I can't sleep.
Why?
Because I've just had one of the best nights of my life.
How do I know this?
I just spent four hours with two of the most interesting and wonderful men in the world.
Who are they?
My acting professors, Bo and Tom.
How are they the most interesting an wonderful men in the world?
I shall tell you.
They invited me to dinner Friday April 8 and told me that they would pick me up at the library circle at 6:15.
I walked out side just as they pulled up. Bo got out of the car and gave me a hug and told me to get in the car with Tom as he went into the Hesburgh library (yes...touchdown Jesus) to pick up books for Tom (a Yale graduate, F. Scott Fitzgerald scholar, Princeton Professor, and a wonderful man).
[I would be later told at dinner that I walked outside just as Fr. Hesburgh was walking out the door of the library]
I sat in the car with Tom and started a conversation. I can't remember the conversation word for word but we talked about my classes and my major and we shared the fact that we both started as Pre-med students. He wanted to be a doctor but then changed his mind because he was scared of Organic Chemistry (to tell you the truth it is one of the scariest things in the world). He told me about the day he told his father that he didn't want to be a doctor anymore. His father was disappointed but he soon became mad when Tom told him he wanted to become a teacher instead.
When Bo entered the car with 3 or 4 books (one I saw was on pottery), he gave them to Tom and then greeted me. He talked about the restaurant that we were going to and told me how it was set up.
We went to La Salle Grill. The fanciest place I have ever gone to eat. "The menu changes every night," Bo says. "They have very good steaks and fish." I tell him since it is a Friday during lent I can't have meat.
[Side note: I am not a fish person. I don't like fish. I never have. So it follows naturally that I don't know anything about fish. I told myself, "Look, you need to give fish another try. Maybe this place will be so good that you will love it." This information will come in handy later]
So I think I'll go for the fish, I tell him. He says, "Good. I usually get the fish too." When we arrive, Bo drops me and Tom off at the entrance because Tom uses a cane to walk and there was no close parking. I get out and open the door to the restaurant for Tom who thanks me promptly while Bo parks the car. I enter the restaurant with Bo who tells me to put my coat in the coat room (for all you Texans: this is a room that holds your coat while you dine because in the North people wear REAL coats). Oh but wait, he tells me NOT to hang my coat but to put it on the table. The people at the restaurant will hang it for us... [yes it is THAT fancy]. Tom and I talk for a bit in the vestibule of the restaurant where he warns me of the restroom door, hidden right next to the entrance. He tells me that this door might jump out and hit me. I take a step away from the door and then Bo enters the restaurant. All three of us enter and as soon as the doors open, a hostess greets us, "Hello Bo! Hello Tom!" A waiter shows up, "Hello Bo! Hello Tom! Good to see you again."
"Thanks, Paul!"
"I have your usual Table right here."
"Why thank you, Paul."
Tom and I take our seat while Bo quietly goes to the restroom.
Again Tom and I have a short discussion and quickly Bo returns.
The server Paul comes. Bo offers me wine and I say "Sure, as long as the restaurant is ok with it." Bo says they usually are ok with it, however, tonight is not an "ok" night. Nobigdeal. I'll take some iced tea.
The menu is placed in front of me.
So, I look at it and it makes as much sense to me as an SN2 reaction (shout out to all orgo people). I do not know what to get.
Bo tells me to get a appetizer and an entree. I choose the safest bet for an appetizer: Classic Caesar Salad.
Thank God Bo was there to ask if I wanted the anchovies or not. I had no idea that anchovies were even going on it.
Bo asks Paul what he recommends. He says the Trout. Bo looks at me and I say, "I'll have that."
My fate is sealed.
So as we wait for our food. Bo tells me stories about eating dinner with
Katharine Hepburn. Then he tells me the story of how he met
Stephen Sondheim, went to dinner at his house, and is now good friends with him. Such good friends that anytime Sondheim has a show put on in London or New York, he gives his personal tickets to Bo and his friend for both the opening and closing nights. So when Bo and his other friend take him up on the offer, Sondheim watches his show standing the back while Bo and his bud are in Sondheim's seats.
Tom tells me stories too. Like the one where he choked on chicken at this very restaurant, had the Heimlich maneuver performed on him, broke several ribs, and was carried out on a table to an ambulance. And the story about the book he compiled which took him 20 years to compile on
The Faerie Queen (the first epic in English and one of the most influential poems in the language for later poets from Milton to Tennyson). He told me stories about teaching at Princeton and Arizona State University. He told me stories about his freshman year at Yale and, oh yeah, his crazy Italian roommate. His roommate came from a mob family and he was (according to Tom) a fat, always naked in the dorms, short kid from the Bronx. Ever heard of
Matthew J. Bruccoli? That guy who wrote that intro to that book that you read in high school.
O come on! Do I have to tell you? Ok fine...
The Great Gatsby
So yeah no big deal right?
But I forgot to tell you that Tom's personal mentor was none other than C.S. Lewis.
Ok, so they tell me their stories. They ask about me. I tell them some background information about me. I tell them about my upbringing. How I've never been to a restaurant this fancy, EVER. How I went to an interesting high school. How the last two years of my life have been the most influential on me. I told them bullet point versions of all the stories I have: collarbone break 1 and 2, Cistercian (way to big a story to even summarize here), death knocking on my door in the ER in Dec '09, my Eagle Scout adventure, my college decision process, my first semester of college, and all the other stories that are way to personal for a blog, sorry.
I told them how I thought it was crazy that I was going to dinner with my professors. I had heard stories about college kids going to professor's houses and socializing with them but I didn't think I would be one telling a story (at least not 'till my senior year). I told them how gracious I was and thankful. They said how thankful they were that I made time in my busy student schedule to have dinner with them!!!!
So after I told a few stories I told them about the concerns I had about my life and the direction it was headed in. I told them my concerns... OH WAIT MEANWHILE...
people from the restaurant: the cooks, a Serbian cook, another waitress, the owner, another server, and other people who I have no idea their relation to the restaurant is, are stopping by the table to say hi to Bo and Tom. Every time a new person comes by, Bo introduces me as one of his acting students who is a "very talented actor and singer." I was incredibly flattered by this every time it happened. I didn't know how to respond. I was literally speechless and dumbfounded.
Ok back to what I was saying... I told them my concerns about the meaning of my life and what I am trying to do to live my life the way I was meant to. I told them the life philosophy that I have developed up to this point (I'll save it for another blog post...hehe). I wanted to run it by these two very experienced men. They gave me their opinion and made me think from a different perspective. The main thing Bo taught me is that we are all on the planet to love and help one another. The key word is
love. Loving each other in a way that we do things for others out of the love we have for them as a unique human.
So, somewhere in the middle of the conversation, our food arrived. The salad was lovely.
But then came the main course.
Bo got a plate full of mussels, clams, and prawns. My trout arrived. I wasn't a fan but I ate it anyway. Bo shoved a mussel and a clam and a prawn on my plate. He told me to try it. I didn't know how to eat these things. Bo taught me. "Go ahead and eat the head and the eye and the legs." I do. "Don't eat the inside of the clams that are closed. Those are bad and those are the ones that we give to Tom's freshman year roommate Mr. Bruccoli."
I have never eaten such crazy things before in my life.
Ok so the main course is over. They offer me coffee, espresso, cappuccino, and the like. I take a coffee and they practically make me order the chocolate brownie sundae. The dessert comes and it has the biggest strawberry I have ever seen right smack dab in the middle of the plate.
My heart fills with joy.
So Tom's espresso comes and along with it comes a tall shot glass filled with clear liquid.
Bo tells me, "I call that 'liquid jet fuel.'" He tells me to try some.
As soon as the liquid touches my lips, my sinuses clear COMPLETELY, my mouth burns, my throat burns all the way to my stomach, and I say, "Oh wow, that is very strong." Bo chuckles and tells me it is a "digestivo." In particular and Italian alcoholic beverage called
grappa. I think he was expecting me to have a stronger reaction...
O by the way, during our meal, a group of Italian orchestra players sit next to us. These people are performing tomorrow at Notre Dame. Once they get up to leave, Bo and Tom have a short conversation with them in Italian.
So after the meal we sit and talk a little while longer. Tom decides that he needs to go back to bed and we get up from our table. The Serbian restaurant fellow stops by and asks when Bo and Tom will be back. Bo says that they'll be back for Tom's birthday next Tuesday. Right at that moment, Bo asks me if I am free to join them... for Tom's birthday... C.S. Lewis' pupil's birthday...
Bo also tells me that we are having a special guest next class period... Fr. Hesburgh!!!
I tell them I have never met Fr. Hesburgh. They say, "You should! And you could be one of his readers. (Fr. Hesburgh suffers from macular degeneration and a select group of students read the newspaper to him daily) We'll recommend you for that job!"
They drive me back to campus after telling me a final story about how they met and became good friends with the first ever female Supreme Court Justice of the United States of America:
Sandra Day O'Connor. Tom told me the day after he met her, she called him and she said, "Tom? This is Sandy! I want to take the class that you are offering at ASU!"
They dropped me off at my dorm. I quickly met up with two of my best friends at Notre Dame and told them this story.
I have been so excited that I can't sleep. I cannot believe this night just happened. I tried to lay down and fall asleep but I couldn't stop thinking about all the things they told me and the anticipation for the next acting class and next time I'll go to dinner with them (ON TOM'S BIRTHDAY).
This has truly been a life changing night. I might alter my career path now. I might leave my dorm tomorrow and call everyone I know and tell them how much they mean to me. I don't know what I'll do (besides study and do homework).
Please tell your friends about this story. I want to share it with everyone. I want everyone to meet these men. They are truly wonderful people. If through this post is the only way you can meet them, that is better than never knowing about them.
I am so blessed to have met them and to consider them my friends.
I can't sleep.
