Overthinking It

I have nothing in particular to blog about today, so I'm putting up a picture my brother sent me that he said made him think of me:

I am not quite sure what about this photo makes him think of me, except that I used to have a hedgehog. Also, I love chocolate, but as I am a female, this is not entirely unexpected. What puzzles me is the caption: is it serious or ironic? Maybe it is from the point of view of the hedgehog, saying how lucky it is to be in a box of chocolates. But hedgehogs don't eat chocolate, not like rabbits do. (Trust me, I do know this from firsthand experience.) Maybe it is from the point of view of the person opening the box of chocolates, being sarcastic because there is a small prickly creature in the way of the chocolates. Or maybe the person opening the box of chocolates is being serious when saying "Lucky me!" since the box of chocolates is probably worth about $10 but the unexpected baby hedgehog could be worth at least 50 times that much. If you have any additional ways to overthink this photo, please feel free to comment.

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Charlie Is Dragging

Last night Charlie the Rabbit was being very exploratory, going into areas of my condo (like the bathroom) where he normally never ventures. This was even more surprising because he was having trouble walking. He was dragging his right hind leg as if it didn’t work at all anymore. Today I mentioned it to a coworker who has a very old cat, and she said sometimes when animals know the end is near, they search for a quiet spot to die. This morning Charlie seemed fine, or what passes for fine with him these days, but I do wonder if he senses that the end is near. Maybe he can’t find a really satisfactory spot to die in my condo, since it is so small and doesn’t have a lot of nooks and crannies. Or maybe he is nowhere near dying, and he just felt like exploring for some reason last night, even though his back leg wasn’t working. I would think maybe he’d had a stroke, except that his front right leg seemed to be working just fine. As Travalon noted, he has been hopping sideways for a while now, but last night he was really dragging himself around. Every time I think, “Man, he’s really in rough shape now,” he gets a little worse. It’s sad, but he’s had a long, happy bunny life. I suppose it may not be too long now before he crosses that rainbow bridge. 

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Prayer Journal Musings

I need to learn not to blog about my entire weekend on Monday. It makes for a really long post and, worse, then I have nothing to blog about the rest of the week. Today, for example – I have no idea what to blog about. Last night was a mostly uneventful evening at Adoration, although I did have an adventure with one of the toilets at church, but who wants to read about that? I did write about it in my prayer journal, but nobody reads that except for me. A few years ago I talked our parish priest into reading my prayer journal, to see if it was “kosher” or whatever the equivalent Catholic word is. He seemed to think it was fine, so I’ve continued to write in it. The funny thing is that I used to doodle in it and write humorous stuff, but now it’s so serious. The change happened around the time I went to Utah with Tiffy; it’s like that trip really messed with me spiritually. I’m not sure if it was being in such a Mormon place or if it was feeling so small next to those rock formations out there, although a lot of it seems to stem from almost being in a head-on collision. We avoided the guy and nothing happened, but it made me think about death and apparently get serious in my prayer journal. It does make me wonder which God likes better: a lighthearted prayer journal or a totally earnest one? If I were God, I’d prefer the funny one, but I can’t presume to speak for His tastes.

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Our Poor Packers

Yesterday Travalon picked me up from work, then we went to explore a pond you can see from the Beltline when you are exiting at Whitney Way. It is part of Odana Hills Park and golf course, and while the water is mostly surrounded by tall weeds, there is one spot where you could put in a canoe or kayak. When I asked Travalon how he’d like to get across the pond, he said on an inflatable raft with a beer next to him, but in warmer weather of course. It was getting dark now that we’re back on Standard Time, so we didn’t spend too much time at the park. Then we went to Vintage for dinner. It was a pleasant evening so far, but things were rapidly going to change.

Ugh, that game. It didn’t help that Rodgers got injured early in the game, but the Bears were using their backup quarterback too, so that’s no excuse. I thought our line wasn’t doing its job because Seneca Wallace had no protection. And after a while the defense got so worn out they weren’t putting up much of a fight. How humiliating to get beat at Lambeau like that by our sworn enemies. Going into the game, almost everyone thought the Packers would easily pull it off, but if we can’t handle losing our quarterback for a game, our team doesn’t have a lot of hope. What if he was out for the season? Seriously, I thought the Pack looked so bad, I’m frankly surprised we only lost by a touchdown. You can’t win them all, but that was one we shouldn’t have lost. 

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My Not Boring Weekend

I hope my readers had a good weekend. Friday Travalon and I went to the East Side Club for their fish fry, and the people at the next table were talking about their hard lives deciding between going skiing and to the tropics. Saturday Travalon had to work and Richard Bonomo had a birthday party to go to, so I figured I’d be cleaning my house all day. In the morning I did meet up with Luxuli and Jilly Moose for coffee, then we drove to the abortion mill to pray the rosary, only we prayed most of it in the car on the way there and then talked to the people who were there for 40 Days for Life. We finished the rosary in the car on the way back, then Jilly Moose and I went to a Mexican restaurant for lunch, and the Badger game was on so we watched that too. After a little while Luxuli joined us, then another woman I know came into the restaurant, so she joined us, and then Mr. Luxuli joined us. Our waiter must have thought we were nuts! The other woman and I went to Confession, then I drove to Rich’s house, where Catzooks was making taco salads for him, Kathbert, and me. Then she and Rich left, and Kathbert and I ended up blatting until we thought Rich should have been long since home, so we called his cell phone and said, “Your wives are wondering where you are!” He laughed and came home, and right after that Catzooks returned with her boyfriend and a whole bunch of crackers and cheese left over from a wine tasting party. We talked until really late, so my “boring” day with nothing to do turned out to be very busy.

Yesterday after church I drove to Travalon’s house and we had lunch with his mother, then he and I took Rodney the Poodle to the dog park. We hiked in the woods on a really hilly trail, so hopefully that worked off some of lunch. It was a very autumnal scene in the woods, with all the colorful leaves and a flock of geese flying overhead from the nearby lake. When I mentioned how autumnal it was, Travalon said I should blog about it, so I am. I wondered if Rodney enjoyed going up and down all those hills or if he hated it. Don’t you often wonder what animals are thinking about? Probably not much… but to be fair, that’s true of a lot of people, too. In the evening I went to a wonderful concert: the St. Thomas Boys’ Choir from Germany, which is 801 years old, was on their first US tour, and they stopped at the Lutheran church where I sing. They did a program of all Bach and Vivaldi, although they did do Mendelssohn for one of their encores. (Bach for the other one.) Afterwards we convened at Rich’s house, and Luxuli said it was the event of the year. She, her husband, Kathbert, and I stayed at Rich’s way too late, so today I am tired. Of course I’ll be staying up late again tonight, to watch the Packers beat the Bears, so tomorrow I will be even more tired. If I'm face-down in my coffee, you'll know why.

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Who's a Foodie?

Monday night I went to Slow Food with some coworkers as usual, and we met a guy there that I know from early music circles. He was talking about the food and how they made it, and how he had made something similar at home, and one of my coworkers said, “You’re a real foodie.” He denied this characterization of himself, and I wondered why. What makes a foodie, after all, if not interest in food? Of course, foodies tend to be interested in more gourmet foods, whereas lots of people are interested in food but would just as happily eat a box of macaroni and cheese. This guy was saying how he took a box of macaroni and cheese and then made it fancy with all kinds of additions, I think radicchio was mentioned and who but a true foodie would add that to something? I always think of foodies as being the food equivalent of beer snobs, you know – people like me. I love microbrews but don’t drink the big name flavorless stuff. So maybe this guy objected to being classified as a foodie because he thought it implied snobbery, but since he also has rarified tastes in music, he should just embrace his inner snob. What’s wrong with preferring real food to overly processed stuff? Nothing! We should all be foodies.

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