How it feels to have a piano in my possesion again...

Taking Senia's advice, I decided to start this post with this sentence. I figured it was time to give my faithful readers (all 3 of them) a new post.

First of all, I absolutely love having the piano here. I've found myself itching to play it, which is ironic since most of the years I was taking lessons, I had to force myself (or my mom had to force me) to play--or at least to practice. I think I've always enjoyed playing the "fun stuff" (performance repertoire, classical, Broadway, etc) but it was hard to tackle the technique practice & the theory. Again, now I'd sort of like to audit a theory class because I've lost some of the ability to immediately notice chord progression, key signatures, etc. (This probably sounds like mumbo-jumbo to some of you, but that's okay.)

Anyway, the piano arrived just a couple weeks ago, when Keith's parents came for Easter. It was pretty momentous, especially since Patrick drove the piano here in his small Mazda truck all the way from Washtucna. I was a little worried that the piano might end up here in pieces, but he had tied it down & it was safe the whole way. :) When they got it to the house, Keith & the guys had decided to move it in through the back door (across the yard & deck, since there were only 2 stairs), but once Patrick got stuck in the mud (it was of course raining), they realized they had to take it up our front steps (about 5 of them.) Fortunately for them, I was in Hannah's room this whole time, otherwise I probably would've been out there trying to direct something I knew nothing about. :) This piano is very heavy (I've heard) and it took 4 guys to heft it up. (It probably could've used 6 guys, but we were short on people.) Our kind neighbor, who we've already enlisted a couple of times, helped the guys. All I heard from upstairs was a lot of loud bangs & bumps, some laughter & a few grunts & groans. When I got downstairs, the piano was there and even in a playable key! :) Now that it's been sitting there for a few weeks, it still sounds pretty good. Although I don't have perfect pitch or anything, I feel like it's actually in pretty good tune for being moved 200 miles & lifted up stairs.

Anyway, I'm thrilled to have it. At some point I'd like to have it finished, as it's pretty scratched up (what do you get for having it in a household of 6+ kids for 25 years?), but for now, I'm really enjoying just playing it & remembering why I was so intent on starting lessons 20 years ago--whoa, that's a long time! :)