A New Instrument

I'm pretty sure I've told you before that I encourage all my kids to play musical instruments. Since I can't afford piano lessons for the lot of them, we have generally chosen the band programs in the local schools. In fact, we attended the Dog Walker's last high school concert yesterday. They did a fabulous job!

Well, somehow, Teach never learned to play an instrument. Oh, we started her out in elementary band just like her siblings, but she never took to the clarinet and the entire experience was terrible. When she landed in middle school, we gladly switched her over to choir. This was the same path we had allowed the Gym Rat to take several years earlier, and he never learned to play an instrument either.

As they got older, we tried to remedy that situation. We bought the Gym Rat a guitar and paid for lessons, but he just never got it. We put Teach in piano for a year, but then finances demanded attention elsewhere, so we moved on. Neither one of them learned to really play anything.

Last weekend, Teach went to a little jam session with her church group. I think it's the first time she realized that she was the only one who didn't have a musical talent to share and it bothered her. An awesome guy friend of hers had a ukelele and he promised to teach her to play and by the time she got home, she was very excited about those 4 chords.

I must admit I giggled a little behind her back, but ever the supportive mom, I encouraged her new-found obsession. We got online and she shelled out $50 for a ukelele starter kit. We asked for 2-day shipping, which meant it should have arrived on Wednesday.

She started looking for the package on Tuesday.

And I don't mean a little. She waited in the living room with the blinds up, just watching the street. If she had to leave the room, she put someone else in charge of keeping her constant vigil. And still it didn't come.

She was up by ten (which is bright and early for her) and in front of the window again. Every time a big truck drove down the street, she jumped. She even got a false alarm when my new office chair my sweetie ordered for me for Mother's Day arrived. Finally, about 3:30, she decided she better get ready for work. She was so disappointed!

At 3:55, she climbed in her car and headed for Smiths.

At 4:02, the UPS man arrived with her package.

I immediately texted her and even though she was working in the customer service booth, she asked me to bring her the box. Against my better judgement, I sent the Dog Walker out the door with it. She was so excited!

When she got home just after midnight, she had her precious instrument in tow. Apparently it wasn't a problem at all...Marcie in Pharmacy helped her tune it...

Now if she could just learn to play...