(no subject)

[muckefuck]

Part of me feels bad about blowing off Vanessa. God only knows when I'll have another chance in this town, but this week is already operific enough what with Manon on Tuesday. I did consider joining princeofcairo and his_regard for fast furious film fest action, but what I really wanted to do was get out and stretch my legs. Last weekend's outing was unsatisfying in that regard, what with a half-hour in the orchard to two-and-a-half in the car. For all we know, this may be the last decent fall weekend in store for us, and I didn't particularly want to spend it in windowless rooms.

So I used an errand to Andersonville as my jumping-off point and hiked up along Paulina to Rosehill and spent some quality time at the pond with the geese. On the way there, I stopped to pet a friendly gray cat an a man on a cell phone walked his dog out in the middle of the street to avoid spooking her. Thanks, guy! I also passed St. Gregory the Great and popped inside for a quick look. The organist was rehearsing, but there was a man praying in one of the last pews so I didn't explore inside very much. I did find an elabourate Marian altar with insets of the six famous images of her, one of which was unfamiliar to me. Now I know that Kevelaer is one of the biggest pilgrimage sites in all of Germany. Why did I never learn this growing up in a German/Irish-American parish?

After communing with the honkers, I retraced my steps and cut over to a stretch of Hermitage I never knew existed before crossing under the viaduct to Ridge in order to visit another German foundation, the former church of St Henry. Following its abandonment, it was ceded to the Croatians who rededicated it to Alojzije Stepanic (the only religious leader in Zagreb to survive WWII and an extremely polarising figure), but the door was locked, so I couldn't get inside. I'd come mainly to explore the lovely little churchyard instead, which is apparently still accepting burials. Only one had a Croatian name; the others were mostly Hispanic and Filipino.

From here I staggered on up Ridge to Pratt before circling back to my place and my loving spouse, who was looking at more bric-a-brac with which to adorn our interiors. And where did the evening go after that? It's so hard to regain the time after it's slipped through my fingers.

Comments

[stephe.livejournal.com]

If you find yourself being interested by church organs, I would recommend you drop by and check out vaneramos, who is working as an apprentice organ builder. Cf:

http://vaneramos.livejournal.com/tag/organ+building

Also, queenmomcat and I will be seeing The Pearl Fishers tomorrow. At some point in the far future I'll update about that.

[stephe.livejournal.com]

P.S.: Did you see Manon at the Lyric this year, or did you give it a miss?

[muckefuck.livejournal.com]

but this week is already operific enough what with Manon on Tuesday.

So we haven't seen it yet, but we will shortly.

[stephe.livejournal.com]

D'oh.

I guess I really should look into this whole "reading" thing I keep hearing people talk about these days.