if the devil don't dance, heaven won't shine

yesterday, i wore a funny hat, polyester dress, and a white hood (really? i had to wear a white hood?) and wandered around the floor of the hockey arena

see me?

i wore shoes that were hurty, i shook hands with a chancellor and some deans, my face was on a jumbotron. i met the family of my friends who have saved my sanity over the past 2 years, i introduced my family to them. i went out to dinner with my mom, my sister and aunt.

i am truly blessed by wonderful friends, by amazing family. and my mom remembers everything. for instance, she remembers that when i was little i said i wanted musical instruments for major life occasions - specifically that i wanted a piano for a wedding gift. i am not engaged.

but i finished grad school yesterday. so my mom stepped absolutely outside of her comfort zone, and had been working with some people at the denver folklore center to give me the instrument i'd been quietly wanting for 6-7 years.

highlights for children

i actually cried when i opened it. not a lot, just a little. and played it in the fancy pants restaurant where we were dining. which seemed fitting - it has strings, we were at strings. it's so instinctive for me to play it. it sounds frighteningly like bagpipes when you play "amazing grace" with the slide.

i came home and fidgeted with it for a long time... i love it. it's exactly the one i wanted - cherry back and top, linked a few months ago with little fanfare. my momma rocks...

today i wish i lived in north carolina.

edit: it's a mountain dulcimer. :)