El’s recital was June 9th. I’m a little late in this writeup.
I buzzed out of work a bit early at 5:50 that day to get flowers. I’d forgotten that Saville closed at 5:30, so I said “Argh” and went home to get my camera. Rick and Jenny were sitting in the main room.
“Are you coming to El’s recital?” I asked.
“Yeah, Sheila and I are coming,” Rick said. He didn’t move.
“Well?” I asked.
“It’s at 7:15, right?”
“No, 6:15.”
“Oh. Um, heh. I need to make a phone call,” he said.
I ran over to Lutkin. The lobby was packed with food from Whole Foods. Her mom was there and so was my brother so I introduced them. I managed to keep from starting in on the food. My parents and my sister and Devin came in a little later. My dad gave me a videocamera, but no tripod. There were so many flowers in people’s arms. “Darn you and your freakin’ early closing time, Saville,” I thought.
Sheila, Rick and Jenny made it over as well.
We all filed into the hall. I set up on the lefthand side, since that’s where we always sit when we go to other people’s recitals. Since I had no tripod, I had to put my legs up on the seat in front of me and brace myself on my knees. I was busy futzing, so when El came out (in a real stunner of a dress) I tried to clap, turn on the camera and not jiggle too much.
She began playing. I wondered what to film: her hands, her body, the whole stage?
I’d never heard her perform solo before. She’d played some pieces for me in the practice room, and I’d heard her play in her quintet earlier in the year, but this was the first time I was watching her perform. I was so proud of her. She was so intent on the music and her sound, in a way I hadn’t seen before. I wished I’d given the camera to my brother so that I could concentrate on it more.
During the breaks in the pieces, I scanned the crowd, so that I could cut some of the jiggled scenes with video of the audience (but the audio from the piano). I’m so sly.
At intermission, I went around to her friends to record some messages for El.
After the intermission was her quintet. People shuffled around so they could still see her. I tried to film right through the middle of the music stands. Everyone I talked to later mentioned the oboeist, James, who really likes to move a lot while he plays.
I didn’t get a chance to eat any of the food at the reception. I was thinking about dinner. See, my family and hers had a reservation at Tapas. I was kinda nervous about the whole deal. El and I had thought of a good seating chart based on personalities: my mom next to her grandmother, my sister next to her mom, etc etc. But she wanted to go home and change first, so our families left for the restaurant. No chance for arranging seating!
We got to Tapas. I was freaking out a little because I was planning on paying for dinner to avoid the “which parent should pay?” weirdness between our dads and I knew that my parents were big fans of the “slip the credit card to the waiter when you walk in the door” technique. In fact, I’d planned on using this same technique.
We sat down to find that everyone had by magic sat next to the people we’d planned them to sit next to. Amazing.
The waiter (Elusivo, I shall call him, accent on the “i”) took a while to come around. I ordered a beer and when he carded me, I slipped him my debit card along with my license. “Charge dinner to this card,” I told him.
Elusivo disappeared. It took a while to order and a while to arrive, but man, when the food came, it just vanished (much like Elusivo!). El and I sat back a bit. She was tired out, as one might expect. I was pretty tired myself. We lurked and watched our families mingle.
My mom and her grandmother got along great. Our dads also were talking. There was a bit of “How should we split this?” and some “I’ll get it, no I’ll get it” but I piped in and said, “It’s on me.” And as I said it, I felt older, I felt like this was our dinner, El’s and mine and we were taking them out and it was an “us” thing.
The rest of dinner passed in a blur. We said our goodbyes after dinner and her family headed to their hotel. My parents and my sister and Devin had to drive back to Milwaukee so they were in a bit of a rush. My sister had stolen my jacket so I had to walk back to their car with them and I realized I hadn’t said goodbye to El.
But I was sure she knew that I liked her, and that was enough.