(753) The pleasure of your company

Post #753
[Private journal entry written on Friday, December 23, 2011]

Yesterday evening, I had a lesson with Sara, the cop’s daughter. Her mom, Cindy the paramedic, was the parent who accompanied her to her lesson. We finished her lesson around 7:15pm. Then, we sat in the studio and chatted for another hour or so.

All the sudden, Cindy sat up and said, “Would you like to come over to our house and watch a movie? We can pop some popcorn . . . James won’t be home until about midnight . . . we don’t have to get up early in the morning . . .”

I’ve never been invited to socialize with them outside of the world of piano lessons . . . the invitation caught me off guard a bit. But, I accepted with a little thrill . . . I really like their family and I would love to have more of a relationship with them outside piano lessons.

Lonely by Martin Chen

They live out in the country and I was a little concerned about my low-slung 2WD Saturn getting stuck in the deep snowdrifts, but their ¼ mile driveway was cleared enough that I made it through with no problem. I did a six-point turn in their driveway so I could be facing forward when I start back down the driveway after the movie.

It was around 8:30pm by the time we got our coats off and got settled into the living room. We didn’t start the movie right away . . . we took some time to pop the popcorn, and Cindy made some incredible chai tea. And, Sara brought a bunch of her toys from her room down into the living room and spread them out in front of me. She went through them one by one, telling me their names, their stories . . .

Then, she told me about the Christmas elf in the house . . . every day, the elf hides in a new place and then she finds him . . . then he finds a new place to hide the next day. This happens every day for a number of weeks before Christmas. And there is a book that tells the elf’s story . . . where he originated from, how he ended up their house . . . and she read the book to me . . .

Then she introduced to me all the cats and dogs and fish that live in their house . . . she talked for a good 20 minutes, non-stop. It was very easy to just sit there and listen . . . ask a few questions . . . I actually enjoyed the experience . . . she is a really neat little girl.

Around 9pm, Cindy’s mom joined us and we turned on the movie. I’m not much of a movie buff . . . but, if it means getting to spend time with people I care about, I’ll watch a movie. And, the movie was a pretty cool one . . . a kid’s action flick about cartoon birds called “Rio” . . . I actually enjoyed it!

A little after 10pm, the movie finished. Because it was bedtime for ALL of us, I decided to take my leave. On the way out the front door (we had come in the garage door), I noticed their two pianos in the dining room . . . one acoustic and one digital. Of course, I had to stop and check them out. Then, I headed out the door and back to my house . . .

Every night before I go to bed, I plug in my cell phone so it will recharge overnight. I went to pull the phone out of my bag (a big utilitarian canvas bag that serves as my purse) and realized I didn’t have the bag with me . . . and I remembered I had set it down in their dining room while I was looking at their pianos.

I guess I didn’t notice that I didn’t take my bag with me because I had my keys in my coat pocket . . . and my attention had been distracted by the task of getting the ice off the car windows before driving back to my house (it was well below freezing). By the time I realized I had left my bag, it was too late to call – not to mention that I didn’t have a phone on which to call. My housemates were already in bed, so I couldn’t use either of their cell phones. So, I went to bed.

This morning, I borrowed my housemate’s phone and called James . . . he had a lesson this morning, so I asked him to bring my bag to his lesson. When I asked him to do that, there was a long pause . . . then he hesitantly asked, “Your bag is here? At our house?” It turns out that Cindy didn’t have a chance to tell him I had been over there because she was asleep by the time he got home. So, it took a while to dispel his confusion . . . then we had a good laugh.

A little bit later, he showed up at the studio with my bag. When he walked in, he said he really liked how well my bag coordinated with his outfit . . . such a fashion statement!! We had a good laugh about that, as well.

A few minutes later, we had a more serious moment in which he said he was tickled that I felt comfortable enough to go to their house. That struck me as odd because I was thinking I was tickled they were comfortable enough with me to invite me to go there! I told him I really enjoyed myself and was glad I went.

Then, before we got into the lesson, he asked me about picking up my mom from the Denver airport . . . he is going to drop off Cindy and Sara at the airport on December 29th for an outbound flight. My mom is going to be flying back from Seattle that same morning. Originally, when I had asked him if my mom could catch a ride back from Denver with him (and save me a nearly three-hour round trip), the timing was going to be such that he wouldn’t have to wait for her . . . in fact, worse case, my mom might have to wait 20-30 minutes for him.

Then, I found out that Cindy and Sara’s flight is earlier than I had thought. That means James will have to wait about an hour for my mom to land. I felt like that was too much to ask of him. But, today, he assured me that it was not too much to ask. He said he would take his laptop and find a quiet corner to wait for her.

I originally was thinking that I would meet James at their house and I would take my mom the rest of the way to her house. But, today, James offered to take her all the way to her house, which would save me another hour of driving. He said he probably would be going into work anyway, and his office is near my mom’s house.

I looked at him intently . . . really, it’s not too much to ask? Not at all, he assured me . . . he is glad to do it. And, my mom has met their entire family and feels safe with him . . . she is on-board with this arrangement . . .

So, I agreed. I guess it is hard for me to allow people to go out of their way to help me – I’m working on it shifting that, though . . .

Anyway . . . after catching up on all of that, we finally got started on the lesson. At one point in the lesson, we were having a moment of laughter about something or other and he reached over and put his hand on my arm for a second . . .

That’s the first time he has touched me since we had the conversation three months ago about his touching me. His touching me today caught me by surprise. I don’t know if he just forgot to not touch me, or if he made a conscious choice to do it. Maybe he did it purely out of habit.

I hope he touches me again. I like being touched and I’ve missed it.

Maybe someday I’ll be able to reciprocate.