Greek Fest, North Side Fest, Chancellor's Tailgate, and Brazilian Party

 

I think Travalon thought I was nuts today, because there were four things I wanted to do. The first was to go to Greek Fest. We met Tiffy downtown to get coffee, but the line was long and we'd already had coffee and planned to have more at Greek Fest, so we got bubble tea instead. Then we went to the local Greek Orthodox Church and went down into the basement to get "galactic burritos" and frappes. We also got some other treats but didn't eat them at that time. Then we went outside, where the local folk dance master was leading a group dancing to Greek music while people ate Greek food, and we got tripitas, or whatever they're called, basically feta cheese wrapped in triangles of phyllo dough. 

Our next stop was the North Side Festival. Travalon had gotten two passes from the co-op, so I gave one to Tiffy, and we each got a gift bag full of goodies like energy bars and energy drinks. We also got half off of our food, so we tried lamb jollof, baobab juice, and sugarcane juice. I couldn't finish mine, so after we checked out the community groups, said hi to Travalon's coworker, and picked up some swag, we swung by our house to drop off the food, then we went back downtown and Tiffy dropped off her leftovers at her sister's apartment. Richard Bonomo met us downtown, and we all hung out on the roof of Tiffy's sister's building until it was time for the third activity.

For reasons I still don't understand, I was invited to a tailgate party at the Chancellor's house. I used to be on a committee where I was invited to such things routinely, but it has been a couple of years. I do know this interim Chancellor a bit, and so does Rich, so I told the Chancellor that Rich said hi, and he was all, "Blast from the past!" because they worked together years ago. Travalon had not previously enjoyed these parties full of stuffy people, but this time we sat at a table by ourselves and then were joined by just about all the people at the party who weren't lily-white (excepting the Chancellor), and they were so much fun. We talked about sports a lot. Oh yeah, we got to park at the University Foundation building, and there was a shuttle from there to the Chancellor's house, but it's just a couple of blocks so we walked there with a very friendly woman who speculated that we were all invited because we have donated money, but it's not like I've ever donated an enormous amount. Years ago I did donate one grand to the Early Music Festival, but that was like two decades ago. After the party, we walked back to the car while everyone else walked to the football game. 

We went back downtown, where Tiffy and Rich had just finished having dinner, and we bid adieu to Rich and went to our fourth activity, the annual party thrown by the Brazilian drumming collective. There was a ton of food there, but we weren't hungry at all. We listened to some Brazilian music and talked to a couple of the women from the pagode group I'm in, then the samba group led us all down the hill to the giant bonfire. The groove is so infectious that I couldn't stop dancing (not very well) to it. They just kept playing and playing, so we headed up the hill. Here's a photo of the bonfire and the tiki torches leading to it.

As we were leaving, we could see the trees being lit up different colors. There was a whole schedule of bands playing, and an open pagode jam that I missed, and I knew from last year that eventually the samba group would lead everyone back up the hill again, but many people at this party were far younger than we are, and some were camping there, so of course they can keep partying late into the night. Even as we were leaving, people were arriving. I'm sure they are still partying now, and will be for hours. Two hours of it was enough for us. Tiffy really enjoyed our crazy day, and I think Travalon did too, although at times he felt quite under the weather. (It seemed to come and go.) I told him we can have a very lazy day tomorrow. In fact, I'm not even sure if I can get to band practice, since tons of roads will be closed for the Iron Man Triathlon. Tiffy will be at her sister's lake house on Lake Kegonsa, so she will avoid all this insanity. She was amused by the planning I did for today: two different T-shirts (a Greece one for Greek Fest and a Badger one for the tailgate), the parking pass for the Foundation parking lot, and the two passes for North Side Fest. It all went smoothly, so my planning paid off. Who knew partying could be so much work?

Famous Hat