Poagao's Journal

Absolutely Not Your Monkey

Dec 06 2001

Listening to Wagner’s Rienzi Overture this morning…

Listening to Wagner’s Rienzi Overture this morning at work, I was taken back to my time in the Florida Symphony Youth Orchestra in the mid-80’s. We did one combined concert with the Floriday Symphony Orchestra a year, and one year we did the Rienzi. It’s such a powerful piece, especially for the brass section, that I get chills just recalling it. Performing with musicians better than us, professional musicians, gave us something to play up to, and I felt that I was playing much better than I had a right to that night. Such an immense pleasure. I miss being part of a musical group, be it classical, jazz, rock, whatever. When I took the Johnson O’Conner Aptitude tests as a teenager, the evaluators told me that not only do I have a high musical aptitude, but that I have a physical need for music. I can’t not have music in my life, they said. If I don’t, I’ll go crazy. I wonder if most people aren’t like that, though. Maybe most people have other talents that help them ignore their inherent creative urges, talents I lack for whatever reason.

This morning as I was heading out through the lobby of our building, the doorman downstairs called me over. He gave me a slip of paper on which he had written my name and some flattering adjectives like “honest”, “reliable”, etc., and proceeded to ask me if I would move in with his adopted daughter, who is now the same age as me. “It’s ok if you don’t get married at first,” he said. Apparently the apartment where he and his daughter and the daughter’s child live belongs to the city, and the city will take it back if his daughter isn’t shacked up with someone by a certain date. He also wouldn’t mind some more kids around the house, if you know what I mean.

“But I like it here. I have my own room, a nice view, I can come and go as I please,” I protested. “It would just be too strange, just moving in with a strange woman. Can’t she find someone by herself?”

“Strange? No, not at all. I don’t like any of her boyfriends,” he replied. “It’s fine if you two get involved. She never leaves her room anyway. She just stays at the computer all day.” At least we’ve got that in common, the little sarcastic voice in my head taunted.

“I’ve got to go,” I told him.

“Come back after you get off work and we’ll discuss it,” he called after me as I left.

I was late to work, but thankfully nobody noticed since I’m late quite often. The doorman’s proposition, if I may call it that, is at once amusing and a bit of a concern. I see this guy just about every day as I come and go, and does seem to be quite nice, but there’s no way I’m going to go live in the same room with his adopted daughter. That would just be asking for disaster. I’d like to help him out, but damn, that’s a bit much, enit?

posted by Poagao at 5:38 am  

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