End of a busy work week? Tired? Ha! All the more reason to go out! Last night after we got home, Mer and I trundled across the Valley (there is NO good way to get to west Akron from our house) to go to the Mustard Seed Market. Not only did we want a decent dinner that was all-natural and that we did not have to cook, but the musical entertainment of the evening was a woman singing songs of the 30’s and 40’s.
We had about a 20 minute wait for a table, but since the music was already flowing, it was just fine to wait. The woman singing had a good voice and she had a nice stage persona. She was backed by a keyboards player (whose keyboard did a mean imitation of an upright bass) and a drum player. The music of the 30’s and 40’s is infectious – lots of jazz and swing rhythms, and fun lyrics that sometimes hint at racy without being tasteless. I literally spent the entire hour-plus swaying back and forth in my chair (Mer and I have a theory that most untrained white people can dance from the waist-up only, so we need to be seated to have any chance at all). The music made me smile – it was wonderful.
The Mustard Seed did alright by us on the food front as well. I got a pretty good shake and a burger (that was a tad over-done, so I need to get medium-well next time) and Mer got a really good looking pasta primavera with broccoli, red peppers, and cauliflower (bleh). We picked up a package of chocolate chip cookies on the way out for dessert, so it was a highly successful evening.
In the on-going birthday irony, this was the sonnet I read to Meredith on the eve of my birthday (it was the next one in line) – Sonnet 65:
Since brass, nor stone, nor earth, nor boundless sea, |
But sad mortality o’er-sways their power, |
How with this rage shall beauty hold a plea, |
Whose action is no stronger than a flower? |
O, how shall summer’s honey breath hold out |
Against the wreckful siege of batt’ring days, |
When rocks impregnable are not so stout, |
Nor gates of steel so strong, but Time decays? |
O fearful meditation! where, alack, |
Shall Time’s best jewel from Time’s chest lie hid? |
Or what strong hand can hold his swift foot back? |
Or who his spoil of beauty can forbid? |
O, none, unless this miracle have might, |
That in black ink my love may still shine bright. |