My prized possession is an upright Nickelodeon piano. We bought it from a neighbor in 2006 about a year after moving into our house on Sarah Way. We hired movers to roll it down the sidewalk from their house to ours. It was a hilarious sight to behold.

I love that it is old and imperfect. Even though the player portion of the piano has A LOT of instruments inside and the front has two sections of stained glass, it isn’t pretentious. It belongs in a Wild West saloon or on the set of Westworld. I love that the keys clack when you play them and it isn’t perfectly tuned (the piano strings are original from the early 1900s and they don’t take kindly to a lot of manipulation).

I took 8 years of piano lessons when I was a kid. I learned how to play on an upright piano. My grandma had an upright piano in her basement and took lessons with me from my very first teacher Myrtle. I quit piano lessons after several years and then started them up again with a new teacher, Mrs. Wakefield, in junior high. She was a stickler for practicing scales and required us to have multiple recitals every year. Recitals were NEVER my favorite, I always got performance anxiety. Eventually my mom acquired a used upright and that is what I practiced on through high school.

My husband is a gem and would never say that I can’t bring my piano overseas, even though we will have to get it tuned up and the motor converted to account for differences in the electrical grid. It is one of the reasons we are hiring international shippers. I definitely need a professional to pack it up and make it safe before its long journey.

One goal I set for myself post retirement was to play every day for 30 minutes. When I miss a day, I play more the next day. A lot of days I play for an hour or more. Playing piano is an act that requires you to be fully present in the moment. If I am distracted or lose focus, my playing suffers. Time passes differently when you play, I find it cathartic. It is funny how something that felt like a chore when I was young is now something I look forward to. It feels indulgent to have the time to play regularly.

My sister is planning a visit to Oregon and will be here in less than a week. I am glad she gets to spend time with us before our big move. When Nora was little she had some movies that she loved-loved, as in watched them all the time. One of those movies was The Sound of Music. It is Julie Andrews at her finest, but it is almost three hours long. Back in the days of VHS, it was 2 tapes – not 1. My dad got so sick of hearing the soundtrack to the movie playing over and over and over again that he not so covertly burned it up. He just couldn’t take another “The Hills Are Alive…” I guess. In honor of Nora’s visit, this one is for her.