Bad Mother Music

So I run into my pianist friend Yumiko at Cub. There she is rounding the corner to Pharmacy. I love running into her. She’s like, how are you? I’m like, how are you?!?!

Yumiko says she’s in between recitals. She dislikes the down times. Me too. She says it seems odd to have a teenager. Me too. She says she’d like to do some new art. Me too.

She says her daughter just got her permit. My son, too.

While we’re talking, my phone rings about five times and I also get about five texts. I don’t know it at the time. Jake has customized his ring so when he calls me, it’s his voice saying “Mom, pick up the phone pick up the phone pick up the phone.” It’s loud in Cub. I’m talking and Yumiko is talking. I don’t hear my phone asking to be picked up, so I don’t, and forty-five minutes after debate team practice ends, Jake calls the coach who comes all the way back to the school and drives my child home.

Yumiko says, what should be our topic?

Bad Mother Music. A song cycle by Yumiko Oshima-Ryan & Ann Rosenquist Fee. Sneak preview Saturday, Feb. 18, 2012, 7:00 p.m. in Music Area Room 103 in the Schaefer Fine Arts Center at Gustavus Adolphus College. Bad mothers wishing to be on the guest list should get in touch: annrosenquistfee {at} hotmail.com. You know who you are.