The Piano Concert

Dear Readers,

It’s been exactly 3 months to this day since my good friend T. last allowed me to play his electric piano. Truth be told, it was a onetime only thing, so I haven’t touched any keys ever since. That is mostly because I have no talent.

“I’m not impressed, you are no Beethoven”, T. told me that day.

“I’m sorry, but who are you that I have to impress? I don’t even have to impress myself”, I answered wisely.

“I am the dragon amongst dragons”, he said.

“Oh, dear T., the dragon always gets his ass kicked in fairy tales”, I thought to myself.

T. is the one who taught me about inner self, energy and spirituality and I believe he knows that I listened.

In any case, I am sure that the REAL reason that T. has not allowed me to play the piano is because he has no time to do so. We barely see each other once every few weeks. But, my dear friends, this is not even the reason that I’m writing this story today. So I’m going to get there right away.

After losing my hearing, I noticed that music has not been my best friend. I am a huge fan of rock music and now my brain is barely able to stand it. After my and my sister’s short stay at T.’s place last year, I noticed that the natural sound that his small musical instruments made did wonders for my ears. As such, I became very interested in listening to simple music played live, especially piano music. Taking piano classes is out of the question, mostly because of our tight budget. And … boy, they are expensive!

But going through all sorts of events taking place in Bucharest last week, the Big Red-Haired Fox found a piano concert which was to be held at the Romanian Athenaeum on the 9th of June, Tuesday, 19.00. We agreed to go, so she made reservations for the two of us. We were supposed to get there at 18.00 to get our tickets.That day we both dressed accordingly, with pretty, girly dresses and went to our reiki sessions. After which we took the bus and headed to the Athenaeum. We thought that the bus that we took was going to stop near the Faculty of Law. My sister and I were firmly convinced that the Athenaeum was 5 minutes away from it.

“What a beautiful building that is”, I thought, “and my sister is going to see it from the inside now. How lucky she is!”

You see, Dear Friends, I am a real sucker for architecture, especially if it is old. In any case, the 5 minutes walk took us forever. At some point we even crossed a street that I did not remember being there.

“What the hell is going on”, I started wondering.

Ana told me then that the bus turned right at some point and it did not go ahead, as we thought. So we had to get off somewhere else. In the end, we finally got to the Athenaeum.

“Take a seat here”, my sister told me. “I think I made a mistake”, she said worryingly.

“What’s up?” I asked already stressed out.

“I believe this is not the Athenaeum. I don’t see any name written anywhere”, she continued. Her voice sounded very frustrated. “I think this is the National Opera”.

I sighed deeply. At first, I became upset that my sister did not look for the address properly. But it only lasted a few seconds. I was firmly convinced myself that THAT was the Athenaeum as well. For years I have thought so. That’s why I couldn’t be upset with her for thinking the same.

“How could I have made such a mistake? I always look for the address beforehand”, I heard my sister muttering to herself.

She checked for the address and found that the Athenaeum was somewhere near the center of Bucharest. We agreed to take a cab, since we were running very late and had already lost our reservations. But do you think we got lucky? Of course, we didn’t. We were at a crossroad and there was no available cab anywhere. For a while, I felt as if I was in the desert searching for greenery and water, except I was in the jungle of concrete that Bucharest really is. Ana called three cab companies, but, yet again, there was no available cab.

“This can’t be happening”, I said. I was tired and disappointed and hungry and frustrated and stressed and overheated and … I’m sure you get the point. My body did not want to move anymore and somehow became locked.

“Listen to what your body is telling you”, I could hear my inner voice saying. “You are tired, do not force yourself”.

But, at first, I ignored my inner voice, since I really wanted to listen to piano music that evening. We took another bus and got off at University Square, in order to get to the Romanian Athenaeum, which was at a 10 minutes’ walk away from there. We still had time. But when I turned my body to move to that direction, I felt a pain like a grip inside my stomach and I knew right away that something wasn’t right.

“Ana, I want to go home.”

So we did. We took the bus and after 50 minutes we were home, at Costin Georgian subway station.

Interestingly enough, I was not upset that we missed the concert, but felt rather relived that I was at home, getting rest. There had been times when I felt more frustrated for a lot less, such as spilling water all over my clothes or something. Maybe I am getting wiser.

At home, sis checked to see if there would be other concerts and found another piano session taking place in a smaller hall room at the Athenaeum next Tuesday; she again reserved two seats.

“Next time we will know exactly what to do and where to go”, we both said in agreement.

But a quarter of hour later, looking for more events held in Bucharest, she found something absolutely interesting: a 10 days music film festival, including jazz music, piano, orchestra, violin, flute, opera, etc. taking place in the square outside the Romanian Athenaeum, between the 19th and the 29th , of June with free entrance.

“Ana, do you see how the Universe is taking care of us!?” I said in awe. “It did not allow us to spend 20 bucks on tickets and is giving us 10 days of free music instead.”

Can’t feel anything else but grateful. I’m looking forward to these concerts.

Happy day,
Cătălina.