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The clock, she is ticking...

48. Take ownership and delivery of my piano, which is languishing in storage somewhere in South Florida right now.

She's here! She's a lovely, glossy mahogany color, and the reason she has a gender is because her name is Joanna -- cockney rhyming slang for "piano," and part of the cryptic riddle my Dad gave me in an envelope on my birthday when they bought her. She's wildly out of tune, not having been played in a decade or longer, but we can remedy that easily enough. Going through my old music was such a trip down memory lane -- I can't wait to play her again. I snuck in a practice rendition of Bach's Prelude I and Fur Elise, just to see how out of tune she is (the answer: wow) and my hands feel like big clunky mitts. It's going to be a long road back with her, but I can't wait.

49. Ditto for my Bar Billiards table.

This is in place in the Sultan's Lair, thanks to the muscle of Kevin and his friends, as it's made of slate and weighs about 350 pounds. But I think it brought my parents a lot of joy to watch everyone jump in and start playing right away. Kind of made their whole slog out here worthwhile. The table is so unique and it's a lovely antique to have, plus it looks stellar against the red paint. And Kevin's kind of addicted. It's a tough game to be good at consistently, and every time, it goes slightly differently for you, hence the desire to keep going and going with it because you feel like if you do that, you'll master it. And then it masters you.

98. Buy a piece of art, however small, that I want to display in my home.

A woman in my strip class is moving to Seattle at the end of the month, and when she gave me her card so I could contact her about her going-away party, I noticed she's an artist. So I poked around her Web site and liked what I saw; she let me come see her stuff in person after class, and I came away with two of her originals at a great price. We've seen each other almost every weekend for a year and a half in this class that's been amazing for both of us, so it's meaningful to me to own something of hers rather than just a painting I picked out at a store. I could talk to her about them, I can envision her creating them in her back room, and I could see her affection for them first-hand. She likes knowing her pieces have gone to a happy home with people she knows will love them, and even though we don't know each other that well in real-world terms, at the same time we know a side of each other that nobody else in the world knows but the eight or 12 girls in our Saturday family. I'm so happy I was able to fulfill this one in such a personal way.

87. Use the Rollerblades that are stashed under my bed.

And so I did, if you count giving them to Goodwill as using them. I do. I consider it "using them to give someone else great, deeply discounted joy." And isn't that the most heroic thing? Essentially, in choosing not to interpret this one literally, I have turned myself into a mighty philanthropist.

Must dash to polish the halo...

Comments

[jen]

MUST. PLAY. BAR. BILLIARDS. My life is so empty without it. *sob*

[Catherine]

Your bar billiards table is absolutely beautiful, as is your piano, of that I am sure. And I echo jen's sentiment. ;)

[mrhooks]

A piano that has been untouched and out of tune for that long will probably require several tuning sessions. I get mine tuned every year, and last summer's heatwave really did a number on it. My tuner said my piano needed a second tuning.

I'm sure whomever you hire to do the tuning will provide more detailed information. I can give you the number of my tuner, but I don't know if he goes as far north as Sherman Oaks.

[Casey]

Ha! In preparation for our move, I just gave my Rollerblades away via Craigslist last week. Truly great instances of philanthropy there.