Stuttgart

I sometimes check in with the Village Voice horoscopes by Rob Brezsny at his site,www.freewillastrology.com. This week for Aries wasn't super encouraging, but definitely seemed to come true: "I doubt that you yourself will be the beneficiary of a windfall or a stroke of uncanny luck, but there's a chance that someone close to you will, and his or her good fortune will rub off on you," Brezsny wrote. When we got into our hotel room in Stuttgart Thursday night, O, the cellist subbing for Hilla, saw a fax on the desk. It was from her boyfriend here in Israel, and it was the first time he told her he loved her. She, as you can imagine, was ecstatic, speechless. I imagined that she didnt see another word of that page-long fax, was just reading those three words over and over. She apologized for dwelling on it in her surprise and happiness, but I told her to hush, I was just lucky to witness it! The next day D and S, two american friends of mine, came down from Berlin to spend the weekend with me. Forget that horoscope, I am the luckiest girl in the world!! That these amazing, fun, gorgeous friends of mine traveled so far, independently of each other, so we could have the funnest extended girls-night ever in Stuttgart gives me the warm fuzzies no end. They didn't know each other before coming, but because of my rehearsals and performances with the Opera, they had to basically babysit each other, and before I knew it, were acting as if they'd known each other forever! I was reminded of the windfall Brezsny mentioned as S recounted the adventures of the just-beginning love affair that may take her to Paris or some ski village in the Alps for the winter- after she spends two weeks in Nigeria for her friend's sister's wedding! She lives the life many of us dream of. And it's only when you live like that that these movie-worthy international romances. This guy is a photographer for National Geographic, but also a snowboarding instructor, and told S to either "get a European work permit, and pick a city" so they can live together, or to pick a town in the mountains for the winter so they can hole up together and he can make the bread on the slopes. What??? How do these kinds of offers get made? S, naturally, is having a hard time believing it could be real, but D and I, in full fairy-tale-belief mode, told her to call his bluff, name a place and see what happens...
why am I writing about friends' romances? I meant to tell about this weekend. I guess S was so wrapped up in it, and I was so wrapped up in seeing old friends that I let her carry me away with it, too. D and I read duets, the same we played almost ten years ago when we did a duo recital at SUNY Purchase. So amazing to use each other as our musical measuring-sticks. To enjoy the power and control and sweetness in each other's playing, and then realize we're musical sisters, and were keeping up with each other the whole time! I'm being cheesey, but it just meant so much to me to play with her again. We played in a quartet together in high school, and always sort of flirted with tthe idea of doing it professionally, and here I am! Taken. And she is, too, in Berlin, by the scene, by the city that was made for her... But, sigh. Seeing her schmooze with my quartet after the performance, I felt like I'd taken a boyfriend home to my parents.
I'll have to fill the rest in tomorrow. I'm drifting. Good night and good luck (really need to see that one!)