Thursday, October 15, 2009

The Piano

Somewhere between childhood and adulthood, we lose that random sense of play. An unoccupied piano sits, keys beckoning to be touched, tinkled. Children will usually walk past, stop, check to see if their parents are watching, and tentatively plunk a few keys. Some will pound the keys unabashedly, laughing at the tune they created before their parents whisk them away. Occasionally a pre-teen will shyly sit down and play the inevitable "Heart and Soul" quickly like it was a covert operation, then slip away with the echoes of the last notes.

Adults, for the most part will hurry by, oblivious to the fact the piano exists. Some may even long for the day when they had time to sit down and lose themselves in playing a piece, one they perhaps practiced for a recital as a youth. They may even pause at the keys, but then chide themselves because they have no time, and besides, just because the piano is sitting there, it doesn't mean you have to play it, or play with it. There are more important things to do.


And some adults understand that sometimes the most important thing to to at the time is play.






**Thanks to my sister for posting this on Facebook. You can find her and her husband's blog here

Wednesday, October 14, 2009

Old post lurking in my drafts

**Due to the fact that I can't engage my brain to write anything more taxing than "See Spot run", I have resorted to digging up a post that was left to linger in the edit pile**


I set up a Facebook account last week, because I'm such a busy and social person with my appointment book bursting at the seams. I have contacts all over the world, just dying to know every infinitesimal detail of my life. I fight off the paparazzi every time I step out my front door.

No, not really. Not even close. That's probably the reason I have a FB page.

I have three, count them 1-2-3 friends on my page..one who is related by blood, one who is by marriage, and the other who is "related" by the past. My brother-in-law tagged me last week with the "25 Random Things" meme. I capitulated. So here are my list of banal randomness.

1. I want to write a book someday. I blog instead.

2. I met my husband through a yenta-ish woman I worked with back in the '80s (wasn't everything back in the '80s?). I finally gave in after months of her telling me how wonderful this boy was and that I should really meet him. Actually it was my sister, who finally talked me into accepting a date from him. We will be married twenty-five years this November.

3. I am a hermit in real life.

4. I will eat an entire frozen bag of Brussels sprouts. After cooking, of course.

5. I have a huge collection of Marvel comics. Mostly X-men.

6. I have two daughters, 20 and 16 17. In school I was considered the least likely ever to become a mother.

7. I have a deep-seated fear of clowns.

8. I write far better than I speak.

9. I thought "Waterworld" was a good movie.

10. In high school, I was looked upon as "snobbish". Actually, I was scared to death and I thought if I was really quiet no one would take notice of me.

11. I like the fact that I am going gray.

12. ???

13. I don't think of myself as an adult in that I-really-should-be-sitting
-at-the-kid's-table way.

14. I am still waiting for my huge cardboard check.

15. "Oh, look! A bunny!!!

16. I sleep to dream. (I have no life...I have a Facebook account, remember?)

17. The only jobs I've had in my life was cooking at a hotel chain restaurant (I also bussed tables) and worked in the quality control department in a sewing factory. I also did a short stint at a family owned fast food place.

18. I don't like to cook, and I can't sew.

19. I wanted to play drums in the grade school band. My mom wanted me to play the flute. I ended up doing neither.

20. I almost lost my upper lip to a dog bite.

21. My teenage years were the worse years of my life.

22. I'm starting to read the books I never read in high school, although I may never tackle "Moby Dick".

23. I want Barber's "Adagio for Strings" played at my wake.

24. The Art Institute of Chicago, standing in front of the painting "A Street in Paris, A Rainy Day"...I wish I was there right now.

25. I'm surprised I was able to come up with 25 things.

***