So let’s see – I’ve been too busy with work to write, and it’s been awhile. Looks like I told you a bit about Stephen & Belinda’s baby shower – which was super fun – in my last post, so that was the weekend before super bowl weekend, and now it’s the Tuesday after.
On Superbowl Sunday itself, it was almost 50°, sunny. Unlike the last two years when there was significant snow Superbowl Weekend. In 2018 I went to Grillin’ for Peace on Saturday and had to have the black cat put down on Sunday, and I drove out to the emergency vet service in a snowstorm. In 2019, I skipped Grillin’ and went to the Garden Expo, and demoed making aprons and coin purses with prints of your garden veggies on them.
This year on Sunday morning I made cranberry almond scones – in 2019, it was cherry.
Then we walked to Colectivo to meet Belinda for coffee and to give her the printed diaper service gift certificate that I was too lame to have paid for in time to get printed for the shower the prior Sunday. It was so warm we sat outside. The coffee shop was super crowded anyways, and we were more comfortable out there. Belinda was pregnant and warm and we were just warm. I gave her a few scones too, and we drank our coffee and ate and talked about having kids and finding a house or apartment.
Then we walked back home and I just worked all afternoon until it was time for the Superbowl.
The first time the 49ers got a touchdown they played a bit of Bertha, and John said they used Estimated Prophet for bumper music during the Packers-49ers game. That I didn’t really watch because John says I’m a jinx. It’s ok if I do something else and periodically check in on the Packers form my phone, but if I watch the whole game, they lose. It’s been proven.
I hauled out all kinds of frozen snack things, so all I had to make was some ranch dip. We had chips and carrots and cherry tomatoes and dip, then wienies in dough and potato puffs.
I think I drank too much the night before so didn’t imbibe for the Bowl.
We went to see It’s Beautiful Day In the Neighborhood, which I liked a lot better than I thought I would. I liked it the same way I liked Greta Gerwig’s 2019 Little Women, because instead of messing up a classic, both of the directors – Greta for Little Women, and Marielle Heller for Neighborhood, do an impressionistic view. It wasn’t a straight biopic, and it wasn’t a straight movie adaption of Tom Junod’s Esquire article – although when you skim the article you do see snippets of dialogue that were in the movie. It’s more like the director’s interpretation of the story. I’m a Pittsburgh kid, who walked past Mr. Rogers’ house on my way to my high school boyfriend’s house, so I have definite ideas and specific memories about Mr. Rogers, and the movie didn’t conflict. I’m like Susan Kelechi Watson who plays the journalist’s wife in the movie – when he gets the assignment she says, “Please don’t ruin my childhood.”
After the movie (which was at the cheap theater) we tried out the new neighborhood wood fired pizza place. Novanta – sounds like a drug insurance company to me, but the pizza was good. I had a Moon Man, then mixed myself an old fashioned with clementines for oranges when we got home.
So yea, a bit of overindulgence, but so an old folks Saturday night.
Saturday morning I had a fruitarian breakfast after yoga.
Then I waked to work past old snow. We had gone to Chicago for the day on Friday, and there was old snow there too.
We saw Paul Lewis, a British pianist, play 2 Beethoven piano concertos, #1 and #4, with Sir Andrew Davis, borrowed from the Lyric, conducting the Chicago Symphony Orchestra. There were two pieces by Michael Tippet, who Davis was obviously crushing on, Little Music for String Orchestra (1946), and Praeludium for Brass, Bells and Percussion – that Davis said was written in 1962, for the 40th anniversary of the BBC.
And the Superbowl Sunday sunset (see overleaf) was pretty damn fine.