...In walked a vocal performance major, he had a beautiful tenor voice...and he closed the door, and sat on the floor.

D.D. started yelling at him, saying..."CAN'T YOU SEE THAT I AM GIVING A LESSON!!!" The guy just said..."I have something to give you." D.D. got even angrier, and shouted..."YOU INTERRUPTED A LESSON!!!!...YOU CAN'T DO THAT!!!!

D.D. then calmed down, and said, pleasantly..."What did you bring me?" The guy said..."A sandwich..." D.D. TOTALLY ERUPTED...shouting..."YOU INTERRUPTED A LESSON TO BRING ME A SANDWICH?

??" He then calmed down, and said..."What kind of sandwich?" The guy started laughing, and said, "A ham sandwich."

D.D. went ballistic again, shouting at the guy...but then took the sandwich...and the guy left the room.
D.D. started eating the sandwich, and I started the sonata again...but I messed it up...my hands were shaking too hard. D.D. finished the sandwich...we were about 25 minutes into a one hour lesson...and just abruptly told me..."You are not prepared, we will not be able to accomplish anything...leave...go practice...see you next week..."

I left, and went into a practice room...but my hands were shaking too much...and I just burst into hysterical laughter, and then left and went to a friend that I knew had alcohol...and got a little bottle of wine and went back to my dorm. I just read some science fiction...and started thinking that I should change my major...I was pretty good at the cello and piano...but there was no way that I could make a living just performing...and I wasn't interested in teaching music theory or music history.
I changed my major to business administration...but I still studied cello and piano.

I still learned a lot from D.D., and at times I would walk away from a lesson, feeling very light on my feet. The best one was when I studied the Brahms...I had practiced very hard...and during the lesson...when I carefully did the transition from a loud and fast passage to the somber and reflective passage...he whispered..."That was beautiful."

We humans are so capable of doing so much, we just have to get the strength to keep moving forward...even when we get the setbacks...