"I look to my time with you / To keep me awake and alive"

"I remembered to bring the present I said I'd have for you in the middle of June," Matthew said as Ali and I got into his car for exciting Mankato adventures today.

We're pretty laissez-faire about things like presents.

(Last week when setharoo was telling me about the things he was doing for his paninogirl's birthday I was listening and trying to be helpful when all of a sudden it occurred to me I'm pretty sure this very day's Matthew's birthday. I'm still pretty sure that was it. I apologized for my outburst and told Seth to go back to what he was saying; I think he found it a little odd that me forgetting hadn't really caused me any trauma. We're not normal. To prove this, I told him I didn't feel bad because it's not like Matthew had done anything for my birthday, and I hadn't noticed. "I did give him a Christmas present, though," I said, "and didn't get one!" Really I'd just thought of something I'd like to get him and it happened to be near Christmastime ... "He told me he'd get me something in June when I wasn't expecting it, and that would be my Christmas present.")

So having said this as we got into the car, he dug under a library book and something else and unearthed a South Minneapolis Bassoon Quartet CD. I was thrilled. I showed it to Ali, who was not thrilled because she hadn't heard of them, which only gave me an excuse to put it in Matthew's car stereo. So on the drive to Mankato we heard "Fly Me to the Moon," Herbie Hancock's "Watermelon Man," Mozart, Bach, some Latin tango thing, and all these things that are cool anyway but only made cooler by being played on bassoons (and sometimes a contrabassoon thrown in too). I love bassoons. Just hearing the CD made me miss playing bassoon ... which was odd since I'd started it so reluctantly.

Looking at the liner notes, I read, "The South Minneapolis Bassoon Quartet has performed at concert halls, festivals, weddings, parties, fairs, parks, parades, museums, schools, colleges, the International Double Reed Society Convention, and on radio and television." So of course I immediately said, "Weddings! Wouldn't it be cool to have them at a wedding?"

"Yeah," Ali said, "playing the theme from Star Wars."

I told him I'd totally forgotten about this getting-a-Christmas-gift-in-June thing, and he told me there wouldn't have been any point if I hadn't. It was nice, and I must admit the surprise made it nicer.