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Monday, November 13, 2006Captive AudienceEric is currently in traction three times a day. Don't ask. It's a cervical disc thing. (He's doing just fine -- really.) Anyway, the traction contraption (contraction?) is set up in the foyer, which is adjacent to the parlor (a.k.a. The Room That Will One Day Contain a Mason and Hamlin Baby Grand But That Now Contains An Out-of-Tune Baldwin Full-sized Upright). So my darling has been requesting that I play the piano for him while he sits with his head in a medical noose. I've played Chopin. Brahms. The theme from On Golden Pond. I've sung Mozart arias and excerpts from Handel's Messiah. At the end of each piece, Eric "claps" with his foot (it's the only part of his body that he can move, besides his eyelids). And it's dawned on me. In our eighteen years of marriage, Eric has never listened so intently to my playing. Sure, he's "heard" me playing and offered the occasional, "That was nice, sweetheart." More often than not, he doesn't really notice that I'm playing -- or if he does notice, he starts boisterously singing alone. Nothing could possibly be more annoying than somebody belting out Beethoven that's meant for the piano. If I'm singing something from an opera, he usually ignore me, or starts to sing along. Nothing could possibly be more annoying than somebody singing along when I'm trying to sing a soprano solo. As if I have a lot of opportunities to play and sing in the first place! My beloved piano has been relegated from my primary passion -- four or more hours a day of practice during my college years -- to an offhand hobby that keeps me in tune with the music within. Back in my Golden Days, Eric came to my junior recital. Mind you, we were barely friends at the time. He had already graduated, yet there he was, ready to listen to my performance. It was no small thing, either; Eric Boehme didn't show up to any old recital. He had to be convinced ahead of time that it was going to be worth his while to attend. I was duly flattered. And at the reception he complimented me, and I thanked him for coming. Then he said -- I kid you not -- "I like your dress. I like that thing along the bottom." Okay. I was wearing an ice blue gown with a wide, satin ribbon trimming the hem. So there stood Eric Boehme complimenting me on the "thing" around my bottom hem. Surely this was the marker of an upcoming romance, yes? So. That was a lifetime ago. And now I finally have his rapt attention once again -- not because I'm wearing a dazzling gown and playing Poulenc, but because his head is strung up on a pulley attached to a fourteen-pound water bag. Sometimes you take what you can get. Requests, anyone? |
About Me
I am: Mother to five stunningly individualistic children... Writer of young adult fantasy... Passionate advocate for Women At Home... Madly in love with my husband... In need of Organic Gourmet Chocolate on a regular basis. I've got a Paypal account if you'd like to contribute to the cause....
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10of my readers are feeling chatty:
(From the perspective of a long-married woman) That was one of the most romantic things I've ever read! :-D
When he isn't looking, hook his rig up to a bungie cord. That would be very entertaining for everyone!
Oh... Rachmaninoff the one thats a take off from a thing by Paganini. (Made famous by the movie 'Somewhere in Time')
Here... I sing some of it for you.
De da de de daaaaaa, de da de de daaaaah
RICHARD! RICHARD!!!! AAAAAAHHHH!!!!!
Stupid Penny!
um... thanks
Kerrie -- Wondering if you're being facetious this time or not! LOL
Dave -- OH!!! "Variations on a Theme by Pagannini"
Da daaa da da daaaaaaaaaaaa
Daaa da da dummmmmmm
Daaaa da daaa da da daaaaaaaa
Da daaa da da dummmmmmm............
One Tin Soldier!
Ooooo...I think if it were me, I'd be talking his ear off! A captive audience to listen to me talk..and talk and talk! LOL
I love to listen to Dave play. He doesn't do it very often.
It is 1912
It is June 27th 1912
You are there
You ARE there.
You are at the Grand Hotel
You will see Elise McKenna
and that eccentric old actor, Chris Plummer
In a way, it's kinda romantic...
:D
It's VERY romantic.....
We sell those units at work! They really do seem to help cervical problems.
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