guitar chords. Luckily, I have the sage wisdom of a possibly stoned, 30-something-year-old that works at the guitar store by my house.\nWhile I was shopping for some supplies, (oh yes, there are supplies) he asked if I had ever played before. I told him that I had not, but that I play the guitar.\nSuddenly he became very excited as he told me that mandolins are the exact same as guitars except they are upside down and they are missing two strings. I'm not sure how that equates to being "the exact same," but I'm pretty sure the mandolin wasn't the only thing there that was a couple stings short. \nFor those of you who don't play guitar, that's like saying a new computer keyboard is the same, except it's upside down and missing two rows. \nAfter spending the better part of two days trying to tune my mandolin, I decided it was time to start learning some chords. I found a nice Web site that showed the fingerings and soon I was on my way. Within the first day I knew three chords -- man, could I rock out!\nI was very proud of my skills and practiced them for extended amounts of time. Sometimes I would mix it up a little, but mostly I just played the C, D and G chords over and over and over again, imagining how I would soon be wooing the ladies with my newfound musical calling.\nIt didn't occur to me, however, that maybe hours and hours of the same three chords repeating wasn't as fun for my roommate as it was for me. I can't be sure, but I think I caught him shooting evil glances toward my new instrument.\nThe road to becoming an enthusiast is never easy, but I'm confident I can reunite Nickel Creek if I keep up the effort. They say practice makes perfect and at this rate, I'll be the best three-chord mandolin player in the country. In the mean time, if anyone sees a black mandolin on eBay from this area code, I would appreciate you letting me know. My roommate might need some extra cash