Home To Florida!

While I sit in my house, afraid to go outside and feel the 10 degree weather, I just can't wait to go home for the holidays. Florida is having a heat wave right now, its currently 70 degrees warmer there than it is here. One of my favorite parts about going back home is walking out of the airport in Jacksonville. As soon as those automatic doors open the heat and humidity smack you in the face and it feels wonderful. At first it is a little hard to breathe again, but after a few deep breaths you get used to all the moister in the air.
I haven't been back home in a year. I have seen some of my family but most of them I havent even talked to all year long. Unfortunately if they want to see me they will find me sitting in my parents movie theater playing my new video games. My birthday is next Wednesday and my mom promised me that when I arrive in Florida on Friday my games will be waiting. I don't know how much time I will spend visiting friends and family after I get my hands on Assassins Creed 2 and Modern Warfare 2. My life will be pretty much consumed by these 2 games and I cannot wait for that to happen.
My parents are having a huge New Years Eve party with almost 100 people. They contacted me a couple days ago to tell me they want me to play a little concert with one of their friends for the party. I asked for a small list of songs that the guy can play. instead of a small list of what he wants to play, he sent me a 5 page list of every song he knows. Now, before I leave, I need to figure out which songs I can already play, and they pick a few songs that I can learn quickly. It will be fun, but we will see if I will be sober enough to hold a guitar.

Going Organ-ic

I really love playing music. I try to get my hands on every instrument that I can, and recently I have been searching craigslist furiously trying to find a piano or an organ. I don’t have much money at all, and usually organs and pianos are such a hassle to move that people give them away for free, just as long as you take it out of their house for them. Unfortunately for me, I don’t have the man power to claim any of the awesome free pianos people in Lewiston are trying to get rid of. Every couple of months an organ comes up, but I’m never fast enough and it is already taken by the time I contact the sellers.

Over thanksgiving break I visited some of my family in Richland Washington. A couple of my cousins work at a thrift shop for one of our family friends. While I was just sitting around playing video games my cousins had been at work unloading a truck with my uncle. My uncle came back and told me I needed to come to the thrift shop to help them figure out if any of this new stuff they got was worth anything. When I arrived, out in front of the store were speakers, P.A. systems, receivers, a record player, microphones, and an electric organ. I promptly inspected the equipment and told them that brand new, the equipment was probably about $5,000 all together. My uncle wanted to buy one of the amplifiers and some mics for his daughter, so I told the manager of the shop about how much those items would be worth now. Of course because this guy was a family friend my uncle got a great deal of just 30 bucks.

After their negotiations I asked about the organ outside. The man said he would sell it for 60. I was immediately bummed and said “Well, all I have on me is $40.” To my relief he agreed on the condition that I take the organ that day, which I had planned on doing anyway. We went to the register and I handed him my 2 twenties to which he responded “Uh, do you have the money for the tax?” I nodded and repeated my previous phrase “all I have on me is $40.” I asked my cousin who was sitting behind the counter if he could lend me the three bucks I needed, and the organ was mine.

I drove home the next day, organ in the bed of my truck. My best friend Lindsey came over to help me load the organ into the house. It was much heavier without the help of a 3^rd person. We placed it right inside of my front door and it sits there now. I still haven’t figured out how all the buttons work, but I’m beginning to get used to it now.