The Piano Man

Who was not the piano man I would later marry. - A story

I fell in love with a piano player, who wasn’t my husband-to-be who also played the piano.

Picture it. It’s Disneyland 2016. My cousin, sister, and I had just spent a month and a half in the UK and Ireland on a whirlwind adventure. We’re stopping in So Cal with family before heading back to the PNW. It was before cell phones were necessary in the parks and paper tickets were still needed.

We are exhausted from a blast overseas and sad having the last day of fun in the parks before we returned home to the PNW and Hawaii respectively. We are completely broke and I have maybe $15 left.

Thankfully, all our travel was paid for in advance and family was taking us to the airport. After a month of paying over $450 extra for my roaming phone bill in a foreign country, I was ready to get home.

So, we’re spending one last magical day in Disneyland, and we’re about to head over to California Adventure to ride California Screaming (before it was the Incredicoaster).

Earlier in the day, my sister and I had gone on Tower of Terror (before it was Guardians) and I had screamed bloody murder before the drop actually happened. It was humiliating and hilarious.

Anyway, that night, we three are about to head over to CA, and I go to pull my paper ticket out of my back pocket where it had been all day. Except my pocket was empty.

And I couldn’t get another one. It was nowhere to be found. I was stuck in Disneyland and had to let my sister and cousin go on without me.

Did I let this ruin my time? No! And boy, did I have an adventure by myself. This was before Instagram Stories was a thing and I was live Snapchatting everything. Who for? No idea, I was no influencer, but it was fun.

Did I go on roller coasters by myself? No. Did I explore hidden places or try and find delicious food? Also no. I found the piano man.

I sat at a table and watched this piano man play the songs of my childhood.

Now, this was before people were vlogging the parks like crazy, mind you, and before the piano players were famous.

I sat and I imagined myself like a lounge singer draped across a piano in a dark room. Except, I was sitting at a sticky table by myself watching this guy who was probably creeped out by my staring.

He turned and politely asked me if I would like to play anything. My dream had come true! My moment!

I requested a song, I don’t remember what now, and live Snapchatted that I had found my piano man. I’m sure my friends were thrilled.

He serenaded me and I sat, dreamily staring at this random man I would never see again. *sigh* so dreamy.

Then, I went and embarrassingly filmed myself riding King Arthur’s Carousel...alone. Like a weirdo. But, I had so much fun and I would highly recommend getting stuck in Disneyland by yourself.

To the piano man: I had to let you go. You will always have a piece of my heart. But I found my own piano man.

But that’s a story for another time.

Love,