Playing drums

I don't consider myself a drummer yet and actually feel a bit of embarrassment when someone introduces me as one. I'm not sure how long it will take for this feeling to go away, but I'll keep practicing until it happens...and then I'll practice some more. Just over a year ago, a couple of friends who played in a band called The Unlevels, lost their drummer. I half jokingly said, " Give me a couple of weeks and I'll drum for you." Now I don't actually think that they realized that I had never played drums before. I was working the desk at a rehearsal studio where the band rehearsed and I said that if the night wasn't busy I could sit in a bit and see how things went. I didn't even get through one tune completely. That wasn't a surprise since I had only sat down at the drums for the first time earlier earlier that afternoon. The next day I received a very polite email from Kristina, one of the band members, that thanked me for the practice and suggested that we have 2 full rehearsals and after that decide how to proceed. In the next paragraph she asked if I knew any other drummers who may be interested. She worded it so carefully, obviously worried that I might be offended by the question. How could I be? I wasn't a drummer....I could barely keep any kind of beat! I didn't give up though (nor did I look for other drummers) and took a couple of lessons with Paul Mason of Tempus Drums. We had another rehearsal and at the end of it, Brian, the other band member, said," Well I guess we found our drummer." Two months later I played my first terrifying gig with The Unlevels. I got a fair amount of good feedback, but it was certainly of the ..." Wow you've only been playing for two months?" kind of compliment. I was hooked on this drumming thing and decided that I needed to start assembling my an instrument. I ordered a Tempus snare from Paul. It's a fiberglass 7x14 in Green Sparkle with black chrome hardware. It sounds awesome. I then started to keep my eyes open for the rest of the kit. It came in the form of a vintage '78 Milestone kit complete with some vintage Zildjian cymbals. Milestone is the company that Paul Mason bought back in 1986 and changed the name to Tempus. Last month we recorded 6 tunes at Vancouver's Vogville Studios to be released shortly and I play my 15th gig with The Unlevels. (I have also played a country gig as a drummer with Paul Masse an up and coming country singer....fooled them into thinking I was a drummer, I think.) I am still so far away from thinking that I'm a drummer, but I seem to be doing a lot of things that drummers do, so maybe sometime soon, I'll introduce myself as a drummer in musical company. Took me about two years before I started introducing myself as a bass player....that's the next story.