A Penny (Whistle) for Your Thoughts, New Lyrics for the Brain

So yesterday we all went to a music store to get instruments.  Question: How on earth do people who work at Renaissance Faires afford their instruments?  Everything was at least $25, mostly $40, including a penny whistle! Which, by the way, sounds so off key when I bring it to my blessed lips and blow.  It probably doesn't help that I learned the fingering for a whistle tuned to D rather than C.  And the walls where I live are so paper thin, I'm terrified of 1: disturbing people, 2: being mocked in people's heads for my atrocious playing, and 3: getting labeled as one of "those" people.  My solution? Practice in the privacy of my car.  Maybe that's a little pathetic...and people who see me will think I'm even stranger than if they simply overheard me... Oh, well.  Car it is.
I'm not going to lie, there are moments when I panic from this idea.  Then I tell myself, "Right now, it's just a demo cd.  Worry when you get accepted/rejected."  The sad thing is, I think I'll worry more if I get rejected.  This idea, as impoverished as it will make me, seems obtainable and nourishing for the soul (wow, that sounds a little over dramatic). 
However, on a positive note, I have written lyrics for a ballad with a modern twist.  It's kind of awesome and I'm proud.  Do I have any idea what the teacher was lecturing on in class?  No.  But will that make me money?  At this point, no.  But my lyrics might.  Ha.
So, if you see a girl playing a penny whistle in her car, don't worry, she's not mentally unbalanced (at least, we think), she's just planning on graduating college and joining the circus (to coin a phrase from her mother, lol).  Oh, and I bought a tambourine!  How cool is that!  Ok, maybe I am a little unbalanced. --Jaenelle