The Visible Woman...January 19, 2001

Cold, though. But I'm not complaining. Windy until evening. But dry. Thank goodness.

I worked including a meeting. One of those meetings where I try to understand people and convince them that I have a vision but also leave them with the caveat that I have no power. Some are frightened to think of me WITH power. Perhaps I'm one of them.

Lunch at Texas French Bread. When we got our food, all the tables were taken including several claimed by the possessions of people still in line to order. One of whom, seeing me looking forlorn at my cooling tortilla soup, offered that there was one empty chair at someone else's table. "You are VERY helpful," I said icily. The guy behind the counter (who kept shouting our names because we didn't pick up the plates because we didn't have a table) offered that there were tables outside. Finally, SuRu asked a couple who had obviously finished if we could have their table when they left and they graciously did so. Things would work fine if people waited until they got their food to claim a table. Which we foolishly did. But I got my tortilla soup and chicken salad and ginger snap down and we happily left our table for the bookstore.

I resisted several books, from bargain table and not, but did buy nephew Jack a plastic Mickey Mouse book with Mickey knife and fork. It was only $2.99 on the bargain table and I figure my niece never has enough of the kid silverware (though the kid prefers eating with his hands). Especially since I discovered one of his spoons at my house after she left.

SuRu and I looked at the magazines some. We saw a magazine about shoes. Big, too. There are some weird magazines.

I get a document to review at the end of the day. The committee has an editor now. But I'm supposed to 'answer his questions and get a cleaner copy for the meeting Monday.' So I get the thing end of Friday? Anyway, this clever lad had said he could handle all the gender stuff. (He/she, him/her.) I personally prefer using he and him and meaning the whole species but that's just me. He changed one section with pronoun he to second person. Yes! When YOU do this or that. This is by far the stupidiest editing thing I've ever seen. Some of the readers cannot even be the person being spoken about.

Language means more to me than it should, I guess. Geez.

We go to the symphony. We find an invitation to a reception afterwards. But no parking pass. So we go early to get a parking place. A lecture about the program is starting so we listen to that. We share a turkey and cheese croissant for dinner.

The program is Hungarian. Bartók, Hubay, Kodály. They needed a Hungarian cimbalom player for these pieces. SO...they had to hire the whole band. They had the Ökrös Ensemble playing folk music from the villages of Transylvania and Hungary. Really, the program was pretty cool. Charles Castleman played, too. Whoa...he can play.

In the moments before the performance, people nearby speculate that the empty seats around us belong to people who went to the inauguration. Perhaps. "My invitation got lost in the mail," I joke.

"I got something in the mail, all hand-addressed and everything, but I couldn't figure out if it was an invitation or an offer to buy souvenirs." says himself.

"Ah, the Franklin Mint version of the inauguration!" I say.

But the woman next to me is more serious. She is going to buy the official wine. She would have liked to have gone but 'not if no one would even know I was there.' Huh?

At the reception after, I joke about the cimbalom player and his group. Peter Bay doesn't laugh. Oops. I think they did have to hire them all! But it all worked. Austin is lucky to have an opera, ballet and symphony with such creative and dynamic leaders, taking risks, surprising us.