Happy Easter!

Happy Easter to my readers! He is risen indeed! I had sort of a weird Triduum; Holy Thursday was fine, but Good Friday after Travalon and I took a hike at a place right near our condo called Jackson Landing, he dropped me off for the service at our church. However, the priest was sick, and instead of calling in another priest, they just canceled the service and had Stations of the Cross and a rosary instead. The choir still sang several pieces. Afterwards several of us had a small, vegetarian meal at Himal Chuli, sitting outside to enjoy the beautiful weather. After that Travalon and I turned on the Uber app, but we didn’t get any requests as we explored the islands in Monona. In the evening I met Rich, Luxuli, Prairie Man, and Cecil Markovitch to hear the Madison Bach Musicians perform Bach’s “St. John’s Passion,” so we got to hear the reading anyway, since we hadn’t during our non-service. It was a very beautiful performance, and they projected the words in English on the wall behind the performers, who were of course singing in German. To my surprise, I could usually pick out which phrase they were singing matched with the English phrases. Maybe it was a waste to study Romance and Celtic languages, since obviously Germanic languages must be what come naturally to us English speakers!

Saturday Mamastep and I had some girl time while Travalon gave people Uber rides. She and I went to the Crema Café and then walked fifty steps over to Fired Up, where we made some fused glass pendants and painted small ceramic figurines. She painted a green VW Beetle like the one she used to own, and I painted a little hedgehog to go with my flop-eared rabbit. Afterwards Travalon and I went to the zoo, since it was such a beautiful day. In the evening Travalon and I went to the Easter Vigil at the little country church near our house, which I did not find satisfying. Generally the Easter Vigil is my favorite liturgy of the entire year, but l want to hear the Exultet chanted, not spoken by a priest with a strong foreign accent. There were not that many people there, and when we started outside, my candle kept getting blown out. Is that a bad sign? Maybe I’m not living my life right. On the other hand, it was the shortest Vigil Mass I have been to, only an hour and a half. It just felt like any old Mass but with candles and extra readings.

Yesterday was the most gorgeous day yet. After Mass Travalon and I went to the Nau-Ti-Gal for brunch, then we were planning to visit his mother, but she has a bad case of the flu. Instead we went for a hike at Cherokee Marsh, and I discovered you can see the island in Cherokee Lake from one of the observatory stands. In the afternoon Rich had a dinner at his house, and about a dozen people were there. We had some really interesting conversations, like one guy was from Iran and one woman was from Pakistan, so they were talking about the different types of Islam in the two countries. Also, did you realize that in the 80’s a large number of Iranians moved to Japan? I had no idea! Miss Heartsong showed up around nine, and that was the first time I had seen her in eons! She is engaged now, so I suppose at some point I’ll have to refer to her as Mrs. Heartsong.

Famous Hat