Hope you're getting a visual

Some things (and one very good one) I forgot to mention about the graduation party last weekend:
1. I saw some of my very dear cousins (one of whom I stayed with for a while and we bonded) (another of whom is identical to my mother, and has a very cool husband) and it made my year to see them

2. My uncle and his son each took turns playing the really old (but cool) piano. It was all dusty and cracking on the inside, and the felt on the hammers were all rotted out. They played all sorts of  things, and it had a very cool (and out of tune) distinct “old” sound, like walking into a ghost town. I took some really cool pictures from my phone and I don’t know why they didn’t get saved, but here’s one, and it’s blurry because the person that was playing it hit me.

Anyway, it was old and the finish had almost turned green, but you could see, if you opened the cabinet, that it was the prettiest mahogany. Oh, by the way, it was an upright piano, the deepest I’ve ever seen. The cabinet itself, before even reaching the keys, was probably three feet out from the wall. Very nice. The sound was like the sound on (I know, I’m a nerd) Bells for Her, from Tori Amos’ CD Under the Pink, because in that recording, the took apart and (speedily) rebuilt the piano she played on, and it has a really cool sound.

3. Now for getting the visual: the backyard of this really cool western-style barn/party hall/shack-looking-thang sloped down into a thin forest where you could just see through to the pond. It was very cool, and was a perfect amphitheatre. The band was set up after dinner to play; they were a local gig, and good friends of the graduate. Dear Cousins and I were walking around after dinner, drinks in hand, (and 300 degrees outside) walking the backyard, and one of them says to me “So what kind of music do these guys play?” They had the “Sound of Music,” soundtrack playing (as a joke obviously) while they set up, so I responded “They’re doing My Favorite Things, a few Mary Poppins numbers and an Ethel Merman medley. My cousin responded with the following, and thus the “Ethel Merman Tribute Band,” was born. You really had to be there, and maybe it was just the scorching heat, but it was hysterical. We laughed about that for quite some time, as it was a real knee-slapper.

I think that’s all for now… except that they played Journey’s Don’t Stop Believing, and almost did a really good job.

And as a bonus, which I’m thoroughly excited about but too tired to expound upon, I was informed that someone was thinking of me and bought me a ticket to go see Guster. And no, I don’t have any extras, so if you want to come you must buy your own. You see, I WAS INVITED.

Thank you. That is all.