Lent Fails

 

I had been doing so well during Lent. Okay, I did buy a bunch of stuff I didn't need at the International Festival last weekend, but then I just donated an equal amount to charity. Then yesterday I came to work, and only one coworker is there with me on Thursdays, and he brought in a donut. Just for me. My favorite kind. I felt like it would be really mean to be all, "No thank you, I gave up sugar for Lent," so I ate it. After work I had just enough time to run to Subway for dinner before the Holy Thursday Mass, but they had a really long line, and the co-op is next door and has a hot bar, so I went there instead. At that hour it was pretty picked over, but I grabbed two beautiful Brussels sprouts, a couple of vegan "fish" sticks, and a couple of tiny pieces of vegetarian pizza. The first Brussels sprout was everything I'd hoped, but the second one was too tough to eat. The vegan fish sticks were okay, and the pizza was pretty good. Travalon met me at Mass, and he joined in the procession with the Eucharist afterwards, so I happily did too. Religious conga lines? Yes please! While I don't love the music at that church in general, the psalm had some lovely harmony going on, but it was kind of weird to sing "Pange Lingua" to lounge piano accompaniment. I could have gone downtown an hour later with the bishop and beautiful liturgy, but I'm too lazy. Also, at St. Peter's they don't do the foot washing thing, so Mass is only an hour.

Today I took the day off of work, and it was gorgeous out, so I took several walks outside, and I prayed my Lenten chaplets. I have a Stations of the Cross chaplet, and I also have (had?) three Seven Sorrows of Mary chaplets: the first one I bought by accident, thinking it was a regular rosary; the second one was in a collection of rosaries my choir buddies were going through that belonged to our late organist, and I was the only one that knew what it was, so they said I should take it; and the third one I found in an antiques shop in Eagle River. I wanted to use the one that came from our late organist, but I can't find it anywhere. Did it somehow get mixed up with my regular rosaries and end up in the mandala in the loft? It should be in my "other chaplets" box. I used the one from Eagle River, and just after I finished, it came apart. So I got the tweezers and fixed it and also the rosary they gave me free at the Waukesha antiques shop that was made by a 90-year-old man in hospice. The crucifix had come off of that one. I went to the afternoon Good Friday liturgy at St. Peter's, and the music was not good, but when I venerated the cross, I actually began to cry, it was so moving. I talked to the other Famous afterwards. Travalon came home with a fish fry for my one meal of the day, and he also got a cup of clam chowder. I was really relishing it, but some of the clam strips looked odd, and then I looked more closely and they looked like soggy bacon. Who expects bacon in clam chowder?? Then Travalon said, "Oh yeah, I guess it did say there was bacon in it, but I forgot that bacon was meat. I was too busy making sure it was New England style instead of Manhattan style." So I ate meat not just on any old Friday in Lent but Good Friday. Whoops!

Then we went to the Lakeside Coffee House to see the band that had played at our wedding reception. I realize that was nearly a decade ago, but this iteration of the band seems very different. Of course Light Bright retired from the band, being busy with little kids, and they have replaced her with a woman who plays the fiddle. But I seem to remember the band having like six members, and one was definitely a slide guitar player. Now only the main guitar player still seems to be around, and besides the young fiddler, there is also a young standup bass player. They were really good and had lots of witty repartee between songs. Unlike last week, when I saw the Daughter of Denni's band in the back room overlooking the lake, this was in the front room. It's a cozier experience, with the soft light from all the mismatched lamps, and a much smaller space. There were a ton of people there, so it took us a while to find good seats. At first we sat in very high chairs with very low backs, so that wasn't too comfortable, but eventually we did ask a couple sitting at a table with four chairs if we could join them, and they said sure. I do love the Lakeside Coffee House and am glad it is back in full swing after the pandemic. Tomorrow night there's an Irish jam session, but I'll be at the Vigil Mass. Hopefully they have another one soon...

Famous Hat