As I drift across a series of great homestay invitations within Athens, last night I reached the beyond-the-perimeter home of Antoine, who's completing his PhD in Adult Education at the University of Georgia. Antoine just adopted a stray kitten this week, and Lara, his neighbor and close friend, is in love with kitty!

To my surprise, though none of his degrees are in music, I quickly found Antoine to be very well known within the University of Georgia's music dept. Degree or not, he's very talented and very involved with the dept.

As I followed along to Antoine's music school errands, I asked him if he would allow me to listen to the Steinway concert grand being played. Wow! Loved it!!

U-kitty-lele! (at Antoine's house)

I'm inspired, and I'm ready!! I've wanted to learn to play an instrument for most of my life, yet have never really followed up. I've been told great things about the ukelele, including that it's an easy instrument to learn to play, and easy to travel with!! Antoine showed me a couple of how-to starters for the Ukelele (including this one). I played around for quite a while to learn the keys-- and I still have a LONG way to go-- but I'm inspired, and ready to find my first ukelele!!