What a Life!

We have a new car now. No picture yet – I am just now starting to get back to normal. Normal would mean pictures. I am not there yet.

Today I am going to go grocery shopping…something I have not done since the accident. Our refrigerator is very bare right now. When my mother-in-law came over yesterday to watch the boys while Steve and I bought the car, I was embarrassed because I had nothing to offer her for lunch. With all that has been going on, I simply have not had time to go to the grocery store, much less think about what I might buy. While Mom and Dad were here, we ate out anyway, so it didn’t matter really.

I am also shopping for a piano. Actually, I’ve found the one I intend to buy. But I am doing my due-dilligence in order to satisfy my husband. When Grandma died in December, Dad said there would be a little inheritance for me. Last week we found out what that would be. I am buying a piano with it first, and then saving the rest. Grandma loved music and would have been so proud to know I used the money to buy a piano.

When Steve and I got married, he told me I only got one set of rings – no upgrades – so I’d better get what I really wanted. I told him buying a piano is the same way – it’s Grandma’s money, and I want a good piano that will last me until I die. The piano I have found and love will cost me a bit more than I had thought I would spend, but it is a piano I would be very happy with until the day I die.

It would be much like my knitting – I would sit down and play it many times throughout the day just as I pause and pick up my knitting many times every day. I told Steve he might not hear me play it much while he is around because I don’t like to annoy people with my piano playing. I play for the joy of playing, and sometimes that includes hitting the wrong notes. He told me that as long as I’m not just practicing scales, he’d actually like to hear me play, that there’s something about hearing someone play for the joy of playing that makes it enjoyable to hear.

One of the stores that sells pianos is also the source for sheet music in the area. So as I am [faux] shopping to make sure I’ve selected the best piano, I will be spending quite some time at that store browsing through their music. Steve is taking Ben to the Spring Game Saturday – I think Joey and I will go shopping for pianos and music while they are at the game. Then Sunday we are going to Omaha for a family gathering, and we will make a point to stop by the piano store there so Steve can see the one I’ve picked out.

The piano I’ve picked out is made by Yamaha. It’s a Yamaha that is assembled in China so they call it a Cable-Nelson. Yamaha is supposedly the Toyota Corolla of pianos, from what I’ve read on the internet. It isn’t a Steinway, but I wasn’t expecting to get one of those either.

The thing I love about this piano is that is sounds exactly like my mom’s piano. Of all the pianos I’ve ever played, I always loved how my mom’s sounded the best. Hers is an Everett, which was bought by Yamaha when I was a child. Grandma [whose money I’m using to buy this piano] loved my mother’s piano as well, and bought one for herself. Grandma’s piano had water stains from a potted plant on the top, and when we sold it, I had an apartment in Maryland so I did not have the means to take it home or much of a place to put it. This piano is black so it would not have issues from water stains from plants. Perhaps I shall knit a runner to go across the top, and for Mother’s Day, I’m thinking of buying myself a houseplant.

That is where the “faux” comes into shopping for other options. No other piano will sound like my mother’s, probably. Used Yamaha’s in good condition cost about as much as the new Cable-Nelson in the store we found this piano. If I found a used one from a private party, moving it and getting it turned would cost me extra, making it cost about the same as the ones in the store. Why buy used when you can get new for about the same price? Like I said, it’s with Grandma’s money that I’m buying it which makes it somewhat of an heirloom. A used piano I might want to replace at some point – a new “Yamaha” I would be happy with for the rest of my life.

Did I mention the piano bench is wide enough for two people to sit comfortably? Meaning piano lessons for my boys. And fun playing duets with my mom and sister when either of them comes to visit.

So I shall do my due-dilligence “faux” piano shopping. And hopefully next week I will have a new piano sitting in my living room.