I've been the social fellow this week. Old friends of the family came to visit for a few days and are leaving later today. Another old friend is coming this afternoon to visit for a couple of weeks while he looks for housing, as he is moving back to town.

The friends that have been here this week are people who were my parents' friends long before I was born and have remained in close contact since 1943. He was a music professor here at Bemidji State all the years Dad was an English professor. They shared an interest in music and in piano performance. She was also a concert pianist. There was a lot of piano played at home during my childhood.

Last night my mom and I invited another retired music professor, who happens to be my current voice teacher; his wife, who is a retired public school music teacher; a mutual friend who has long been an adjunct voice teacher here at the college and has done many performances with my teacher; and his wife, a music lover though not performer, to join our guests of the week for dinner and conversation.

Do you suppose we talked about music?

Then we did performances. Some hadn't heard me sing before; some had. Some had before I started my recent training. All were complimentary. I played accompaniments for other performances. A grand time.

Once the evening guests were gone the two who are staying with us alternated giving piano performances and then I finished the evening with half an hour of sightreading Broadway songs. My sightreading reportedly impressed the piano performers, which was an unexpected bit of flattering, as I have no piano training whatever.

I haven't had so much music in the house in years. I reveled in it.