Dear Charlie Cheltenham - right now I'm listening to my baroque station on pandora - another cool invention that only came about a few years ago! - and there was just some great Paul O'Dette lute music on.  I'm a big fan of the lute.  I wonder what kind of music you'll like.  Your dad plays the guitar.  I play the piano, and fiddle around on the violin.  When you get old enough, and if you're interested, you can take lessons in something.  It's good to be able to read music and play an instrument.  Once, in 8th grade I got a detention, but it was totally cool because I spent the entire time "practicing" a beethoven sonata on my desk - trying to tap out the fingering and stuff.  Everybody else in detention was bored and wanted to talk, but I was just quietly tapping away on the desk, and when I got home that night, I had improved.  So it was actually a good use of time.

I've been learning the pathetique sonata - more beethoven.  Your dad is worried that it will make you moody.  Like you'll come out and immediately demand paper to write your morose poetry that you've been thinking up while listening to all that angst inside me.  I don't worry about that.  My mom learned the moonlight sonata when she was pregnant with me, and it's just made me only slightly moody, so I'm pretty sure you'll be ok :)

Love,
mom