the thing about the piano

i forgot to actually say what it was i found in my living room upon arriving home on friday.

silly me.

the thing about the piano is this [i'm sorry if you've heard this before]:

february 2008, i watched a movie with my friend sara. it was about a boy and a girl, and of course it was a love story, and of course i was single and thought i'd never be married. at the end of the movie, he buys her a piano--thus began my firm belief that a piano was probably the most romantic gift a guy could ever give to a girl. hence, my facebook status the next day:

happiness is a guy who will buy a girl a piano instead of stupid old flowers.

*note: in the event that someday a guy does buy me flowers, i will probly not think it is stupid. however, in the event that someday a guy buys me a piano...i will drop everything and marry him. 

Added February 9, 2008 · Comment · Like

 it can't have been a coincidence that that was the night that sara told me that i was going to marry her friend barclay krause, who i'd never met, who lived 3 hours away in a town i'd solemnly swore i'd never inhabit. you can read that whole story here. 

but the point is not that. the point is that after our first meeting, i went home and somewhat rashly facebook messaged this little bit to a few of my closest friends:

Elena Christensen May 6, 2008 at 11:11pm

GUYS!!! i met my future husband tonight!

and while i was doing THAT, he was facebook creeping me, and he found the above facebook status about a guy buying a girl a piano. we each found out about each others' may 6 evening activities on march 12, 2009, the night he asked me to marry him, at which point he said that he had money put away to buy me a piano, but no place to put it yet. 

when we bought our first house, on may 29, 2009, it was absolutely not in the state to be lived in, nor, at 480 square feet, was there any room for such a massive instrument. we poured so much time and effort into making that house livable, but squeezing a piano in there seemed a bit extreme. 

and yet on friday, there it was. my very own 88-keyed, black and white and brown all over, studio piano. squished right in there with the love seat and chesterfield. 

i spent my afternoon yesterday alternately playing old royal conservatory pieces and scales on my new piano, and painting up some pictures to hang above it. 

ah. j'aime bien.