Thinking Musical Thoughts - Part II

The I'm Thankful Edition

When I went searching for my first post about this, it was way further back than I thought. At the time, I intended to write a second post within a couple of days...But it didn't happen, and the more time went by, the more it seemed to make sense to wait for the idea that sparked the original post to come to fruition.

I'm not there yet, but thanks to my parents I'm a step closer.

The first post was a reminiscence about my growing up years, tinkering away on the family piano. I never had piano lessons, but I loved to play and managed to learn a bit on my own. It's something that I still miss doing.

What led me to post about it was receiving a letter in the mail from my Great Aunt; the letter included a cheque. My Great Aunt is in her late 80's, she is widowed and has no children. She had sold her house and sent a gift of money to each of her nieces and nephews. It came as quite a surprise, as I'm sure you can imagine. While I very much appreciated the thought behind it, it also made me sad; I guess because I saw it as a way of getting ready to say good-bye.

I was talking to my Mom about it, and she said I should use the money for something that I really wanted. Then she said I should use it to buy a piano. As soon as my Mom said that, I knew it was the right thing to do.

Of course, I have no idea how to go about buying a piano. I am easily daunted by this sort of thing. My usual solution is to say to Husband "I want to buy this" and he will get all research-y and tell me what my best options are. However, his reaction to "I want to buy a piano" was "We have nowhere to put a piano."

He did not know me in my piano playing days - once I moved away from home I didn't have access to one, and I'm sure I'm so rusty now I could barely pick out Twinkle Twinkle Little Star. Still, this took a bit of the wind out of my sails. As far as I was concerned, I would find space. But I also a bit lost about the whole thing. I didn't have enough money for a full size piano, nor enough space. Apartment sized pianos can have less than impressive sound, and I wasn't even sure if I had enough money for one of those. I was aware that there are electric pianos that sound pretty good, but again, on my own I felt a bit overwhelmed.

So, the money has been sitting in a savings account, waiting.

Saturday when I got home from shopping, Husband said my Mom had called. I wondered why she had called, since I knew she & my Dad were in Halifax for the weekend and she usually wouldn't call when they are away from home. She called back a short time later to tell me that they had seen a Digital Piano on sale at Costco and they thought I might be interested. By that time there were no longer at Costco, so she told me what she could remember about it and said I could think it over.

I got off the phone and told Husband and he said "Where are we going to put a piano?" Seriously, the man has got to get a new line.

I went to the computer and Googled the brand so I could check the dimensions. I then got the tape measure and measured the wall where I thought it would fit. Then I told Husband. "Well you're going to have to move stuff." Okay, he got a new line and it's not much better.

Yes, I will move stuff. It is worth it to me to rearrange things. Just like it was worth it to him to get a TV that I think is too big for our living room.

Anyway, that is not the point of this post. I am not here to grouse and complain about my husband's lack of enthusiasm. I am here because I am so thankful.

I talked to my Mom again and said to go for it. She said if it turns out I don't like it, we should be able to return it, so really we've got nothing to lose. Then she said she was excited. I was excited too.

I was going to wait until I actually got the piano, to post about this, just in case I end up not keeping it for some reason (I have this deeply ingrained tendency to expect things to go wrong). But I felt like this deserved a post of its own. Because I truly am so grateful for my family.

I am grateful to my Great Aunt for thinking of me, for making this possible.

I am grateful to my parents for thinking of me and knowing me so well - almost better than I know myself it would seem. I was almost in tears when I got off the phone, I think I just felt so overwhelmed. It's good to have people who will always take care of you - even when you don't realize you need taking care of.

I'll be paying my parents back, from the money sent to me by my Great Aunt, so technically I'm buying the piano for myself. But it feels like a gift.