08 VI 2002 - 21:52 - trivialis41

so here's the deal. my sister's friend realized that my sister was leaving this afternoon and so she asked me to be the cellist for a quartet she was putting together to play a wedding. we were planning that they'd get to my house around 1:30, maybe 2, that we'd rehearse for a bit and then get down to the wedding, which is in the middle of nowhere. somewhere between los gatos and santa cruz on windy roads.

one word to these plans: ha.

it all began when the violist (the friend's little brother) called. 'do you have a viola at your house?' he asked. 'there's a slight emergency. nothing to worry about, though. just a small emergency that we'll take care of really soon.' this was at about 2:20. admittedly i had been a little late with fixing lunch for my sister and me, so it was a relief, but immediately i jumped to (and they were correct for once!) conclusions.

i didn't say anything, but it was really, really loud when i thought it. jeez, you forgot your viola. when he arrived, we confirmed this. his father had agreed to go to a local shop to rent a viola for the evening, so we had to get downtown.

but first we had to get into the car. ah, yes, getting into the car. in the trunk of which my cello did not fit, no matter how it was manipulated. her car does not have a third seat in the back for some strange reason, so we put my cello in the front seat, three people in seats, and me in the middle, hoping that we didn't hit anything.

on the way, we learned that market street was closed near downtown for a demonstration. so we had to take a long detour, past many police who were not, apparently, watching, until we got to where we were supposed to meet her parents.

the viola was handed over, and after some argument, we managed to switch cars. we now had about an hour to make a trip which was supposed to take an hour and a half.

so c. drove. at ninety miles an hour. which got us many glares and middle fingers pointed at us. i can't imagine why. but we managed to make it to los altos in about fifty-five minutes and to the wedding place in about ten more. it wasn't too bad.

ah, but what happened then? wind. and sun. little spots of varnish around the edges of cracks and scratches on my cello began to flake off, the rented viola would not stay in tune (and his intonation isn't too good to begin with), and the music wouldn't stay in place. about thirty clothespins per person, borrowed from the wonderful, accomodating, take-me-home-with-you catering staff, helped to solve the music problem (although pageturns became a new problem). also, our violist whines a bit. i'm sure i'm every bit as annoying as he is, but tonight i felt so much better because i was able to keep my mouth shut... (and his constant protestations of, 'let me suffer, this is my fault' didn't help.) all of this, combined with our inability to start together in a predetermined tempo, made the experience somewhat hellish.

on the other hand, i had a ride there, i had a ride back, the bride offered to let us eat some of the catered food since some guests hadn't shown up and she had to pay for the food anyway, so we all got dinner, i made one hundred fifty dollars (for two hours, not too bad, although pretty bad considering how much stress and time it took), and now i'm sitting at home, eating an apple and trying to resist the chocolate molasses chips my sister oh-so-thoughtfully left me before she caught her flight to new york.

if anyone has it in mind to try, i'm yours for a couple of bars of dark chocolate and a hug. well, a penis would be nice, too. generally speaking.

and on that, i leave. berkeley on monday and i still don't know what textbooks i need or what my student id number is. *trembles*