Red Light, Green Light

The other night I had dinner with my mom and her childhood friend. Listening to some of their stories, I was struck by the circumstances of their friendship and how, while navigating life, some extreme choices were forced to be made. Life sucks when you’re that broke. My mom’s friend’s story feels like a very long long journey.

But life’s good for both of them now. My mom got to spend the week with me (chest thump). And my mom’s friend is a professional musician with a philharmonic in Europe. She’s been with them for over thirty years. She’s currently on sabbatical and has been in New York for the past school year while her son finished high school and went to some sort of pre-program at Julliard. He’s starting at Julliard in the fall. Really talented pianist.

So, Mom went to her son’s graduation yesterday. Mom comes back and tells me that her friend had gotten a call that morning from her husband saying that their dog had just bitten off the tip of his finger. She had to tell him to go to the hospital. She told me this right after I asked her for more details about the performances at the graduation. I had to laugh at mom’s matter-of-fact delivery

Funny situation--As soon as the son came into my room the other night at dinner, he admires my wurlitzer. But it wasn’t plugged in so his mom told him to go play the guitar. He starts picking out a great song, Girl from Ipanema, while I plug in the Wurlitzer. He then comes over and starts improvising and playing Ray Charles songs. Then, the mom turns to me and says to play her something on the guitar.

I shrug, tell her that I’ve only had five lessons, and proceed to jam. Basically, I’m switching between the G-C-D chords. So funny. They were looking at me as if I was a four year-old at an intersection telling them I could make the light change by pointing at the light and wishing hard enough.