Comedy of Errors at the Protest

 

Travalon's team, the Wolverhampton Wanderers, lost again. After that, we hiked on the Ice Age Trail, and of course I begged him to bring his good camera and then forgot to get the photos off of it, so that will have to wait for a subsequent post. It was very warm, so when we got home, we changed into shorts. I didn't have a good costume to wear to the protest, so I wore my most colorful outfit.

Travalon wore his Persian soccer team T-shirt to show solidarity with the people of Iran as they are bullied by Trump.

Our neighbor lent us a sign, but I forgot it at home. The protest was supposed to start at McPike Park at two, which is when we left home because we somehow got way behind schedule. Still, it wasn't very far away... but it took us forever to find parking, and then it was so far away that by the time we got to the park, everyone had marched toward the Capitol, and only a few stragglers were there. We drove downtown and parked at our old church, and as we headed toward the Square, I only saw a few people heading out as if things were over. However, a march started around the Capitol Square, so we joined that, and on the far side of the Square there was a huge rally. Travalon took photos.

In this next photo, you can see both me and my Union buddy who looks like a leprechaun in the background:

Check it out! An axolotl! Travalon thought he took a photo of the pink octopus and the red crawfish, but it didn't turn out. We also saw a blue bunny, a bright orange unicorn, and a skeleton unicorn, as well as dinosaurs and lots of frogs.

Nothing like signs on dogs!

I saw my Union buddy and his partner, a couple of faculty members from my department, my bus buddy who is about four feet tall, and a couple of Shamrock Club members, as well as a local cellist who plays with an early music group. We never did see the neighbor who lent us the sign we forgot, or the grad student who said he would be there (and probably was - there were a ton of people there). Drones flew overhead, maybe to get an official count (someone said 20,000 people) or maybe just curious people making videos... or the government taking note of who was there. 

We listened to some speeches and then went to State Street for refreshments before heading home via Maple Bluff to check out fall colors. We didn't have time for a boat ride before my next adventure: going to the Irish Session at the Lakeside Coffee House. The red-headed flute player has been telling me for some time that I'm ready to attend a faster session than the one I always go to, and Famie my Irish teacher had gone to it last month, and then a grad student who said she does Irish fiddling was curious to check it out, so she said she'd go if I went. It was a wonderful vibe, led by the local Irish fiddler who leads the band that played at the ceili two nights ago. They played very fast, but if you just sat and listened to a tune because you didn't know it, that was fine. To my surprise, all musicians get a free drink, which I wouldn't have thought would be profitable for them since the crowd listening to us wasn't much larger than the group playing. Famie decided the session was too fast for her, so she didn't even bring her concertina, although she and the flute player did dance during one medley. The grad student is a very skilled fiddler and knew a lot of the tunes, so everyone was very welcoming to her. I brought the mandolin but kind of wish I'd brought the fiddle, since honestly it's a lot easier to play fast on that. However, I kind of feel like the mandolin is my thing now, like everyone knows me as the crazy lady with the very old mandolin. Tomorrow I will be brave and bring the fiddle to the slow session, and then I'll bring Mandy to the Moldy Jam jam on Monday. Eek! That's a lot of playing!

The session was very long, constant playing for two and a half hours (but you can take a break any time you like), and afterwards I was talking to the lead fiddler about the ceili. He said the venue couldn't have handled many more dancers, so we both agreed it was the perfect size. I guess a week ahead of time they had only sold ten tickets, and they needed twenty-five attendees to break even, but in the end there were about eighty people there. That must have helped the finances of the Shamrock Club!

Famous Hat