Violin's Day Out

 

This morning I dressed in the same outfit as last night (red velvet shirt over a black shirt that says "Merry Christmas" in Irish) and grabbed my violin, then we went to Mass. We went straight from there to the Shamrock Club Christmas party at Vintage, which was decorated beautifully.

We had a wonderful time: the food was good, the drinks were good (we both had an eggnog martini), and the company was delightful. The other guy named Travalon seems to have a new lady love, and the three of us were talking about doing the Mammoth Challenge on the Ice Age Trail. People joked that I could play some Irish tunes for them, since the violin accompanied us to the party, but first we were too busy eating, and then we were too busy with the raffle. Travalon and I had bought some tickets, but the huge Aran sweater someone had specifically brought for him was chosen by the guy whose 80th birthday party we went to this summer and his German lady love, who kept having their numbers drawn. Then they chose the shamrock socks I was going to take! When they had their number chosen a third time, they gave me the winning ticket, but there wasn't much left at that point, so I chose a pillow.

They also gave me the socks. They had their numbers chosen at least four times.

Travalon did have one of his tickets chosen, so he took the book on Celts he'd been eyeing. There was a book by the lead singer of U2, Bono, that he predicted nobody would choose, and sure enough, it was the last thing left... and then they chose another one of Travalon's numbers, so he got that book too. By then I was going to be quite late to my Brazilian drum class, but there would still be a good forty-five minutes left if we hustled, so we left right after the drawing. However, when I rushed into the building where the classes are, some guys from the really good group were hanging around, and they said, "It's finishing at 3:30 today." Which means I would have fifteen minutes of pounding on drums. I did go into the drumming room, along with my violin, and they were all using repiques (which is pronounced "hepiques" in Brazilian Portuguese), so I grabbed a repique and a couple of sticks and got enough drumming in that I got my active minutes for the day. 

I had notified Travalon of the change in plans, so we went to the East Side Club and watched the first half of the Packers game. They looked really good, beating up on the Bears. You do love to see that. They held the Bears to a field goal and had two mind-blowing touchdowns, and then it was halftime and they were going to get the ball back in the second half. The violin came with us to watch the game, and there was a glorious sunset.

Look at all that snow on the lawn where we watched so many bands this past summer! Travalon ran me over to the music club for my Irish session, then he got to go back and watch the Packers win. My violin was not happy about going in and out of the extreme cold today (it was frigid out, compared to yesterday when we were running all over outside), because she was VERY out of tune and didn't want to stay in tune until she had warmed up a bit. But she stayed in tune during the session, which was not led by the usual two people because the one guy was taking a day off after being at the club all day yesterday (there was a protest singalong I couldn't go to last night), and the woman who is the other owner was rear-ended and not direly injured, but sore enough that she didn't want to play. The red-headed flute player led the session, and she did a fabulous job. One fiddler and the guitarist from my band came, and the bass player (playing fiddle) who recently quit our band, and a fiddler with a five-string violin who always goes to Moldy Jam, and of course plenty of other people. (Not Famie my Irish teacher - her daughter had a swim meet this weekend.) Look how beautifully the ceiling of the music club was decorated.

It was even better in real life. This photo only partly does it justice. I cheated and wore my FitBit on my right wrist, so then I got my steps for the day without having to take a walk outside. Then Travalon picked me up, and after we got home and I put the violin back with her other instrument friends, I took Niko out of my purse and set him down, and he looked like he was wearing a monocle.

Just like Count von Count! This is the keychain - it fits exactly over his eye, like a total solar eclipse. He was with us all day too, but that's not unusual. I hope the ukulele wasn't as upset about going out last night, but it wasn't as cold, and it was only to one destination. Still, maybe I should check and see if she is just as out of tune as the violin from running around in the cold.

Famous Hat