Our First Piano Recital September 21, 2009

I thought I'd be able to put a video on here. But I can't narrow down the dvd to just us. I'll just have to paint the picture for you with words:

Last year after I won the piano lesson with Chris Martin, the DJ asked me on the air if I play piano. "No", I say, "but my daughter does so I'll bring her." All my friends asked me the same thing. Do you play piano? No, but...... I started really thinking about it. I get that question a lot. When B bought me the grand piano for Christmas. People asked me all the time. No, but I really want my kids to. I love piano music!!! I finally decided I was NOT too old. I was going to learn how to play. Last March, I hired a teacher that comes to my house. She is so positive, I actually feel not stupid. She told me in June that we'd have a recital in September. I picked a duet for me and Lelu to play together. It's the Feather theme from Forest Gump. I love that song. I was blissfully unaware how hard it is to play a duet. I just knew I couldn't play the whole song myself yet. I must have practiced 100 hours on my part. Lelu really didn't get her part down until the day before, so I was quite nervous.

I tell Mom, Dad, Roma & Aub it's at the Piano Gallery at 7 o'clock. We show up at 7 on the dot. There must have been 50 people in the room and my teacher is standing up at the front thanking everyone for coming and she see's us come in and says "Oh the Taylor's made it. We have an encore." The whole room turns around and looks at us. I think it's a joke and am not quite clued in. I say "Doesn't it start at 7?" "Uh, no it started at 6, but come on up." I say "What, really? crap! Ari you go first". She's only been taking for a month but she confidently walked up there to play. And then my cell phone goes off twice and I start digging in my purse to turn it off. Mom & Dad and Roma are all calling me trying to find the place. I instantly start sweating and think I may lose my bowels. Ari's songs take about a minute and a half. It's our turn way too quickly. Lelu isn't even phased. B and D think it's hilarious and are relieved we don't have to sit through 20 other people. We get up there & I don't remember anything my teacher told me before especially if you mess up just keep playing. We start the song and our teacher is turning the pages for us. She turns the first page 2 measures too soon. I KNEW this by heart I played it so many times - but my brain froze! And I stopped! Just stopped! Lelu looks at me like I'm the biggest idiot. I say "you turned the page too soon, start here, no start here" My teacher says "Just start over". And we start over. I can feel sweat dripping down my back and under my eyes. The second time around we play it perfectly. Whew!!

Mom, Dad & Roma show up after it's all over, so we played it again for them. Aub apparently fell asleep after work so didn't even try to make it. I think I've almost recovered from my complete and utter humiliation and am enjoying learning more every day. Lessons learned: Next time - It'll just be me and Chris!! & we'll be on time to our recital! I figure by the time I'm 50 I should be pretty good.