Happy Mardi Gras AND Year of the Fire Horse!

 

Today I worked from home, and just after Travalon walked out the door to go to work, he came back in with his new conductor bear.

His name is Lionel, like the trains. 

Tonight we wanted to go out for Mardi Gras/Lunar New Year, but the New Orleans jazz show at the North Street Cabaret was sold out, and the birthday party for the local fiddler was starting so early that we figured it would be over by the time we got there (since I had adoration and Travalon works late), and we forgot about the big Mardi Gras party they always have at the Essen Haus. We often go out for Chinese on Lunar New Year, but sorry, Mardi Gras overshadows Lunar New Year for me. We ended up going to the New Orleans style restaurant that used to be called Liliana's for a romantic dinner for two in mood lighting, with jazz playing in the background. I wore a bunch of beads and found even more beads there. Travalon had blackened catfish, but I got the four-course dinner and gave him one of my two oysters Rockefeller. Those are so good! He had never had them before, and I've only had them on the East Coast, never around here. My second course was gumbo, with okra in it, of course. Travalon had no interest in that. My third course was blackened chicken on a bed of cheddar grits, and I could only eat half of it, so I have lunch for Thursday since tomorrow is a fast day with no meat allowed. My final course was a praline cheesecake, but Travalon also ordered beignets, so we picked at the cheesecake and brought most of it home, and I did succumb to a beignet and thus got powdered sugar all over myself. Everything was so delicious! Oh, and I also had a lavender Moscow mule mocktail, so I had enough sugar to carry me through at least half of Lent. Tomorrow we fast!

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Viking Ships with Hands

 

Today I worked on campus, and Hardingfele and I walked in Allen Centennial Gardens during our lunch break. We thought it was funny that everything in the garden has long explanations except the most mysterious things: these two Viking ships with hands in them. 

Hardingfele thought the hands were configured in sign language, but neither of us knows sign language, so they just looked like weird contortions to us. I said it seemed like a real "if you know, you know" situation, becuase if they're going to explain rain gardens and cranberry bogs, why wouldn't they also explain what the hands are doing?

In the evening I went to the Moldy Jam jam, and this time I was sitting by another fiddler who is apparently a bit of a beginner, so she had an iPad with the music on it. I have to admit that I cheated and looked at the music for all the tunes I didn't know (or didn't know well), and it was kind of fun to sightread them. Might as well keep that muscle as strong as the one for learning by ear. I wore Mardi Gras beads, and the co-owner of the music club asked if it was Mardi Gras. When I said no, it's Mardi Gras Eve, he said, "It's New Year's Eve too," and he's right - it's Lunar New Year's Eve. Can you believe they fall on the same day this year? It's also the birthday of a local Irish fiddler tomorrow, and he noted the coincidence, and also that he will be 63 when he was born in '63. An auspicious birthday indeed!

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Drumming Dress Rehearsal and Rich's Birthday Party

 

Today Travalon and I wouldn't have much time after Mass to do the plastic recycling, so we got to church in time to weigh and photograph it before Mass. He had to drop me off at the Brazilian drumming place for our dress rehearsal, which was a "gray" dress rehearsal, and apparently everyone in the world but my one drumming buddy and me knew this meant you could wear whatever the heck you wanted. The two of us were there in our jerseys and white jeans, as requested for the performance. My jersey is way too big - apparently I don't know what size I actually am - and the white jeans are still a bit tight, and my drumming buddy said she had the same issue. I thought we had to be there at noon sharp, ready to go, so I picked up my drum... and one of the teachers said, "You won't be on for half an hour." Then why the big rush? It was kind of cool to watch the really good drummers go through their numbers, and after we did ours, I watched a few more numbers before Travalon returned.

Our next stop was Richard Bonomo's house for his 70th birthday open house, organized by Kathbert, Luxuli, and another woman. I thought I wouldn't get a chance to see Tiffy today, but she came too, so the two of us took a walk in Rich's neighborhood to enjoy the balmy weather. I talked to my OTHER choir director quite a bit, and the son of the man who makes fabulous desserts. (For today, he made a pistachio cake, a carrot cake, and a pumpkin cookie cake.) There were a lot of leftovers from Thursday night, and Travalon and I brought plantain chips from the Mexican grocery store down the street, while other people brought stuff like quiche bites, pigs in a blanket, fudge, fruit, and chocolate hummus. Someone was playing Chopin on the player piano at a very unsteady rate, which was driving Tiffy crazy, so she headed home. Jilly Moose was there, and she sent me two photos. First, a snowman she made from a kit. The carrot nose is so large that I said it looked like Toucan Sam the Snowman.

Follow your nose - it always knows! And she also sent me a photo of an air plant terrarium she made at the Garden Expo, which she went to with OK Cap. 

The Garden Expo is something I definitely didn't have time to attend this weekend, and next weekend I won't have time for much of anything with our Brazilian drumming performance, and then the weekend of Bach Around the Clock I'll miss the festivities because of our gig in Spring Green from 1-3, which means I'll be busy from 12-4 since it's an hour drive there and back. Speaking of gigs, because we have one coming up, I forewent (I guess that's a word since spellcheck doesn't hate it) the Slow Irish Session today to go to band practice. First Travalon and I took a walk at Yahara Park, wondering if we'd see the swans I'd seen flying around on Friday, but they weren't there, and they weren't at Tenney Park either.

I really enjoyed band practice today because we practiced the Ukrainian stuff, our one cumbia, an Irish air, and the Finnish waltz where I get to pretend to be a balalaika, and we ended with "Ashoken Farewell," appropriately enough. As far as I know, the only other player Mandy ever had was my grandma's great-uncle or whatever he was, and I have no idea what kind of music he played on her, but she sure gets a variety these days! Ukrainian klezmer, a Colombian dance, an Irish tune, and a Finnish tune all in one night! And I got to bounce around from chords to melody to harmony, sometimes in one tune. Nobody would ever call me a great mandolin player, but people have noted that I'm versatile. Then on the way home I was listening to my Jewbacca CD and started whistling along to a klezmer tune, and it made me remember that I used to whistle tunes a lot. This isn't my proudest moment, but in college I had a lousy part-time job calling people and asking them to do surveys, and this was in the days before Caller ID, so if they didn't answer but I got an answering machine, I'd leave them a short message of me whistling Vivaldi. I'm sure that was a real treat for them. I wonder what I'd think to come home and find a message of someone whistling the opening notes of "Spring" on my answering machine? Back then I would have thought it was a secret message from an unknown admirer, but now I'd just think, "Huh. Not a bad whistler. And with good taste in music."

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Valentine's Day Bendy Bus Debacle

 

Today was unseasonably warm. I wore my Scottish outfit.

Travalon and I went downtown to meet Tiffy, and we saw something shocking: the Big Bendy A Bus got stuck in a sharp left turn despite the bendy part, and it was blocking all the traffic, including a Big Bendy B Bus right behind it.

I felt so bad for the driver - how humiliating! Really, I felt bad for everyone: the people on the bus, the people stuck behind it in the traffic, yikes, except the pedestrians who were enjoying the debacle. When the bus finally was able to make the turn (after hitting a sign), everyone cheered, and then we all watched in apprehension as the Big Bendy B Bus barely made the same turn. I think this isn't their regular route but maybe something was going on at the Square and they had to go this way. It's a weird, angled turn, and I can't imagine the bendy buses have to do it regularly, or the drivers would all quit.

Tiffy and I got lunch at the Globe (and bubble tea while waiting for our food) and Travalon went next door to Baked Wings, then we ate in Tiffy's sister's apartment because both places were packed. Due to the beautiful weather, everyone in the world was out on State Street today. After lunch Tiffy and I walked around the Square to avoid the crowds and ended up at the Edgewater, while Travalon went to the Union Terrace and saw thousands of people out on the ice.

Tiffy and I sat on the roof of her sister's apartment building, where we could see the lake and the beautiful, shiny new steeple on my old church.

Here's a close-up of the steeple.

Travalon returned and drove us to Monroe Street, where Tiffy treated the two of us to dinner at the Indian restaurant for a late birthday present. We figured an ethnic restaurant wouldn't be as packed for Valentine's Day, and we were right. We decided to get kulfi, which is pistachio ice cream, but it was a huge serving and rock-hard, so we all took ours to go, along with half our dinners. They certainly don't skimp on the portions there! Then Travalon dropped us off at the Baroque concert, and he went to an arcade. He made a short video of a game set in a tavern.

The concert was good, but not fantastic. I liked the pieces with flute the best. They ended with a weird aria-recicitative-aria by Vivaldi which made me think of something I read years ago, that a contemporary of his said he should stick to instrumental music and not write for singers. There is hardly a bigger fan of Vivaldi than me, and I didn't hate the piece, but man, stick to L'Estro Armonico or The Four Seasons. I have actually heard choral stuff of his I liked, but I can see why this piece is not well-known. But that is kind of this group's schtick, to play pieces either by composers you never heard of or ones you know well but you've never heard this piece by them, and I'm telling you there's a reason these things aren't heard more often. Also, this particular Vivaldi piece was about a scorned lover, so absolutely fantastic programming for Valentine's Day. I hope all my readers had a better one than the protagonist in the Vivaldi arias.

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Lovely Walk and Irish Tunes

 

Today I worked from home, and right after work I took a very satisfying rosary walk. I saw a slow train, a flock of tundra swans, and a beautiful sunset. This time I took some photos.

When Travalon came home, I said I wanted to see Mama Digdown's Brass Band play at a Mardi Gras party, but he checked the venue's website and it was sold out, so we went to Alt Brew to see the Irish band that plays there every second Friday. Neither Famie nor the red-headed flute player were there, and I felt a little down, wondering if they were off together doing something else. I think Famie was going to be out of town, so probably not, but sometimes those middle school fears pop out at you even in middle age. (Maybe it's just me - Ma Hat tells me I was born with FOMO and would cry in my crib because I wanted to hang out with the adults and hated missing out on whatever they were doing.) I was more surprised about the flute player, since she often sits in with the band. Of course, she sent us a text about some other gigs this Irish band was playing this week, so maybe she was going to those and had other plans tonight. I couldn't make either extra gig myself. To my surprise, Travalon seemed more up for the Irish band tonight than the Mardi Gras party, but it was a much earlier night, not to mention free. Our only cost was a gluten-free beer.

I once again have some exciting DuoLingo news for you:

And also:

That second one was actually from yesterday. I saw Seabird got the February Challenge badge at the same time I did, and we're both doing Portuguese. She actually plans to visit Portugal, while I'm just hanging out with a bunch of Brazilian drummers. Between the three semesters of Portuguese I had three decades ago and all the Spanish I learned on DuoLingo, Portuguese on DuoLingo is not much of a challenge. DuoLingo keeps noting that I am "acing Portuguese with 97% accuracy." That must be because 3% of words in Portuguese are too different from Spanish that I can't guess them.

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Happy Big Birthday, Rich and the Adoration Chapel!

 

Today I worked on campus, but it's always quieter on Thursdays because less people are around. It was beautiful out, and I thought about praying a rosary on my lunchtime walk, but I emailed Hardingfele to see if she wanted to walk, figuring she would blow me off. To my surprise, she did want to walk. Then my aunt in Colorado sent this gorgeous picture of a friend's garden.

This must be from the summer. I figured we could all use some flowers right about now. Travalon was excited to see open water around here.

After work I took the bus to our old church, where Richard Bonomo and Hockey Girl had organized a Latin Mass to commemorate the twentieth anniversary of the Adoration Chapel. About half the people were Anglos and half were Latinos. I ran into two regulars from Night Prayer on the way in, so the three of us sat together. Before Mass someone started a rosary, so I did get one in today. There was a quartet that sang, but it wasn't my OTHER choir director's quartet, which Kathbert is part of, and I don't know why. Were they unavailable? Had a better-paying gig? 

Today was also an auspicious day because Rich turned seventy. Wow, that sounds old, but I swear he looks almost exactly like he did in the documentary he appeared in during his late twenties. Of course, Mamastep told me I have looked the same to her in all the years I've known her, and I KNOW I've gained a crap-ton of weight during that time. 

Speaking of gaining weight, there was a reception after the Mass tonight, and at first I hung around outside the church hall, figuring there wasn't enough food for all the people gathered inside. Travalon came to pick me up, and then we checked it out. In fact, there was plenty of food, so I tried a little of everything: a skewer with cherry tomatoes (ew!) and mozzarella, a skewer with two meatballs on it, a skewer with a bacon-wrapped chestnut (okay, so I had two of those), a crustless peanut butter and jelly sandwich, a chocolate-covered strawberry, a lemon bar, and a homemade chocolate truffle that was so good that I had to go back and make sure by having another one. After all that, I had no appetite for dinner. So that was quite a party for the birthdays of both Rich and the Adoration Chapel. I got a special invitation, being a regular adorer, and I saw some of my fellow adorers there, but it was really open to anyone.

The funniest moment of the night might have been when Rich made an announcement after Mass in Bonoman, as he often does, so I turned to the Latino couple behind me and asked, "¿Que dijó?" and they shrugged... and then it occurred to me that if they didn't know English, how would they have known what he said? Someone else said, "He said to keep your program," so I did, and it came in handy during Night Prayer when the host asked me to sing the closing hymn from the Mass. I said I didn't have the words in front of me, and he said, "You took the program home, didn't you?" Indeed I did!

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Ursula and Coventry

 

Today I have absolutely nothing to blog about, because I felt a bit unwell in a way that might have been contagious, so I worked from home. Also, I was so light-headed that just the drive to the shuttle stop sounded scary. It made for a very productive day, but I missed Seabird bringing in red bean mochis and also an early music concert at lunch, as well as our department meeting. At least the concert was recorded, so I can catch it when they post it early next week. I did take a walk right after work, hoping to see a train as confirmation that I was right to stay home, but all I saw was a lovely sunset which I did not take a picture of. Sorry.

Speaking of pictures, here are Ursula and Coventry together.

Travalon always has his stuffies getting into romantic relationships, so why shouldn't I? And here is Ursula with the stuffed bubble tea that matches her.

Here is Coventry the Christmas Dragon with a stuffed Christmas tree.

And here is the Hawaiian Capricorn keychain I thought was a necklace.

Guess my reading comprehension sucks. It's from the same place as my grandma's Cancer necklace. Maybe I can make it into a necklace. More likely I'll just take it to work and hang it up with all my evil eye protection things. Once a very Catholic former grad student stopped in to say hi, and she was taken aback by the evil eye protectors. The astrology thing wouldn't have helped. The thing is that I don't really believe the protectors do anything - I just really like the way they look. I especially love my cuddly evil eye protector, Niko. He's sitting her next to me, protecting away.

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