As noted in my previous post, we were at Casa Bella for Opera Thursday the other night. Once again, we had a great evening. The program and the singers were especially especially talented. For me, the most important thing is that Kate thoroughly enjoyed it. I haven’t seen any signs that her love for live performances has lessened in the least. On the contrary, it seems to be one of the highlights of her life.
It was a good social occasion as well. By now, our connections with others who are in attendance as well as the servers and, especially, the couple with whom we share a table each time make for a good evening. Kate is not talkative at occasions like this. I think it can be challenging for her because of the number of people who are talking. Sometimes it calls for a little patience as well as assertiveness. The other night, for the first time, she became frustrated and displayed it.
Like most of those in attendance, Kate and I arrive about an hour before the musical program begins. That gives us time to have our meal and enjoy greeting others as they arrive. One of the other guests came to our table to speak to the couple we sit with. We got into a conversation about someone else who has just had heart surgery. When he walked away, the man and woman with whom we sit continued to talk about the man who had had surgery. Kate couldn’t understand what we were talking about but must have recognized it was serious. She tried to get us to explain, but the man and the woman at our table were both talking simultaneously. It really was hard to focus on just one. Kate shouted, “What’s going on. I don’t know what you’re talking about.” With all the conversation going on at other tables, no one else is likely to have heard her, just the couple we sit with. They couldn’t have missed it.
This is only third time that I can recall her doing anything like this. The two other occasions were with good friends and occurred about two or three years ago. In each case, our friends thought her response was more shocking than I did. They were both correct that her behavior was out of character for her. I would say her response at Casa Bella was stronger than the other two times. In this case, I think it arose because of the level of frustration she experienced when she couldn’t understand what we were talking about. I’m sure she could tell it was something serious and may have felt shut out of the conversation. The good thing is that after her remark, she was just fine, and we continued to enjoy the evening as though nothing had happened. Like so many other things, it does make me wonder if I am going to see more of this kind of reaction in the future.
