Birthday Scrabble

Thursday night Cecil Markovitch, who is the king of last-minute planning, sent a bunch of us an email asking if we’d like to go to a Friday night fish fry at the Esquire Club, which is right near my house. Travalon and I went, along with Jilly Moose, OK Cap, the single B-Boy, and my OTHER choir director. They played really old rock from the 50’s and early 60’s in the background, and Cecil depressed himself by discussing how old some of the singers are today, but we still had a really good time.

Saturday the Rosary Ladies had a real meeting for the first time in ages. Travalon came with us when we met for coffee at the EVP near my old condo, then he ran some errands while we prayed the rosary at Luxuli’s house. Seeing it made me a little nostalgic for “the one that got away,” that house Travalon and I made an offer on but the owners wouldn’t come down on the price. Still, our condo is undoubtedly better for our lifestyle, and it certainly is in a wonderful location. Then Travalon and I ran errands that mostly involved getting supplies for sending our long overdue Christmas cards out. The benefits of procrastination: Christmas cards were 75% off. We hope to get them out this week. In the evening we went to a restaurant called The Journey, which is a pan-Asian buffet. I was loving all the sushi, and Travalon loved all the crab. Then we saw a movie called Unbroken, based on the amazing true story of Olympic athlete Louis Zamperini, whose plane was shot down in WWII. He and a buddy survived 45 days on a raft in the middle of the ocean until they were “rescued” by the Japanese and became prisoners of war. It really made me think about how easy my own life has been.

Sunday after Mass we went to brunch at the Copper Top, courtesy of our recently deceased longtime usher. His son treated us all and said it was thanks to him. The married B-Boy and his wife Mo-Girl were there with their 2-year-old daughter, who is so cute. She was playing with Travalon and me, pretending to be a wolverine (nobody has any idea where she learned that word) and drawing amazingly good faces in her little notebook. Then Travalon and I went home and watched the Packer game. I wish they hadn’t won because of a controversial call, but maybe they would have won anyway, since Dallas would almost certainly have scored and then there would have been time for them to score again. Anyway, Dallas has no right to get mad because they won last week due to another controversial call getting reversed, so now they know how it feels. OK Cap said she was originally going to join us for brunch, then she said just for the game, and finally she came over for the last four minutes. That’s football time, so it was more like fifteen minutes, but still, it was pretty funny that she even bothered because Travalon and I had to make tracks right after the game. It was his mother’s birthday, so we joined her for dinner and a game of Scrabble, which she won. She said it was a great birthday.

Famous Hat