Thursday, September 22, 2011

Patience is a virtue...or annoyance...

Patience is frustrating for a patient person to exercise.

I really do consider myself a patient person. Close friends and family TELL me and I'm a very patient...they told me that when I was a kid, teen and still: Veronique is a very patient person. No arguments.

So, what's the problem? I need to be patient now. And I'm having a VERY hard time doing such. Maybe it's that I'm not patient with myself and my decisions. I do not make big decisions lightly, I usually do LOTS of research (history dork: party of 1). I do this for anything and everything that is big. Purchases, life decisions, no fail! Here comes my problem...once I've made that decision, I want it to happen NOW! Whether it's a purchase (ok, we decided what we want...now to wait to have the money) or life decision, i.e. when I wanted to get pregnant 10 months felt like an eternity before we found out Joseph was on his way!

It's always worse with things that I'm passionate about and/or don't have the money for once the decision is made (in my defense though, how do you know what to save for something is if you don't know what you want and is the best fit, best product for the money, etc) . Granted, I don't think I actually get worked up over things I'm not passionate about..so...moving on...have you stayed with my ADD brain thus far? Good...let's continue!

I just transferred some more money into my harp fund and counted up some $1 that I had been given. The combination put me over $900. All of a sudden I felt like I could see the light at the end of the tunnel! My patience had paid off...literally. I have checked on a "local" harp store's site from time to time to see if they had what I thought I could get (aka...the cheapest one) used. The one I was looking at has two "sizes", one that has 26 strings the other has 34. I started getting worried about not being able to play what I wanted on the 26 stringed harp. I emailed my former harp teacher for some advice.

This is what she said
"You might be able to find a 34 string that is closer to the price you want to pay. I have found
some beautiful harps on craigslist. My gut feeling is that with your skill level, you might be frustrated with the lack of range on the Ravenna (26 string)."

SO NOT the answer I was hoping for, but my gut was starting to tell me the same thing, so I wasn't that surprised.

I had looked on craiglist before with NO success (granted, harps aren't quite as common as iPods..so there's not exactly a LOT on craigslist to choose from). BUT, with her success, I decided to check it out again.

OH DEAR! Here's what I originally found as my "goal"




26 strings
with full levers, case and stand (appropriate "accessories")
$1359











Here's what I found on Craigslist

(posted just over a week ago)

34 strings
with full levers, case, stand (necessary "accessories")
$1600 obo

New: $2224


I have $936.90


I emailed and inquired. Maybe it's not even available...maybe they'll take pity on me and give it to me for $1000 (we could figure out THAT difference in money). Regardless, right now...I feel like I'm trying to hold on to running water in my hands. This is the hard part with craigslist. I had a friend say "I bet you'll get there (referring to the price of the one on craigslist) in the next year", but THIS will not be around in a year.

Patience...I need you now.

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