Musical pairs

My Indian feathers are starting to bloom. They are on long thin stalks and sway in the wind to look like hundreds of butterflies fluttering over the rock garden. They have also spread all over the rock garden. Locals can have some 

I love lilies, just beginning to bloom. I lost a lot of them to rabbits and planted more  but a lot never came up

Guess what? Itsy bitsy bunny is alive! Although it hasn't seemed to grow much in the past few weeks so maybe it's a cousin. It would be hard to believe that it escaped the Murderous Cat's diligence. Murderous Cat seems to be gone along with the rental people across the street.

So I love symmetry and co-incidences. I love it one week we are staying in Kent County Michigan and then the next in Kent County, England. And on my last bike trip to the nursery (the one in which I discovered the Moose and Squirrel house), I am looking through the perennials for the names of plants I forgot, find them and then forget the names before I've biked much past the nursery and then I find The House and note the realtor's name. This one I won't forget. It is the same rare, mispronounced name of the once huge dairy farm that was subdivided into little plots that both we and Naomi now live on. Naomi's street has the same name. It was obvious from looking at her that this was a married name. She said her ex-husband didn't profit much from the Dairy Dynasty as she called it.

The name of the street is a variation of the street we first lived on.

Steve and I both have moms who were the 5th children of seven. We both had Grandma Minnies. Our Great-grandfathers both came from Prussia (though of different ethnicities)

And in the past two weeks, two friends with very similar names (names long since retired in the 50s along with my boring name) from different periods of my life decided to contact me and ask to  get together. (just as a year ago, two other long lost friends contacted me having the same common last name out of the blue).

Friend one lived a few houses down on my street (I am friends with 3 others of the same street including the director of the ride I will go in in just 2 weeks). We were best friends in 5th and 6th grade. By junior high, she outgrew me and started hanging out with much more popular girls. I've run into her just a few times over the years and we are Facebook friends. One of the closing numbers of that concert we went to last week was The House of the Rising Sun. This reminded me of her as we both taught ourselves to play guitar and we sang this together. I could sound like Eric Burton. I had posted some picture of myself at the concert. When I got home, she had posted a comment, which she very rarely does. I reminded her of our song. She couldn't believe I remembered that (we spent lots of time rehearsing it) and asked to meet up with me again.

Friend 2 was from high school and a bit of college. She and another woman (with the same name as friend one). The three of us were the only women to take advanced math classes out of our huge school so we stuck together. Our high school was half Jewish but in advanced placement classes, the students were almost 100% Jewish, me being the exception. I did have a common Jewish last name (though in my case, it is Scottish) but with my bland, beige looks I was often told I didn't look Jewish.
She is a classical guitarist and a gifted musician. She did not follow up with her math abilities but in Freshman year college, she was in a music theory class with my friend Soulmate. I introduced them. Soulmate came from a working class home where education was not considered important. His family is the perfect nature trumps nurture argument. Soulmate and his brothers managed to go to Ivy league schools (though Soulmate didn't go to Harvard until his internship) on scholarships. He and his younger brother were amazing self taught musicians (no money for lessons). His brother played Finlandia for me when I visited once (very well too. Steve asked how do I know he played well? Well I was a self-taught musician as well though not on their level) Soulmate's instrument was the French Horn so from him, I learned all things French Horn going to concerts, etc. Even though he was not a music major, he tried out for various music octets, quartets at the music school and was accepted. But the technical aspects of music were difficult for him to decipher. He showed me what he was expected to learn. Good luck with that! I couldn't help. But for Friend 2, this was easy-peasy. She had a lot of training already. I can't remember if they got together though he would mention her name all the time. I didn't see friend 2 until our 5th high school reunion. Her Jewish heritage was very important to her in high school. I met her husband. He couldn't possibly be Jewish. And there was my husband, Jewish. A bit of irony. As for friend 3, she is a lawyer in Manhattan and a radical orthodox Jewish lesbian  (yep there are some contradictions there).She refuses contact with me even though at one point we were good friends. Maybe Friend 2 can provide insight if she hasn't been abandoned too. She just contacted me out of the blue.

As for Soulmate, I was supposed to visit him in DC after the bike ride along with another friend nearby in MD. This potential house has put plans on hold though we might have our answer today. Another offer came through last night. They will be weighing the offers today. Maybe they will wait for more but the clock is ticking for them. I am torn and part of me almost hopes they reject us.