The Start of Something Wonderful

Today was the really, truly, official beginning of Geneva’s Great Musical Adventure!  In only a few months of immersing herself in piano, learning to play many songs by ear as well as composing some music of her own, she made the bold choice to leave her beloved MoezArt Theater Company and pursue piano lessons.  Well, this afternoon I drove her downtown to the home of Will Buthod, our fantastic new organist at Ss. Simon and Jude Cathedral, to have her first lesson.  Though I’m always a bit iffy about downtown, Google maps did not fail me, and getting there was a breeze.  It was early afternoon, and very quiet around his highrise apartment complex.  I was unsure of where to park, and after driving around the block once, I settled on a metered spot across the street kitty-corner from the building, scrounged up enough change for an hour and 10 minutes just to be on the safe side, and then we marched across and began searching for the correct door.  Thankfully Will was downstairs and saw us wandering, came out and hailed us, and thus we learned for future reference both the right door, as well as where to park inside under the building.

I’ll be honest – I’m a little scared of apartment buildings of that size!  I’ve lived here in Phoenix for going on 16 years but I’m still small-town at heart.  I was glad he was there to walk us up to find his place.  As we walked down the hall, I realized there were no numbers on any of the doors – I wouldn’t have known how to find it!  Once we arrived at his wee loft (one of those cool, modern, very efficiently designed types of living spaces I’ve been posting on Facebook lately) I took a seat on the couch, Geneva sat down at the piano (he has a cute claw-foot wooden stool with a spinning adjustable seat) and the learning began.

It was a terrific first lesson, including many basics, a tour of the inside of the piano, and even a recitation of the musical lineage of which Geneva is now a part, traced all the way back to Johann Sebastian Bach!  I’m very excited for Geneva – Will is an exceptional musician, highly skilled in every genre, and I think he’ll be able to both inspire and challenge her, and teach her the skills she needs to make whatever kind of music she wants throughout the rest of her life.

On the way home, we stopped off at Staples so Geneva could pick out a special notebook to use for her lessons.  Before I could stop the engine at home, Paul was outside and waiting for me, and hopped right in the passenger seat as Geneva got out.  Meanwhile, Megan, who had been waiting beside him at the front gate, came to my window to ask for instructions on what to make for dinner.  I had cooked up some beans earlier in the day, and had her fix some rice to go with that, along with Paul’s stewed jack-rabbit.

That settled, I drove us to the Verizon store so Paul could have his new “dumb-phone” set up, and I could get my number transferred from my dead smart-phone to his smart-phone.  So now we have one fewer smart phones, and our bill will be $30 less per month.  When this phone is ready for an upgrade, I will downgrade back to a dumb-phone and save us another $30 a month.  It’s absolutely ridiculous to spend that much for two smart phones!!  We can use the money better, and we certainly don’t nee the distraction.  It is just too easy to become one of those obliviots who sits there with their head in their phone when they could be experiencing the blessing of real fellowship with real live people right next to them.  Nope, from now on, as long as we still have the choice, I think we will be sticking with “dumb-phones”.

Finally home again, the girls set up the table, and it was a delight to taste the delicious meal that resulted from Paul’s first successful hunting trip.  The rabbit only yielded 1-1/3 pounds of meat, so servings for the seven of us were small – but hey, we’re trying to reduce our meat intake anyway, so it’s all good.  I will say that it was very lean and we all agreed that it tasted a little like liver, with a beef-like texture.  Next time he brings some home I will try slow cooking instead of pressure cooking, as he did this time; that will undoubtedly make it more tender.