Saturday Miscommunications

I hope my readers had a good weekend. Friday Travalon and I didn’t want to brave the snow and go anywhere, so we walked forty feet to the Mariner’s Club for fish fry. Saturday the snow was still kind of bad in the morning. Tiffy wanted us to meet her and her sister for lunch, but we ended up missing each other due to miscommunications. I did get together with her in the afternoon, and then she, OK Cap, and I met Travalon for dinner at Oliva, a Mediterranean restaurant. Afterwards we three ladies went to a Baroque music concert, but I had gotten confused about the starting time, thinking there was a lecture beforehand, so we arrived just as we thought the lecture was finishing, but it was actually the start of intermission. Oh well, we only had to pay half price this way, and the second half of the concert was fantastic, especially Boccherini’s “Fandango.” Tiffy and I stayed up way too late that night finding songs we liked on YouTube.

Yesterday Tiffy joined the usual crowd for brunch, then she headed home. Travalon and I were invited to a “game night,” which was supposed to mean that we played games, but it turned out to be at the same time as the Packers game, so while the others played Settlers of Cattan, we watched the Packers actually win. I was tired of my brother and his punk friend trash-talking the Packers on MyFace, so I hoped this would shut them up, but of course today his friend said it was all bad officiating, and the referees must have been paid to throw the game to the Packers because otherwise of course the Vikings would have won. I know the refs often call things I don’t see, and don’t call things I do see, but this game didn’t seem any worse than usual. I am just amazed that this blowhard is trying so hard to find a way to say the Vikings are better than the Packers even after they lost – and quite decisively, I may add. It was not a very close game. 

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Feeling Young Again

Last night Travalon and I went to the East Side Club for their Thanksgiving Social, and after a dinner of traditional Thanksgiving favorites, we played “Name That Tune” with a member playing songs on one of those keyboards that does a backup beat for you. I have to say, I felt very young because he was playing tunes from the 50’s and 60’s for us to identify, and I didn’t know a single one. One woman who looked a little closer to my age requested that he do a disco-era song, so he did, and that was the one song I recognized, although neither Travalon nor I actually knew the tune’s name. It does seem to be human nature to gravitate toward the music that was popular when a person is a young adult, so for me that would be the late 80’s and early 90’s, and it has to be dance music. Tiffy had a tape once upon a time of dance club songs from our high school and college years, and I found my favorites from it on YouTube, so I have been running to them every morning, as well as a song I learned about from a high school boyfriend. This is my playlist:

“Psychoslaphead” – I think this is by Psychoslaphead, but that is supposedly a side project of Juno Reactor, who are much better known – they did the music for the Matrix movies

“Hurt You So” by Jonny L

“James Brown Is Dead” by LA Style – the only one that has a million hits on YouTube

“Jack the Lad” by 3 Man Island – this isn’t from Tiffy’s tape but from my high school boyfriend

Listening to this music always makes me feel 22 again. I posted these songs to MyFace, and not one person liked them. I also sent links to my coworker who used to go to the dance clubs back in the day, and he didn’t know them and said they were too “acid” for his tastes. Oh, well. At least a few other people must like these songs too, because they all have likes on YouTube.

After running to those four songs, I move on to songs from the 2010’s. Plenty of stuff to like nowadays, too, as long as it has a frenetic beat.

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What My Blog Should Be About

As often happens, I have no inspiration today, so I googled “What to blog about.” To my surprise, there was a quiz, but it wasn’t just to choose a topic for a particular post; it was to determine what your whole blog should be about. Some of the questions were frankly kind of dumb (for example, one asked what channel I would finally find something to watch on, and it listed four I never watch but had no “none of the above” option), so I just chose options I had actually heard of and was informed that I should blog about entertainment. This strikes me as pretty hilarious, since I am the sort of person who could see a celebrity on the street and at best think, “That person looks familiar. Where do I know him from? Does he go to my church?” More likely, I would not have the slightest glimmer of recognition. Of course there are people who know even less celebrity gossip than I do, but precious few, I’m sure. The few times I do read those brain candy celebrity magazines, like in waiting rooms, I hardly know who anyone is in them. Does this mean the quiz I took was inaccurate? Perhaps part of the reason my blog has such a limited sphere of influence is precisely because it is not about any one topic, but as my regular readers know, this blog’s motto is: “More random than a rabbit on a B17!” (See photo to the left.) Honestly, I think most of my readers just enjoy seeing their blog names in print, so here you go: Travalon, Jilly Moose, Luxuli, Richard Bonomo, Ma and Pa Hat, Lute Player, and possibly Hardingfele if she ever looks at this blog again.

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Photos of Our Chicago Pilgrimage

As promised, here are photos of our Chicago pilgrimage. First is St. George's Antiochian Orthodox Church.

The weeping icon is on the lower left - Mary, Seat of Wisdom:

Here are some photos of the creche scenes from all over the world at the Loyola Art Museum. The first photo shows some Polish examples, and the second one is a charming Peruvian nativity scene.

This is the water tower across the street from the Loyola Art Museum.

Here is a horse pulling a carriage outside the Loyola Art Museum.

And just behind the water tower, we could see the John Hancock Building:

Nearby there was a luxury car dealer. Check out Travalon posing with this Lamborghini:

Here are some shots of the inside of the St. James Chapel at Loyola University, with its beautiful stained glass windows, and a shot of the courtyard outside.

Here are a couple shots of the interior of Holy Name Cathedral:

This is one of the Ukrainian Catholic churches, the one that didn't have Vespers:

And here is the one that did have Vespers:

And the inside of it, courtesy of Travalon:

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Chicago Pilgrimage

It was another lovely weekend, at least for this time of year. Friday evening Travalon and I went to the Crystal Lake resort for their fish fry, which was passable but nothing great. My advice: stick with their burgers. They are juicy and delicious.

Saturday was our big pilgrimage to Chicago, led by Cecil Markovitch and attended by Mr. N’Awlins, the Single B-Boy, Trinidad Cap, the Dairyman’s Daughter, Travalon, and me. (Travalon and I were going to join the group partway through the trip, not wanting to leave Madtown at 6:30 am, but then we woke up before 5:30 so we said, “Let’s do it!”) Our first stop was St. George’s Antiochian Orthodox Church in Cicero, which is known for having a weeping icon of Mary. We got there around 9, but they weren’t open until 11 on Saturdays. However, Cecil called someone, and a guy came right over and opened the church up for us. The icon was indeed weeping – you could see two streaks of water running down the plate of glass covering it. This miracle began in 1994.

Our next stop was the Loyola University Art Museum, a small museum with pieces mostly from the 16^th and 17^th century upstairs, and a charming seasonal display of crèche scenes from all over the world on the main floor. Across the street was an old water tower which was open to tourists, so we explored the inside of it. We also visited competing chocolate shops across the street from each other: Ghirardelli’s and Hershey’s. Then we walked about a block to Loyola’s beautiful St. James chapel, with amazing stained glass windows. They were having a free concert, and I was stoked when I saw a guy tuning a theorbo, thinking, “This is going to be my kind of music!” And it was! It was all Baroque music associated with Rome. Our last stop downtown was a few blocks away, a quick visit to Holy Name Cathedral, which is a weird amalgamation of old and modern inside – not ugly, just very strange.

Then we drove to a part of town with two Ukrainian Catholic churches a block away from each other. Cecil could never remember which one had Vespers, so we went to one, but it was locked. Across the street was a Ukrainian Cultural Museum which appeared to be open, so we went over there to inquire. They said they were closed but had a special event going on, and they called someone and told us there would be no Vespers. We walked down to the other church, and they had Vespers, which consisted of the priest and another guy chanting back and forth in Ukrainian. We all watched an old nun in the front row to know when to stand and when to sit. After that, we went to our final destination, Agostino’s Ristorante. The Dairyman’s Daughter and I were very impressed that the B-Boy could parallel park on the left, since we have trouble doing it on the right. We had a fancy Italian dinner, and Cecil dragged it out by having dessert and espresso, so we didn’t get home until well after midnight.

Yesterday Travalon and I somehow got up in time for Mass, then we went to a Packers pizza party at the East Side Club. What has happened to our Pack?? I can understand them losing on the road to two undefeated foes, but losing at home to the worst team in the league?? The Lions didn’t have great defense, but they didn’t even need it, because our offense couldn’t get anything going. Rodgers has just not been himself lately. Then Travalon and I took Rodney for a hike at Governor Nelson State Park, and then we had a quiet evening at home, watching some episodes from Season One of Downton Abbey. Perhaps I will be caught up by the time the new season begins.

Tomorrow: photos from Chicago! I have plenty of them!

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Water Heater Issues

Yesterday the water at our condo was turned off around eight in the morning while they installed new water heaters. I didn’t really care, since that is when I left for work, where of course they had running water. Travalon had the day off of work, but he was out and about, fishing with Rodney most of the day, so it didn’t really affect him either. After work I met with Jilly Moose and OK Cap for dinner at Pasqual’s, then I went to choir practice and had to sing soprano on a number of songs, which was surprisingly easy. Either I’m a really good sight reader, or I’ve sung soprano on these songs before. Of course, it helps that I’ve heard the soprano part next to me while singing the alto part for nearly two decades. When I finally got home around nine, Travalon told me the water still wasn’t turned back on, but I tried it and it worked. Just then he got an email from the condo association president saying there would be no hot water until this morning. Since I take showers before bed, this was bad news for me. I had to go to bed unshowered.

This morning I got up early enough to run for a mile and a half, then I had to decide: head to the health club for a warm shower, or brave a cold one at home? I erred on the side of laziness and figured I’d just offer up the frigid shower for the poor souls in Purgatory or something. However, the shower didn’t seem that unbearably cold, and it actually warmed up to a downright pleasant temperature within a few minutes. Either the guys working on the water heater started very early this morning, or I could have taken a bearable shower last night, after all. Then I couldn’t find a hair dryer (since I always let my hair air dry overnight), but my hair actually looks pretty good after air drying on the way to work. Maybe I should always shower in the mornings!

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Time for "Spring Training" Again!

As my longtime readers may remember, a few years back Luxuli gave me a generous birthday present: a nine-week “spring training” at our health club during which I met with a personal trainer once a week, and at each meeting she gave me a new exercise to do and a new dietetic deprivation. For example, one week she told me to walk a mile every day and only eat dessert once a week. While I was on this program, I lost a lot of weight, so it seems like doing it on my own might work for me. Unfortunately, I don’t remember all the things the personal trainer (who was also named Famous) asked me to do, but I do remember walking for a mile and going up five flights of stairs every day. With my iPhone, it is easy to keep track of my progress, and every work day I go up at least five flights of stairs, because there are two flights to my office, and I go up them twice: once at the beginning of the day, and again at lunchtime, when returning from my mile rosary walk, and then I have to go up another flight at home. Travalon’s phone has set a personal goal for him of six thousand steps per day, and now that I am running for at least a mile every morning, I am easily achieving that too. In fact, this week I averaged eight thousand steps a day and six flights of stairs, because on weekends Travalon and I often go hiking in hilly places, and my iPhone counts going uphill as a flight of stairs if it is steep enough. According to old blog posts, some of the challenges from “spring training” were doing the Plank (a horrible core exercise) for as long as possible, doing a minute of jumping jacks, and doing as many pushups as possible, but fortunately these only have to be three times a week, not every day. It was so much easier to do these challenges when Light Bright suffered through them along with me…

Speaking of Light Bright, no word on her baby boy yet. He was due yesterday. I will keep you posted.

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