Wouldn't it be grand?
Throughout the years, lots of people have asked, "So how did you and your husband meet?" to which I would answer, "in school" and then they would say, "Oh really, how old were you?" and I would pause and then say "Eleven."
It never gets old! I love watching everyone's eyes bug out of their head at that moment. Of course, I am nice enough to explain that we didn't start dating until I was 17. But what no one has ever asked, is "When did you notice him?" The answer to that one, is near the end of my junior year. I was 16 years old.
My friend Lindsy and I were attending a choir concert and giggling about a boy who was playing the piano and singing. His name was David Palmer (I don't feel bad saying that, because it's a really common name, and it's important in the story later). Lindsy decided that she was going to marry him so he could serenade her every day. We then giggled some more.
After the concert, we were hanging out in the choir room, even though neither of us were in choir. It occurs to me now that we were being choir groupies, how funny. Just then, we heard the piano start and looked over and who was singing and playing the piano this time? It was Stephen DeSelms. We both let our jaws hit the floor. Lindsy was the one who spoke first. "David Palmer who?" I actually ended up taking both Lindsy and Stephen home that night, and I was ecstatic that she lived closer to the school than he did, so I dropped her off first. ;-)
It later became an inside joke, as we both had French class with Stephen, one of us would say "David Palmer who?" and we'd giggle again. He never knew this story until quite some time after we'd been dating, when I discovered that the reason he was so good at piano is because his parents owned one! It's a baby grand and I think I fell in love with him over that piano many times over again. I distinctly remember wondering if those musical genes could be trusted not to skip a generation ;-)
That brings us to now. Our son Benjamin sadly seems to have inherited my monotone, off-key singing voice, but he has some real natural talent at the piano. He sits in front of it at grandma's house and plays these melodic songs out of his head that really sound beautiful. The notes never clash, and he just kind of makes it up as he goes along, with no formal training.
I, on the other hand, would definitely some help if I wanted to learn to play piano, because I am not so musically inclined. Piano music has always intimidated me, since you need to do so many things at one time. I can type with both hands, but I don't think I could read two lines of music at the same time and play all together without a lot of practice. But the coolest thing about this beginner piano course is that it is geared toward adults, so you don't have to play kids' songs like "Twinkle Twinkle Little Star" if you don't want to. They have taken real songs, including "Fur Elise," which was one of the ones Stephen played for me when we were teenagers, and made them easier so that you can learn to play without going crazy.
It never gets old! I love watching everyone's eyes bug out of their head at that moment. Of course, I am nice enough to explain that we didn't start dating until I was 17. But what no one has ever asked, is "When did you notice him?" The answer to that one, is near the end of my junior year. I was 16 years old.
My friend Lindsy and I were attending a choir concert and giggling about a boy who was playing the piano and singing. His name was David Palmer (I don't feel bad saying that, because it's a really common name, and it's important in the story later). Lindsy decided that she was going to marry him so he could serenade her every day. We then giggled some more.
After the concert, we were hanging out in the choir room, even though neither of us were in choir. It occurs to me now that we were being choir groupies, how funny. Just then, we heard the piano start and looked over and who was singing and playing the piano this time? It was Stephen DeSelms. We both let our jaws hit the floor. Lindsy was the one who spoke first. "David Palmer who?" I actually ended up taking both Lindsy and Stephen home that night, and I was ecstatic that she lived closer to the school than he did, so I dropped her off first. ;-)
It later became an inside joke, as we both had French class with Stephen, one of us would say "David Palmer who?" and we'd giggle again. He never knew this story until quite some time after we'd been dating, when I discovered that the reason he was so good at piano is because his parents owned one! It's a baby grand and I think I fell in love with him over that piano many times over again. I distinctly remember wondering if those musical genes could be trusted not to skip a generation ;-)
That brings us to now. Our son Benjamin sadly seems to have inherited my monotone, off-key singing voice, but he has some real natural talent at the piano. He sits in front of it at grandma's house and plays these melodic songs out of his head that really sound beautiful. The notes never clash, and he just kind of makes it up as he goes along, with no formal training.
I, on the other hand, would definitely some help if I wanted to learn to play piano, because I am not so musically inclined. Piano music has always intimidated me, since you need to do so many things at one time. I can type with both hands, but I don't think I could read two lines of music at the same time and play all together without a lot of practice. But the coolest thing about this beginner piano course is that it is geared toward adults, so you don't have to play kids' songs like "Twinkle Twinkle Little Star" if you don't want to. They have taken real songs, including "Fur Elise," which was one of the ones Stephen played for me when we were teenagers, and made them easier so that you can learn to play without going crazy.