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Graduate school for history is a very isolating journey in many ways; your best friends become books. I have about 300 pages to finish by the next day and I emerge from the BART station to discover the impossible — it's hotter in San Francisco than Berkeley. My breathless apartment pushes me away, so without dropping my bags, I head directly to the coffee shop on the corner to lay claim on an outside table. Three pages, a half of glass of happy hour chardonnay on ice and one slice of pita pizza later, and a couple approaches me with a black instrument bag.

I ask what instrument is inside and we strike up a conversation. Next thing you know a guitar jumps out of the bag. I look down ruefully at my book, but realize that homework can wait. Was there ever such a hot night in San Francisco? Doesn’t it feel serendipitous? You’re Kim Nalley? But you can’t be, you’re so nice and normal!

We play off the top of our heads. "Jingle Bells" makes the table next to us smile. "Fine and Mellow" get the café clapping. Niels Mortensen is the guitarist's name. He plays from his gut and not a book of scales.

What tunes do you like these days, I ask. Right now, he says, I’m partial to Mr. Rogers' "It's a Beautiful Day in the Neighborhood." We begin to play. I lead with my voice and Niels follows, shaking his head laughing as his occipital lobe kicks in showing him how to play a tune he has never played before and had not thought of since childhood.

He offers me his guitar and although I am normally to shy to play in public I do a Joni Mitchell tune, and a couple passing by decide to walk back to listen to the rest of the song. Self-conscious because people are watching, after that one tune, I hand Niels back his guitar. He plays a spirited "Dancing in the Street" and I ask him to half the tempo and we settle into a grinding bluesy version with the humming clatter of the cable car cable rounding the corner as a rhythm section.

Niels and Liz ask where I am playing next, and it occurs to me that I haven’t used any of my comps for a Jazzschool concert this Friday. It is right on the BART line. Thanks! We exchange numbers and they slink back over the hill to North Beach. I’m too giddy and drunk on music to finish my book, but that is the great thing about books. You can still seize the moment with and afterward, they will still be waiting for you the next day, just like a best friend.