outliers

I have a well-to-do family that I teach on Monday evenings in the city.  Both of the children (boy and girl) take lessons and the family is wonderful, although the kids consistently need to practice more than they actually do.  We could make leaps and bounds of growth if they would just choose to harness themselves to the piano now and then and actually do the work that I lay out for them.  But that is beside the point.  They are the first family I started teaching when I got to St. Louis and they will always have a special place in my heart, not only because of that reason but because they are, in themselves, St. Louis personified... everything that so much of this town is:  family-oriented, parochial, Catholic, supportive of the arts, friendly, grew up here, stayed here, and most of their family still lives here as well.  Some of the conversations I have with the mom are extremely memorable.  I find myself thinking about them for days or even weeks afterward.  It is incredible what I learn from her about this town, and about life.  She is an extremely classy woman, yet completely down-to-earth -- a bedrock of information and realistic perspective, if you will.  For instance, this past Monday's exchange went something like this...

(background info:  prior to this conversation, I had recently ordered new make-up and had been wearing it for two weeks, alas they had canceled the previous Monday and hadn't seen me in a while)...

(me, after the doorbell is answered):  "Hello!  How are you?"
(Student Mom): "Good, good... [looks up at me].  What are you doin' all made up?  It looks cute!"
(me, laughing):  "Thanks!"
(Student Mom): "I've never seen you with eye make-up and lip color... you got a hot date after this?"
(me, still laughing... probably blushing now too): "No, no.  Are you kidding me?  I don't get hot dates."
(Student Mom): "Hmm..."
(me):  "Seriously though... I haven't had a date in like eight months."
(Student Mom, with a wry look and a bit of a pause): "... don't you think it's time we should change that?"

It was all I could do to laugh again, exit quickly to the bathroom to release the half-gallon of water that I'm supposed to be drinking these days, and get upstairs to teach her kids.

But thinking back on it, I know she's right...

Some of the kids at Lutheran like to tease me about one of the senior boys who likes to consistently try and flirt with me during rehearsals.  And let's not forget that I was asked out last week by a man twice my age.  Not that I'm considering either of these at all, but you've gotta admit that the age-gaps here are staggering...

So I figure it's time to call in the big guns, which is why I texted my friend Megan today to set me up.  The last time this happened, I ended up dating a guy who turned me off to dating for eight months... granted, it wasn't entirely his fault.  But he chose his moment poorly after finding out my parents were getting divorced.

Anyway, we'll see how this goes.  Right now I feel like I'm roughly 60% ready to maybe go on a date in maybe another couple of weeks...? 

It's a rough guesstimate with several maybes at best and a complete shut-down for another year or two (or you know... five?) until the right person rides in on a noble steed and steals my heart away at worst.  But the realist in me knows that's just not going to happen.  Or probably not anyway.  Someone dear to me recently told me that statistically I'm just not meeting enough people... 

... which I guess explains all the outliers.