Sing us a song, you're the piano man

I first started playing piano when I entered 1st grade. I think that's where my love for music was born---playing "Hot Cross Buns" on a Casio keyboard. Several years later, my piano teachers would suggest that I train to play professionally, but I never wanted piano to become a job or an obligation. I just loved to play. So while several of my friends learned to play difficult classical pieces through the Suzuki method, which emphasizes repetition and memorization, I just played whatever I wanted: classical, new age, jazz, songs from Broadway and movies, etc.
I think just having the freedom to learn and play songs in my own way, instead of following a certain technique, really allowed me to connect with the music.
I stopped going to formal lessons in high school, and I definitely didn't play as much in college, since I was more into playing the guitar. But occasionally, I would get the urge to revisit certain songs, so I would get out the books of sheet music and start playing and realize that piano will always be my first love musically.
Now I'm waxing nostalgic here for a reason--I'm usually not this much of an emotional sap. My parents decided to sell their piano, and like Joni Mitchell sang "you don't know what you got till its gone". I mean, it makes sense, I didn't really come over to play that much and my mom wants their to be more space in the living room where the piano was. But now knowing that I won' t have anywhere to go play, when I do get the urge, is kind of sad. Fortunately, my parents were generous enough to give me the money they made from the piano...unfortunately, I think they under-sold it on Craigslist for $300. However, my parents said they would give me the money if I promised to put it towards a nice digital piano when David and I eventually move in to a house. So until then, maybe I'll just have to sneak into music stores with my sheet music and play a few tunes.

Here's a picture of the piano we had since I was 6: