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.

Famous Hat