This morning Travalon and I met Jilly Moose and Cali for coffee, then all four of us went over to the Overture Center for the International Festival. This might be the first one since COVID, and I remember one being on Leap Day so I thought they used to be in February, but today it was on April Fool's Day. The first thing I did was buy a beach hat, because as my regular readers will know, I desperately needed another one. Then we went to listen to music. The first group we listened to was the Russian Folk Orchestra, and as always, I thought about how I should join them one of these days. Then we heard a couple of flamenco guitar players, and one gives lessons, so I pondered taking lessons. We listened to a gypsy jazz band, then we watched some flamenco dancers, and I thought about taking flamenco dance lessons with the leader. The problem is there just isn't time to learn everything. The other problem is that you can't go to everything at the International Festival, because while we were listening to Spanish guitar, we were missing West African drumming, for example. We ran into Pete the Sailor Man here and there, and after we heard one brief song by the pipes and drums, we checked out the vendors upstairs, and I bought two stuffed animals (a turtle and a donkey) from an Ecuadorian stand, earrings from a Native American stand, and a rosary from another Native American stand. We had our names written in the Nepali alphabet, and I tried to stick a paper fish onto Travalon's back for Poisson d'Avril, the French April Fool's Day, but he looked up, so I had to stick it onto Jilly Moose because Cali moves too fast. (I saw some other people with fish on their backs too.) By then we were tired, so we got Indian curry and sat listening to a Cuban guy sing and play guitar, and Pete joined us. Travalon and I danced to the last song the Cuban guy did, "El Cuarto de Tula." He got Hungarian goulash, then he headed home to watch basketball while we ladies watched Brazilian capoeira. Pete said he was going to watch a fiddle group, then he would join us for the Colombian band, but we didn't see him again. Cali is originally from Colombia, so she could understand what this band was singing. She got to talk to a lot of people in Spanish today: the Ecuadorian vendor, and the Chilean woman who sat in the seat we'd been saving for Pete the Sailor Man, for example. That band was really good, and they had a woman bass player who was fabulous. I wanted to be her!
After the festival was over, Jilly Moose, Cali, and I went to my church library and prayed a rosary. (I used my new one, natch.) Then Cali suggested we pray the Stations of the Cross, so we did that too. Jilly Moose accidentally did the Sixth Station instead of the Fifth one, so Cali made her go back and do the Fifth one, and then Cali did the Sixth one again. I feel like Jilly Moose did something else goofy too that I'm not remembering, but the funniest thing was when Travalon was leaving and she said, "Bye, Luxuli," so Travalon said, "I'm going to sabotage your Moose Herd for that!" Cali laughed so hard she was crying! Since Luxuli is pretty much the opposite of Travalon (petite where he's a big, tall guy, a woman when he's a man, and Asian when he's white), we're not sure why her named popped out of Jilly Moose's mouth when she was saying goodbye to him. The Moose Herd is her collection of stuffed moose.
After Cali left, Jilly Moose and I went to the Hub in the Sheraton on John Nolan Drive to order takeout. The Daughter of Denni's band was playing at the Lakeside Cafe, and they don't serve food after five, but the website said it was fine to bring food in. I had a grilled cheese sandwich and tomato soup, and Jilly Moose had a chicken quesadilla. She generously bought me a drink, so I had a Montucky Cold Snack, which is a pilsner beer that goes well with grilled cheese. The band was really good, and they did an extended set of Beatles tunes. Travalon would have loved it, if he weren't watching the Final Four.
The best April Fool's joke today was a friend who had a social media post that said something like: "My husband and I are excited to make a big announcement! We have been working on this for a while and feel this is the best time to tell everyone. Starting in April, we... see more." Now this isn't strange, because if posts are too long, there's always that "see more," and then you click on it to open the post up all the way. But I clicked and clicked to find out the exciting news, and nothing happened. Finally I realized - April Fool's! Man, was that genius!!
Famous Hat
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