I missed Juneteenth again!!! Some of you may be familiar with the primarily African-American holiday celebrating the end of slavery, which is supposed to take place June 18 (commemorating the declaration of the Emancipation Proclamation in Galveston, Texas, one of the last places to be reached by Union troops at the end of the Civil War). Every year there's a big shindig at Wheeler Park in Kerrytown, and I meant to go last year, and forgot, and did the exact same thing this year. Third time'll be the charm, I hope.
I did have a fun Juneteenth, though. I decided not to hike out to Gallup, instead just walking through the city and doing some intense comparison-shopping at the Farmer's Market and Sparrow's. I got enough ingredients to try mushroom, barley, and spinach soup this evening, so we'll see how that goes. I made a "Dutch farmer's soup" last week which was all right, but probably would have been better if I'd made a bigger batch--the veggies I used for the stock still taste great as a stew, though.
While walking along Catherine Street, I had an odd encounter with a cute girl sitting on her porch and eating an apricot. I nodded and smiled to her just as she dropped a freshly-gnawed apricot pit. We both watched as it tumbled in seeming slow motion down the steps and landing at my feet, and then started laughing in unison. I asked her if I could get it for her--I thought it was an unopened walnut until I inspected it more closely. She found this hilarious.
A very pleasant surprise awaited me at the WRAP office as I found that my friend Meredith from Planned Parenthood (who's also on the WRAP board) was running a garage sale. We talked for a while, and I spent $1.00 for about eight old shelves (to be donated to the Madison House for backyard seating purposes), two CDs of assorted orchestral music (one Saint-Saens and one just random stuff about sailing that included some Delius--I've never heard any of his stuff and have been meaning to give it a try), Meredith's old social policy textbook, a copy of The Hobbit, and a vintage 1982 cardboard poster featuring what looks like a raccoon straddling open water between a wharf and a rowboat that implores "hang in there, baby!" in weird second-grade textbook-style lettering. It was great to see her again.
This morning was glorious. I had breakfast at the Fleetwood, of course, which is always a good time (Sunday mornings being my favorite time to go). I sat on the Diag, the main concourse of the central Michigan campus, for the first time--and I've lived here for almost three years--reading Paris Babylon, Rupert Christensen's hugely entertaining book about Second Empire Paris and the resulting Commune. This afternoon? A Georges Franju film at Cinema Guild, maybe call my dad, and then a dogged attempt to make mushroom, barley, and spinach soup.
Have a nice day.