A Tradition Few Understand

When you are a Kentucky native, today is a special day.

It's the high holidays.

The first Saturday in May is the Run for the Roses. If one lives in Kentucky, the week is marked by parades, by a great deal of Kentucky pride, a tradition of really bad hats that never see the light of day the other 364 days of the year, and planning for a day-long party with friends and family. Parties include mint julips, friendly betting, barbeque, and great food.

It is fantastically great fun. Thoroughbred horses are something that makes every Kentuckian verklempt. Attending the Derby is a rite of passage for every college-age Kentuckian. I have attended twice. I'm too old for that shenanigans anymore.

I don't live in Kentucky anymore. My day is marked by a 2-hour online investigation of the horses, their owners, their trainers, and most importantly, their jockeys. I then have to inform my family of my picks, trash talk theirs, and then we all watch the race on television. We seldom win. It doesn't matter. We all choke up when they the University of Louisville marching band plays the state song, My Old Kentucky Home. We deplore the celebrities who think they are "honorary Kentuckians" for a day. There is no feeling like being a native Kentuckian on Derby Day.

Last year, I missed my first Kentucky Derby of my adult life. D-fav Liv and I were on the road in the second leg of our Wild West Adventure. We had it planned to hit Roswell, NM, just in time for the race. Unfortunately, we had fubared the time change. The race had already run. I tried not to appear crushed. But it was like someone had stolen Christmas from me.

I know that no one else gets it. That's part of the attraction.

I picked Desert Party, Chocolate Candy, and Hold Me Back. My horses came in fifth, twelfth, and fourteenth. It's all good.

Mine that Bird went off at 50-1. It payed $102 for a $2 bet. The horse itself only cost $9500. The trifecta paid $500,000+. By golly, Kentuckians love that kind of rags to riches stories. Too bad the horse is a gelding. Best of luck to them as they head to Maryland.

Spontaneity is another word for pissing your life away

It was another wild weekend in southern Illinois. Nat, one of my colleagues from my masters days, was back in town. We met up for a little Thai food, a few drinks. It's all good. Met her new boyfriend (totally cute), and a colleague of hers from her doctoral days who apparently just got a position in our zoology department. If one can overlook the fact that all of the bars that appeal to the undergraduate crowd were closed (for reasons unknown) and that the spill over included my favorite "adult" haunts, it was still a fun night.







Bek called Saturday morning with an offer of free venison if I'd come and help her butcher a deer. What is D's favorite food? Free food! So Saturday and Sunday afternoon were spent slicing and dicing and becoming better acquainted with freezer paper and mammalian anatomy. I now have about 15 pounds of frozen venison and Bek has 2-3 times that, plus ribs and ground venison to come.

I sewed up the sleeve on my new down jacket and have been enjoying the heck out of being so warm. Saturday it was unusually warm around here--we even had threat of thunderstorms--but today, finally, it was cold enough for me to wear my jacket out. And it is a toasty, toasty thing.

And I have been reading posts from D-friends strung far and wide over this holiday season--mostly feeling very jealous about other's exploits when I have been stuck in boring old Midwestia. It has been a very lonely break. I'm anxious for D-friends to return.

But it hasn't all been bleak. In Chicago, there is a restaurant---nah, a mecca--called Portillo's. Portillo's is the home of the Chicago-style Italian beef. D found an entire stash of Portillo's beef and gravy in her freezer. So while you are having serious fun in the snow, I dare you to find anything as magnificent as the Portillos Italian beef that I will be enjoying all week.



Which brings up an axiom a la D: jealousy loves company.

This morning I had a hangover

This should explain a lot.