September 12, 1999

We almost bought a piano today. Would that have been the weirdest impulse buy ever, or what?

The Pacific Northwest Ballet was having a piano sale at the Opera House, and we noticed the sign as we were driving past, so Keith was like, "Wanna stop?" and I said, "Sure!"

So we went inside, and it was all very hushed and quiet and there were two well-dressed women sitting at the entrance, and one of them said, "Welcome to the Pacific Northwest Ballet Piano Sale!" and gave me a form to fill out with my name and address and stuff. Already this was more than I had bargained for. I'd expected, I dunno, a big showroom full of pianos with big price tags on them. Like a used car dealership, but with pianos.

Anyway, after I filled out the form, one of the ladies called up one of the salesmen on her cell phone, and he came to lead us through the pianos. It was actually pretty exciting. I've always wanted my own piano. I took lessons when I was in high school, but while I was in college I sort of let my playing slack off. It was hard to find a piano to practice on, for one thing (since I wasn't a music major.)

Keith and I had several hurried, hushed conversations while the guy was showing us around the pianos. The gist was:

"Do you want to do this?"

"Umm... sure! Do you?"

"Well, only if you do."

"I want to, it just feels so irresponsible!"

"Yeah, I know. I've always wanted a piano, though!"

"So, are you sure?"

"Sure, I guess I'm sure! Are you sure?"

"I'm as sure as you are."

Etc. We finally decided on one, and went back to the financing lady. To make a long story short, we were turned down for financing. I guess we could have just paid cash, but that's a little too much money to spend right now, when we're still driving around a car with a donut tire on one wheel. It was still vastly exciting, though, and it makes me want a piano even more.

After the piano adventure, we went to eat at the Mediterranean Kitchen and stuffed ourselves full of beef, chicken, and tahini sauce. It was outstanding. I remarked to Keith that it feels really good to be able to go out to eat at places where the average price for a dinner is $20 and under. In college, I was limited to places that were $10 and under, and even that was a guilty pleasure sometimes. I ate a lot of ramen noodles and Campbell's tomato soup in college. So it's nice now to be able to go eat someplace nice.

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