Getting ready to publish

We are finally there --- the point where I stop messing with the notes --- okay well that's not completely true; I'm always messing with the notes.  BUT, today I can begin to put the score together.  I have to start today because I'm meeting with the music director on Thursday and I should hand the piano score to her.
So today, I begin.
The short story is I've been writing a show -- a musical -- with my husband, and it's going to premiere in November.
The long story is how I got to this place.
For a very long time I thought that everyone heard what I did; everyone had music hanging out in their head, singing along with the fan whirling or the wheels skimming across the pavement.
It wasn't until I was actually in the middle of writing one of our first pieces that was performed that I learned that I'm the only one hearing what I hear.
Quite a shock to me.
But that's a story for another day.
Today let me just say that I "formally" started music when I was four.  We were living in Grand Rapids, MI, driving downtown, and there was a huge picture of a grand piano painted on the side of a brick building, all shiny black in contrast to the red brick surrounding what probably was an ad for a local store.  And I said, "I want that."  So my dad bought it for me.  Well not the big shiny black grand, but a lovely piano nonetheless that my mom loved because "the wood was so pretty" and it was "french provincial".  Only after they bought the piano did they find out that not every piano teacher would teach a 4 year old.  But they found one.  I don't remember his name --- and later on my mother told me he was a drunk and needed the money --- but I loved it all the same.  I never complained about practicing, or going to lessons.  And as soon as I learned "Blue Moon" probably when I was seven or eight --- you know "Da, Da Daahhh. Da, da-di-da-di-daaahhh." --- I played variations for hours and hours and hours after school.
Even then I was composing; but no one knew it or even paid attention --- well my dad did  ---- sometimes.  "Margaret!" he'd say to my mother.  "Does she HAVE to play the piano now?"
I guess the lesson for new parents is "be careful what you wish for" and "think before you give them the noisy toy."