Gig at Common Ground

I hope my readers had a good weekend. Friday Travalon and I cleaned for an hour, and our place was really starting to look good! My main New Year’s resolution for this year is to have our condo neat enough to have people over without being embarrassed, and we are almost there! To reward ourselves, we went to the new seafood restaurant in the little mall with Crema Café and Fired Up, and it was really fun and nautical. We had calamari po boys – so good! Then we drove to Sauk and thought maybe we weren’t going to see any eagles… until we saw two chasing each other almost overhead! That was really cool! We went for a hike on the bike path that used to be a defunct railroad track, and we stopped into the little convenience store that is part of the gas station with the Sinclair sign outside. It is not a Sinclair station anymore, but Travalon loves Dino the Dinosaur. They had some Sinclair signage inside too. We drove around Crystal Lake as the sun was setting, and it was a glorious sunset, with the salmon-colored sky behind the dark hills. Then we met Cecil Markovitch, the Single B-Boy, the Dairyman’s Daughter, and Richard Bonomo at the Dorf Haus for their famous fish fry. What a wonderful day!

Saturday I was so inspired by our cleaning session that I cleaned again for over an hour. Now our condo looks so nice that when we first get home, we say, “Wow – is this our place?!?” Travalon and I went for a hike on our favorite boardwalk in McFarland, then we stopped into the Lakeside Coffee House, and it was crazy busy in there for a late Saturday afternoon. Rich texted me about meeting him and some Slow Food folks at Bandung Indonesian Restaurant, so Travalon and I went there, and then I went to a harpsichord concert of Baroque music. Travalon’s battery died when he came to pick me up, but the person at the concert that I least expected to know how to jump a car did so quite expertly for us. Appearances can be deceiving!

Yesterday I had to bring my mandolin to Mass with me, then Travalon and I went to Common Ground for my gig. Sorry that I did not let people know about this gig, but there is a weird story behind it: we were supposed to have a gig at the Chocolaterian on Friday evening, but Hardingfele had played there earlier, and someone complained about her show, so they did not want us there either since she is part of our band. She got us this gig at Common Ground as a last-minute replacement, so that is why I didn’t let people know. Travalon and I got free brunch, but then we had no way to tip the baristas because we had no cash on us. No worries – I got $4 in tips during the gig, so I gave that to the baristas. The gig was a lot of fun, and afterwards the owner gave me a mimosa. Sometimes I think I like being in a band as much for the free drinks as for the music making. Honestly, I think I get them now and then because of the cool instrument, since people are so fascinated by the old mandolin that I end up getting a lot of attention after a gig. Rich did happen to see part of the gig, but only because he texted to ask how long I would be at Common Ground. Afterwards Travalon and I went for a hike at Pheasant Branch, where we ran into Hardingfele again, and she told us the eastside Chocolaterian had burned down that morning! If there wasn’t a westside Chocolaterian these days, I would lose my mind. Where would I get that Parisian hot chocolate? Although it is less of an issue during Lent, of course. Hopefully they are able to rebuild the eastside one. Travalon and I ended the evening by going to see the movie Black Panther, which was really cool. I recommend it.

Famous Hat