Lazy Sunday

ACT ONE

Today I had a nice leisurely time. I got up and played some Civilization II, then I walked to the library and exchanged a poor book for, hopefully, a better one. Because I didn't make it to Ivanna Cone last night, I went today and had Banana Oreo (great) and Chai (solid). Then I took my sister to work, on account of her vehicle is on the fritz.

ACT TWO

After dropping my sister off, I went to Open Harvest for some quinoa. Fortunately, I ran into Angela, who volunteers every Sunday there. For supper, I went to Parkway Lanes on recommendation of our UPS driver, Al. [Hans, my boss, after hearing a radio ad for Tam O'Shanter, said that the JournalStar rated Tam O'Shanter's burger as the best in Lincoln. Friday afternoon, Al and I were discussing our plans for the weekend, and I mentioned I might investigate the JournalStar's claim. This is when he recommended Parkway.] Al was right. It was the most delicious $3 burger I've ever had, better than burgers three times that much. And that is the glorious miracle of it. If I gave you a list of every restaurant in Lincoln that served hamburgers, what are the odds that maybe the best came from a bowling alley.

After supper, I went to the Ella Crandall Memorial Library to see what I could see. What I saw was the Oxford English Dictionary and its entries for anatopism, anachorism, anchor, and anchorite/anachoret. This brought me closure to a difference Michael and I had in word choice and half an hour away from Vil Arreola's Senior Piano Recital in Engel Hall. I spent that half hour reading in Steinway's Summer 2006 magazine. There was a nice article about "Steinway Artist" Christoper O'Riley host of From the Top for NPR. A nice moment in the article was when O'Riley mentioned the emails asking more about "this Mister Head" after he had transcribed some Radiohead songs to piano for the show. The recital was well attended and well performed. One interesting moment for me was the encore in which Vil played variations on Jesus Loves the Little Children. After his initial flourish, he would elaborate after each of the different colors that "are precious in His sight." A Native American rhythmic dance after "Red," high paired quarter notes after "Yellow," scratching on the piano wires while clapping down the coverboard for the keys and then a hip-hop rhythm and some gospel after "Black," and finally a patriot sample and some Mormon Tabernacle arrangement for "White." I was surprisingly a touch miffed at the use of stereotypes to entertain musically.

ACT THREE

When I got home, I popped A Guide to Recognizing Your Saints into the dvd player. It isn't the first movie where a man comes back to his childhood stomping grounds after leaving everyone behind (see House of D, which I preferred to AGRYS), and it won't be the last. I wanted to see it for Shia LaBeouf and Robert Downey Jr., but Chazz Palmentieri was a very pleasant surprise. After the movie, I cooked up a cup of my quinoa. And then picked Marcy up from work.

POSTLUDE

Mr. Pibb + Red Vines = Crazy Delicious