Growing up in San Francisco and being a musician provided me with so many opportunities to perform in fabulous venues and for some rather famous people. Though I cannot begin to name them, I'll never forget performing before 10,000 people. Now THAT was something I honestly had to work on - to get my head around. It also included accompanying an operatic tenor in his "off hours" gigs in the bay area..
That 6th Sense: After I had to throw in the teaching towel, it was a pittance of an office job for a while at Blum's in SF. Perhaps you've heard of them. Anyway, I was attached to the CFO. Once day he walked out of his office, looked at me as he was thumbing through his address book, then said, as I stood up, "Rebecca, I need you to get me the telephone number for Mr. Hamilton over at 'so-n-so' and I think his number begins with..." All of a sudden...out of my mouth and totally out of my control I spoke a 7 digit telephone number, of which I had no knowledge. The CFO looked at me, the entire front office, which was very large - I'm talking 30+ people - had gone quite still and quiet - then the CFO said, "You know his number! I recognize it now." I responded, "Honestly, my mouth just opened up and said that number. I don't know his number." Truth.
Travel: Would take way too long. We've travel extensively and have so many wonderful memories. Churches hold awesome experiences, as they hold so much history and art. As we completed our travel down the Mosel River in Germany, we spent one long day in Trier, an ancient Roman walled city. The year we visited, half a mile of the mail street was being archeologically excavated. MY big find that day was learning,(thankful for taking that German course prior to our travels) that St. Matthew was entombed behind one of the churches down on the left off of the main street. Took us some time to find which one, but we did. We entered the church - it was a Thursday - and so we were doubly blessed to have the organist practicing, which is common. It was thrilling and a blessing. I didn't want to leave.
Brass Rubbing in Westminster Abbey: Having always wanted to do this in the UK, prior to our trip, my daughter and I practiced on our stash of silver dollars. When we first started, my daughter really didn't have a clue. Had to get out the encyclopedia and then all was clear. We ended up doing "stone rubbing" at Westminster Abbey, as they had made it available to the public for a short time for a fee. Oh, my, but I was thrilled! You would have to know me and my soul. I'd wanted to do this since I was a kid and had gone through "picture books" my dear Dad had. So, my daughter and I fortunately were side-by-side with our special paper and rubbing compound. She's asking questions about how hard to press and so on. We're doing our thing and I'm just eating up every moment, when my daughter leans really close to me and whispers, "Mom, turn around a little bit. Look. There are people taking movies of us and lots of other people taking pictures of us. Should we stop?" I went on to tell her that it was a great compliment and that we should just continue. (I swear there must have been at least 50 people gathered around us. They were so quiet, you could have dropped a pin on the floor and heard it.) Eventually, we completed our rubbings. They're with us to this day, as are the memories of that awesome day.
This same daughter was honored by the San Francisco Giants, California Highway Patrol, San Francisco Police Department and San Francisco Fire Department for having saved the life of a man who was drowning in San Francisco Bay. The water temp is ~52-54 degrees and the bay is rarely calm, so it doesn't take long to drown. On the bay, my daughter there on a Sunday in a craft, she heard screams, located the origin and dove in. This in itself was a dangerous thing for her to do, even though she's an expert swimmer, as she's so thin. 8 months there was a huge presentation at Candlestick Park just before one of the Giants games and right on the pitcher's mound, where she was presented with a huge plaque and other mementos and dignitaries spoke of her heroism and valor. So my lifetime experience was being the proud mother of this selfless daughter who didn't even think twice before diving into the cold, cold water of the bay to save that man.
And, most humbly, was having the very much enlarged teaching facilities, a mere 6mil providing us with the best available so that we could teach our Resident docs as if they were in O.R.s, named after me.
There's so much more. I've been fortunate to have lived a very rich and cultured life full of music, performance and competition, which have taken me to many venues in the U.S. and beyond.
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