Officially intermediate

That's Max, the most fabulous piano teacher ever. Wednesday at 9:30 a.m. is one of my favorite times of the week. That's my weekly piano lesson. Always wanted to play the piano. A while back, an old friend in retirement used his time off to follow his old dream of learning the piano. Just weeks into his lessons he told me, "Don't wait."

Max used to work with me at the Fringe, and then started teaching piano again. Seemed like a fine way to stay in touch, so I signed up. It's been eight months, but we took one month off. So really seven months of practicing, and today Max says I'm an intermediate student now.

Tonight I had a beer at Tracey's Bar where it turns out my friend Avye works. Avye is soooo smart and sooo talented. And she thinks she wasted her time in school getting a degree in theater and photography because it turns out there's so much moooore she wants to do. She and her boyfriend fantasize about building a raft made of junk, and floating down the Mississippi River. Note to self, all the junk we have left when we're ready to leave the country - if it floats, I'm giving it to Avye.

I know how she feels. She's 24 and I'm 38 and my 15 years on her don't make me feel any further down my list of ambitions. I mean yeah, I've done a lot of things, but the brain muscles that I use to learn new songs on the piano ... well, they're at the infantile stage of development.

So if something as commonplace to some as playing music can feel so brand, shiny new, imagine how much else is out there.

This is Allegra. Allegra considers it a "pipe dream" to do my job. But Allegra is going to play sax with Buckets and Tap Shoes in Finland. Fucking Finland. Yeah, she's cool. Waaaaaay beyond intermediate on the sax. Learning the Fringe, and working towards total mobile monkey world domination on the arts scene (sorry, that's an inside joke, sort of.)

Lots of things I'm advanced at, but so many things I'm pre-beginner about. Like didn't-even-know-that-existed ignorant. Did you know there's a New Orleans band - a family - called The Flying Neutrinos that build rafts and float around the world picking up orphans? Yeah, me neither. It's a big, wide world. And I'm a little tired of specialized and advanced. I want intermediate everything.

So Bob, the guy who started learning piano at 62 years old after a surprising heart attack said, "Don't wait."