In the Presence of Greatness

 

I forgot to mention yesterday that when I went to give blood, it was during class change time so it took forever for the elevator to come. Then I realized my phone wasn't in my coat pocket, and I needed it because my Quick Pass was on it, so I had to wait for the elevator again. I got up to my office, and my phone wasn't there!... because it was in the pocket of my jeans. Sigh. Then I just missed the bus and had to wait for the next one, yet somehow I was only three minutes late to give blood. They didn't even care, but of course my pulse was racing and my blood pressure was kind of high. Still, they took my blood.

Today I worked from home, and I was horrified by the paltry tip a faculty member left when he submitted an expense report for a business dinner. I asked him if everything was okay, and if he realized that we're allowed to leave 20% tips on business meals, but apparently he had no idea he'd been a cheapskate; he said he thought 15% was fine, and I said no, this was 12.5%. As a former waitress, I can only imagine how gutted the server must have felt. Was it bad of me to bring it up? I also wasted a lot of time trying to follow the instructions on a sandwich chain's website to create a tax-exempt account, just to realize I was following the directions correctly, but the link for loading the form is no longer on the website. 

Behold Travalon's big task at work today: holding this stuffy as a kid was swinging.

Ah! I cannot handle the cuteness!! My job does not involve nearly enough stuffies.

This evening Travalon and I went to the Lakeside Coffee House to see the Madison Classical Guitar Society. We used to go see them there quite a bit, but it has been awhile. Of course the brother-in-law of the Daughter of Denni was there, but he told us he had played before we got there. He played again, and a married couple played some bossa nova numbers, and there were other really good players too, but this guy named Peter really blew us away. You know how every now and then you know you are in the presence of greatness? I felt that tonight. Someone said he was hoping to get into the Master's program at the university, but I don't think he needs any more training. He's already amazing.

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Doubly Ironic Day

 

I forgot to mention that on Tuesday I felt a strong compulsion to wear the hoodie Travalon had brought me from Split Rock, and then the physical therapist said I was now his favorite patient because Split Rock is his favorite place, and he told me all kinds of cool stories about when he went to college in Duluth. Then he said I don't have to do my two easiest exercises anymore, but he replaced them with two really hard ones. He did say I got an A+ for my work, which is surprising because I was not that great about doing the exercises he had assigned the first time, but my knee has improved so I must be doing something right.

Today I worked on campus, and I took a long lunch to give blood. The phlebotomist told me to take it easy the rest of the day, and so did my FitBit, so I took the bus to the blood donation spot and back. In the afternoon I had a meeting, and the elevator that goes right there has been out of order for like nine months, so usually I just take the stairs. However, today I hunted down the other elevator in the building, since I was supposed to take it easy. It was a very productive meeting where at first people were just talking about how the ARTs are such a great idea, blah blah blah, and then it got tense when the committee chair got on their case for not having any shared governance representation, but by the end we were all happy because they agreed to a committee. The chair knows who he wants on it: me and two of my Union buddies. The person he definitely doesn't want is the guy who asks really strange questions all the time, who is going to be in an ART and would love to be on this committee, so no doubt he'll apply when the call goes out. There's a committee to choose members of all committees, so this guy won't be chosen. It made me feel like I was part of some back room dealings. There's something in me that loves politics, and also trying to make things better for everyone.

Two things about today were ironic: I didn't have time to take a walk at lunch because of the blood donation when the weather was so nice, and I was trying to take it easy but got 40 cardio load when my FitBit wanted me to only get 16-25, while on days that I'm trying to get exercise it says I only get like 30 cardio load. Maybe it's because I was on campus - I always get more vigorous time on those days.

Travalon has colored a picture for the Year of the Snake.

He says he will also soon provide a photo of his work in the Beatles coloring book, so watch for that.

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Happy Year of the Snake! (Post Is Unrelated)

 

Today was a comedy of errors. When I got to the parking lot where we catch the shuttle, I put my coffee mug on top of the car as I was getting other stuff out (computer and backpack), and it fell off. To my surprise, the lid popped off, and all my coffee spilled all over the ground. Sigh. Then I got to work and plugged in my computer, but it refused to boot up. My coworker had a question for me, and then we talked for half an hour before I checked on my computer, which was now on... and showing me the reminder that I was meeting my colleague for an open house at a campus conference center. It was already ten minutes past the time we were supposed to meet, so I grabbed my phone to text her... and saw she had been frantically texting me. I told her, "On my way!" and walked at top speed to a campus conference center... but not the right one. Finally I got there, we ate some yummy food (and I had coffee), and we took the tour. It started late, and one woman had a million questions, so then I was running late for our 10 am weekly staff meeting. I walked as fast as I could back to my building... and as I was approaching the conference room, the others all poured out of it. How come they have a short meeting when I'm not there, but never when I am there? Do I talk that much?

I was tired and sore, but my colleague wanted to walk at lunch too, so we did. I even took my afternoon break outside, since the weather was so mild for this time of year, but I walked very slowly. Now my FitBit, that has been yelling at me for getting about 30 cardio load a day when it wants me to get 50-70, is mad because I got 117 cardio load today (again, I have no idea what the units are), so it yelled at me several times to take it easy. You just cannot please that thing. I am really feeling it now, and I'm walking like a little old lady, very slowly with small steps. In my experience, when I overdo it, the next day is awful, but the day after that it's like nothing ever happened, and I'm back to normal. Of course, tomorrow I have to walk across campus to give blood, so not the best day to be limping around. 

My colleague told me two hilarious stories this morning. The first one is about her, and it's important to know that English is not her first language. Her sons were going to Boy Scout camp or something, so she had to get insect repellent. She went into the store with them and asked the guy working there where she could get "dick repellent," and then he and her sons laughed at her. Of course she meant "tick repellent."

The second story was a coworker of hers who went to a fertility doctor because she was having trouble getting pregnant, and he helped her. Later they were out somewhere and her husband spotted the doctor, and he loudly said, "Look, Honey! There's the doctor who got you pregnant!" Ha!

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Slipjig at the Malt House

 

Today I worked from home, and at first my work computer wouldn't start - it would just smile at me.

I thought, "Oh no, is this going to be a reprise of yesterday?" but by the end of the day all the knots from yesterday were untangled. After work I went to Adoration, then I met Travalon at the Malt House to hear a band called Slipjig. Daithi was in the band, as he seems to be in every band, like Currach (another Irish band that we go listen to at Alt Brew) and Yid Vicious, a klezmer band. However, at the break I was talking to the mandolin player who had been to my left at the Irish session on Sunday (the older one, not the critical young hot one), and Daithi came over and said he was substituting for someone else. He seemed to know who I was, except that he thought I was an Irish teacher, so I had to admit that no, I am merely a student of the language. I'm starting to feel like Daithi is our local equivalent of that horn player Travalon and I saw in New Orleans years ago, where we saw three different bands on three different nights, and he was in every single one.

My cuddly rosary is so red, I noticed for the first time today that it seems to glow in the sun. And that usually means a thing will glow under blacklight. I hadn't thought of it in all these years, because usually neon colors like pink and orange and lime green glow, but red can too. Check it out!

And this photo doesn't even do justice to how beautiful the red wool looks under the blacklight.

The Professor Formerly Known as Lute Player had sent me an article about how a town in Germany that shares my married name is not allowed to use their slogan "I Love Wank" by the Ski Federation because while the word in German just means a slope or a bend in a river, it means self-pleasuring in British English. She said this is an example of the Scunthorpe Problem, where innocuous words can be banned by computer programs, because the name of the town in England contains a vile word for female genitalia. Apparently some computer programs will replace offensive words with less offensive ones, so for example one program replaced the word "ass" with the word "butt." Not sure why that is an improvement, but it did result in this wondrous word for the killing of an important personage: buttbuttination. I love that it is completely pronounceable. 

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The Mondayest of Mondays

 

Travalon unexpectedly had the day off of work today because there was no school, so he met his brother for lunch, went antiquing, visited his parent's graves, had coffee at two different places, and just generally had a relaxing day off. I, however, was at work and had the Mondayest of Mondays. It started when my boss messaged that he wasn't feeling well so he was working from home, which he seems to do a lot on Mondays. (Of course, the couple of times I said I wasn't feeling well and was going to work from home, he insisted that I take a sick day instead because if I was too sick to come in, then I was too sick to work.) So fine... but then he kept sending me messages as I was trying to get other work done, about a situation that didn't directly involve him. It seems one of our visitors has a flight with a nearly 24-hour layover, and I didn't notice because I had to book ten other flights that week, but the guest said the flight was okay before I booked it. The person in charge of his visit just noticed, so I emailed the guest, who reiterated that he didn't care, but the person in charge cares. However, at this late date we could only get a first-class flight, which is not allowed. If the guest says he doesn't care, then why does everyone else? Maybe he wanted to spend a day in that city. At that point I was thinking maybe I wouldn't mind having a different boss, as I will in a few months.

The second thing was that I had approved an expense report that had special funding that has to be added by the approver (me), but the auditor said I never added it. I was puzzled because I knew I had done so. She sent the expense report back, and when I opened it up, there was the special funding. I said I could see it and that there must be a glitch in the system, but she just kept saying I had to add it and even sent me detailed instructions on how to do it, as if I hadn't done it hundreds of times before. I kept trying to explain that I knew how to do it, and there must be a glitch in the system because I could see it, but she just kept sending me more instructions on how to add it, as if she thought I just wasn't understanding. So that only added to my vicious mood.

The third thing was that back in December I had paid scholarships to several grad students, but one said he only got a fraction of the money. He had paid his fees already for the fall semester, and I said they shouldn't take his spring fees out of a fall scholarship, but the Bursar's office said the scholarship had to be processed by the last day of classes, and I was only told to submit it a few days after the end of classes. I had never heard this rule before, and when I walked with my colleague at lunch, she had never heard it either. Are they just making stuff up now?

In the afternoon we had a FARTwide meeting, and unlike the FART 5 meetings, where we all talked, this was just us watching a slide show about how processes will change. I couldn't really follow the flow charts, and I could barely stay awake, but afterwards my colleague asked if I wasn't concerned by the change in process. I admitted that I hadn't really followed what they were saying. All I know is everything is going to change, including who approves what. Meanwhile, Hardingfele was texting me about a dying plant she found somewhere, and did I think it was dying? I said it's already dead, judging by the photo, but she said there are green leaves, and I said I couldn't see them, so she said make the photo bigger. Why do people ask your opinion just to disagree with you? I said in that case, try to save it.

Travalon had driven me to work, so he came to pick me up at the shuttle stop in the evening, but the shuttle driver took a really wacky way back, not the usual route. I was afraid Travalon would have to wait forever for me, but we were only a few minutes late getting in. Then we went swimming, and I thought it would be relaxing, but I was so annoyed by a woman who brought a boy into the locker room who looked way too old to be there - the sign says no boys over four. Then in the pool she was on her laptop computer and totally ignoring him, which she wouldn't do if he were really young enough to be allowed in the women's locker room. He was all over the pool, so we went in the hot tub... and he followed us in there! The icing on the cake was that the machine that wrings out swimsuits so they aren't soaking wet was out of order in the women's locker room. Maybe tomorrow I will love humanity, but I'm glad to be done dealing with humanity for today!

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Golden Eagle at Sauk

 

This morning before Mass, Travalon watched Crystal Palace, and they lost. Jerry the Kraken and Roy jr. commiserated.

At Mass at the far east side church, there was another baptism. That's three in the last month. It was also the pastor's birthday, so we sang "Happy Birthday" to him right before the closing hymn. As usual at that church, the offertory and communion praise songs were contemporary, but the opening and closing hymns were classic ones, in this case "Hyfrydol" and "Thaxted," or for those of you who don't think in Hymn Tune, "Love Divine, All Loves Excelling" (the processional hymn at our wedding) and "O God Beyond All Praising," or "Jupiter" from The Planets by Holst. I love being able to sing them with great gusto, because nobody can hear me over the amped-up praise band.

It was a beautiful day for late January, so Travalon and I took a long walk along the canal at Tenney Park. We saw a tux duck.

We also went under or over a lot of bridges.

There was a bird party at the small pond in Waunakee, but it was very exclusive - only Canada geese.

When we got home, I went for a rosary walk and saw a little clump of snow looking up at me.

Meanwhile, Travalon was watching the Commanders play the Eagles, but there was no good news there. He took me to the Slow Irish Session, where I joined my bandmates (except Hardingfele) and my Irish teacher - we actually spoke a little Irish to each other. I chickened out once again and brought the mandolin instead of the fiddle, since it makes less noise so mistakes are less obvious, but that worked out well because we sang a bit, and it's much easier to sing while playing the mandolin than the violin. I ended up sitting between two other mandolin players; the guy on my left was quite a bit older than I am, and he only played tunes he knew because he couldn't read the music projected up on the screen quickly enough to keep up, while the guy on my right was half my age and very good-looking, and he kept saying, "You better check your A string." "You better check your E string." Travalon was laughing on the ride home as I told him about it, how if I were young I would have been devastated that someone so hot was being so critical, but at my age I'm just like, "Yeah, whatever. I could have birthed him." I did note that while there was no sexual tension whatsoever (I wasn't asking myself if he were flirting with me by noting my out-of-tune strings), had our genders been reversed, would I have thought I had a chance? The other day I saw a video where a guy was crying because women kept telling him that at 45 he was too old, and this other guy stitched in his part of the video asking, "How old are these women?" Right? A woman in her 50's will rarely harass a guy in his twenties for daring to talk to her, but a man in his fifties might mistake a woman in her twenties talking to him for interest in him. Isn't that fascinating? Or maybe just sickening?

We passed this decorated bank on our way home.

It used to be called Monona State Bank. I have the vague impression that it changed its name rather than being bought out by another, bigger bank.

We had dinner at Zippy Lube, and the background music was all French pop music, except for one song that was Brazilian pop music. They gave us free donuts because they were closing soon, and the donuts must be getting old. They are the last thing I need after too much sushi and saki yesterday - I had no idea that saki had that many calories! Yikes!! Then we went home, and Travalon watched the Bills-Chiefs game, but that was disappointing too. Yes, it will be the Eagles and the Chiefs in the Super Bowl. To quote Grumpy Cat, "I hope both teams lose."

As promised, here are the photos Travalon took yesterday at Sauk.

These next photos are the alleged golden eagle, and I think it's true because you can see that his legs are bare. Bald eagles have feathers on their legs right down to their feet. We thought we saw a golden eagle at the dam some years back, and there is a male golden eagle who is known to be in the area, so this has to be him.

There were also a lot of common mergansers.

Here are goldeneyes in the foreground and mallards in the background.

More mallards. We saw plenty of them in town today too.

So I did miss something exciting at Sauk yesterday, because while golden eagles are common in some other parts of the country, they are rare around here. Still, I think we did see him a few years back. I wonder how he gets along with the bald eagles? I assume they can tell he's different. Do they think that's cool, or do they shun him? I really don't know much about eagle society.

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Sushi-Making Party

 

Today I went to the most fun party ever: a sushi-making party! It was at Mamastep's mother's house, and her friends, family, and family's friends were there. I think there might have been thirty people at the height of things. Of course I came promptly around 11:00 am, not sure if this was a party where you had to arrive promptly, and then I was put to work rinsing the white off the rice and mixing the rice vinegar, salt, and sugar to mix into the rice. I had to rinse every batch of rice four times, and there were four rice cookers, so that was a lot of rinsing. Meanwhile, other people were chopping vegetables or cutting fish, and I flaked a can of crab meat and folded the cooked rice. We had four brands of peach-flavored saki to do a taste test, and we all agreed on what order we would rank them in for tastiness. Finally, all was ready, and I made my first sushi roll!

Not beautiful, but very tasty! Then I made a second roll, and I was informed about the existence of the sushi cutting mold, or whatever you want to call it, so my second roll was more aesthetically pleasing.

There was also a heart-shaped sushi cutting mold that other people used. Here is a sample. Someone else got an even more perfect heart-shaped bunch of sushi slices, but I didn't photograph that.

Check it out! Mamastep made a roll that looks like Olaf, the snowman from Frozen!

Meanwhile, Travalon went out to watch eagles in Sauk. He said a guy near him with a very large camera said one of the eagles was a golden eagle. He got some photos that I will post tomorrow. He also ran into Cecil Markovitch and the Single B-Boy out there, so they all went to the Wollersheim Distillery for a drink. It was crazy there because it was Port Day at the winery. I remember going for the port release party with the Rosary Ladies one year, and it is nuts that day. Cecil and the B-Boy were going to Devil's Lake to walk across the frozen lake, but Travalon had no interest. He came back to pick me up, and we took a walk in the neighborhood, since it was finally a bit warmer out today.

In the evening Travalon and I went to see the movie A Complete Unknown, about the events leading up to Pete Seeger and Bobbie Dye Lan almost getting into a fight at a folk festival. I really enjoyed the movie, being a musician. Is Bob Dylan a jerk? Yes, but did he have a point? Also yes. Pete Seeger had taken him under his wing as an up-and-coming folk singer, and so did Joan Baez, with whom he had an affair while he was living with another girl. In 1965 he was the big draw at the Newport Folk Festival, where he had played the year before, and Seeger told him everyone wanted to see just him with a guitar. However, the movie showed him playing with a number of people, so I can understand why Dylan wanted a band with him... and they were plugged in. It was kind of a scandal, and the movie showed Seeger trying to turn off the power until his wife stopped him. I'm not sure if that's really how it happened, but I can understand both the audience wanting Dylan to do the songs they knew and loved, and Dylan himself wanting to go off in new musical directions. So who was wrong and who was right? I don't think there's a simple answer to that. Timothee Chalamet did an amazing job playing Dylan, and apparently he even did all the singing himself, and he really sounded like him. The girl playing Joan Baez also sang just like her. I'm not sure why Travalon was so interested in seeing the movie, since I have never known him to be a Bob Dylan fan, but the movie is getting rave reviews and Oscar nominations, so it seemed worth seeing. And it was!

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Why Is Famous Hat Fat? Give Five Reasons

 

Yesterday I went to a committee meeting; the committee is one I was on for a term of three years, then I re-upped because nobody else would do it, but I didn't re-up this most recent election. And yet here I am, because the Congress wants representation when they are discussing the ARTs. I asked about being a lower pay grade than the other people in the FART, and if people in that situation would be bumped up, but I got the very unsatisfactory answer that those with lower pay grades would do the lower tasks in the FART. I guess the college HR person didn't know who she was messing with, because I have connections. We'll see what happens... stay tuned.

Yesterday I also filled out a packet from a weight loss program that my doctor referred me to, and I swear every question was like, "Why are you fat? Give five reasons. What's keeping you fat? Give five reasons. What's the thinnest you've ever been, and why did you get fat again? Why don't you exercise, you lazy bum? Give five reasons." I didn't even know what to say to that, since I do get quite a bit of exercise. Of course, my doctor also wants to put me on one of these trendy new drugs that make you lose sixty pounds without doing anything, but I feel like there has to be a catch, like in ten years they'll find out it gives you gout or something, so I'm leery. Though believe me, it is tempting.

My hat looked like it was having the same sort of day.

It just sort of landed that way when I took it off. It looks like it has had about enough of this s--t.

Today I had a quiet day working from home, and it was very cold out so I prayed the rosary while walking inside at lunch and only ventured out to pray a Divine Mercy chaplet during my afternoon break. Then Travalon and I went to Mariner's for dinner, which turned out to be very cheap in the present because we had paid for it in the past by buying gift certificates, so our three-course dinners were like $2.75 plus tip. I had a salad with candied pecans, dried cherries, and blue cheese, and crab-stuffed salmon, while Travalon had clam chowder and walleye, and we both had key lime pie. So good! Then we came home and watched The Wild Robot, an animated film that seemed too deep to be a kid's movie. It's been nominated for an Oscar, and I can see why - the animation is beautiful, and the plot dealt with themes like motherhood, death, and belonging. I enjoyed it, and Travalon did too, although I think he slept through a lot of it. I had wanted to see it in the theaters this past summer, but we never got around to going, and now we can watch it for free on the channel Travalon watches soccer on. Good to know it has movies too.

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These Lyrics Really Speak to Me

 

Yesterday was very cold, but I could work from home and was hoping I wouldn't have to leave the house. Travalon didn't have to work because there was no school due to the cold, so he was home with me, coloring in his Beatles coloring book as I worked. I kept checking to see if the Adoration Chapel had been closed due to the cold, but it hadn't, so I had to go. Travalon decided he would take me, and he had fun hanging out on State Street. I was surprised because there was a loud gathering in the church hall, and then they all went upstairs. It's lovely that events are happening at my church again, but they're never anything that I am privy to. 

Today I worked on campus, and not only was it cold, but it was snowing as well. I had to meet the pizza delivery driver to get the food for a meeting that I wasn't part of, but then my colleague didn't want to walk outside, so I took a short walk outside and then got back in time to have some leftover pizza. Fetalicious, my favorite! It has feta and spinach. 

Coming home was scary with the falling snow. The shuttle that usually takes half an hour took over forty minutes, and then my drive home was even slower. To my surprise, Travalon had beaten me home even though I caught the shuttle before my usual one. We headed to Mamastep's birthday party at the Nitty Gritty in Sun Prairie, and we sat by the couple we had sat by last year. I got along with the woman so well that she friended me on social media, but we haven't seen them since then. Mamastep said we should all wear crazy hats or crowns, so a lot of the women had tiaras, and one had a very impressive crown. I wore my silver hat that kind of looks like a crown. One woman had what looked like an ancient Egyptian headdress. The men had less interesting hats, if they wore them at all, but Travalon did wear the Croatian sausage baseball hat that Cecil Markovitch had given him. (Cecil and I have matching ones.) We talked about social media reels, like the guy who bakes old recipes and the woman who critiques fashion, and I showed them my latest obsession: Adam Rose doing a duet with a person playing a chord progression. The original video has the letters of the notes being played, and Adam Rose said, "These lyrics really spoke to me, so I had to do a duet." He has a really good voice, but it's the way he interprets the "lyrics" that kills me. Here it is:

Someone pointed out in the comments under the video that this is a stealth Rick Roll, because the chord progression (which is lovely) is from "Never Gonna Give You Up" by Rick Astley. All I know is that I could watch this video one hundred times and never get sick of it. The lyrics really speak to me too!

I did forget to bring up Philomena Crunk while we were talking about videos. She's my other obsession lately.

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Tripping Through the Polar Vortex

 

Today Travalon and I both had the day off for Martin Luther King Jr. Day, and it was so cold out that we didn't leave the house. Considering what was happening at 11 am our time, we took an edible about 10:30 so we'd be in a good state of mind, and then we turned on ESPN because I'd heard that if you watched something other than the inauguration, it would make the ratings low for it. We muted it and walked around the house with our stuffies, listening to jazz, then at noon we watched the MLK festivities at the Capitol here in Madtown. As always, I cried when the bagpipes played "Amazing Grace" and the trumpet played "Taps," and I sang at the top of my lungs to "We Shall Overcome." My favorite part may have been the dancers doing traditional Indian, African, and Ho-Chunk dances. As always, the last thing was a kid reading part of MLK's "I Have a Dream" speech, and that is so powerful. It was cathartic to weep over a man who fought for the highest ideals of humanity, because from what I'm hearing that's not the soaring rhetoric that our once and future and now present president used in his speech. Quelle surprise.

As soon as the commemoration was over, Travalon watched the Wolverhampton game, but they lost 3-1 to Chelsea. Meanwhile, I was doing sketches for my hypothetical book My Wondrous Year of the Dragon. I thought it would be fun to illustrate my year after I realized that describing it sounded like a kids' book: "We took a fast boat over a turquoise sea to a tropical island, then we saw pink birds, then we sailed on a green river, then we saw the sun turn black, and then we met a four-horned sheep!" I do have photographs of all these things, plus the orange sky with a double rainbow in it, the northern lights, and the comet, so I don't actually have to create artwork. Plus these sketches were pretty amateurish: Travalon and me on the boat in downtown Chicago, the four-horned sheep, the eclipse, and the spoonbills. Eventually I gave up and painted the double rainbow in a bright orange sky.

For reference, here is the actual photo that my colleague sent me. I think I need to try again.

My painting looks like racetracks under blacklight.

Some other things under blacklight: a mailer from the university.

And stuffies I forgot in my last photo of the ones that glow under blacklight, and one that does not.

From left to right: Chelveston the Chick, a nameless bear, and Charlie the Dinosaur. Also, I keep forgetting to post this short video I took at the art museum of an installation that hung from the ceiling and slowly opened and closed like flowers.

We walked some more after the game, then I spent some time with my chi balls and with my singing bowl, which I can almost get to sing now, but not like the Tibetan craftsman who sold it to me. Travalon wanted to watch the college championship football game, and we both hoped that Notre Dame would prevail against The Ohio State, but alas, it was not to be so. After dinner we took the magic berries again, and after the fruit we had a Key lime sour that our relatives in Colorado had sent back with us. Wow, did that change the flavor! Travalon loved it, but I missed the sourness. I do like the way the magic berries make my fruit taste, however, so I have been taking them every evening before having my usual raspberries and blueberries. And what it does to the mandarin orange is magical. 

Tomorrow Travalon has the day off of work because they have closed the schools due to excessive cold, but I will still have to work from home. I may have to leave the house to go to Adoration, so I'm not looking forward to that, and of course Wednesday is a regular day on campus. Unfortunately I will have to miss the noon Just Bach concert due to work (I have to help with lunch setup for a visiting guest), but would I really want to walk the three blocks to the church where it is held in this cold anyway? At least they record it, so next week I should be able to watch it without having to leave the building.

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Cathopalian Mass

 

I meant to blog about this yesterday: when we got home, we watched the Lions-Commanders game. I was really hoping the Lions would win, but they totally choked. I was surprised today by how many Packer fans on social media were celebrating this, like they couldn't stand a division rival doing well. Personally, I think since the Packers have seven championships and the Lions have never even been in the Super Bowl, it would have been great to see them get there, and maybe win. So I guess now I'll cheer for the Commanders, who have had a crazy season. Who could forget their Hail Mary pass to beat the Bears? Or that insane game against the Cowboys where the two teams scored 31 points between them in the last three minutes? At least they changed their highly offensive name, so if they make it to the Super Bowl, it would be poetic justice if they beat the Chiefs, who have yet to change theirs. And while you can argue that "chief" is a generic term for a leader, the fans who wear Native American headdresses obviously don't think that.

Today Travalon and I had a very relaxed morning, because we didn't have to go to Mass. We went with Cecil Markovitch and the Single B-Boy to an Anglican Rite Catholic Mass at 2:30 in the afternoon at the Basilica of St. Josephat. I love that it's such a beautiful church.

And I love that it's named after a Polish saint who was himself named after the Buddha, who somehow got into the liturgical calendar. (Look it up if you don't believe me. Josephat is a corruption of Bodhisattva.) But most of all I loved the liturgy, which had things I remembered from my Cathopalian childhood. It was very high church, and for the communion piece, the wonderful choir sang Byrd. The only way it could have been better is if they'd sung Tallis. At the offertory they sang Viadana, who is of course Italian, not English, but still wonderful. Even the music they used for the ordinary seemed vaguely familiar. They do this quarterly, so I put my name on the email list to be notified. Travalon didn't even mind that much that the Mass was longer than what we're used to. 

Afterwards I bought a rosary at the gift shop (I know, you're stunned), and then there was a reception downstairs with crackers and cheese and homemade treats, so I did indulge. The thumbprint cookie was delectable! If they'd only had boughten treats, then I would not have been tempted at all. We drove home, but I was already going to be very late for band practice, so I just skipped to join the others for dinner at Fabiola's. They said there was a half-hour wait so we went next door to Leopold's, and the bartender made me a pandan ice cream drink that was even tastier than the original one I had about this time last year. Suddenly our table was ready, so we just brought our drinks over. (Travalon loves their Earl Gray hot toddy, and the other two are negroni fans.) The Italian food at Fabiola's is so good, and the ambiance is wonderful, with the low lighting and soft music. I just love that place!

Last night as we were coming home, we went to Delafield to see some Christmas lights that are still up.

(Oddly, the church was still decorated today for Christmas, as you can kind of see in the lower left of the photo at the top of this post, although we are back in Ordinary Time.) 

Then we stopped at Lapham Peak for a bathroom and steps, and I saw these planets in a line.

And some more, and I'm not sure what the odd stripes are. Were there actually Northern Lights going on? Are those weird clouds? Or just some strange photographic effect?

There is supposed to be some alignment on Tuesday, when all the planets will be in a row in the night sky, so it must already be starting. I have heard no astrological chatter about this at all on social media, only astronomical chatter. Then again, I'm subscribed to an astronomy site but no astrology sites. I have also seen photos of a comet, but they all seem to be from Australia, so is it only visible down there? Nobody local has posted a photo of it. I do love me a good comet!

Famous Hat

Altered Perceptions

 

Yesterday I worked from home, and in the evening we had free tickets to see the men's hockey team. My colleague and her husband were going too, but they had better seats. At the time, Travalon had been very excited that the university gave us free tickets, but Thursday night he said he wasn't interested anymore because the men's hockey team wasn't good this year like they were last year, and the seats were in the nosebleed section. He could get $7 seats right by the ice, or he suggested seeing a Grateful Dead cover band called Tumbled Down Shack at the Lakeside Coffee House. Since I have never had any interest whatsoever in hockey, I said Tumbled Down Shack sounded good. 

Once I got done with work and was waiting for Travalon to come home, I was going to take an edible but completely forgot until watching Colbert, where he made a joke about being shocked that an NFL player ate a squirrel from his backyard, and it wasn't Aaron Rodgers tripping balls on ayahuasca. I laughed, and then I remembered that I also wanted to be tripping balls, so I took the edible at the next commercial break. Then I was doing my Music course on DuoLingo, and it was starting to teach me the bass clef, which I really can't read, but for some reason it made sense in the big picture, like, "Yeah, this is where the treble clef breaks off, and so it continues into the bass clef. Of course!" Does THC help a person understand things? It also makes me feel more mellow, like I don't get mad about things, but once when I blogged while on it, I made a lot of weird little grammatical mistakes. Anyway, it does heighten my senses, so I really felt like I was inside of the music. It was so wonderful! Travalon thought I was sad, so I had to explain, "No, I'm just stoned and REALLY into the music." The Lakeside Coffee House was still decorated for Christmas.

This is the beautiful view looking at the Capitol building from the railroad tracks that run by the Lakeside Coffee House.

Today Travalon drove me to Brookfield to meet an old college friend for her birthday brunch, then he went to a dive bar and then to another bar that he says has the best wings in the state, better than anything here in Madtown. Tiffy and another woman I had never met before were also at the brunch. We ladies had a great time just chatting over the really good food, then Tiffy said she thought she could get most, if not all, of us into the Milwaukee Art Museum for free, so we headed over there. The guy said it was really supposed to be four people including the member, not four people plus the member, but he would let us all in this time, and he even gave Travalon a ticket to get a discount on parking. Then we looked at art. Travalon took some of these photos, and I took some. This first sculpture is made of the same number of bullets as the number of people who died of gunshot wounds in the US in 2018.

This is a very large charcoal drawing that looks like a photograph. Ignore the reflections of people.

Here is a lame selfie of me in front of a black canvas, to show that I am more colorful than the "art."

This looks like the frame was decorated but not the canvas, and it had a pretentious name like "Future Unbelievers."

I feel so seen!

This is some sort of abstract landscape.

I love Dale Chihuly glass sculptures.

This was probably my favorite piece in the museum. It's from 14th century Italy.

We found the painting that was on my entry ticket!

Here you can see the elaborate "wings" of the art museum from another part of the museum.

The next couple of paintings are self-explanatory. This is a dog.

These are goats.

This is a small crossbow for hunting, not like the large Medieval ones for warfare.

This is a drawing of 3/4 of the Beatles. I'll let Travalon tell us who's missing.

This is a photorealistic charcoal drawing of a field of cotton.

Another photorealistic charcoal drawing of an iceberg. All these charcoal drawings (which were huge) were called "Untitled (Whatever It Is a Picture of)," like this one was "Untitled (Iceberg for Greta Thunberg)," so I thought he could have just called it "Iceberg for Greta Thunberg." It's not really untitled if it has a subtitle that is unique to it, amirite? You know I am.

After Travalon and I got back to town, we went grocery shopping before coming home, and I picked up some fruit to try with my magic berries. I got them some time ago, thinking we'd have a Magic Berry Party, but nobody seemed very enthused by that idea, so they have just sat in the kitchen until I realized they are "Best by" April of this year. The berries somehow mess with the sour receptors on your tongue to make sour things taste sweet, and I looked up what people recommended to eat with them. Of course lemons and limes and oranges, and several people said Guinness tastes like a chocolate milk shake when you are tripping on magic berries, so we got a can of that too. After our wonderful dinner of my leftovers from brunch (a shrimp omelette and amazing hash browns), samosas, and chicken wild rice soup from the co-op's hot bar, we chewed on the berries for half a minute as recommended, and then I prepared a little bowl of fruit for each of us: raspberries, blueberries, a wedge of lime, and several sections of mandarin orange. The instructions didn't say to wait, but I gave it ten minutes and then tried the fruit. They were so sweet that they tasted like candy! And guess what the Guinness tasted like? Guinness. Travalon said it seemed a little sweeter to him, but I didn't notice any difference. He did like the fruit, so maybe this is a way to get him to eat more fruit. Unfortunately the temporary effect doesn't change bitter tastes, so it doesn't magically make most vegetables taste better. We do have some sour beer, so that will be something to try with it next time.

To my shock, I seem to have finished the music course on DuoLingo. I guess there wasn't that much to it. Next up on the docket: the math course. Will it be 2+2=4? I guess I'll find out...

There was a joke article about how the Washington Post should change its motto from "Democracy Dies in Darkness" to something more reflective of their obedience in advance, and one of the comments killed me: "We'll leave the gaslight on for you." Perfect! I still subscribe with my dirt-cheap "educator" discount, but that's just for the advice columnists and the humorist. I don't need to read all their sanewashing and wishcasting about the incoming administration. FOX (666) News already takes care of that.

Famous Hat