So embarrassingly enough it has been awhile since I have sat down to a piano and played. I only tinker on occasion. If my mom knew about my absence from the piano she would probably throttle me for wasting close to two decades of piano lessons.
It was a ward choir practice that led me back to the piano. Our fabulous director chose four hour Saturday rehearsals as well as Sunday and sometimes Thursday. She was pretty hard core for a ward choir director(I attended obediently due to a promise I made my choir director at BYU. Sister Hall always said that no matter how good or bad the ward choir is, it is our duty to support the director, because she can’t fulfill her calling if no one shows up). Will thought the transpiring events were a bit irrational – overzealous in the least. I think the passion for perfection stemmed from our choir director’s professional opera singing days and to be quite honest there was no amount of practicing that was going to make us sound like the Mo Tab. It didn’t help that the composer of a 40 page cantata (yes, she was in our ward) requested we sing her piece for Easter. She wanted a choir of at least 60…yeah, we were about 15 strong on a good day.
It was in a moment at the end of a Sunday practice that our director had me close to tears. She said that if music has ever played a major role in your life and you let it go by the wayside you would never quite be as happy by letting that part of you die. I knew piano had to find a place in my home again, but clarinet would have to wait. At this point Will did some CPR on my musical life and bought me a piano. What a sweet husband!
In bringing music back into my life Will has so graciously started piano lessons. He is very good about practicing everyday and I am actually afraid that if his learning curve continues on the present course he may pass me up in about a year or two. Ask him to play for you the next time you see him. He is quite good! He is working on Edvard Grieg’s, In the Hall of the Mountain King (Hudson knows it as the Dragon Kite song from, Little Einsteins).
Anyway, I digress. I have decided that the tinkering on the piano stemmed from the need for new piano music. I’m sure Will is just as tired of listening to Mozart as I am of playing it. I tried to figured out what would fuel my musical flame and thought of my best friend from high school. Sandi and I would sit side by side for hours playing little duets and other pieces on the piano.
We went through a Scott Joplin phase and she took on the Maple Leaf Rag while I tackled The Entertainer. This memory led me to my choice. Will took me to the store and I picked up Scott Joplin’s, Maple Leaf Rag. Its fun to listen to and even more fun to play. I included a music clip in case you were thinking, “What the HECK is she talking about?” Don’t worry, none of them are from our choirs attempt of the cantata!!!
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I found great pleasure in digging holes on our most recent trip to the beach. As I began digging in the sand I was greeted with a swirling mix of reminiscence and achievement. It feels good to dig in the sand and have a hole slowly grow before your eyes. After all, I did have high hopes as a little girl to be the first kid to actually dig to China! Did anyone else think they would be that lucky kid? Engineers aren’t allowed to answer that question…I’m sure you all laughed at people like me thinking, “Go ahead sister, 26 miles of crust until the fun really begins!”
Anyway, as I continued to dig I saw my escapade in the dirt transpire as a few reminders of life’s lessons.
1. Once I set a goal to dig a hole or anything else for that matter, get it done and do it well (Will your next – just kidding). Your best is all you have to give so it HAS to be good enough!
2. Don’t give up, even when a kid kicks sand in your hole or attempts to collapse your underground tunneling system…Annie! Just keep digging! (Notice the loving restraint I implore to keep our “troll” bridge safe? Can you see her eying the bridge with the lust of a cannonball?)
3. Let other people dig with me. Life is always more fun when you have company…even if you do finish a little behind schedule and with sand in places it should never be!
Will and I had one of the best dates ever!! We went to Seaport Village down in the harbor. He took me to this great restaurant out on the pier. It’s a fun feeling eating over the water. To Will’s disappointment I did not enjoy the Calamari, fish, shrimp or any other sea food he made me try. Please, no one tell me I just haven’t had it fresh. I swear I could see hooks hanging out the back of the restaurant. I was good with the 1/2 pounder and fries. That’s right, I ate the whole thing!
It wasn’t dinner that got me, but walking around the village made me feel like I was in the closing scene of a chick flick. You know the part where if the main characters had mind bubbles they would read, “I think I love you so what am I so afraid of…” Cute cobblestone streets were lined with charming specialty shops. A mystic was juggling and swallowing flaming swords. The live music helped with ambiance. We found an awesome hat store that made me think Will and I should have been born in the 40s or prior. We are considering Bonnie and Clyde as our Halloween duo this year.
Due to the photographers curse Will couldn’t be in the date picture with me so I found this nice chap to stand in for him. There is a slight resemblance, yes? Okay, so maybe not. I had to pay him an undisclosed amount money to pose like that though.
In this pirate store we picked up a little bag of treasure for Hudson. We told him it was pirate booty. Boy was he confused!! We are still laughing about it.
We went to La Jolla on Saturday for a ward activity. They said look for the umbrellas. Consequently…we never found them. We found plenty of umbrellas, but no ward members. Will almost didn’t find us either.
La Jolla is a popular spot for tourists and all of the university kids. Parking is near impossible so Will kicked Hudson and I out and said, “Whatever you do, don’t stray more than 100 feet from the flag.” Simple enough instruction. He never said anything about not letting the flag stray from us! I knew we could make it down the beach and back before Will found parking so we ventured off. We were about a city block away from the flag when I decided we had better turn around. I look back and no flag. I wondered how far we had really gone if I couldn’t see the flag. I remembered the lifeguard tower the flag was by and started to head back and then stopped. Turning back around, clearly confused, I see the flag about 100 feet from were I was standing-in front of me. I would have wondered what kind of hallucinogens Will had dropped in my cereal that morning except I noticed the lifeguards shoveling sand to hold the flag in place. I think the lifeguards get bored and move the flags at random.
Alas, the following frantic “in my head” conversation followed. Do I meet Will where the flag used to be by the lifeguard tower or a block down where it is now located?Maybe I should try for somewhere in between. Or maybe…I shouldn’t worry about finding him and just go play with Hudson(extreme guilt accompaniment). He will eventually find us.
Lucky for me I happened to glance back and spot him during my internal struggle. Note to self: movable landmarks should be avoided at all costs…especially when the landscape looks the same in both directions!!
So I decided I wanted to spice up my blog the other day and went on the hunt for ultra cool widgets…i.e. – the clock to your left. In the process I found this fun little guy. Due to the tackiness I decided it didn’t have a place other than a fun little “temporary” distraction. It functions quite simply. Put your name on one side and the love of your life on the other. Click the middle of the square and voila…I hope you can beat Will and my score of 1…that’s right 1. Should I be worried?! Give it a whirl. It was actually kind of addicting. We tried tricking it, but even then we couldn’t get higher than a 20. Perhaps we are doomed to misery and woe. Personally, I think we will manage!
