My best friend is leaving in a few days. Around 5 p.m. on Tuesday, to be exact. If I’m lucky, I may get to see her leave. If not, I would come home to an empty room.

Good bye, my best friend since 1998. The beautiful Lowrey upright piano.

Kit went out and rented the Lowrey for me as a birthday present back in the days. You bet your behind I’ve shed a few tears on the ivory keys afte we broke up. I was going to give up the piano at one point because I didn’t want it to be a reminder of the past relationship. But the piano was the only thing that has kept me sane through the ordeal, and gave me hope to keep on going. So I continued to pay the rent for just about $28 a month.

I know, I could’ve bought a piano with the money I spent renting, but I could never get enough money together.

When I moved to Long Beach, I was going to stop renting her again, but Brandon encouraged me to just spend some extra money to have her moved in with us. And I did. Although we haven’t gotten around to getting her tuned since the move. Hehehe.

The first year of rent was supposed to go toward purchase, so when we had money from the wedding, I called to see how much I would have to pay for the piano. It was an Italian sounding guy on the phone who told me I could have it for $900, but if I walked in the next day with cash, he’d let me have her for $600. Knowing that I would be out of job until the INS paper came through, we decided to keep the money instead of spending it. Lucky we did since I was out of job for 9 months.

A few weeks ago, our friends James had mentioned that Aurora’s mom and sister were moving from a bigger house to a smaller one, and they had no room for the piano that was once belonged to Aurora’s grandmother. We offered to buy it. Later on, we heard from Lee, Aurora’s sister, that the piano was already spoken for by another set of friends. Bummer.

But then a few days ago, James and Aurora surprised the hell out of me when they told me that grandma’s piano is mine. For free. It was a family concensus. Early birthday + Christmas + new apartment warming present!

Hell, you guys. You NEVER have to buy me another present for anything EVER again!

I am about to own my own piano. That’s HUGE!

So, Tuesday after 5 p.m., the rental piano is being returned to the store. And I will have to get a mover to Sage & Lee’s house to pick up grandma’s.

I’m so frelling excited, y’all!

So, tomorrow night for at least 2 hours, it’s just going to be me and Lowrey. We’ll have to take some pictures together too!