Gentlemen, start your harps!

Well, so begins another week. Last week was my 16-year-old daughter's first week back at school. Jessica attends Blake High School of the Arts. It is a magnet school that concentrates on the arts, but also has a "traditional" high school as well. Jessica is a harp major. She is a very talented young lady. Plays the harp, piano, violin and steel drums. Jessica also loves to write and draw. Jessica came home last week and informed me that her harp teacher had suggested that all juniors and seniors should consider renting or purchasing a harp. Being the ever dutiful parent, I sat myself down at the computer to research prices. After picking myself up off the floor and applying ice packs to all the parts I hit on the way down, I had to tell my dear sweet daughter - no. The cheapest I could find for the required model was $10,000 - ON SALE I TELL YOU!!

Please take note of my daughters age. She will be getting a driver's license soon and will need a car to drive herself to and from school. Her school is quite a distance from our house, so this is something her Dad and I have been dreaming of as we sit in rush hour traffic, plotting a route around all the known road construction and then inching the car through the worst car pool line in known history. When I can do it without blowing a gasket, I will have to write a post about the joys of car pool line at Blake High School.

Anyway, we have been discussing if to buy a car, what kind of car, when to buy it, etc., etc..... Told my daughter that if a Lyon & Healy pedal harp had a steering wheel, attached seat, indicators, gas pedal and brake we would consider (please note the word consider) getting one. Most teenagers ignore the word "consider" and in their mind you just agreed to something.

Teenage girls are very good at giving eye rolls, heavy sighs and when the occasion calls for it, dramatic arm movements. Not my dear sweet daughter. She gives "the look". "The look" can wilt the will and stamina of all but the hardiest souls. It can cause those not prepared to take at least 10 steps back and cower in the closet. I received "the look", not because I said no, but because I tried to do it humorously with my comment about a harp being a car, blah, blah, blah.... teenagers don't think their parents are at all funny.

Sally-Ann