#326 - LD

I often wonder about people who say that they have nothing to do.  People who are bored.  I just don't get it.  My day is filled from the minute I open my eyes to the second I close them.  I always have a list of things that I want to do, it is just a matter of prioritizing.  I have lots of hobbies...some active and some inactive.  #326 goes with an inactive hobby.

When I was younger, I took piano lessons from a lady who lived near us.  I loved playing the piano, but didn't really like to practice.  One of my friends played wonderfully...lots of classical music and I really wanted to play like she did.  But...that practice thing...I didn't like it.  I was also at an age that I was getting into make-up and stuff.  Piano players need to have short fingernails so that they don't click and clack on the keys.  I wanted long painted nails.  So anyway...I learned the basics.  Some scales and a few songs, and then I put it aside.

Until I met #326.  She was an elderly lady who was probably in her eighties.  She had fallen and fractured her elbow, and I was called to go out and see her at her home in Bayou Blue.  She had been a piano teacher for 50+ years.  She was totally bummed out because she was having trouble teaching with one arm in a sling.  Anyway, as her therapy progressed, I told her of my long ago lessons, and she convinced me to pick it up again.  Once she was better, I started to go to her house once a week for piano lessons.  I remembered my scales and what not much better than I thought I would and soon I was back to playing some small songs.  Then I remembered why I hung it up the first time.  Practice.  My mom gave me our old piano that I put in my living room.  The problem was that I had two small boys at home.  If I tried to practice while they were awake, they always would "help" me.  If I tried to practice while they were asleep, they would wake up.  Big problem...So after about a year, I had to tell #326 that I was putting my hobby on the side again.

When we moved into our new home, my old piano did not make the cut.  It was replaced by a smaller and totally cooler electronic keyboard.  I was just listening to my boys play Happy Birthday and When the Saints Go Marching In on it last week.  That is not to say that I have given up learning to tickle the ivories.  In my mind, one day, I will be able to play like Billy Joel or Elton John.  I will be able to play this.  When my boys are grown, I will buy a grand piano, take lessons, learn the classics, and become a pianist.  Someone hold me to it.