No Kings and Mass in B Minor

 

Sorry for the long silence. Thursday I worked on campus, and Hardingfele and I walked inside because it was colder out than we'd expected, so we hadn't dressed for the weather. It's kind of annoying when your phone says it will be 60 F out and then it's barely 40... I felt fine at work, but then at home I felt too sick to blog and went to bed early. 

Friday I worked on campus and walked with Seabird, then after work I met Tiffy downtown, and she said she was in the mood for Italian. We decided to walk towards the Square, and then we saw Cento, which I had forgotten about, so we got dinner there. It was very swanky and full of beautiful people much younger than we are. We didn't have reservations, so we sat at the bar, next to a strange man in a fake leather jacket who seemed very annoyed by us. Fortunately the bartender who took care of us adored us for some reason. (I tipped him well!) Then we went back to her sister's apartment and talked for a long time.

Yesterday Travalon and I met Tiffy downtown for coffee, then we were walking towards the Square when we noticed Himal Chuli, which had closed abruptly, was open again as Himali Chulo.

They also had a light-up sign that said: "Welcoe to Himali Chulo," but that didn't show up in the photo. We got lunch there, and I'm happy to report that they have a very similar menu to Himal Chuli. It's the guy who owns the Globe, so they have dumplings from the Globe on the menu too. Then we went up to the Square; I was wearing my red tasseled hat, and I had brought Travalon's red tasseled hat, so he wore it for a couple of blocks, but then he put his "Hamm's Bear for President" baseball cap back on, even though it was cold and the other hat was a lot warmer. When we got up to the Square, we saw a lot of people with signs, and some had red tasseled hats (and acknowledged mine with knowing nods), but not as many people as we had expected. I knew my Union peeps were gathering at Brittingham Park and then marching to the Capitol, so I said, "They must not be here yet." Then we passed the chocolate shop, and despite the Lenten season, we went in and got some. When we came out, we heard the sounds of an enormous crowd, and we saw the big group marching around the Square. Travalon and I did not take any photos, but there were lots of great signs, like, "The only orange monarch I want is a butterfly!" and "Trump is a ra_ist" with a P and a C for the hangman choices. We ended up right by the Forward Marching Band, who played a short concert, and who should we run into but the Daughter and Widow of Denni! So that was a fun surprise. I never did find my Union peeps, but later we saw a bunch of people from the Lutheran church where I used to sing, all wearing red tasseled hat pins. I said, "I have the same pin!" even made by the same lady. They also had palm branches, which I thought was a nice touch. 

After we left the protest, the three of us got bubble tea, then Travalon went off to watch basketball at the Union, State Street Brats, and Baked Wings, while Tiffy and I went to her sister's apartment, then the Chinese restaurant we always go to for dinner (but I got something different this time, noodles instead of the salt and pepper shrimp), and then we walked all the way down State Street to get to the Hamel Music Center for Bach's Mass in B Minor. Famie my Irish teacher texted to ask if I wanted to go to a concert at the music club, so I told her about the Bach concert, and she was interested but decided to go to the other concert. Our concert was spectacular, and one of our faculty members was sitting right in front of us, but a different one than last year at the St. Matthew's Passion. Who knew so many of our Slavic faculty love Bach?

Meanwhile, Hardingfele went to the protest in Middleton. When I asked her how many people were there, she sent me this photo.

As well as this photo.

She did say a Trumper in a pickup truck was yelling at them and then took photos of license plates, as if everyone parked around there was a protester. We didn't see any counterprotesters up at the Square this time, though I have seen them in the past, weakly yelling at us that Trump is the best president of all time and the new King David. Maybe they drank so much of the Kool-Aide that they finally overdosed?

This morning I had forgotten that it was Palm Sunday, so we were a little later getting together with Tiffy than we'd originally planned, but not too much. Fortunately there was only the normal amount of plastic to recycle. We picked up Tiffy and went to La Brioche for brunch, having to wait outside for a while, and a woman asked me if I'd knitted my Circus Tent hat. I had to admit that no, I'd gotten it on eBay, so I told Travalon and Tiffy that I would have to call it the Big Top Chautauqua Poseur Hat from now on. It was a gorgeous day, so we took a walk on Picnic Point and saw lots of coots, buffleheads, and people walking dogs that wanted to say hi. Travalon took photos of the birds that I will post tomorrow. 

Our band leader is in Puerto Rico right now, so I wasn't sure if it was worth going to band practice, but then Hardingfele said she was going, so we both got dropped off by our husbands (because mine went to hang out with Cecil Markovitch and the Single B-Boy), and we spent more time talking than playing. We even had leftover cupcakes from our hostess's 88th birthday on Thursday. We did play some tunes that our leader won't play, klezmer tunes with F minor chords, and I can see why she won't play that chord. It's not that hard to make, per se, but in the one tune it jumps between that and G major, and those two chords are really hard to switch between quickly like that. Guess what I need to do? Practice! So I was in the right place tonight!

Famous Hat

A Really Great Fugue

 

Today I worked on campus and walked with Seabird, who loved that I now call the plaid tam my "circus tent hat." I didn't wear that today, since the temperature was starting at 30 F when I left home this morning and ending up at almost 70 F; I wore my argyle beret, and once again someone told me how much she loved my hat. I'm almost guaranteed to get a compliment whenever I wear it. When I went for my afternoon walk, there was a crowd on Observatory Hill watching Asian dancers while a guy played a string instrument. I was curious, but it looked like the crowd was an actual class, so I wasn't sure that a casual passerby would be welcome to join.

I forgot to mention that last night in one of the choro pieces, there was an E# several times. My brain couldn't process this, since there is no such thing as an E# so it should just be an F, and instead I kept playing an Eb. Well, oops. 

For about a week I've had a snippet of a piece stuck in my brain, and last night I thought, "That's a Bach fugue, I think in G minor." There are two well-known fugues by him in G minor, the "Little" and the "Great," and I was thinking of the Great one. It's actually based on a popular Dutch song of the day, so my earworm was an 18th century Dutch pop song. Today I kept listening to this fugue over and over and over, and it really helped my perspective. When I was in the "between space" after having been killed by a hunter, and I didn't want to be reincarnated as a human because I thought humans were evil, God told me He would give me a deep love of music to realize that humans are also capable of amazing beauty. And indeed this piece makes me realize that, while there are people in this world who would starve an entire island on purpose, a human did create something so moving that listening to it, you can't help but be drawn to the Divine. The most amazing thing is when something I do moves another person, like I have seen people be moved when I sing, and of course there was that guy who tracked me down after reading a poem I'd written. Maybe once we get through these dark days, and long after I'm gone, someone will read a poem of mine and think, "Humans aren't all bad. One created this work of art." 

Perhaps I'm lucky in that I'm surrounded by people who care more about beauty than money or power. The faculty in my department are interested in knowledge and literature and languages, and the musicians I hang out with are, of course, interested in music. It shouldn't surprise me that a human would poach a panther that hadn't hurt him when humans will kill other humans that have never done anything to them, but we can rejoice in the fact that most people would not kill others, and in fact so many of them are pursuing beauty and truth. If only they were the ones in charge!

On a lighter note, here is a quality joke:

I'm sure this was photoshopped, since the cars are the same in both photos, but who cares? It's hilarious!

Famous Hat

Choro Jam

 

I didn't blog yesterday because there wasn't much to say. I worked on campus, and Hardingfele was wearing a bright pink top that clashed wonderfully with her newly purple hair, only she thought the top was purple too and that they matched. Then we walked in Allen Centennial Gardens with her coworker who goes to my church. Travalon took me to work and picked me up, since he is working 9-5 this week during Spring Break, and on the way home we stopped for dinner at Nar Turkish Restaurant, where we had the usual lamb and chicken combo plate and orchid lattes that were really good.

Today I'd been thinking of going into work since Travalon could take me there and back, but I decided to work from home since it's my usual day to work from home. I took a long walk at lunch and saw lots of ducks from the dock, but they were too far away for me to identify. I'm sure they are the same things that Travalon keeps taking photos of. Here are some more he has taken over the last several days. First, a pair of mallards.

Some northern shovelers with a female common merganser in the foreground.

Tux Duck (a hybrid mallard) and his mallard mate.

A pair of northern shovelers.

 

A pair of buffleheads.

A pair of sandhill cranes.

There were lots of other photos, some of ring-necked ducks and common mergansers, but most of them were kind of fuzzy. Anyway, you get the idea of what sorts of ducks are hanging around our dock.

Today I skipped Adoration to check out the Choro Jam. Choro is a kind of Brazilian jazz, and the music really reminded me of what they play at the Django Djam. I thought they started at 6:30, but when I got there, they'd already been playing for half an hour. Oops! I brought Mandy, thinking from the video I'd seen of last month's group that it would be all guitar and mandolin, but this week it was a woman playing percussion, one of my Brazilian drum teachers who had to leave not long after I came, the leader who was also playing mandolin, a guitarist, another Brazilian drum guy - the one who plays the little instrument that looks like a ukulele - and a grad student on the trumpet, and we talked the owner of the music club into joining us on cello. She had to transpose on the fly, which sounds impossible because I found it hard enough to play at their fast speed while sightreading all those sixteenth notes and accidentals. Yikes! The trumpeter was really good, so I basically followed him, and the leader seemed pleased with both of us. I really enjoyed this music and am thinking about getting a sub for Adoration every fourth Tuesday so I can keep doing this. The chords look even worse than the melodies - what is an F minor diminished? What? I feel bad that I got so lazy playing everything in G and D for years and never learned these harder chords, but back then I was doing so much choral music. I hardly played the violin at all, and I only played the mandolin in my band. Now I'm really focused on instrumental music, but I don't sing anymore except on Night Prayer, where I have my fans. There just isn't enough time to do everything. 

Famous Hat

Brazilian Party and Banjo Player at Band Practice

 

Today was cold again, after that almost summer-like day yesterday. We bundled up and went to Mass, and there was a ton of plastic to recycle afterwards. We took a brief walk outside, but the wind was biting, so we mostly hung out until heading to the Quadra for the party to watch the Brazilian drumming extravaganza. This was not as exciting for Travalon, who of course watched the whole thing in real life, but I hadn't gotten to see some of it while waiting to go on or having just gotten off the stage. The video wasn't actually that much higher quality than the one Travalon took with his phone from way up in the balcony, which surprised me, but I could still see that I was mostly out of step with everyone else. I did enjoy hearing the really good drummers and watching the dancers. Unfortunately we had to leave before the end, so we didn't get to see the acts that we left before in real life. That was today - all my hobbies stepping all over each other, because I had to miss Irish conversation for this watch party, and then I had to leave the watch party in order to get to band practice on time. I did enjoy watching the dancing girls dancing in real life in the Quadra, and a little girl of about three trying to imitate them.

Tonight at band practice we had a new person, a woman who plays the banjo. She said she started as a guitar player from a young age and then lately got really into the ukulele, which is how she knows our band leader. She even knows people from the ukulele group I hang out with, although we are on the north side of town and her group is on the south side. Their group is called FUN (Fitchburg Ukulele Network), while I hang out with the Wauna Strummers and Prairie Strummers who are, of course, from Waunakee and Sun Prairie, but one group meets Mondays at two and another one meets Fridays at one, so I only ever see them at the monthly Lone Girl strum. Anyway (sorry for that ukulele tangent), the banjo player decided to learn the five-string banjo, and she is pretty good! I loved the sound she added to our band. She said she has heard us play for Make Music Madison and always wanted to join us, which amazes me since we are not that great of a band, in my opinion. Hardingfele did say she is trying to get us a gig at a retirement home. For some reason she dyed her hair purple tonight, which was her excuse for coming late this time. (Usually it's something to do with cats.)

I said I really liked the color with her turquoise top. You can see our other fiddler behind her. Our newest fiddler is incommunicado at the moment, but she is extremely pregnant and has a toddler, so she has other things going on besides our band. We could use another fiddler, but it's great to have a banjo again. We haven't had one since the Professor Formerly Known as Lute Player played banjo with us years ago.

Here is a lovely photo of flowers at my aunt and uncle's house in Colorado. They sent some others too, but for reasons I can't explain, my phone is refusing to download those.

It says the other photo has already been saved to my iCloud photo album, but I can't find it. It's not in my phone's photo library, and it's not in Boethius's regular photo library, but when I go to "recently saved," I can see that I have saved it about eight times. OK, if I search "recently saved," I can find it.

I hope that was worth the trouble. There's also one of a tree leaning over in front of a sunset.

So weird! This has never happened before. And no, my blog post title is not a secret ad for BP gas stations.

Famous Hat

A Day in the Life of a Basketball Widow

 

Today Travalon was at State Tournament for boys' basketball all day with his high school buddy and the buddy's oldest daughter, so I had big plans for myself. I was going to get a haircut and then get lunch, but I was running a bit early and was very hungry, so I went to Ian's Pizza first because the Red Cross had given me a coupon for one free slice of pizza the last time I gave blood. It was a gorgeous day, so I walked to the other side of Capitol Square for my haircut and then went back to my old church, where I had parked. There was a bit of time before my next activity, so I went into the Adoration Chapel and prayed a rosary. Usually I'm afraid to do that on Saturday afternoons because I used to get stuck in there when everyone else would leave, but now they have little curtains you can draw around the Host if you are alone and have to leave, and wouldn't you know that this time there were a number of other people in there, and they didn't leave the moment I arrived. There had been a cheap little plastic rosary on the windowsill when I was there on Tuesday for my Adoration hour, and someone had put it on the rosary hook in the chapel, so I prayed with it. I also tested it to see if it would glow in the dark, since it looked like it would. Answer: yes, it does.

My next stop was the Chazen Museum for a demonstration of rosemaling hosted by our department and some other departments. The artist painted an enormous canvas while a band of three fiddles, a mandolin, and a guitar played Norwegian music. Here is the canvas just after she had started.

Here she has added more detail.

At intermission it looked like this.

I was dying of thirst and had a yuzu iced tea because there is a little cafe in the museum now, but it only helped somewhat, so at intermission I headed home. Sorry, I cannot show you the finished painting. Usually rosemaling is done on much smaller objects, like plates or hardanger fiddles. It was very soothing to watch this woman paint, but I can only stand Norwegian music for so long, and besides, I needed some time to get ready for the fast Irish session tonight.

I got to my car right at the start of La Junta, the salsa program on the community radio every Saturday afternoon. I'd given up listening to music in the car for Lent, having to drive in contemplative silence, but since Saturday afternoon kind of counts as Sunday (at least for Mass), I figured I could listen. Usually when I'm in Travalon's car, they play all sorts of weird Latin music, but today they played straight-up salsa, and it was fantastic. Back home I went out on our porch and streamed the station on my laptop as I did Wordle and crossword puzzles. Travalon had brought some Indian food home for me, grilled lamb and spicy rice and plantains, and it was so good! I also drank a Bai and lots of water.

Famie my Irish teacher and I said we would try to get to the Irish session at Lakeside early to get chairs, but of course we were both running late and had to drag chairs in from the back room. It was so crowded! Not just with musicians but also with people listening. It was very hot in there, so I was glad to be wearing a tie-dyed T-shirt because it had been so warm out. We sat beside a very friendly woman, and the three of us tried to remember the names of the tunes we were playing. Sometimes you hear a tune and find you can play it, but you can't remember what it's called for anything. That's what's handy about the Ballydesmond Polkas - they say their own name. I didn't claim my free drink tonight, since I was still feeling a bit dehydrated, but they have free water there so I drank plenty of that. People also gave us pistachio fudge that was amazing and chocolate chip cookies that were just meh - I think they were store-bought, not homemade. Since Saturday night is basically Sunday, I indulged in both even though I have given up sweets for Lent. We played Irish tunes well into the night, but I still beat Travalon home. This is one of his favorite weekends of the year, and he had a fabulous time... and so did I!

Famous Hat

Tax Day with Tux Duck

 

Guess what? I found the small Belleek Castle! It's a replica of Blarney Castle.

It's also a Christmas tree ornament and a bell. As far as I know, the vase that is a castle tower is not based on any real castle. Here they are together; don't ask why they are leaning away from each other like they can't stand one another, because I don't know.

I got another sticker from DuoLingo:

"O meu nome e Chapeu Famoso." Back in college, I had a Portuguese TA who had us do a unit on travel where for some reason we learned the word for "hijack," and another unit on signs of the zodiac. It has always been a great comfort to me that I can still vaguely remember how to say in Portuguese, "Hello, my name is Famous Hat, I am a Capricorn, and I am hijacking this airplane." You just never know when that might come in handy.

Travalon suggested today's blog post title. We had our taxes done this morning, and our accountant is so cool that I wish I could hang out with her more often than just 45 minutes once a year. Then we stopped to get some bubble tea at Dreamy Teazy. They have a cool setup that seems to be for taking photos.

It's probably supposed to be for the couple, but Travalon took the photo because at the moment there was nobody else there to do it. Then I went back to work at home until lunchtime, when we took a walk down to the dock. It was so beautiful outside. For some reason I found it very moving to see large flocks of waterfowl flying north, maybe to Horicon Marsh. Spring is finally here! Travalon took some photos of our old friend Tux Duck (he has been hanging around our dock for years) and some other birds.

These are sandhill cranes, just like the first bird picture above.

There were northern shovelers in the distance.

Here is Tux Duck coming toward us.

And this is a mourning dove on the roof.

The couple we were sitting with at the Elks Club on Tuesday were telling us about a talk they went to on the strange ways animals die, and the one that shocked them most was a bald eagle that attacked a loon, and the loon pierced its chest with its sharp bill. I was not surprised; I said, "There's a lot of bird-on-bird violence. Keep in mind that they're just modern dinosaurs." Sometimes it does feel like birds live in their own world where they fight with other birds and eat other birds and really only interact with other birds, but then I remember the mink stealing an egg from the goose's nest last year, and I realize they do have to put up with us mammals quite a bit. When I went for a walk in the afternoon, the pair of cranes who always hang around our neighborhood were walking down the street, and we cautiously gave each other a wide berth. I have never had any issues with them, but I'm respectful. People have told me the cranes chased them back into their house, but what did they do to get that kind of response? It makes you wonder.

I get done with work at 5:00, and at 4:59 I heard the train coming so I logged out less than a minute early and hurried to the spot where I could see it, and it was just coming into view. If God is still speaking to me in Train, maybe He was saying that it was good we chose to stay home tonight. We were invited to a fish fry down in Verona, but Travalon wanted to watch March Madness games, and I wanted to talk to Tiffy, so we turned down the invitation. I felt slightly antisocial for doing so, but because we did, I saw the train. It does seem like lately whenever I make a decision and then wonder if it's the right one, I see a train because I'm in the right place at the right time. Of course, last night there were so many other things going on besides the ukulele strum - the Brazilian band was playing, an antiwar group was having a meeting, there was a Quebecois jam, and there was a free concert on campus of Israeli pop music - and while there are train tracks running by the Lone Girl, I never saw a train. So did I make the wrong choice? Or am I just putting too much importance on seeing a train?

Famous Hat

Belleek Castle Tower

 

Today I worked on campus, and at lunch I walked with Hardingfele. We didn't have any adventures today like the conversation with the robots, but after our walk she came to my office and we tried to figure out something about the new system without success. It was my coworker's birthday, so I sang him "Happy Birthday" in Basque, which is "Zorionak." Then I got an email that my Belleek castle was delivered, but I wasn't going straight home.

I drove to the Lone Girl for the monthly ukulele strum, and people were especially friendly this time. Maybe they are finally beginning to recognize me. One woman seemed particularly familiar, and then I realized she goes to Moldy Jam, but I never got a chance to ask her if she went Monday night. A family came who had lost their patriarch, father to some and grandpa to some, and they said afterwards that hearing us sing and play such cheerful songs really lifted their mood. So we played an extra song for them that hadn't been on the playlist, "Brand New Star," and they really appreciated that. Travalon didn't join me afterwards since he was watching the high school basketball tournament, so I didn't eat dinner there. I headed home to admire my new castle tower vase.

I'd been a bit sad not to win this in the raffle on Sunday, but then I realized it was a good use of the gift certificates that were going to expire soon. I'd been saving them to maybe buy another hat, but do I need another hat? Today I wore my red tasseled hat, and nobody has said they like it, but it's a snuggly hat that feels like a hug, and it was made just for me. I also still love the plaid tam, which feels like it found its way to me, the way it was listed completely wrong ("argyle beret") so I happened to see it on eBay, and the secret that some of it glows under blacklight. And then another thing is that we have a Christmas ornament of a smaller castle tower we got when visiting the Belleek factory twelve years ago, but I'm not sure what happened to it. If I find it, I'll take a photo.

Famous Hat

Zoom Oops

 

Today was sort of a meh day. I worked on campus and talked to Seabird a bit, but we didn't walk together at lunch because there was the monthly early music concert at the Lutheran church where I used to sing. This church just acquired a new organ, so there are pipes and things piled all over, meaning we all had to sit on one side. The concert was kind of meh, with a piece by Dietrich Becker, a piece by Dietrich Buxtehude that was far from his best, and a piece by Samuel Capricornus. I was kind of dozing off during the Buxtehude and kept thinking there was a secret code in the notes. I wondered if Capricornus was named Bock, because back then they liked to take their German last names and replace them with the Latin word (like Handl/Gallus, which are both "rooster"), so this guy was "Goat." I looked him up afterwards, and yeah, his last name was really Bockshorn. Also, was he actually a Capricorn to make this extra punny? Answer: kind of? He has the same birthday as Hardingfelde, the winter solstice, which is right on the cusp. However, maybe four hundred years ago it was solidly in Capricorn. I don't know enough about how things have shifted over time to say; I've heard that I am not a Capricorn myself because of the shift, but I don't feel like a Sagittarius. Travalon is the Sagittarius in this relationship.

As I was leaving the concert, I heard a train horn. The train was crossing University Avenue down by First Congo, so some ways off from me but totally visible. I didn't mention that yesterday as I headed to Adoration, I was slightly delayed by the tail end of a train. If God is still speaking to me in Train, then I was exactly where I was supposed to be while going to Adoration and while attending the concert. 

Another thing I didn't mention was that on Saturday, when the dancing schools were performing at the St. Patrick's Day party at the St. Brigid Center, one little girl stepped out to do her solo and kicked so high that her feet went flying upward and she landed right on her rump. Unfazed, she got back up and continued her dance, and the audience roared with approval. May we all have this little girl's confidence to get back up on our feet after a public failure!

This evening I did do something stupid. It started because Anna Banana II couldn't lead either the Rosary or Night Prayer tonight, so I volunteered to do both. Jilly Moose said she couldn't make it to the Rosary either, so I wasn't sure anyone could, but at eight I dutifully started the meeting and then did an online crossword puzzle while waiting to see if anyone joined, and my patience was rewarded when two people eventually joined the Rosary meeting. I meant to do the same thing with Night Prayer, but I kept doing Wordles and nobody was joining, so I looked more carefully... and I hadn't actually joined the meeting. I went into it, and three people were already waiting for me. Oops! Anyway, it all worked out, and both the Rosary and Night Prayer went off without any real hitches. Glad I looked more carefully, or I could have been playing Wordle all night while everyone else wondered when I was going to start Night Prayer.

Famous Hat

St. Patrick's Day at the Elks Club

 

Yesterday was very snowy most of the day, and then it got really cold, like late January cold, not what you'd expect in mid-March. The "feels like" temperature was in the negative numbers. I never left the house, not even to go to the Moldy Jam jam, and both Travalon and I were home all day because his work was closed and I worked from home. I had nothing to blog about, so I just did online crossword puzzles.

Check this out: Travalon's Red Tasseled Hat glows under blacklight!

Alas, mine does not, since it is made of different yarn. I should say that I assume it does not, since I neglected to actually test it, but after all this time I've got a pretty good handle on what will glow.

Today I worked from home again, and Travalon went into work. I was doing a very boring project, so when a coworker sent me an Irish tune for the day, it helped to listen to it as I worked. Then YouTube kept playing music, but not Irish music - Tallis, Buxtehude, Hammerschmidt, stuff like that. I guess that must be what I listen to most on YouTube. Anyway, it helped the project go more quickly. It was hard to focus on it because people kept messaging me, and our condo association president asked me to pay our handyman because he was out of town. But with a few minutes to spare, I did finish it today.

After Adoration I went to the Elks Club for the third time because they were having a St. Patrick's Day party. It was very crowded in there, and a bunch of Shamrock Club people and the red-headed flute player were all there. This picture was on social media, so I'm hoping it's okay to put it on this blog.

The band that always plays at Alt Brew performed, and the red-headed flute player joined them. The Jewish guy who is Irish Person of the Year danced enthusiastically, and the university Irish dance team also performed. It took us a while to get food, but other people gave us cheese curds and bought us a drink (I had Bailey's on ice), so that helped pass the time. As people left, we were able to consolidate into one table, and we shut the place down. So much fun! The fiddler in the band said he hoped this would be an annual tradition, and I agree! Happy St. Patrick's Day, everyone!

Famous Hat

Winter Is Back

 

I don't have much to say today. The weather has been bad all day, and we only went out to go to Mass and recycle the plastic, and we took a walk around five but it was very windy. It has been raining or snowing almost all day, and everything tonight and tomorrow morning has been canceled. I am assuming I will be allowed to work from home tomorrow; Travalon already knows he has the day off because his workplace is closed. I meant to clean and do useful stuff around the house, the stuff I always say I have no time for, but instead I did Wordle and New York Times crossword puzzles. I suck.

I remember years ago, living in my single gal condo, when there was a snowstorm on a Sunday morning and I sat on the couch, listening to the early music show our community radio station plays every Sunday morning. The bishop actually said on the radio that we were all excused from Mass, so I sat back to relax and enjoy the music... and then there was a knock at my door. A friend decided to "help" me by showing up in a four-wheel drive vehicle to get me to Mass, even though the bishop said I didn't have to go. This is even more annoying because this friend routinely refuses to help me when I genuinely need help. So I had to go, but I have never gotten over the fact that I was allowed to skip Mass that day and had to go anyway. It's just like when I worked at the hospital, and the university was closed so nobody had to work... except me, because I was considered an essential worker. Now that I am not considered an essential worker, we never get days off at the university. I always miss out on the chance to slack off. Sigh...

One kind of cool thing is that I found the Belleek castle tower on eBay, just like the one in the gift basket I didn't win at the raffle yesterday. Due to giving blood, I had two gift cards I could choose from a variety of places, one for $20 and one for $10, so I got them from eBay and then got the castle tower for about half price. It's kind of shocking that someone gave one away when they're going for so much online... It should come within the next week, so I'm very excited about that. I needed to use the gift certificates anyway, or they were going to expire. I've sort of given up acquiring things for Lent, but on Sundays I can buy stuff because for whatever reason they don't count as part of Lent.

Here is something to cheer us all up as winter refuses to release its icy grip on us: my aunt in Colorado had these hyacinths blooming in her yard, and it got bad there too, so she dug them up and brought them in. Aren't they beautiful?

Her house must smell amazing right now. I also got a sticker from DuoLingo.

Wow, 97% accuracy in Portuguese! Know why? Because it's 3% different from Spanish.

Famous Hat

St. Patrick's Day Party in Milwaukee

 

Yesterday I worked from home, then I met my Irish teacher Famie at the Green Owl, a vegetarian restaurant, for dinner. I had the most delicious butternut squash and sweet potato soup, plus a tofu wrap that I took half home, while she had the bowl I'd been pondering, with sesame peanut sauce. We talked a little to the lady next to us, who had ordered the same thing as I had. Then we walked to the Bur Oak to see Lilies of the Midwest and Slipjig. We were almost there when the arms came down across the railroad tracks, and we saw a train coming toward us. I made a video for Travalon.

The red-headed flute player was already waiting for us at the venue, and we sat at a table up at the front. The Lilies of the Midwest are a trad band playing jigs and reels, and they do some songs. Slipjig did songs too, and we happily sang along, then the flute player joined a session, but Famie and I were tired and went home. We all agreed this morning it was incredibly great craic. The craziest thing is that the woman who'd been sitting next to us at the restaurant was there too.

Today Travalon and I grabbed pizza in Lake Mills for lunch and stopped at the Pine Cone Restaurant to get pie for Pi Day, but when we saw the pistachio cheesecake, we got that instead. Then we went to what used to be the Irish Cultural Center in Milwaukee, which has been reopened as the St. Brigid Center. It's an old church, and on the main stage dance schools performed. We went upstairs and found a smaller hall with the flags of all the Celtic nations hanging from the ceiling.

We sat right near a stage that had been set up for two performers, and I turned to a young guy at another table and asked when the performers would start. He said he was the performer, and he'd be playing the tin whistle and the bagpipes. I said, "No, que hora?" and he replied in Spanish that it would be at 2:30, so in about six minutes. I apologized and said I couldn't remember how to say it in Irish, and then he spoke Irish to me! I was beginning to wonder if he could speak in every language known to mankind. Soon he got up and began playing with the bodhran player I thought he'd said was his student, but it was in Irish so I'm not 100% sure I got everything right. Here's a short video.

A couple a bit older than us, but not much, asked if they could sit with us, so we got to chatting with them. It turned out they were from Austin, Texas and hadn't known about the parade but happened upon it by chance because it went right below the window of their AirBnB downtown. They were visiting a church in Green Bay, which is what brought them to Wisconsin, and I said, "I know that church! St. Willibrord's! Vince Lombardi went there!" but they lost me when they said it wasn't a Catholic church. Why is a guy named O'Something going to a non-Catholic church? They knew about the post-parade party we were all at because someone at a coffee shop had handed them a brochure yesterday morning. Eventually they left, and a big group wanted our table, and the musicians finished playing, so Travalon and I went downstairs to what had been the main sanctuary of the church to watch Scottish dancers and then the same Irish dancing school that performed at the Madison Shamrock Club party last weekend. (This was the Milwaukee Shamrock Club party.) I wore my new Shamrock Club pullover to show we were from a sister club, but nobody commented on it. 

Of course they had a raffle, for 67 different gift baskets, but we had gotten $20 each in cash and Travalon had immediately spent most of his on Irish potato chips, so he could only afford one raffle ticket. I thought that was hilarious, since he could have used a credit card to buy the potato chips. I bought a number of raffle tickets and then put them on different baskets instead of putting them all in one to increase my odds, since one would have a Belleek castle tower I loved, and another would have a green hat I loved, so I couldn't decide. Of course this meant I won nothing. I also bought two 50/50 raffle tickets, and they weren't making any moves to announce the winner after the regular raffle, so Travalon and I left, since they had promised you didn't have to be present to win that raffle. (For the gift basket raffle, you did have to be present.) In that case, I wrote my name and phone number on the tickets, but I have yet to receive a call, so my (lack of) luck during raffles seems to be holding.

We headed home and stopped at Mo's Irish Pub in Wauwatosa to try to have dinner, but they had a long wait. As we were driving by Delafield, I mentioned that Killarney Blarney were playing at Revere's, so Travalon said we could check out how busy it was. We got a parking spot nearby and then were told it would be a ten-minute wait for a table, so we went to the bar, and I had a delicious infused drink that tasted like orange soda. Travalon got a mint martini that was also delicious. To our surprise, the moment we got our drinks, Travalon got a message that our table was ready, which was even more surprising because the bartenders had helped us out right away despite how busy the place was. The wonderful service continued during dinner, when Travalon had a shepherd's pie that was amazing, and I had salmon and mashed potatoes with seasonal vegetables, which really was what we ate almost every day in Ireland. My drink didn't kick in until we were well down the road, but it did hit with a bang, and I'm still feeling it now. Hopefully this blog post makes sense... 

Back home, I looked for a knee-length black skirt I used to have, to make a sort of outfit for the upcoming St. Andrews Society ceilidh, but I must have gotten rid of it, so I wore shorts instead.

Wouldn't this be a perfect outfit for playing miniature golf? Maybe even under blacklight?

Check it out - even the orange on the Shamrock Club design glows! And so do the beads a bit, and so does a T-shirt I remembered getting years ago and hadn't seen in forever.

It's from Rock Island State Park. Travalon and I went there back when we were doing that Wisconsin Taverns book tour. Also, yesterday I got a new DuoLingo sticker for finishing the March Challenge.

It's a good thing I got St. Patrick's Day celebrations in yesterday and today, because it sounds like the weather will be too bad tomorrow. They have already canceled the flag-raising at the Capitol and the parade, and I'm wondering if we will really have the Slow Irish Session followed by the Irish Songs singalong. I was looking forward to being excused from Mass, but now they say the bad weather won't start until later on Sunday. Our band practice was also canceled, but guess what? I wasn't planning to go anyway. Of course, if the weather is bad Sunday night into Monday, maybe I can work from home. There was an Irish band at the Harmony Bar tonight, the one we see monthly at Alt Brew, and Famie and the red-headed flute player were planning to go, but I didn't get back to town on time. That's okay, I've already had enough Hibernian celebration today.

Famous Hat