The Chamber Singers recorded seven songs last night. We were missing several members — noticeable in a chamber group — but all three of the altos were there.
Frankly, I have a little bit of tension with one of the other altos. She is a good sight reader, as is the other alto, but I am not. I stand in between the two of them and do my best. But this woman pokes me when I make an error. She smacks my leg if we’re sitting down and my shoulder if we’re standing, and last night she jabbed me in the ribs with her elbow.
I appreciate her high level of accuracy, but I do not think that anyone’s singing is improved by physical violence.
What’s more — and this is true confessions time — my natural dislike of being assaulted by this woman is not the only reaction I have to it. The truth is that this woman, accurate though she may be, does not have a pretty voice. So I have a petulant “How can someone who sounds like her object to my occasional error?” kind of reaction. Or even “You are criticizing me?”
So last night, when she jabbed me, I jabbed her right back.
I am not proud of this. Not only is it always wrong to offer physical violence, but this woman is also a lot older than I am. Maybe she had a pretty voice when she was young. I am not good at estimating ages, but she has wooly white hair with scalp showing through, so she must be twenty years older than I am or more. Where do I get off jabbing old ladies* in the ribs just because they do it to me? I tried to be particularly friendly in between songs to make up for it.
Maybe she will stop doing it now, though.
Today I have Pampered Chef deliveries, baking, cleaning, and soldering to do before I go to work. I also made the error of peeping into a book I am giving as a gift, and found that it is really fascinating and amusing, so I may have to read bits of it surreptitiously before I wrap it up.
This requires holding the book closed at the spine and parting the pages slightly so that the book will not look as though it has been read, and is naturally a slower process than openly reading. I do it all the time at work, where reviewing the books is part of my job, but do not usually do it with books I give to people, which are supposed to be new. We will see if I can resist the temptation.
And I was hoping to get to the gym as well, since I have not made it there yet this week, involved as I have been with holiday preparations and my sons’ vacation.
* Ozarque has been having an interesting discussion over at her place about what to call old people. It appears that they do not want to be called “old” any more. I am watching to see what the concensus might be on a suitable new word, and when they all decide on one, I will use it. That Man says that he wants to be called an “activegenarian” when he gets old, which he plans to do pretty soon now.
And Marji is starting the official SWAP contest, which begins December 1st. I could never make eleven garments in four months, myself, but I am looking forward to seeing her do it. Her very pretty storyboard is up at her blog, and in more detail here.
You started my day off with a good laugh. Jab all you like dear.
Perhaps instead of jabbing you could try responding to each of her jabs by shrieking, and leaping to your feet in horror — every single time. She might find that more difficult to tolerate than a sight reading error and decide it would be best not to poke you any more.
she pokes you? Bitchslap her in front of everyone else. Oh can you imagine the power of that backhand…
It is not ALWAYS wrong to offer physical violence. The woman who jabbed you obviously didn’t think it was wrong. And if it stops her from doing it in the future, you can consider it the only form of communication that might have accomplished that.
My ex-husband used to beat me. After a chat with a psychologist, when he started to beat me the next time, I fought back effectively.
He never hit me again.
Ever.
He became a different person and started to solve his problems constructively.
Violence CAN be communication.
I have to say that it’s not flattering to be called old. Elderly doesn’t improve the situation.
There must be a word that conveys the concept of someone with experience and possibly even wisdom who has seen a few years. Something NOT derogatory.
I don’t know what that would be, though.
Maybe we could continue calling them “baby boomers,” although they’re only just starting to get to that age. Although I’m at the leading edge of it, I’ve been called that all my life, and never found it intrinsically derogatory. It just refers to people born during a certain time frame.
But that doesn’t really solve the question. If we wait long enough, the baby boomers will be gone but there will still be older people around.
The return jab may not have been strictly polite but it was understandable. Did it stop her jabbing you? Sounds like she is one of those who give the rest of the ‘old’, ‘elderly’, ‘elders’, ‘activegenerians’ a bad name even though she was probably just as unpleasant before she qualified for any of the aforementiond age categories.
I will assure my mother that her hypothesis that fork hand swapping leads to cold hot food is not supported by the evidence. What is a Wii?
Your kids are playing with swords in a living room, beside a tv and other breakable stuff? Also you must be up early it must be only about 5 or 6 am on Thursday morning there (I’ll know for sure when I submit this and see the time stamp) It’s just past midnight on Friday morning here and I’m off to bed after ballet class and tea with my aunt. And is it the right time to wish you a Happy Thanksgiving – 4th Thursday in November or something like that? Happy Thanksgiving and goodnight from the other side of the world.
Gee, I’m getting pretty good with estimating the time on the upside down hemisphere now…
a little jab will do you! i am quite sure that your little jab made her very very aware of her own actions and will probably circumvent the incident from happening again. if not, a sledge hammer always works (kidding!).
hmmmmm, am i smelling ‘ageism’? ‘old’? will have to go check out ozarque’s blog…. i’m 53…yup makes me older then some and younger then some….. wonder when i will be ‘old’?…. (btw, i am not a rib jabber).
happy t-day!