Feast or famine
There are times that I have no where to go, nothing to do, and not a single invitation awaiting me. Then there are days like yesterday!
Cathy and Martha had invited me out for my birthday lunch, so I met them at the Irish pub at noon. I like the ambiance of this place, but don’t think much of the food. But then again, other than bread, the Irish aren’t exactly known for their cooking. I had fish and chips, but they weren’t anything special.
It was a pleasant afternoon of gossiping. I learned about all sorts of marital splits of teachers that I used to work with. Two of them were absolute shocks. One of them made me sad, too. I really admire this guy. But I think I could understand it from his wife’s point of view as well. He’s the type who is involved in every committee in town and who is likely out five nights a week.
It still made me sad.
I got crazy flowered slippers from Cathy along with a candleholder for the bathroom, it has little yellow rubber ducks floating inside it. Martha gave me a very pretty pillbox.
It was a nice afternoon.
From there I went to get gas in my car and then home to get changed to go out to dinner (eat much??) and to a barbershop show in Providence. I really didn’t want to go to this show, but I had been convinced that I should and that I’d love the International quartet that would be performing. (Sidebar: If you have a quartet in Sweet Adelines and you win your region you go on to compete at International. If you win International you become a "Queen of Harmony", crown and all.)
I wasn’t wild about the hour drive to Providence, but of course Dee won’t drive anywhere. I really didn’t want to see the chorus that was in the show. I don’t want to know what our competition is looking like before we go into contest. It just makes me crazy.
Fortutantely, they didn’t blow me away. They had a couple of good moments, but I didn’t feel awed.
The quartet was disappointing. I don’t know what the big deal about them was, everyone was talking about how funny they would be, but they only did one humorous number. Nothing swell.
So I didn’t get home until after midnight, but that was alright, as I knew I could sleep every morning this week if I wanted to.
That can get me through a lot.
Listening to: Whistle Down the Wind
Reading: New York: Apple of My Eye Helene Hanff
Weather: 50, rainy
Trivia: What kind of train does not touch the track?
A traditional train has metal wheels that ride on steel tracks, but a train that uses magnetic levitation (a maglev train) moves without touching the track. In some maglev designs, the train "lands" when it stops at a station. In other designs, the train levitates (floats in the air) even when it is not moving. Magnetic levitation train designs come in two flavors. In one, magnets on the underside of the train attract magnets or coils in the trackway, suspending the train from a T-shaped support that runs the length of the track. In another design, magnets on the train repel coils in the track, holding the train up in the air over the trackway. Because they do not touch the tracks, maglev trains are faster, quieter, and safer than traditional trains. In most maglev designs, the trains are expected to run at about 500 kilometers per hour (310 mph), two to three times faster than the fastest old-fashioned trains.
Cool word: rhetoric [n. RET-ur-ik]
Rhetoric is the art of speaking or writing effectively, often persuasively. Example: "The presidential candidates rely on rhetoric to woo the voting public." The word comes from the Greek rhetor, which referred to an orator or public speaker. In the 5th century B.C., the Greeks pled their court cases publicly to their peers. The ancients formulated particular rules that informed their students' efforts to communicate persuasively. During the Renaissance, rhetoric came to be associated solely with style of delivery - the performance became more important than the content. Today, the negative sense describes language that is elaborate and insincere. There are, however, contemporary academics who have reclaimed the rules of rhetoric, using them to train students to speak and write well.
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