Party with the Bish

Last night was so much fun. The Dairyman's Daughter works for the Diocese, so she has access to a house on the grounds with a big back patio. She suggested we have a potluck there before my OTHER choir director's organ concert, so Rich, Kathbert, Jilly Moose, Cecil Markovitch, Hockey Girl, the Single B-Boy, and a bunch of other people who regularly attend Night Prayer showed up, as well as the Bishop. (He was hilarious, joking about how he's such a mooch because he didn't bring anything.) Where I was sitting, I could see the approaching storm, and I suggested we move into the community room in the diocesan center, but everyone ignored me, except the Bishop, who said, "You won't get hit by lightning - you're with the Bishop!" I said, "But you don't know me!" and he said, "Maybe I should go inside!" Sure enough, the storm hit just as we were starting to get our food (which was on a covered part of the deck), but I ain't even mad because we needed that rain so badly. We ran into the house and down into the basement, where there was a big table covered with what looked more like a light quilt than a tablecloth. We had such good food, like the Dairyman's Daughter made sloppy joes, and Rich made his famous brownies, but I was lame and just brought vegetables and Green Goddess dip. (Hopefully that name wasn't too offensive to anyone in that uber-religious crowd!) By the time we finished dinner, the storm had let up, so we went across the street to the diocesan center and listened to the organ concert. There was a Widor piece I liked a lot more than I'd expected, and of course the closing Fugue in G Minor by Bach was amazing. Afterwards there was a reception in the community room, and my OTHER choir director had baked two kinds of cookies and also put out chips and salsa, but then there was tons of our leftover food from the potluck as well. Even more people I knew were there, like Prairie Man and Pete the Sailor Man and the guy Travalon and I went hiking with a few times right at the start of the pandemic. A few of us snuck away to do Night Prayer in a conference room; only one other person joined us remotely, but it was wonderful to pray together in person, although I thought on the screen we looked like kids sitting in a classroom. One interesting note: as I drove there, and as I drove back, I heard my current jam, "Levitating" by Dua Lipa, so that was the frosting on this wonderful cake of social gathering.

Tonight Travalon and I met Rich, Jilly Moose, and OK Cap at the Kingdom for dinner. Rich was adventurous and tried an African dish, and Travalon and I almost always get African dishes. (I actually ended up ordering the exact same thing as Rich: Benachin with fish.) Then Rich had a surprise for us afterwards: more of his famous brownies! He made some today so he could mail some of them to Anna Banana II, who had heard all about the fun we were planning for last night but obviously couldn't join us from North Dakota. Then he had leftovers, so he brought them to dinner tonight. Brownies two nights in a row! Good thing I'm walking between five and seven miles every day (today I walked about five and a half miles), because that's the only thing keeping me from weighing 300 pounds. I am not talking to Tiffy tonight because she is planning to come up tomorrow, and then we will try to do Street Fest again, which Travalon and I did almost two years ago. If it works well, I may try to subject more friends to the festivities of partying up and down one street with four names: John Nolen, Williamson (or as its friends call it, Willy Street), Atwood, and Monona.

Famous Hat