No photos of our trip tonight, since the last two days have been exciting enough to merit their own blog post. Yesterday I worked from home, but after work I joined Famie, her buddy, and the red-headed flute player at Alt Brew to listen to Irish music. Famie and her buddy were already there when I got there not long before the music started, and they asked how my trip was. Famie had never been to Mississippi, but her buddy had, and she agreed with me (and the wife of our waiter in Memphis) that it is a very eerie place. Then the red-headed flute player arrived, and I asked if she had ever been to Mississippi. She said, "I lived there for several years." It turns out she went to grad school at Ole Miss, which is already an idea that blew my mind - that football factory gives out advanced degrees? - but then she said, "I have stories!" She did warn us that these stories are thirty years old, but at that time the mascot was a Confederate general, and when I asked if the women really wore cocktail dresses and high heels to the football games, she said yes, except during Old South week, when they played Alabama, and then the women would wear antebellum dresses, and the men would wear Confederate uniforms. Whoa!
The red-headed flute player says she, Famie, and I should form an Irish band and call ourselves the Faithless Jennies, which I think is a fantastic name. It comes from a line in a ballad that we all found hilarious because of its blatant misogyny, something about a guy who is robbing and stealing and then is mad that "Jenny" has the nerve to betray him to the law. We'll see if this plan ever gets off the ground...
Later I told Tiffy about this, as well as recounting a blow-by-blow account of my travels with Travalon. She agrees with me that Wawa is the superior choice for gas stations down south.
Rich had said he could host a birthday party for me today, but then he got sick, and some people canceled due to weather, while others were busy. Travalon and I ended up meeting Jilly Moose, Mamastep, and Cecil Markovitch for brunch at Crema Cafe, then Mamastep asked if we'd like to go antiquing. Cecil had already left, and Jilly Moose had to work, but Travalon and I went with her and bought some stuff, like this beautiful train clock.
A couple of glass figurines and a necklace that cost hardly anything.
And yes, some rosaries, and a necklace.
This is one of his Christmas presents, along with a couple of books. (
Falstaff is a character from the
Duolingo universe.) He gave me a telescope for Christmas, as well as a book, and a
Dayton Triangles hoodie for my birthday. (That's a long-gone football team.)
Jilly Moose sent me a photo of her new
Warmie moose, which doesn't have a name yet.
There were even weirder ones, like where he's shaking his booty at me while blowing a noisemaker. I'm not sure what drugs the designers of these images are on, but I kind of want some.
In the evening Travalon and I went out. I thought there was a concert at six at the music club, so I could watch it for an hour before the game, but it was at seven - same time as the game. Travalon and I went to the Green Room, and before that I'd been a little weirded out by circumstances in this country (it was so nice not thinking about Dear Leader for three weeks), but I felt so safe in the Green Room. It had a very positive vibe. Travalon hadn't eaten before we left home, but they were out of pizza. However, the half-Puerto Rican, half-Cuban bartender said he'd made some
Puerto Rican food, so Travalon got that. He said he felt like he was back in Puerto Rico again. I left him to watch the game and went to the
hootenanny, since I was sure the Packers would lose to the Bears. I joined Famie and the red-headed flute player and some older people to listen to the band sing
John Prine,
Bob Dylan,
Gillian Welch, and others as we were welcome to sing along. The older people seemed to know all the songs. I was surprised to find that I was at least a little familiar with so many of them. It was a very joyful time that kept my mind off of the mess in Minneapolis and the Packers losing a playoff game, but to my surprise Travalon said they were up 21-3, so after the concert I joined him to watch them. That must have been bad luck, because then the Bears started scoring like crazy, and the Packers got another touchdown but missed the extra point, and suddenly somehow they were down by four and had a few seconds to throw a touchdown, since they could not kick a field goal to tie things up thanks to that missed extra point. They also missed some field goals. And... they lost. I expected them to, but did they have to give us so much false hope? Being way ahead even at the start of the fourth quarter? I must have jinxed them when I started watching them.
No comments:
Post a Comment