La Cinquantaine

What just happened??  I got so lucky!  I ended up at Ari's cello recital with NO kids.  Not that I don't love to take kids to recitals.  You can ask my kids.  I do!  But it's fun not to have to give anyone the evil eye for wrinkling paper or looking bored.  I sat next to my dad and he was quite well-behaved.  Ari got to sit next to her friend Elise, who is the daughter of our favorite accompanist.  (THANK YOU, Jennifer!)  Bill treated us to Frosties and fries after.  My rule is that if you go to a concert with me, you get a treat.  (Otherwise, nobody would go.)

I don't know what stars were aligned tonight, but Josh invited Xanthe for a late-over, Grandma and Grandpa took Ruby to Lexie's Cheer Night and Scott, bless his heart, drove Tizzy, Tolly and Freestone clear up to Willard Bay to get Golda from a fun party and take her to another one.  As Scott left, I said to him, "You're such a good sport."  He replied, "No I'm not.  I'm just a guy who made some bad choices and now I'm paying for them."  I laughed about that one all night.  If this family is the product of Scott's bad choices, it's a good thing he didn't "choose the right!"  hee hee...

It might be because I wasn't pacing the foyer with Tizzy, reading all the Presbyterian literature and listening to the AA meeting going on in the other wing of the church, but this recital was great.  Ari played a piece that I just love, La Cinquantaine.  (here it is!) As I listened to her play, I had a glimmer of a thought that all these music lessons we're inflicting on our kids might yet amount to something.  If I could choose what it all amounts to, I would choose that my kids grow to love music so much that they find joy in sitting in a drafty pew of a downtown church listening to kid after kid slaughter history's finest musical achievements.  Now that's love.