Today Travalon was still feeling under the weather, so we went to the Mass that is closer and later. There was a prickly pear cactus in their garden with ripe fruit, so I asked the priest if I could have some, and he said sure. However, it was not as delicious as the ones I'm not technically supposed to eat on the Nature Conservancy land, and it was full of seeds, and it left nasty little prickles in my fingers. I do not recommend it.
Then Travalon and I drove to the opposite side of the city for my gig. My bandmate's Unitarian church was having a celebration for their totally redone sanctuary, and coincidentally it was her birthday too. We had pizza, fruit, vegetables, cake, ice cream, and coffee as payment for this gig, but really the celebration was open to anyone. We were playing on the back porch of a house next door to the church, so I had to leave Travalon to watch the previous group while I ducked into the house to get ready. The act before us was a duo playing flute and French horn, but then the French horn player also played the alphorn! And then he played the didgeridoo!! I watched from inside the house, and Travalon got videos that I will try to make into a movie at a later date. Then our band played, and we did some of the Ukrainian pieces we learned for our Ukrainian Independence Day gig as well as our usual polkas and bluegrass, and we ended with "Metsakukkia," the Finnish waltz that sounds kind of Russian. That's the song where I get to pretend I'm playing a balalaika because I use tremolo through the whole thing. Afterwards one of the women in the audience asked me if that last piece was "Hungarian, like those others." Since neither Ukranian nor Finnish is Hungarian (but Finnish is closer), I said no, it was Finnish. Then she asked if I enjoyed playing with the band. I wonder why she asked? I love making music with other people - that's why I sang in not one but two choirs for many years, and why I have been in so many bands. As I told Tiffy Friday night, I would probably pay for the privilege of playing out - I'm just so lucky that usually they pay me instead. Even if it is sometimes just in pizza.
The weather was very weird today, and when I was walking with my neighbor before the Packers game, it was cold and rainy, then suddenly it was sunny and warm. We walked again at halftime, and it was cool and rainy again. The Packers looked really good on both sides of the ball in the first half, then their offense stalled, but at least their defense held until the very end, when Tampa Bay was driving down the field to tie things up. They easily got the touchdown, but then they had to get a two-point conversion, and Campbell batted it down - no good! Then Lazard recovered the onside kick. Game over!! Travalon and I went for a walk afterwards, and it was cool and started raining on us. Such strange weather. I think I just have allergies from it, but I'm starting to wonder if it's more - am I catching Travalon's cold? Will see how I feel tomorrow about dragging myself into work.
Famous Hat
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