Portrait of Niko

 

Today I worked on campus with just my most easygoing coworker, and we talked sports a lot. In fact, my colleague was trying to instant message me with a real work question, and I didn't see it for like fifteen minutes because my coworker and I were just chatting. We even ran into each other outside during our lunch break and stood around chatting and enjoying the breeze. A train passed by that we could just see from our vantage point, and then we talked about model trains. Usually I work with this coworker on Thursdays, but he also tends to take Thursdays and Fridays off in the summer to hang out with his approximately three trillion friends on boats, so often I'm alone in the office. He recently posted a photo to our group chat of himself, his wife, and several other couples with the biggest flight of beer I'd ever seen - there must have been two dozen samples! My aunt and uncle from Colorado would have loved it.

After work I went to the Union Terrace again. Yesterday I had seen that there was part blocked off for a "pop-up," so I thought it was a restaurant and made a reservation for tonight. My coworker was curious about it too, so he read the website more carefully than I had, and I had to pay to have a reserved table, but the price included popcorn and two cocktails, so it didn't seem at all unreasonable. We had to bring our own food, and it could only be from a restaurant at the Union. This evening there was something called the "Art Cart," which allegedly was there yesterday too, but somehow I hadn't noticed it. Two college girls were handing out round canvases in frames, and they had brushes and paint too. I laid my paint on very thick because I hate to waste anything, and the only thing I could think to paint was a portrait of Niko.

How do you depict a mystical experience in paint? Lots of much better artists have attempted it. I included "Illuminor" as a nod to the Daniel Cramer woodcut that had seemed to contribute so much to my encounter with God. I guess it's Latin for "clarity"...? Maybe Rich can confirm. You can see that I'm an absolute moron and didn't put the little handle thing on the top, so if I ever wanted to hang this masterpiece, it would be at a weird angle. D'oh! 

After that I ordered a pizza at the Lakeshore Lounge, and it got done at exactly the right moment for me to walk over to the Sunset Lounge for our 6:15 reservation. And just then I ran into Travalon, so it all worked out perfectly. We sat at our reserved table and enjoyed our drinks, popcorn, and pizza. There was a lovely breeze, and I was mesmerized by the seagulls flying in a large flock. Eventually a western-sounding band started to play, and they were pretty darn good. We could stay until 7:45, but I checked out when sunset was tonight and saw it was at 8:31, so just before 7:30 I suggested that we leave so we wouldn't be right there when the steam whistle went off an hour before sunset to warn the boats to head in. When you're that close, it's REALLY loud! We headed to Library Mall and could hear the whistle building up steam, then it went off when we were a safe distance away. What a great ending to a wonderful day.

Edit: apparently "illuminor" is Latin for "I am enlightened." I wouldn't say that I've reached enlightenment, but maybe this is a sign that I'm heading in the right direction!

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