Today I worked on campus, and one of my coworkers and I were puzzling over a poster advertising a class about palaces put on by the history department. The poster featured a European castle, an Asian palace, and... the Taj Mahal. But that's a tomb! So my coworker emailed the instructor to ask how a tomb was a palace, was it one for the soul of the dead lady? Then I bought Hardingfele Indian food at the cafe in her building, since she had bought it for me last week. We also split a blood orange she had in her pocket, and we each had a kind of stale Russian gingerbread cookie also provided by her. I told her about my instruments, and she said, "Wow, and I thought I had a lot!" I have divided them into categories:
1. Non-negotiable: family heirlooms that are keeping me sane - the violin and the mandolin.
2. Very useful: the ukulele and the electric mandolin.
3. Gifts from Travalon: the balalaika, the tamburitza, the Chinese moon guitar, and the sitar.
4. I spent too much money and nobody else would want them: the rebec and the German folk instrument.
5. Who cares: the garbage violin, the bowed psaltry, Bubba Sue the mountain dulcimer, and the woodrow. I should probably donate these. Hardingfele suggested donating the garbage violin to a school.
I also have a little ukulele from an antiques shop that I haven't tuned up, but it takes up so little space. And of course there is the tiny ukulele, but I'd never get rid of that. It's so adorable.
My boss had asked a colleague I know well to help me during this time of grieving/way too many expense reports because there was just a big conference, so she came down and we divided to conquer. I figure I'll be the one to back her up if something happens with her sick mom, so this works out well.
Meanwhile, Travalon went back to the wood duck pond today.
I like this next picture because you can see so much blue on the one wood duck's wing:
Travalon also went back to the island in Cherokee Marsh, and the pelicans were there again.
At the end of the day, the instructor from the Palaces course emailed my coworker and me back to say we were the first to have noticed she put a tomb on a palace poster, and she wasn't going to address tombs per se, but if we wanted to take the class, we could do that for our final project. Hmm... I am curious about the class, since it's asynchronous and online, so it wouldn't get in the way (other than taking up time) of my other activities, but I'm too young to be an auditor and too old to be a regular student.
Right after work I went to the Elks Club for the monthly Advanced Irish Session that I am not allowed to play in, unsure if anyone else would be there, but four other Shamrock Club people were already there, including the couple we see all over the place. (This reminds me - I still need to post the videos Travalon made of the farewell party for the red panda. This couple were there too.) Soon Famie joined us, and then Travalon came from work. We all had dinner, and most of us had a little ice cream, as we listened to the fiddle tunes. I knew a lot of them but wasn't sure about their names. The fiddler who used to play bass in our band played in the session, and so did the red-headed flute player. After everyone but Famie, Travalon, and I had left, she came over to chat for a little bit. These are all such pleasant people, and I'm embarrassed that I talked too much, a problem I used to suffer from greatly, but I thought I had mostly gotten it under control. Hopefully people cut me slack for my mourning period.
Yesterday Travalon made a video of a train. I love the soundtrack! (He was listening to "40's Junction" on the internet radio.) The ending is a little weird, but if I edit it and put it on YouTube, they might slap a copyright injunction on those tunes, so enjoy the raw footage.
I have other train videos he made that, like the red panda videos, need to be edited and put on YouTube. I just haven't had any time lately.
Famous Hat
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