A Cabbie, a Concert, and a 3.5 million-dollar Stradivarius

If Joshua Bell were a basketball player, he'd be Michael Jordan. If he were a movie star, he'd be Brad Pitt. If he were a politician, he'd be Barack Obama. If Joshua Bell were a violinist, he'd be . . . oh wait, he is the violinist of his time. The guy's a rock-star, except he happens to play the violin. People all over the world pay big money to hear him play, which is why I took notice when I heard he was performing at Michigan State. And why I was really glad I still qualify for student rates at the box office, and why I convinced my friends that this experience was crucial to our education. This is also why I felt perfectly certain that Joshua Bell would have a driver.

"Of course he has a driver," I confidently explained to Marjorie, my friend who was accompanying me and Ann to the concert, "I just can't imagine them crammed into some economy rental car."

I had just received an automated telephone message explaining that the performance was postponed till 8:00 p.m.. It turns out poor weather had grounded all the flights out of Louisville and Mr. Bell was therefore en route via car to Michigan.

After a delicious, leisurely dinner, we made our way to the Wharton Center. It was 7:55 and people were still milling about. We learned from the usher that Joshua Bell had arrived about 15 minutes earlier.

A few minutes after 8:00, Mr. Bell and his pianist, Jeremy Denk, walked on to the stage. Both adorned in fairly nondescript black attire, button-down shirts (untucked) and sleek black pants, they seemed perhaps just the tiniest bit frazzled, but only the tiniest bit. Any molecule of frazzle evaporated, however, the moment they began playing. After a few measures, they were carried away by a compelling musical conversation between the violin and the piano, carrying us away with them. Their virtuosity was evident, the interpretation brilliant, the performance impeccable. The hall was utterly silent as they played, punctuated only by a few coughs that escaped between movements.

After intermission, Joshua Bell, slouching down to reach the microphone, told us the story of their adventure getting here. They had originally planned to take an early morning flight out of Louisville where they had performed the night before. Upon arriving at the the airport, however, they discovered that every flight had been canceled -- except for theirs. Their sigh of relief was short-lived as their flight was also canceled soon thereafter. Plan B was to drive to Cincinnati, about two hours away, and catch a flight from there to Detroit. After negotiating a price, they found a cab-driver who agreed to take them.

But in another turn of misfortune, a dead battery sabotaged plan B prompting the two musicians to explain their plight to the next driver in line. In solidarity to his comrade, he said that instead of taking them himself, he'd jump the first driver's car. The taxi successfully jump-started, they piled into the cab with an uncertain battery. They were very certain, however, not to leave behind Mr. Bell's violin, an 18th century Stradivarius worth 3.5 million dollars.

The stream of bad luck continued when they learned that they weren't going to be able to get a flight out of Cincinnati after all.

"Would you like to keep going?" they asked Neville, the driver and their new-found best friend.

He agreed and drove another six hours to Lansing.

"Neville decided to stay and hear the concert," Joshua Bell continued, gesturing to a somewhat under-dressed gentleman in the audience. The man stood up and received his own round of enthusiastic, grateful applause.

"If the tempo of our music seems on the fast side tonight," Joshua Bell quipped, "it's because the meter's still running."

The second half of the concert was as glorious as the first. And somehow, it was even better laced with this tale of human kindness, ingenuity, and determination. I'm pretty sure Neville had no idea at first that he was transporting two world-class musicians who regularly rub shoulders with the creme de la creme of society. Yet regardless of wealth and social status, it was a cabbie from Kentucky who made it possible for the show to go on.


(As a bonus feature to this post, I'm linking to a wonderful Pulitzer Prize winning article about the day Joshua Bell played incognito in a Washington, D.C. subway station. It's aptly named Pearls Before Breakfast. )

An 8-year-old's View of the Presidency

My eight-year-old niece, Lindsey, called me today. We were chatting about the usual things -- books, extreme sports (bodily damage sustained while sledding in the front yard), and politics. I asked her what she thought about the inauguration of President Obama. She liked it.

"He sure has a big, hard job," I remarked.

"Oh, it's not a hard job," she replied, "but it is a big job. He has to work from 1 a.m. to midnight every day, making laws and stuff. And they're getting a dog."

Thanks, Linds. I stand corrected.

(P.S. For those of you who know this precious beagle, can you imagine what it would be like if Mei Mei were the White House pet? Soon there would be a press corp entirely devoted to Mei Mei coverage!)

A Giant "To Do" List

I got tagged by Carol. This is a list of things to do before you die. Bold means I've done it; ~~ means I haven't done it and I'm o.k. with that; ** means I haven't done it, but I'd really like to.

1. Started your own blog
2. Slept under the stars
3. Played in a band ~~
4. Visited Hawaii
5. Watched a meteor shower **
6. Given more than you can afford to charity
7. Been to Disneyland
8. Climbed a mountain
9. Held a praying mantis ~~
10. Sang a solo
11. Bungee jumped ~~
12. Visited Paris
13. Watched a lightning storm at sea **
14. Taught yourself an art from scratch **
15. Adopted a child **
16. Had food poisoning
17. Walked to the top of the Statue of Liberty **
18. Grown your own vegetables
19. Seen the Mona Lisa in France
20. Slept on an overnight train
21. Had a pillow fight
22. Hitch hiked (in Russia)
23. Taken a sick day when you’re not ill (if anyone answers no on this, they are lying) ** (I seriously haven't -- but I have gone to work plenty of times when I was sick!)
24. Built a snow fort
25. Held a lamb **
26. Gone skinny dipping ~~(but I've done it in a dream)
27. Run a Marathon ~~
28. Ridden in a gondola in Venice
29. Seen a total eclipse **
30. Watched a sunrise or sunset
31. Hit a home run ** (But first, I'd have to learn to make contact with the ball while batting!)
32. Been on a cruise **
33. Seen Niagara Falls in person
34. Visited the birthplace of your ancestors
35. Seen an Amish community
36. Taught yourself a new language
37. Fired a rifle, shotgun, or pistol ~~
38. Seen the Leaning Tower of Pisa in person **
39. Gone rock climbing ~~ (I'm too chicken.)
40. Seen Michelangelo’s David **
41. Sung karaoke **
42. Seen Old Faithful geyser erupt
43. Bought a stranger a meal at a restaurant **
44. Visited Africa **
45. Walked on a beach by moonlight
46. Been transported in an ambulance ~~
47. Had your portrait painted ~~ (A photo is bad enough!)
48. Gone deep sea fishing **
49. Seen the Sistine Chapel in person
50. Been to the top of the Eiffel Tower in Paris ** (It was closed when we were there.)
51. Gone scuba diving or snorkeling
52. Kissed in the rain ** (Came dangerously close though . . .)
53. Played in the mud
54. Gone to a drive-in theater
55. Been in a movie ~~
56. Visited the Great Wall of China **
57. Started a business (You might not know that I was the founder of "Summer Workshop for Children," a booming business venture when I was 12.)
58. Taken a martial arts class **
59. Visited Russia
60. Served at a soup kitchen
61. Sold Girl Scout Cookies ~~ (I just want to eat them, not sell them.)
62. Gone whale watching **
63. Got flowers for no reason
64. Donated blood, platelets or plasma
65. Gone sky diving ~~
66. Visited a Nazi Concentration Camp
67. Bounced a check
68. Flown in a helicopter **
69. Saved a favorite childhood toy
70. Visited the Lincoln Memorial
71. Eaten Caviar (unfortunately)
72. Pieced a quilt
73. Stood in Times Square **
74. Toured the Everglades
75. Ridden a horse
76. Seen the Changing of the Guards in London
77. Broken a bone
78. Been on a speeding motorcycle ~~
79. Seen the Grand Canyon in person
80. Published a book
81. Visited the Vatican
82. Bought a brand new car **
83. Walked in Jerusalem **
84. Had your picture in the newspaper
85. Read the entire Bible
86. Visited the White House
87. Killed and prepared an animal for eating ~~ (ick!)
88. Had chickenpox
89. Saved someone’s life **
90. Sat on a jury **
91. Met someone famous ~~ (famous, schmamous)
92. Joined a book club
93. Lost a loved one
94. Had a baby **
95. Seen the Alamo in person
96. Swam in the Ocean
97. Been involved in a law suit ~~
98. Owned a cell phone
99. Been stung by a bee
100. Totally copied a blog post from someone else's blog to your own. ~~

I tag anyone else who wants to play!

An Ode to Food

Food is my friend . . . and my hobby, and quite frankly, one of the great joys of this frail existence. I especially adore experimenting with healthy foods inspired by other cultures. (This is not to say I don't appreciate and happily consume less-healthy delights -- a piece of high-quality chocolate is a daily routine and I will occasionally indulge in greasy, salty, sugary, loaded-with-all-the-stuff-that'll kill-you options.) However, I do maintain that it's the healthy food graced with color, texture, and variety of flavors that really satisfies me. For instance, when you eat a plate of brown rice and black beans mixed with bits of mango, fried plantain, a handful of peanuts, and some fresh cilantro, it's a total sensory experience that makes the cells of your body vibrate in approval. "Thank you," they seem to say, "and for this we shall give you long life and inner peace." The crunch of the peanuts, the sweet, smushiness of the plantain, the vibrant yellow-orange tanginess of the mango, the refreshing scent of the cilantro -- all this as the rice and beans fill the empty caverns of your stomach. It brings enough harmony that I am nearly compelled to assume a yoga pose (except that "downward dog" is the only pose I can assume without serious bodily damage and it just doesn't quite convey the desired effect).

Since I can't show you photos of my children, I shall show you photos of my food. I could carry on about how fun and easy it was to cook and how each meal cost less than $2, but I'll leave that to your imagination.




Inspired by our friends south of the border: Black beans and brown rice with fried plantains and a salad made of broccoli, cabbage, tomatoes, avocados, cilantro, and a southwestern olive oil vinaigrette.




Homemade falafel (garbanzo beans mixed with yummy Mediterranean spices) inside homemade whole-wheat pita bread garnished with peppers, tomatoes, and a cucumber-yogurt sauce. A taste of middle-eastern cuisine for a winter day in Michigan.




And finally, a Chinese smorgasbord cooked by a dear friend. (I was one of two Americans at an otherwise Chinese party. Great fun!) Everything was delectable -- but don't ask me to vouch for the spicy pig ears.

How about you? What is your happiness food?

Holiday Hurrahs!

Recently home from 2 1/2 week sojourn in the west (Idaho and Utah), I'm now catapulting back into my Michigan life (a life which I safely locked away in a box over the break). It was glorious to be home for the holidays. Here are a few of the things I'm still cheering about:

Hurrah for snow! The more the better, except when you're traveling. (My bus ride from Salt Lake to Idaho Falls took 7 hours -- longer than it took me to fly from Detroit to Salt Lake!) Still, it was a winter wonderland like the good ole' days, pre-global warming and all that.

Hurrah for family and friends! This goes without saying. I treasured happy times with my mom, various cousins, aunts & uncles, and sister-like friends.

Hurrah for food! This also goes without saying, but Christmas time is especially good for eating. This year, I took the anti-weight-watchers approach and happily gobbled anything within reach. I also discovered turkey pumpkin chili -- a delightful concoction that came from our new ward cookbook. In fact, I spent most of Christmas Day making it. Since it turned out that my Mom didn't actually have pumpkin or turkey or canned beans, we had to improvise ('cuz once you have your heart set on a recipe, there's no turning back). I used frozen squash, cooked decades-old beans from scratch, and ground up the flesh from a package of chicken legs in my Grandma's decades-old hand-grinder. Voila! We also had a fun Asian soup cooking party at the Baileys, another dinner party (starring soup) with a group of my Mom's friends, and a lunch get-together (with soup, of course) with my dear friend, Fe' and her seven children.

Hurrah for campfires in the canyon! For New Year's Eve, we (the Blairs, Williams, Cherice and I) tromped up Rock Canyon in the snow and moonlight. It took some serious effort, but eventually the fire evolved from smoldering to flaming. We sang songs and roasted little smokies and marshmallows till we were full and freezing. Then the girls slid down the canyon on sleds while the rest of us cautiously inched along (by this time, it was completely dark and icy). Back at home, we ate a delicious Mexican meal, played games, and consumed many, many brownies (which we lovingly dubbed "chocolate omelette" due to the large number of eggs in the recipe).

Hurrah for technology! In my first ever video conference, I got to watch my nieces and nephew perform their ready-for-Broadway New Year's Eve dances. It was almost as good as being there.

Hurrah for the VAPPP! Some of you may not know about this very exclusive organization, The Veritable Association of Pigs, Poets, and Politics. We had our annual meeting at the Wilkinson Center -- Pig Pen Bowling. A big SNORT was required when someone got a gutter ball and in the case of a strike, you put on a pig snout and posed for a victory photo. Kristen provided us with VAPPP T-shirts for Christmas -- you can't see from the picture, but the back of the shirts say "OINK."




And now that the holidays are over and real-life responsibilities have once again descended, hip-hip-hurray for writing a dissertation! (I am trying to be cheerful about it.)