Good news!! I had an awesome yoga class and felt so happy and silly afterwards that I decided I should just call him. so I did, praying "voicemail, voicemail", and left a really short message that was something like, "B, this is transformer! I found out today that I am graduating next week! I just took my last final today. I am all finished with everything and ready to go!!!! WOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!" and hung up.
Not expecting a response... he called me less than an hour later! He sounded so excited and happy that I'm going to graduate. I briefly explained how it all happened (no gory details). He was totally supportive and excited sounding!!
Then there was a little pause and I asked if he had just gotten out of rehearsal for the "magic of christmas" concerts he is doing with the orchestra he plays with in Maine. I jokingly asked if he was feeling "totally magical" and he jokingly (but seriously) said that he would soon go to his friend J's place to party (J is a guy friend of B's that I met a couple years ago. nothing threatening. also, playing christmas music for hours on end can be really... tiring. sometimes you really need to let off some steam afterwards).
and then there was a little pause and he said, "I have some good news to share with you too!!" And he went on to tell me that his string quartet had FINALLY found a new permanent first violinist to replace the one who resigned suddenly last winter/spring. I think they have been looking for like 8 months. Then we talked for a while (much longer than my news) about how they found the replacement, I asked some questions like, "how did you decide to choose her?" etc.
The new violinist, a woman named A is an established freelancer in NYC who is willing to give up some of her freelance stuff to work with the group. I was secretly excited to hear that because it sounds like she would not be gung-ho about moving to the middle of nowhere (like the "north dakota" plan B referred to during the bomb, a place where I seriously would have nothing to do). He also said that there was a chance they could try for the string quartet residency in Juilliard since the deadline is in April. (Awesome for him because it's an amazing opportunity--a stipend and rehearsal space at Juilliard, coaching with the Juilliard String Quartet--and also secretly exciting because that would be yet another reason for his group not to move to the middle of f'in nowhere.)
Then he told me a little bit about the quartet's plans, how they were using their substitute violinist to go to Iowa in January, but the new permanent violinist would be going with them to California in February. I asked if he was doing a concert in CA with his quartet instead of with his violin-playing brother, and he said yes.
There was a weird pause and i thought maybe he wanted to get off the phone but he said, "that reminds me... did I send that guy an email?" And then I think he was going through his email while we were on the phone trying to figure out if he had. But he was talking most of the time, so he wasn't multitasking instead of listening to me. He also told me about the awkward phone call he made to the new permanent violinist when he offered her the job.
I asked about the substitute violinist, if it was the same one they had offered the job to in the spring/summer but who didn't want to take it. Same person but she agreed to play with them in the interim. He said something a little strange, very jokingly, "oh, we were SO excited and we thought she would be perfect" [maybe he even said something like, "we thought we could twist her arm," but it was a little garbled] "but she didn't want to join the group. ah!! We were so young! We didn't know about love!" I wasn't sure if he said that because he felt so comfortable with me he could talk about love, or if subconsciously he was expressing some desire to talk to me about love or ... something? No way to know, it just sort of jumped out.
And another thing jumped out... he said that the new violinist is maybe older than he is--he doesn't know for sure--and how he was sort of surprised she was willing to go for something with a group that "isn't really established" or something to that effect. I was really surprised to hear him describe his group like that, because I am so impressed by what they have done!
I listened A LOT, and repeatedly said things like, "congratulations! that is so great, now the group can blossom and grow and evolve! It must be so good to be out of limbo!" I really meant it from my heart.
We had been on the phone for about 20 minutes when I asked him if he needed to go party with his friend at the same time he told me he should probably go. Then he said when he heard my message he really wanted to call me BEFORE he partied with his friend, because he was so glad to hear the news! that was the nicest part, to me
I feel good! It had a warm and fuzzy, happy supportive not-awkward open feeling! Also I did a good job of listening more and also having it be light and fun. HOOORAY!!!!!!!!!!
sorry this is so long, just trying to get it all down! ((((((everyone))))))) love, T
