Lunch with the Leprechaun

Last night Travalon and I went to Oconomowoc to attend a lakeside concert with his mother, like I did last year. He goes most weeks – he’s such a devoted son! His mother loves getting out into the fresh air and hearing live music, and really, who doesn’t? Last night a band made up of Legionnaires played music from movies, e.g., a Disney movies medley, a Star Wars medley – but at one point they were joined by a young fiddler and did “The Devil Went Down to Georgia” by the Charlie Daniels Band, which so far as we know has never been featured in a movie. Travalon's mother particularly enjoyed seeing all the cute kids playing on the beach and running around the park where the band shell is located. I liked that too. I have seen some photos of myself from that recent gig where we showed kids how to play our instruments, and I had this silly, sappy smile on my face. I always do when kids are around. It must drive them nuts – I’m like that crazy aunt who thought you were “soooo cute!” Come to think of it, I WAS that crazy aunt when my niece and nephews were little.

Rich’s old roommate The Leprechaun is in town for a few days, and my only chance to see him was at lunch today, so I asked Rich if he would want to go to lunch at Brocach, sort of as a joke. The Leprechaun is originally from Cork, so I wasn’t sure what he would think of an “authentic Irish pub” in this country, but he did agree to meet there for lunch, so he, Rich, Travalon (who had never met him), and I all got together there. He was duly impressed that I am trying to learn Irish; he had to learn it himself in school but said it was definitely a foreign language to him, and he admits that he has forgotten most of it. Cork is not in the Gaelteach, the area in the west of Ireland where people do speak Irish as their first language. However, most of the time we talked about politics, since none of us can get over this crazy election. It is definitely the strangest one I ever remember! It was so good to see The Leprechaun again. He now lives in New Jersey and, from the sounds of it, spends as little time on his bike these days as I spend on mine. Back in the day we put many miles on our bicycles. He was one of the people who used to do those long fundraiser bike rides with me. I remember one year our team name was “The Radiant Rosary Riders.” Yes, once I was in good shape and could easily bike 75 miles a day for two days in a row. Sigh…

Famous Hat