Ukulele Lady

On Friday afternoon I drove over to McCabe's Guitar Shop in Santa Monica and purchased a ukulele. I'd been to the shop a few times before to try out some of the ukes. I decided that I liked the construction and sound of Jim Beloff's "Fluke" Ukulele the best. I was almost going to buy the uke with the natural wood face, but I asked if they had a "mango" uke with more of an orange wood stain on the face. I was in luck!!! The saleswoman ran upstairs and came back with my Mango Fluke, complete with gig bag! I also purchased a ukulele instruction DVD.
I had played the uke when I was a little girl. My brother, Ken Bloom, is a musician. He was trying to teach me how to play guitar when I was about 7 years old. My little fingers just could not stretch to reach all of the frets on the neck of the guitar, so he taught me how to play the much smaller ukulele. A few years later, I picked up the guitar and the banjo. That's another story.
Once I got home and played the DVD, I was ready to start playing my new uke. I figured out the tuning, played the three chords I remembered from childhood (C, F and G-7) and I was singing songs like crazy, with the assistance of the Jim Beloff songbook.
Of course, I had to customize my gig bag with a Hawaiian looking crocheted flower pin, placed strategically on the music pocket!
About two years ago my brother promised to build me a custom uke. He is an instrument builder. I've been waiting and waiting for my custom tiki-uke. You know what they say, "the cobbler's children always go shoeless." Maybe Ken will surprise me and I'll receive the custom uke this year for my b-day. Oh well, at least I have my interim Fluke and I can start practicing now!
My ukulele lessons at McCabe's start on July 17th. I can hardly wait to learn all of the strums, more chords and more songs. Who knows, maybe I'll have a third career as a travelling ukulele lady!