This blurry picture is of Vera, my very first ukulele.
She's an Amigo tenor, and we'll get into that a bit more later.
I'm not sure what possessed me that fateful day in 2004 to drive the six miles across town and pay $78 for a ukulele. Probably a combination of Central California heat, graduate school insanity (I'd also bought an XBox and a special quilting sewing machine), and one too many viewings of Lilo and Stitch.
I also bought a beginner's chord book. I think I stuck with it for about nine days.
Between 2004 and 2010, I moved seven times. Vera moved with me every time, and I'd find a corner to stick her in, just in case I got the urge to try playing again.
Didn't get that urge until March this year, when I picked her up and did a Google for "Ukulele Chords".
Now, back to the Amigo brand-- not one I've ever seen mentioned on here. Probably because it stinks on ice. The sound's awful, the intonation's off starting at the 6th fret, and it won't stay tuned thanks to friction(less) pegs and a cracked headstock. Which is why Vera lives on a shelf and I bought Johnny in April of this year.
Because for all that she's a royal pain in my behind, I can't bear to part with her. She has witnessed some of the best and worst moments of my life from her perch on the shelf in all the houses I've lived in. And she brought me back to music at a time in my life when not only did I need it, I didn't think I'd ever get it back. She's going to stay up there on that shelf in honorable retirement.