(diaryland) December 03, 2012 - 10:17 p.m.

I remember watching Play School as a kid and freaking out about how intense Warren, the piano guy, was. Even though I thought Benita was pretty cool, Warren was king.

Somebody mentioned birds? Warren would just freestyle some bird sounds on the piano and it would blow my puny mind. He could play EVERY nursery rhyme, man, and he did it in the fashion any music hall cockney 'singer' could really feel at home pattering along to. I didn't get it. How could you JUST KNOW how to play all this stuff?

I recently found my inner reserve of Warren. I gave some kid a first piano lesson, and then she said she was learning recorder too. I said, "Sweet. What songs can you do?"

Next thing I knew, we were jamming our guts out to "Grand Old Duke of York." I just instinctively knew how to play it.

It never ceases to surprise me how little my dreams have evolved since I was 2.