Yesterday Travalon and I met Tiffy and Rich for coffee, then Travalon drove me to my gig at a party for a community garden's 50th birthday, since the leader of our band is also the person who founded the garden. Afterwards we had delicious Mexican food, tamales and REAL tacos (nothing like fast food ones) and a dessert that was coconut and corn, which sounds weird but tastes amazing. Our band did learn some Mexican songs for this gig, like "Cielitos Lindos" (or, as Hardingfele called it, "The Frito Bandito song") and "De Colores." Both very easy songs, by the way.
In the evening we did something amazing: we watched the Badger football game from a luxury box! Travalon and I picked up Rich and the Daughter of Denni, then we drove to Camp Randall, where Tiffy's sister and brother-in-law had arranged for us all to watch the game from this luxury box for Tiffy's big 50th birthday blowout, with lots of food and booze. Our college friend came from Sheboygan, and members of Tiffy's immediate family were there, but there were a lot of peripheral people I didn't know, like her sister's college roommate's daughter's friend, or her brother's wife's niece's husband's friend. I guess if you have tickets to watch a game from a luxury box, lots of people come out of the woodwork! The Daughter of Denni and I were talking about how we wished we could have the youth and energy and promise of our college days again, but ONLY if we knew what we know now. We agreed that we have gotten happier with each decade of life. It was kind of cool to be with women I have known since those early days, when I was very young and very stupid. I like to think that I have improved a lot since then. The game was against what Travalon calls a "cupcake team," and the Badgers easily beat them, so it wasn't that fun to watch. I was hoping Eastern Michigan would get one touchdown, which they eventually did. Since the Daughter of Denni and I are both semi-professional musicians (making tens of dollars!), we were most interested in the band. Here is a shot Travalon took of the band on the field. You can see we were right above the fifty-yard line.
And here are some shots Rich took that show the luxury box.
Not sure why I didn't take any photos myself. Too busy enjoying the moment, I guess.
I can see why people love luxury boxes. You get a parking pass, so you can park right by the stadium, and you get to go up in an elevator and avoid all the crowds. There weren't actually private bathrooms in the boxes (they're not that big), but they are out in the hall and there was never a line. We stayed for the Fifth Quarter, when the band performs, and Rich was surprised to see that the fifth quarter was actually on the scoreboard. After that, it was a breeze to get out of the parking garage, since a lot of people had left early in the fourth quarter when it was clear how the game was going to go.
Today I forgot my phone at home when leaving for Mass, and I thought oh well, who cares... but wouldn't you know they wanted us to fill out a form on our phones? I had to take the instructions home. Afterwards Rich, our organist, and I went to our usual brunch place, but the owner said they weren't open because there were no servers scheduled. Then he said he could wait on us, as long as we ordered off the lunch menu and not the brunch menu. The organist just wanted coffee, so I said put that on my tab... and then the owner said he was giving us lunch to thank us for being such loyal customers! He said business is really good right now, in fact he's so busy that he would love a quiet day just to get a breather.
I had gotten a nastygram (what do you know, spellcheck recognizes that word!) from my community garden about how I needed to weed by Thursday or they would commandeer my sorely neglected plot, so I went over and weeded and put down cardboard. Rich and Kathbert were stuck in Ironman traffic, so by the time they got there, I just needed help spreading the hay, and with them helping, it took about five minutes. Then it started to rain really hard, so we hid in a community farm building and plotted our next move. We had planned to hike at Cherokee Marsh, but with the iffy weather and my time constraints with Irish class, we were just going to walk around the neighborhood. Then we discovered some trails behind the gardens, so that was really cool. And the rain held off for our whole walk!
Meanwhile, Travalon had gone to Oconomowoc to visit his mother and brothers, then he went to Mass at Holy Hill (where he got a rosary for me), stopped in the coffee shop in Hustisford, and also stopped at the bookstore he loves in Watertown. He got back just as my Irish class was finishing up. So we both had a good day today.
Famous Hat
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