Commencement

Posted on by annierhodeisland

Last night Moonie and I attended the commencement exercises for the Community College of Rhode Island, which is wrapping up its 50th anniversary celebration. The annual commencement ceremony is basically a holiday, with joyful anticipation building throughout the day, people looking for help with affixing hoods to their gowns, and bagpipe players practicing in the hallway, so Moonie was all but trembling with excitement even before the procession.

Moonie was particularly enthralled with the shiny bunches of balloons, all ready for the celebration. “Balloons!” he squealed when he noticed the display.
“Those are for the graduates,” I whispered.
“Balloons,” he whispered back sadly.

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Folk Song Sing-Along

Posted on by annierhodeisland

Remember that “Don’t Stop the Music” initiative I posted about the other day? Tonight they were having a folk song sing-along led by Chris Monti, so we stopped in the Providence Public Library to join that (although Moonie didn’t know many words and mostly just hummed along). It was a small but interesting group of people, and when it was ending, a nice lady from the library informed us that in a couple of weeks Chris will be back to host a free harmonica lesson.

Which Moonie is SO ready for.

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Moonie & Roger Williams

Posted on by annierhodeisland

Tonight Moonie and I stopped in at the Roger Williams National Memorial, where dedicated staff like Ranger John McNiff educate the public about “Rog” (as I affectionately call him) and other historical figures and events.

Tonight the RWNM was showing off the last of five original letters written by Rog that they’ve been displaying one at a time over the past few months. This letter was written in the 1600s and referenced the property of one man who’d died and mentioned another man whom Rog had taken in and was teaching to read. I’m grateful that people have worked hard to preserve these pieces of history. Rog was a real person, not just a figure in a book, and it’s fascinating to see him brought to life and to see splashes of ink from his quill pen when he got excited about things.

Of course, it was kind of hard to read all of this with Moonie’s fuzzy head in the way.

Rog letter

Even when he moved, the words were difficult to read, and the Roger Williams National Memorial staff helpfully handed out transcripts of Rog’s letter. Moonie isn’t completely literate, but he likes to pick out words he knows, and he immediately started looking for words like “cookie” and “candy” and a new one he learned tonight, “cake.”

Suddenly he squealed, “That’s me!”
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Moonie’s Cake

Posted on by annierhodeisland

I had to grab some things at the grocery store, and at first Moonie was helpful, helping to pick out cleaning supplies.

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But then we turned the corner and he saw CAKES. I thought his little eyes were going to pop out of his head.

“Caaaaaakkkkkeeee….” he whispered reverently. I swear I heard angels singing (or maybe he was just humming to make it sound that way) as he climbed on the shelf and approached the baked goods, basking in their cakey glow.

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Moonie Meets the Kitty

Posted on by annierhodeisland

Several people have asked whether Moonie and my cat have met. Yes, they have, and this family-friendly blog is no place for discussing the gratuitous violence that resulted the first few times. The cat, whom the ex and I adopted in 2002 after she began her life as a feral creature on the streets of Brockton, MA, is territorial around other animals. Heck, I’ve been feeding her and cleaning up her poop for nearly 13 years and she barely tolerates me. She’s inherently nice but not at all cuddly, so a bright-haired little weirdo that wants hugs and more hugs is not going to be her ideal new housemate.

But today the introductions went a little better. There were three stages of Moonie meeting the kitty.

1. DENIAL

Moonie: “I love you, kitty.”

Kitty: (hiss)

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2. ANGER

Moonie: “I love you, kitty.”

Kitty: (tries to bat Moonie off the bed)

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3. ACCEPTANCE Read More

Moonie’s Mail: Whetherman’s “Seeds for Harvest”

Posted on by annierhodeisland

Boy, does Moonie love getting mail! Especially when it’s the latest album by Nicholas Williams, who records his soulfoul folk songs under the name Whetherman. We’ve been looking forward to his sixth album!

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I was particularly happy to see the CD as I’ve been looking for something to distract Moonie from one of Whetherman’s older albums. Don’t get me wrong, it’s great stuff, but Moonie calls records “whees” because he can climb onto the record player and ride them like a merry-go-round while shouting “Whee!”

Whetherman2

A compact disc should be a lot safer.

Quahog Quorale

Posted on by annierhodeisland

Moonie and I stopped into The Parlour last night to check out “Quahog Quorale,” a group my friend Jennifer participates in that advertised their latest gathering as “a quorum of quadlibetic quoristers questing a quantuplicity of tunes.” We didn’t know what to expect, but we found a circle of women and men of all ages happily belting out all kinds of ditties. They seemed to be having a ball, and their joy in singing was infectious. If I’d been familiar with any of the songs, I’d have joined them.

Quahog Qwire

An unusually quiescent Moonie studied the group of strangers and Jennifer. “Can I hug them?” he queried.

“Maybe next time,” I responded, trying not to quell his enthusiasm.

John Juxo

Posted on by annierhodeisland

Last night Moonie got to hang out with John Juxo, who tickles the heck out of keys and plays the heck out of accordions. I can’t even keep the dozens of bands and acts Jux plays with straight, but he seems to make music most often with The Goods, Lisa Marie, and, the energetic group we caught last night, The House Combo at Nick-a-Nee’s.

Moonie thought he was a really cool cat. He thought Jux’s pocket made a pretty nice hangout, too.

Juxo

It’s hard to tell as Moonie doesn’t have eyelids, but I’m pretty sure they’re both winking.

Moonie & Monti

Posted on by annierhodeisland

Chris Monti is an amazing musician. I should know; I’ve been taking lessons from the guy for six years now. He’ll pick up any type of music from around the world and make it his, and he’ll find time to play for sick kids in hospitals. He’s a-OK in my book.

Monti

After pausing to help Moonie work on his tan, Chris was a-OK in Moonie’s book, too.