triumphant epitome of incomprehensibility Triumphal March from Aida, joyful and triumphant, this triumphant holy day... ...the last a half line from a hymn, possibly half-remembered. Definitely "triumphant" is in it. It's one of my favourite childhood-nostalgia words, reminding me of trumpeting and elephants. Today, I triumphed over wallowing in the guilt of ten_years_ago. When I woke up, I sensed something was wrong, some heaviness, but I couldn't pinpoint it. A dream? Couldn't remember. Slight headache? Yes, and I did get six rather than seven hours asleep, but why the vague sadness and dread? It was only in the car on our way back I remembered the anniversary. On the way there, I was more concerned about Shiloh not throwing up on my jacket. Poor carsick puppy. Useful old towel. The proto-Indo-European root for "vomit" is something like *uemh-, where "u" sounds like "w". We were bringing him to the house of Dad's friend who has the exact same name as an English poet. It's not William Wordsworth, but I can pretend. This was because everyone was going to church. I was the piano backup for a couple of hymns, analog to Mom's digital. You in your small corner and I in mine. I fell asleep during the sermon, but I woke up spiritually refreshed because my piano playing actually made sense. Harmony. Dad decided to take me straight home because I had tutoring online from 2-4. My cousin arrived before it was done, so there was chaotic energy in the other room I couldn't tune into and couldn't quite tune out. I would've liked to have been fully there to witness Lia and Shiloh's first meeting. See, she's had dogs for years and she was looking forward to what a mess we were making with ours. Kidding, mostly. But we told her Shiloh's odd problem: he often refuses to walk when he's with just one of us - plopping down and not wanting to go further than the front yard - but if he's with two or three of us, then he goes gladly. We went to the lakeshore and saw two rabbits. Appropriate for the day! Our shared uncle called and we all talked to him a little. Shiloh waited and waded. (Kirsten's inner voice: e_o_i, if you mention stuff about both words sounding the same because the middle sound is an alveolar flap rather than a stop, I will strangle your linguistics privileges. Yes, strangle them. Don't ask how that works.) Then Scattergories, the "family" (read: poop joke) edition of Cards Against Humanity, supper, lemon meringue pie, banana pie (a new venture - it's not bad, but the lemon is scrumptious). Anyway, all that to say, there were a couple of times I thought of being angsty but I wasn't. Triumph, why not. 220417 ... e_o_i random_memorable_snippets_of_conversation, or rather a memorable response, according to the margins of a notebook: Me: "I liked the Triumphal March in Aida, and I liked 'joyful and triumphant,' so I really liked the word 'triumphant' as a kid." Brother (absently): "Who doesn't?" (this was from March sometime) 220418 what's it to you? who go blather from