Lisa Chong is one of those people who've gone to both Stanford AND Yale. First she studied English, then decided to become a violinist. Despite her obvious superhuman qualities, she's a humble, sweet person with an entertaining dry sense of humor.
She plays for the St. Louis symphony orchestra. She visited Sweden and told me tons of things I've never known about life as a musician. Like the fact that they play behind a curtain and walk on muting mats on their way to auditions so that the listeners won't know if someone tripping on high heels or more manly shoes are playing. That's really hiring people on a gender neutral basis.
I don't know if I've told you this before but Vanja is a delicate person. She's made of glass. She'll cry just touching something with her little legs. I don't know how it happened, I think she's just extremely sensitive. I raised her to be strong. She resisted. Joel, on the other hand doesn't cry even if blood is gushing. He doesn't cry from pain, only for emotional reasons. They cry about the same amount.
When Lisa came to visit, she had the best way of dealing with Vanja's complaints.
Showing a barely bruised knee to me and Lisa, Vanja was met with relevant, thoughtful questions from Lisa's Swedish phrasebook:
"Is it serious?"
"Will you need surgery?"
"Is it contagious?"
Even Vanja laughed and the pain was gone.
It was so nice having Lisa around. Now she's back in St Louis playing and eating Bissinger's delicious acai blueberries. They're so good we just ordered 60 bucks worth of the stuff.
want more lisa for yourself?
