Then he reminisced for a while about the crisis he had in his early 20s, where he stopped playing the violin and spent a lot of time on the beach and wanted to learn how to surf. I just listened quietly.
At some point he told me that he should get going because he needed to eat dinner (at this point I think we'd been on the phone for over an hour). I asked him if he had gotten my message, and he said, "about how you wouldn't be in NYC until after the 11th?" I asked him if he would be around after the 11th and he explained that after he's finished in Maine he flies straight to sarasota, florida with his string quartet to help run this music program for high school students over the christmas holidays. (Interesting... that explains why he would have gone home for thanksgiving, but pre-bomb he was adamantly opposed to doing the same program last year, and was devastated that I didn't want to spend christmas with his family. wonder what changed.) Then he proceeded to basically give me his schedule for january. So he'll be in NYC for about 5 days in January when it would be reasonable for me to be there. I was surprised that he was comfortable giving me his schedule. I told him that I had been thinking about going back to NYC in January to play for some teachers. [It also makes me wonder how he could possibly start a new relationship. he is barely ever in NYC. Like 20 days out of 60 between dec and jan.]
