Obladi Obladah

Tueday night.. I lost my internet service.. well.. ok.. I didn't really lose it, I just couldn't surf out of our region. At first when I called my internet service they weren't sure what the problem was.. then after was told that they got a communiqué that it would be 4 to 6 hours. I was a little ansy, I had an email that I wanted to respond to and also a colorization critique that I promised and was hoping the person asking for the critique wouldn't think I had forgotten all about them.

It finally turned out that there was a fire that damaged some fibre optics in Ottawa .. and our internet access to the rest of the world was shut off for more than 12 hours. Funny how 10 years ago we weren't even on the internet and now it's such an ordinary part of our lives. I stayed up past 2am finishing up work for a client.

Yesterday, Wednesday, while I was in a life help I noticed that my "?" were typing out as "É"s so I was pretty sure that perhaps my browser had crashed.. so I clicked on all the x's to close down the multitude of windows I always seem to have open and when I closed the last one my computer completely shut down .. and rebooted by itself. When it came back.. it had that warning screen that it was going to check my drive.. yes.. go ahead and check it.. while it's checking.. I see text moving up my screen.. I see words.. such as Mozilla.. file error.. truncated... etc., ah!!! When my desktop reappears.. my profile is not longer available.. and I've lost my bookmarks..

and life goes on....

last night I had my rehearsals.. as every other Wednesday. As you may remember a few days before last rehearsal I had an encounter with my musical director's wife. There were a few things that she said that I had not written last time. She kept on repeating that he was a narcissistic B. and that he wanted all the attention for himself and that he thought he was better than anyone and that she was no longer good enough for him.

As I said ... I know him now since about 7 years.. I have never seen him as being a narcissist in anyway... he's actually quite humble and shy. I 'm not saying he doesn't like to be complimented... heck, I don't consider myself a narcissist and I like to be complimented too. Sometimes when I arrive at practice, he's there early and putting up chairs. I remember once saying to him.. James, why don't you get your students to put out the chairs. (he teaches musical theory - soflège- and musical history, orchestra etc., ) He's says to me.. nah.. I give them enough work.. I'll do it. That just doesn't seem to me the type of guy that is on a power trip.

Since then I realized that since this year.. James has been in a unusually good mood.. just happier in general.. not as stressed out. Of course now that I know.. I tend to watch everything he does and compare in my mind to how it used to be. I did notice that since a certain amount of time he's attitude toward life has changed.

I guess I should add here that a couple of years ago, James had a very serious accident. He was painting the shutters on the second story of his house and fell off the ladder and amazingly didn't die. His arm was broken in several places and his wrist was practically detached from his arm. For several months his arm looked like something from a Sci-Fi movie.. it was huge.. and had several pins and contraptions sticking out of it. Can you imagine being a concert pianist and hurting yourself like that. Amazingly he worked very hard and with much pain for several hours a day he practiced.. and he plays now like he did before... or perhaps better.. because he no longer takes it for granted.

Since that evening that I met his wife.. other people have told me they have been having problems for years and they are not surprised. Now.. I'm thinking that since his accident.. he's looking at his life in a new way.. It's half over.. he's maybe 45?.. and he almost lost it.. so now he has been given a second chance in a way. Supposedly the year after his accident he worked really hard trying to get their marriage to work.. tried to figure out what his priorities were. It 's not like he didn't try and threw it all away. I think he's just scared of living the rest of his life unhappily. He may have grown and she just hasn't grown with him.

I've met a few scoundrels in my lifetime and he just isn't one of them.

Of course, now knowing what I know..I look at him during rehearsals and analyze what I see before my face... especially the way he looks at her. He practically beams when he sees her face. She's doesn't look like a movie star either... but she seems very sweet.. very artsy..and friendly. She is also a lawyer.. so has a functioning brain.. she is certainly not a bimbo. I have no idea if it will work out for them... but this seems to be something they need to live right now and I'm not going to condemn them.

Obladi Oblada .. life goes on!