My new and first bagpipe! by Tae Sandoval Murgan
Many years ago I was a guide on AOL and I worked very closely with an American-born Scotsman named Rocky. He was really into SCA and was just beginning to learn to play the bagpipes when we decided our online chemistry was strong enough to warrant an in-person meeting.
I get on the plane to Indianapolis and sitting next to me is a bearded gentleman. About halfway through the flight, he pulls out what appears to be a recorder and some sheet music, and begins to silently "play" the instrument in his lap.
Me: "You can play, I don't mind."
Him: "Oh, I'm just practicing my fingering."
Me: "Ah. Recorder?"
Him: "No, bagpipes."
I don't think my eyes could have gotten any bigger or my devious brain could have worked any faster than they did. This was too good to be true. "Scary" too good to be true.
It took me a few minutes but I finally decided I was going to shoot for the jackpot. I explained to him that I was going to meet a guy I had worked online with for some time, who *just* happened to be a Scotsman and *just* happened to have recently started learning to play the bagpipes. And then I asked him, given the odds that I could find myself in this situation, if he would be willing to do me a favor. He was floored by my story. He also loved my idea. Ka-CHING!
We land in Indianapolis. My flight-mate pulls his bagpipes from the overhead and we head out into the debarking corridor. *Everyone* on the flight walks past us as he assembles his instrument and I just know Rocky is standing at the gate thinking that I wussed and didn't come. We wait jussst a few seconds to make him think no one else is debarking. So wrong.
Do you have any idea how loud bagpipes are? Do you have any idea how loud bagpipes are in a narrow corridor?
Yes, I was actually "serenaded" off the plane by a bagpiper. The look on Rocky's face as I finally reached the gate was beyond priceless, not to mention the crowd that immediately gathered 'round as soon as they heard the pipes a playin'. This gurl KNOWS how to make an entrance.
Alas, Rocky and I turned out not to be a true match (so much for Karma) and I ended up marrying my beloved German geek a few years later. But I am absolutely positive that Rocky, the bagpiper and I will remember this one for the rest of our lives.
True story.
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