The Desk and the Concert

Here is a picture of the desk Daughter cleaned off for me on Saturday. Notice that it's Monday, and it still is clean. I'm posting it so that there will be evidence that it was once cleaned. Notice the cat bed in the window behind me. I haven't opened that window, so Cat and Kitten are off snoozing in windows that are open.

Daughter is nothing if not predictable. We went through our usual concert routine. She didn't want to go; she didn't feel well. As we left, I asked her if she thought we could make it throug intermission this time without her asking to go home. She wasn't pleased with my request.

We were pleasantly surprised to find that the director of the concert venue didn't come out and do his usual 10 minute speech. Daughter was mesmerized as soon as the music began. The music was upbeat, and she was dancing in her seat. (I felt bad for the gentleman on the other side of her). There was a vocalist who closed out her set with one of Daughter's favorite songs. Then we approached the reason I bought the tickets (which were not part of the Community Concert Series we subscribe to)-- Gershwin's Rhapsody in Blue with piano and orchestra. As they were moving the piano into place, I saw people moving 4-5 rows in front of us. Some of the saints were sitting in that row, and I was concerned that one of them might be sick. Someone was sick, but it wasn't anyone I knew. Unfortunately, she was sitting in the center of the row. All the people to the left of her stepped out of the row, and ushers began scurrying in and out of the row.

As the music began, the excitement continued. People all around me were speculating about who was sick and what was wrong. They finally got the poor woman out of there, but people were still whispering. Soon, it didn't matter. The music was so awesome I wasn't aware of what was going on around me. With the last notes, the audience was on their feet and the pianist did two encores before the intermission.

Daughter didn't ask to leave during intermission, but she did punish me following it. She began putting her head on my shoulder, and pressing down hard. She was mad because I refused to put my arm around her. She'd sit there with her head against me, pouting, and then the music would captivate her and she'd begin moving again. I finally whispered for her to cut it out. She did, and we left before the encore so we could get home. I did have to finish my sermon, after all.

I'm still trying to decide whether I'm going to purchase tickets for next year's community concerts. I don't know how much longer we'll be here. This year we missed a couple of the concerts. One because I forgot, the other because I had a meeting at the same time. When I think of how much I enjoy them, I will probably order the tickets. They're always worth the hassle Daughter gives me.