Friday after work and before I talked to Tiffy, I played pickleball with my neighbor again. We played so much this past week that I lost three and a half pounds! I can see why this craze is sweeping the nation - not only is it fun, it does seem to work for weight loss!
Yesterday Travalon and I met Cecil Markovitch and the woman with the fabulous porch at Cecil's house, and Kathbert (who lives across the hall from Cecil) came to say hi, but we couldn't talk her into joining our pilgrimage. Then Rich drove up "just to say hi," but we did succeed in talking him into joining us. Travalon and I drove in one car with Rich in the backseat, and the others drove in Cecil's car. I told Rich about my mystical experience on Wednesday and asked for advice with the practical implications, and he had some good suggestions, so I will be working on this project. (I still haven't finished my project he inspired on our last pilgrimage, for St. Joseph's Day last year. I was going to write a book about twenty-five things I wished I'd known at twenty-five, but I'm stalled at sixteen.) We stopped at the Schultz Cheese Haus, which the others hadn't been to, then somehow our car ended up at one Culver's in Oshkosh while the other car ended up at the one at the next exit. We found them and had lunch together, and I ordered broccoli as a side instead of French fries. I thought it was fantastic that they offered that option!
We got to the Lady of Good Hope Shrine (I think that's the name?) in Champion a bit later than Cecil had been planning, maybe due to the stop at the Cheese Haus. (That was Travalon's idea, and I thought it was a great one!) Cecil went off to pray, and I went to the gift shop to buy a rosary. I bought a Murano glass one that looks like a leopard - photos soon! Here are photos Travalon took at the shrine. First, the church:
Here's the shrine:
He and I went to a county park nearby and took a hike, since we hadn't gotten any exercise yet. When we returned to the shrine, all of us went to a supper club in Appleton for dinner. I had the daily special, skate, which is a fish like a stingray. It was delicious! And guess what the vegetable was with it? Broccoli! I certainly got my daily recommended allowance of broccoli that day! After dinner everyone else had grasshoppers, but Travalon had a salted caramel ice cream drink, and I got one that was supposed to have an orange flavor, but it just tasted like vanilla ice cream. When will I learn that grasshoppers are the best ice cream drinks? This happens every time I order something else. After that we headed home, and this time Rich rode in the other car, since we didn't have to go back to Cecil's place. When I got home, I still needed steps, and so did my neighbor. Plus she wanted to tell me about the second family she just found out about. That's the danger with these genetics tests... She had asked her new half-sister if her fingers curved the way everyone's does in her family, and as we were walking this woman sent a photo. We just laughed so hard when we saw her fingers curve the same way!
Today Travalon and I went to the bilingual Mass at our church downtown, and I'm really starting to get into it. Some Hispanic people greeted me warmly - it's like we're becoming one group. Plus the priest gave a really good homily about how trying to live without prayer is like trying to drive with your eyes shut, and he also said we shouldn't get news about the church from unreliable sources that say Pope Francis is going to baptize chickens now or you need to prepare for the Second Coming by covering yourself in butter. He says it in both English and Spanish, so I am getting some exposure to Spanish. Then a bunch of us went to brunch nearby, and on the way back Travalon and I went to Fontana Sports to see if they had pickleball sets. I wanted one like my neighbor has, with two paddles and three balls in a handy little bag, but all they had was a huge one that included everything, even the net. We don't need a net - we have a tennis court. Travalon did find yet another stuffed red panda, and I got an Ice Age Trail bucket hat, because if there's one thing I need (besides another rosary), it's another bucket hat. Then we took a walk at Governor's Island and the woods across from the bluff, then he went to Devil's Lake to go swimming. He took some photos.
He brought his good camera but forgot to put the battery back into it, so those photos were with his cell phone. At the dam in Sauk he didn't see any pelicans, but he did see a blue heron.
Meanwhile, I did Irish class and then went to band practice. My one bandmate had taken those early music classes this past week, with her violin tuned to A-440 and her viol tuned to A-415, but I said, "In this band, we tune to A-Accordion." That joke didn't get as big a laugh as I'd hoped, but it's true - we have to tune to the accordion because she can't tune. There is a weird conspiracy theory I've seen online that A should be at 432 Hz because that vibrates with our bodies' natural frequency, and the fact that the modern A is 440 Hz explains everything that's wrong with society these days, but I don't buy that. If they said what was wrong with society today is equal temperament, that I'd believe!
I still feel great joy from my mystical experience on Wednesday of hearing from God directly. The closer you get to the Divine, the less interest you have in money and prestige and other worldly concerns, although you don't lose interest in the material world altogether - in fact, you feel more connected to the natural world. I also listened to some sacred music today that made me feel more connected to the Divine. I have Ma and Pa Hat to thank for this background in both music and religion, since they gave me violin lessons from a very young age and brought me to church. I feel bad for people who haven't had the same exposure, because everyone should get to experience this joy. Once you have felt Divine Love so immediately, you desire the same joy for everyone.
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