I had my first  „bad“ day today.

Today was the Fastnacht Carnival which ran from in front of the Opera toward Jakomimi Platz in Graz.  We were told about the Canival (or parade) by the wonderful and helpful secretary/administrative assistant, Annie, at TU.  It’s a briefer, yet no less exuberant, version of the Mardi Gras in New Orelans.  Here, there are lots of floats, groups and individuals dressed in elaborate costumes, a king and queen of the Carnival, bands, dancers, acrobats, machines that continuously spray the crowd with confetti, and maybe best of all….. donuts!   Graz is a donut capitol, judging from the numbers we see next to the rye bread in the stores.  I am glad to see that people here take the admonition of the gras in Mardi Gras seriously.  The donuts–a.k.a. Berliners– are handed out like candy is thrown on Missoula parade routes, and of course, there is beer.

I was so looking forward to getting down in the midst of it all, taking photographs and taking in the flavor of the culture, and naturlich, a donut (or two).

Bill headed off for his FIRST CLASS this morning, and I browsed around on the internet for cultural events and also the route for the parade, which I am happy to say I found at the Kleine Zeitung (small paper) which seems to hold all the knowledge of Graz on a very well informed webpage!   Kleine Zeitung is also the primary sponsor of the parade!

By the time I staightened the apartment, took  a shower and got dressed,  ate an early lunch (discovered too late that the jar of Dijon mustard was really HORSERADISH mustard (gag), and got the dishwasher going, it was later than I had planned, but there was still plenty of time to jump on the streetcar and make the parade.  So I thought.

Wrong.  Went to open the door, which is always locked, either way, and found there was no key.  Oops.  It WAS there, last night.    Check the purse where I keep the key when I am out.  Not there.  Empty the purse and check again.  Nada. Which could only mean that Bill took my key, as well as his own, to let himself out, locking the door behind him.  I was trapped.

Texted Bill, after figuring out how to text on the unfamiliar phone.  He called back and said he had both keys, but at this point it was too late to make the parade, should he even attempt to come back to the apartment before his class, which seemed silly.

So what to do when locked in?  (jumping down from the second floor, from the terrace didn’t seem ‚bright‘)   I remembered that somewhere in the online article about the parade there was a mention of alternatives if you couldn’t find your way down in person.  Could it be on TV?   Ja!  The television system we have here at the apartment is nothing short of amazing.  Not only are there myriad Austrian channels, but also BBC, WorldCNBC and all-sport channels.  (We are astonished, too, at the world-wide syndication of programming—Germany’s Top Model, Dancing Stars, shopping channels, and so on, in addition to all the programs you’d find on US TV, including Glee, albeit dubbed in German.)  So I started clicking through the channels and finally found the parade – LIVE!

Took some photos with the camera of what I was seeing on television.  All the  images have little lines going through them! .  Does this remind me of the Ed Sullivan Show days or what? (yes I know I am giving away my age, but those were important times!)

So here for your viewing pleasure is the Carnival in Graz. (photos at  bottom of post)    I had planned to get this up on the internet sooner, but when I went to connect, found I could not.  NO  IDEA WHY.  Did the normal thing and shut the computer down and started it again, to no avail.  Looked at all the settings but they looked fine.  Did I mention I was having a bad day?  We also discovered that we left behind the AAA batteries for our computer wireless mice, and now mine is alerting to an 8% battery power left.

Here’s what I have learned from this day.

1. What I consider a ‚bad‘ day is nowhere near as ‚bad‘ as some people have it in the world. Nowhere near.
2. When things don’t go ‚right‘ in the way I consider ‚right‘, it’s time to pause and reflect on what it is within myself that is triggering those particular buttons.
3. It’s time to step out onto the terrace, look out at the bluest sky imaginable, gaze on the beautiful tree rooted so solidly to the earth,  listen to the bird song and breathe, giving thanks for even being alive.

This tree is so big, I can’t even fit it all into one shot.  There is probably a reason for that. 🙂

It’s a good thing Ash Wednesday is tomorrow.

Photos via the ORF channel (hope I don’t break any copyright laws, here!)