I've always depended on the kindness of strangers. . .

Well, not really. But thank you to the wonderful woman who gave M and I two of her tickets to the symphony. We got to the symphony early to stand in line for student tickets. We were hoping that they wouldn't look too closely at M's ID, since he really isn't a student anymore (sidenote: I haven't been one since 2000 and people still think I'm in school!). We stood in line debating how Tschiakovsky(sp) died. I said at least it wasn't syphilis, like those crazy Western European Romantics! This woman came up to the three kids in front of us and asked if they already had tickets. She had four extra tickets since her friends weren't coming. She said they were free and handed two right to me. I gasped my thanks and M and I rushed in to our fantastic free seats! We were on the fourth row, with seats even better than when I won free seats from KMFA.

The concert was really quite good, and I adore the last movement of Tschiakovsky's "Pathetique" symphony. And am I right that Piano Concerto No.1 In Eb Major by Lizst contains Gargamel's theme from "The Smurfs"? I don't think I could make that up. But maybe I did.

Anyway, thank you, kind lady. People like you restore my faith in humanity. =)