Where's that Confounded Trolley?

 

This morning Travalon and I met Jilly Moose for coffee, then he left to go to a bookstore that will be closing soon while Jilly Moose and I waited for Tiffy in the lobby of her sister's building. Here are a couple of photos that Jilly Moose took of the lobby.

When Tiffy arrived, we walked to a Chinese restaurant on State Street for lunch, and they tried to seat us at Booth 4 because we are "gringos," but I know that 4 is bad luck in Chinese culture, so I said, "Not that booth," and they sat us by the windows. After lunch we walked to the Capitol to see the State Christmas Tree.

We ran into Hardingfele, who had her violin with her because she had just played a concert there. Then we went to some shops on State Street, and who should we run into but Travalon. He drove Tiffy and me down Monroe Street to see all the giant inflatable Santas, and then he dropped us off at First Congo for the Madison Bach Musicians' Christmas concert. I particularly loved the Buxtehude and Hammerschmidt, but everyone else liked the Praetorius setting of "Lo, How a Rose E'er Blooming," including Mr. N'Awlins and Kathbert. Cecil Markovitch was there too, but he was talking to someone else, so we just waved at each other. We also saw the Professor Formerly Known as Banjo Player and her organist husband. It was a fabulous concert, and people applauded for five minutes afterwards. Here is a photo of the inside of the church with just the Christmas lights on.

It was sleeting when Travalon came to pick us up, so we didn't want to go far. We drove as far as Leopold's and went to the Italian restaurant that is attached to it. There was a wait, so we had a drink at the bar, and the other two had fancy cocktails with limoncello but I had a pistachio cream ale because I knew I'd be loopy if I drank anything stronger before eating anything. We had risotto balls for appetizers, then I had gnocchi, and Tiffy and I split spumoni for dessert. It was all so good! By then the weather had cleared up, so Travalon kindly drove us through the Fantasy of Lights. What a wonderful December Saturday! The only low note was that there was no sign of the Holiday Trolley that usually goes up and down State Street every Saturday in December. I remember fondly once singing with a choir on it. Today a choir strolled by the Chinese restaurant, so I ran out and joined them on "Hark the Herald." I love carolers!

The people at the next table in the restaurant were talking about some Led Zeppelin movie that Tiffy and Travalon have both seen, where there is a fantasy sequence for each band member. (I paraphrased the blog post title from Zeppelin.) Once we were in the car, I asked the others what their fantasy sequence would be. Travalon said he would be walking across the Arctic ice with a family of polar bears. Tiffy said she would be floating in the water with the sun reflecting off of it strongly, and I said, "Like floating on your back, or on something inflatable?" and she said definitely something inflatable, so I asked, "Like what? An inflatable margarita?" and she said sure. My fantasy sequence would be me painting my cartoon martian Atticus Sappington III in blacklight paint, and then I would become Atticus Sappington III and fly to Saturn and ride on the rings. Whee! Too bad I don't know how to do animation because I would totally make this movie if I could.

Mandatory Monthly DuoLingo Bragging Ahead:

When I texted my videos of the Holiday Train to my former neighbor, she sent me this screenshot:

She said, "This would be a good Christmas card." Hmm, maybe she's onto something...

Famous Hat