It's been several days since I've written, and I forgot to mention that on Thursday Travalon picked me up from work, then we took a walk on Picnic Point, and then we had dinner at a Chinese restaurant. On Friday we decided to get fish fry at Brothers 3, and it was such a beautiful evening that we sat outside. Their bluegill was so tasty! It was a good way to end the week, especially since that was the first day that I felt like the fog lifted from my COVID brain, so I worked really hard to get caught up at work.
Saturday morning Travalon woke me up, saying, "It's 10:30! We need to get going soon!" I must have really worn myself out working so hard on Friday, because I slept for ten hours!! We got going and drove to Milwaukee, where we met Tiffy and went to a burger joint for lunch. Unlike the two previous days that were so beautiful, it was cold and blustery, so we decided not to take a walk by the lakefront. Instead, we went to Cardinal Stritch University, a small Franciscan school that is closing at the end of the month. This is very sad; it is 86 years old, and also I feel like Franciscan spirituality is not appreciated by a lot of Catholics these days. I was raised by Franciscan sisters; well, not literally, but they were the ones who taught me all about religion, and they presented Catholicism as a welcoming, kind religion. All these traditional schools are closing, like Travalon's old grade school, but these new Catholic academies are popping up that have a "bunker" mentality, that they want to be shut away from the evil world instead of working to convert it through love. The campus itself is not that old, just dating from the 60's, and the buildings are not lovely, but there were some stained glass windows. I took pictures, because who knows what will happen to them once the buildings are sold?
Then Travalon dropped Tiffy and me off at St. Paul's Episcopal Church for an Early Music Now concert. This one was called "Angels and Devils," and it featured music by Vivaldi and Corelli, as well as other Baroque composers. Of course it featured Tartini's famous "Devil's Trill." It was a wonderful concert, but the church has very few bathrooms. At intermission Tiffy and I wound our way through the basement and found some little kiddie toilets, but it turns out those belong to the daycare and not the church, so we weren't supposed to use them. Tiffy said it felt like one of those weird dreams where you're looking for a bathroom in your old school, but everything has changed. It had been very hot in the sanctuary, so we stepped outside, and we saw fritillaries.
I love them because they are checkered flowers. We also saw this stunning tulip.
After the concert, Travalon returned from visiting little local bookstores, and the three of us walked to County Clare, an Irish restaurant, for dinner. By the time we got home, it was too late to blog - we just went to bed. I slept my normal seven hours that night, but we still couldn't get going in time to go to the usual place for Mass, so off to St. Peter's we went. They had a bunch of kids receiving First Communion, so that was fun to see. I wish I could have worn a pretty white dress like that for my First Communion, but mine was in the Episcopal Church, and I guess they don't do that...? I remember mine being very anticlimactic - I just went up to the communion rail like I always did, but instead of getting a blessing, I got a communion wafer. Nobody made any kind of deal of it at all. Can you blame me for crossing the Tiber?
It was another cold, rainy day, so Travalon, Jilly Moose, and I took a walk at the East Towne Mall. After that we went to the Asian supermarket nearby, and we got bubble tea. I also had to get something called "watermelon cake," because I am terminally curious. It was more of a pastry than a cake; it kind of looked like a danish, but it was not that sweet so I really liked it. It seemed to have some sort of bean or lotus seed paste inside, but it didn't really taste like watermelon. Then I had to head home for Irish class, and after that I went to band practice. Hardingfele decided not to show up for some reason - she didn't say why not - so we only had one fiddle. I ended up playing melody, which is something I don't do much anymore. I said I should have brought my violin, and the fiddler said I could use her grandson's violin, but then she couldn't find it, so I just played the melodies on the mandolin. I was feeling very brain-addled, but to my surprise our bass player said I was doing so well mentally for having just gotten over COVID. It's no joke - COVID brain is real. But it seemed to clear up like the sun breaking through the clouds on Friday, so at that point I was just experiencing normal brain drain from doing something out of the ordinary. It's good to keep our brains nimble at my age!
Today was cold and very windy, with some drizzle in the morning. I was very disappointed to spend the first day of my favorite month wearing my winter coat. I went for a walk at lunch, as usual, but it was too windy to go by the lake, so I ducked into a nearby greenhouse. Check it out - their monstera deliciosa is blooming! As a botany nerd, I find even these non-showy blooms very cool.
I have a monstera delicious up in the loft. Will it ever bloom?
Famous Hat
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