Sorry, nothing stimulating has happened to me recently.  Well, nothing stimulating enough to write about I mean!  Sooooo last night I was playing around with my laptop/digital camera, and I was recording myself to see if I could play better.

What have I been doing with all of my free time?

Noooo not making meth, that’s illegal kiddies!  Memorizing Beethovens Fur Elise, naturally!  It’s only like saying I’m reading the encyclopedia in my free time.  Everyone just turns and walks away slowly, that’s it.

I actually learned this when I was in grade school after I first got a keyboard, annndd not surprisingly it is one of the first ones I started playing again.

Sorry about the video quality, again it was taken with my digital camera. I guess you can’t tell if it is me except for the blurry, hideous monster that shows up near the end of the video that kinda resembles me. Yeah, it was late at night last night and no, my hair doesn’t usually look like I stuck my finger in a light socket. I giggled at the end like a schoolgirl because it is only the FIVE MILLIONTH time I played/recorded it and I didn’t mess up finally. Okay, so it only took three tries. Did I mention it was late?!

I was just going to turn off the camera at the end, but I figured a shot of the empty music stand to boost my ego wouldn’t hurt. Ahhh, that’s better.  Yeah, I know that it is only the first half of the song.  At the end I just skip to the last chord of the music that I remembered.   I’m learning the second half along with The Entertainer.  Boy am I a wild animal or WHAT?!

Feel free to insert pandering words of praise here -

“Yeah this is UPS, I just wanted to let you know that I dropped the package off by the front door,”  A guy says monotonously over the phone.  He doesn’t even take a breath - I’m impressed.

“Thanks, how did you get into the building?”  I ask, holding my cellphone while simultaneously getting my mail.  There is only one way to get into the building, and that is to have someone ‘buzz’ you in.  Usually the business managers do that for people delivering packages.

“I just rang the Darrell,”  The UPS guy says, clearly having delivered there before.  Darrell is one of the business managers.  Not a landlord, but someone the landlord pays to do all of the dirty work of the apartment complex: give tours, do screenings of new apartment tenants, field all the calls about maintenance, and be the general communication (read: buffer zone) between the landlord and the tenants.

“But, he didn’t come to the door, right?  Darrell doesn’t know what’s in the package?”  I ask.  Okay, so I have to admit, I didn’t exactly ASK if I could have a piano in an apartment complex.  No idea what I’m talking about?  Click here for the piano entry.  Well, to be quite honest I didn’t ask Darrell if I could have a piano for a reason. I don’t really want to find out what the answer is if I do ask.  I’ll just do first, ask questions later.

“No, I mean…” The guy trails off, I can practically hear him thinking, “I just told him it was heavy…”

“Okay that’s alright, thanks for the delivery!”  I say.   We hang up shortly afterward.

After retrieving my mail, I use my key to get back through the front door, and I look down the hallway.  The Main Offices’ light is on, the door is propped open, but no one is in there.  I walk quietly up the stairs, turn the corner and…

“OH GOD,”  I yelp, backing into the wall and dropping all of my mail.  Darrell is RIGHT around the corner, standing in front of my door.  He’s a pretty big guy, but no one could hide THAT size of box towering in the hallway.  It must be about 6 feet tall!

“Hey…Darrell,”  I say, bending over to pick up my mail.

“Oh, just the person I was looking for!”  He says happily.  Darrell is an elderly guy, who runs the apartment complex with his wife.

“Yeah, me too,”  I say, smiling like I had been waiting for him, not the other way around.

“Wait…you were?”  He asks, his smile faltering.

“Erm…I was just kidding Darrell,”  I say sheepishly, unable to think of something witty to say.  He turns around to look at the box.

“Oh, that’s um…an entertainment center,”  I finish lamely.  “I need a new one.”

“Oh okay, they must have used the wrong box then,”  He says, turning back around to look at me with his clear blue eyes, smiling.

“Why’s that?”

“Well, it says ‘Wellington Digital Piano’ on the side here,”  He says, pointing to BIG BOLD LETTERS saying ‘Wellington Digital Piano”. I watch as he turns around to face me, his clear blue eyes make me feel like he can see to my soul.

“Ahhhhh yeah about that,”  I start, smiling.

“Well, what the landlord doesn’t know won’t hurt him,”  Darrell says, walking away.  He turns around and adds, “And don’t forget to put that ‘entertainment center’ together quietly.”

“Thank you,”  I sputter. My mouth was hanging open at his point so I close it.  I spin around look at the box towering in the hallway.  There is NO WAY I will be able to life 130 pounds by myself.  I look down the hallway.  Of course, no one is around, and the complex is silent.

It took me about 3 hours, but I finally got it together:

Oh yeah, do I need to mention that about 120 pounds of that is in the KEYBOARD itself?! Good LORD it is heavy.  Try attaching legs to the stupid thing while on it’s side, and then having to LIFT the whole damn thing up by yourself and set it on two unsteady feet. After that, you go underneath tightening the rest of the bolts.  At one time I put my Ottoman underneath it just to dampen the blow to the keyboard if it falls, so that it doesn’t crush me.

Luckily for me, it never did.  And, now I have a digital piano, complete with play-along songs like “Hot Cross Buns” and “When the Saints Go Marching In”.  Next stop, Amazon for a better piano book!