I Am Officially Addicted to Coffee

One small soy latte a day. That will be my max. And if I can help it, I will only have one every other day. But I do love them... oh, so much.


I saw the name of this locally brewed coffee ("Punch in the Face" - see the top left?) and chuckled about it all day. It's a punch in the face I love. A love pat, really.

Carl's Visit

It was such a treat to get to see Carl on his too-quick visit to Chicago last week. As always, we had great Deep Talks about politics and economics and morality... you know, just a quick pre-dinner chat. Eric and Abbey took us to a deep dish pizza place (Lou something-or-other's) where I was able to feast on a gluten-free pizza with a sausage crust. That's right... the entire crust was mashed up sausage. Needless to say, I couldn't eat it all and the leftovers became a skillet for four people the next morning.



Good thing I had Lactaid pills to help me digest the cheese... or are those leprechaun condoms? (I think Abbey asked that).

Field Trips

Whew! What a whirlwind few weeks in the crazy back-and-forth between Madison and Chicago (hopefully home to the 2016 Olympics since that means a high-speed rail will be built to Madison for the events that will be held here - oh, yeah). I have now been on two amazing field trips with the class I'm studying for my research... it's hard to stay focused on my question when I'm enjoying the trip as much as the kids.

We kayaked down the Chicago River from Addison to Chinatown (8 miles through the heart of the city).




We also visited the famous Heartland Cafe (and organic rooftop garden) home to lefty community and political organizing from the 1960s to today, Women and Children First bookstore (one of the last remaining feminist bookstores in the country), Graceland Cemetery (where many of Chicago's most powerful residents are buried), and Hull House - Jane Addams is my new heroine.


If I could run field trips for the rest of my life, I would be so happy.

Nutritious and ... Disgusting

I dare you to guess what this is:



Macaroni and cheese, you say? Penne pasta with a light cream sauce?

Oh, no. Not for this gluten and (after a visit to my doctor this summer) dairy-free girl. Here is the box this blasted meal came from:



That's right. Chreese. It was so foul. I barely managed to eat one bowl. If you wondered what cheese made from ground rice and lentils tastes like, I'll clue you in: like ground rice and lentils. And shoedust.

Chicago-Bound

I started my weekly commute to Naperville a few weeks ago and have loved staying with my sis and brother-in-law. I've also started weekly one-on-one dates with my cousins. This week, Sean was the lucky winner of time with me. We walked downtown and got an ice cream and a latte and fed the ducks at the riverwalk. We also named them: Frumpy, Captain, Emperor, Fuzzy Wuzzy, and Cinnamon. We stopped by the bookstore where Sean entertained himself on the escalators and then snuck into the new auditorium with a beautiful new stage. Someday, Sean will be a world famous Irish flute/piano/violin player. It was a lovely afternoon that felt like it had been ripped from one of those Family Circus comic strips showing the loopy path kids take whenever they go anywhere. I loved it.

Victory Tastes So Sweet

My pops came to visit a couple of weeks ago and it was one of my favorite ever weekends with him. We were lucky to have an extra day on each end of the visit which gave us more time to relax, play farkle, take friends sailing on the hobie cat, and spontaneously stop by a putt-putt course where I defeated my father for the first time with a dazzling, last minute hole-in-one on #17. Oh, yes. Victory tastes so sweet.

I couldn't find my ball because I couldn't believe it would be in the hole. No joke.


Overall, he was an excellent sport.

On the Street

Before the undergrads came back to campus, it was easy to wander from the parking ramp to my building and notice little things that tickled my fancy. Now, it's too tempting to people watch and I doubt I would have seen these gems.

A determined petunia growing up through the cracks in the concrete:

Evidence of a frustrated (and perhaps a bit melodramatic) skateboarder in need of a spelling lesson:

It's Raining, It's Pouring

I love thunderstorms. We've had a few good ones in the last couple of weeks and I love the thrill of thunder claps and lightning strikes and hearing that gush of wind and water. It gets my heart racing and makes me want to cuddle up under the covers even more than usual. Before I went to bed tonight, however, I wanted to make sure there weren't any more serious warnings out, so I checked weather.com and found this note which I found to be almost quaint - as if it were written by a kindergarten teacher in the 1950s.

GUSTY WINDS MAY CAUSE BRANCHES AND A TREE OR TWO TO BE BLOWN DOWN... AND LOOSE OBJECTS TO BLOW AROUND. STAY AWAY FROM HIGH OBJECTS OUTDOORS SUCH AS TREES.

A Motley Crew

To those of you who are mothers, God bless you. I just got back from a shift at the restaurant after a weekend with my cousins from Chicago and I am beat. We had a blast and they are great, but six people (three cousins ages 7,9, and 12, an aunt, and an uncle) is a huge crew to have shoved in a two-bedroom apartment for 24 hours. Three kids are quite a handful after living by yourself with a cat for years (a cat who apparently peed on my futon... a futon that is , by the way, now in the dumpster).

Though I am barely awake now, we did have tons of fun this weekend... while Ron and Ann were sweating their tails off at an outdoor wedding, we escaped the 90+ heat at the water park down the block from me. Our favorite was this windmill-like contraption that would fill up with water and then dump a huge bucket on (un)suspecting victims below.

I didn't think there would be much to do at my house, but Sean and Gwen showed off their piano skills immediately and thoroughly enjoyed experimenting with the sounds and rhythms of the keyboard. They also loved finding Lois and trying to pet her - she actually came out from under the bed for awhile this morning. We also ate a huge gutbuster breakfast at Mickie's Dairy Bar, went to the Vilas Zoo in Madison where we saw a Wild Pig Boy (aka Grant). And though the movie wasn't anything I would rave about, we did see G-Force in 3-D which scored us free "old man" glasses.

My favorite part of the weekend involved sniffing candles in the aisles at Walgreens - before we discovered the cat pee, I knew I had an odor I needed to attack any way I knew how. I wanted to buy Febreze, candles, Glade Plug-ins - whatever I could since I couldn't uncover the root of the smell. The kids helped me sniff all of the candles and we started laughing so hard we could barely hold the glass containers... let's just say Walgreens does not specialize in fragrance. One particularly awful candle smelled just like baby wipes. Baby wipes.

I also loved Gwen's random and completely sincere thoughts... a few of my favorites:

"Do I have to wear shoes?" (before we went into the movie theater... she had not worn shoes in the car. luckily, i had an old pair of flip flops in the backseat that she threw on. they were a woman's size 8.)

"Windows down, baby!" (on the way home from the movie theater when it was scorching hot)

"I love the name Frank." (when choosing a proper noun for a MadLibs game)

"So I think I'll just go to college in China, but I won't have any idea what anybody is saying." (when asking questions about how college works)

"Oh, I can use this rubber band!" (picking a rubber band off the sidewalk in front of the capitol building on the way to drop off her parents' keys at the wedding reception)

A Glimpse of Madison

I really have fallen in love with my city this summer... not just because it's beautiful, though that is certainly one of the reasons. Here are a few of the classic Madison vistas I caught on my cell phone camera in the last couple of weeks.

Lake Mendota, as seen from James Madison Park. I was driving home from a friend's and had nowhere else to go, so I pulled over and laid on the grass and took a little catnap. It was a gorgeous day - breezy and warm and just all-around lovely.


The view from my hostess post... the sunset that night was particularly spectacular. It's so pretty that people often gasp when they first come upon the view. If you have to stand somewhere for 7 hours, it might as well be in a place like this.


I love this picture because it captures two of Madison's characteristics at the same time. In the sideview mirror: many of Madison's major streets are under construction which slows drive time down considerably... as do the semi-frequent protests (driver's side window), like this one demanding health care reform. Hundreds of people (all ages, colors, and sizes) marched from campus to the capitol playing music and waving signs. I was happy to stop for them and wished I had known so I could march with them.

Summer Classes

When I decided to stay home this summer and enjoy Madison, I knew I would have to schedule myself a bit so that I could avoid the pajamas-all-day-malaise that seemed to set in once I was done with coursework this spring. A climbing gym in town offers classes I could never take before because of scheduling conflicts - sign me up! The university extension classes (aka community ed) offers African dance, which I've always wanted to learn - sign me up! Tonight marks the last of my climbing classes.

I've passed my belay exam and now know how to tie myself to a harness and how to scramble up (only the easiest of) routes. Love it. Isn't it a great gym? The floor is made of 12" thick foam - super fun to walk on. Next Wednesday is our dance class' recital when we will perform "sinte" to live drumming. I'm really going to miss coming together with the girls every week and hearing Mandjou's awesome djembe playing. That's him in the back of this video - our dancing is not this complicated (yet!), but I definitely recognize some of the moves.

One of the lessons I've learned this summer is to keep learning - to keep doing things I'm not good at it (being that one of the things I'm not good at is not being good at things ... so frustrating!). I definitely want to learn more skills, too, and not rely just on getting good at writing paragraphs that no one will read or engaging in esoteric debate. Bo-ring. I want real skills - how to tie a knot or how to do a dance step, for instance. Next up: quilting and sushi-making.

Cindy Bag

I try not to go to this grocery store that's next to a Target and an Old Navy because I'm always so tempted to go in and "just look around" which turns into a $100 purchase of new clothes or random crap. Yesterday, however, at least my splurging brought me into neighborly connection with a stranger. I was browsing the bags and kept fondling this adorable dark purple purse that would be a great size for hauling stuff back and forth to Chicago. It was buy one/get one half off, but I didn't really need two. Cue Cindy, random middle-aged lady wearing a hot pink shirt, huge white hoop earrings, and white platform sandals - a look she managed to pull off with style. She gave me a look and said, "Are you in?" and we both started laughing. Up to the counter we went, her with the brown version and me with my purple. She agreed to call it her Katy Purse and I told her I would forever know it as my Cindy bag. Thanks for the extra $8.97, Cindy!

The Cindy Bag (pretty cute, huh?)

The Grand Finale

The best part of watching The Bachelorette finale last night was not that Ed won Jillian's heart (they strike me as an adorable pair), or that Reid got to speak his mind (oh, what a catch he is!), or that Kipper got his heart semi-broken (he'll be over it in a week), or that my friends and I finished a tray of gluten-free brownies and two bottles of wine... no, my favorite part last night was the storm watch broadcast interruption that delayed the start of the program. It lasted almost a half an hour and I wish someone had recorded our jeers and tauntings venomously tossed at the poor meteorologist who, no joke, kept repeating that "this is a life or death situation - please be patient with us, all you Bachelorette viewers." It was a tornado warning for a county at the very edge of the viewing population. We were not amused. Whatever happened to just scrolling a warning across the bottom of the screen? We first called my sister to see if she could set up her computer to Skype or Gmail video-chat the program to us, but she did not answer. We then called the station several times, finally got through, and demanded to know if the start of the show would be delayed or just cut in. To our relief, it was simply delayed. More time for brownies and wine.

So You Think You Can ... Cry?

My favorite TV show right now is "So You Think You Can Dance". It is so consistently entertaining and such a celebration of gifted people being creatively challenged. I love it. Last night, however, was really special. Two of my favorite dancers were choreographed to the song "Women's Work" which always tears me up. Add to that the fact the dance was about a woman with cancer... I was a crying mess. But how beautiful. Please watch.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5_TCK5OCgss

Stop and Smell the Roses... and Taste the Honey

This weekend, Joyce and Abbey came to visit. Both brought me hostess gifts including these beautiful roses to which we added carrot greens after buying a bunch that got grated up for lunch of peanut Thai salad with noodles. What a gorgeous site every morning when I get up to check email.



After their visit, I worked a shift at the restaurant. When it's slow like it was that night, the chefs like to spoil the front-of-house staff by trying out new dishes and letting us taste new ingredients. They made us tartlets, steak fajitas, bruleed pears, and scallops ... and then brought up the honey comb the head chef purchased at the farmers' market that morning. You just stick in the spoon and savor the sweetness and pull out the wax after sucking off all the honey. The next taste test was "spun honey" which is old honey that has crystallized and then been whipped with new honey. It looked like white butter and tasted like it, too. So. Delicious.

Bargains!

My friend Alexa and I had a garage sale last weekend. She made $700, I made $70 (but they are a family of four who are moving and I am but one who is staying). My favorite item for sale which did not sell was this pair of shoes that her husband bought for a joke. Yes, he marked them at $20.

Her daughter was such a charmer the whole weekend. She kept putting on clothes her mom had laid out to sell - including this hat and, later, a snow suit she wore on her head with the hood.

The running joke was that we ended up with more stuff by trading with each other. From Alexa, I got two books, a big wooden salad bowl, an old tent, and these cute shoes that mostly fit.

Aside from garage sale bargains, we also gave brief history lessons as people came into the old squash court wondering what kind of room it was. Their house (more like a cottage) was the game lodge of the old estate - very charming, but not intended to be a permanent residence. They are happy to be moving away from the mice, for example. I still love it.

Gratitude

As I was reading in bed tonight, I came across this Sufi poem by Shabistiri: 

To enter this garden,

see with your heart's eyes and

gaze gently on these blossoms. 

All your doubts will fade away. 

Don't look for mistakes: 

The roses may turn into thorns. 

Ingratitude reveals ignorance,

and the friends of truth are truly thankful.

It was a good reminder for me of why I started this blog and why it was initially important for me to post something every day - not to explain my comings and goings, but to be explicitly and consciously grateful at least once every day. It was worth crawling out of bed to post this. 

SO. Today I am grateful for many things, but I am most grateful for the tough love of my sister and for enjoying the Union Terrace's live music and fireworks after dusk on a breezy summer night with a few friends. 

Local Color

There is a family-owned strawberry patch a few miles out of town in the bucolic Wisconsin countryside. I've never been (because I've always been out of town in the summer) and asked my friend Alexa to join me with her kids. We had such a great time - it was so beautiful, the strawberries were so delicious (Normandie could not stop eating them!), and the family could not have been sweeter. It was Liam's idea to take a picture making funny faces when we had picked our fill of berries.

 

I've been enjoying lots of Madison's local gems lately that truly come alive in the summer. I sat on the Terrace last week listening to music with my friends while the sun set behind the lake, strolled through the farmers' market on the Square and wandered up and down State Street listening to live music. The best band I've ever heard there was playing this weekend - I heard them on my way to the wedding and took their card, then saw them again on the way to work Sunday afternoon. I invited them up to the restaurant for a free dessert and had a great chat with them when they arrived. They're from North Carolina and were fantastic (their name is Speedsquare) and so grateful for the dessert: 

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KOgEB3KEdMk

(that street in Sedona looks awfully familiar, doesn't it? :)

Cuzfest, Here We Come!

I've been having fun with JibJab (and procrastinating dissertation preparation). There weren't enough video options to fit in everyone without subscribing, so I just grabbed the first pictures I could find of the minis, cousins, and the grands. It all started when I realized they had a breakdancing video... Nicholas has been wanting to learn how to "hip hop dance" and I cracked up when I saw the finished product: 

http://sendables.jibjab.com/view/rjiDrMaLJaG6SpzS

Then I found a great picture of my sister that I thought would make for a good river dance. 

http://sendables.jibjab.com/view/vgn2six53jx5AueP

Grandma and Grandpa are quite flexible for their age, so this seemed appropriate. 

http://sendables.jibjab.com/view/2pVk2FeyojAaR71z

And this is the grand finale. Oh, Robert's dance face. 

http://sendables.jibjab.com/view/cQYnfTt9XyVOOMJj

6.22.2009: Random Thoughts

A few pics from the last few weeks... 

It has been spring-snowing (aka cottonwood shedding) and there have been drifts blowing all through our courtyard and parking lot. I admit to sticking in my hands and tossing big blustery puffs in the air a few times. Can't help myself.

I've been meeting with my UW-L students this week and last. They have been long days, but ultimately very pleasant, especially the day Jane and I spent at a coffeeshop in Janesville with this charming deck that made me feel like I was in the mountains.

I saw this sign at the grocery store yesterday and couldn't stop laughing. I have a weird habit of pronouncing the words on signs in the voices I think correspond with the font. This is clearly meant to be said in a loud Broadway-style voice complete with jazz hands. Yes, I actually said it that way. Out loud. At the grocery store. The elderly produce man laughed.

 

6.20.2009: Weddings!

Wedding in Madison...

I celebrated with Sarah and Taylor, my friends from the restaurant world, last night at a lovely reception at the Overture Center. It was unseasonably hot and humid on the rooftop of the art museum for their ceremony, but me and my "fake" date Dave survived (Dave and Heather are good friends of mine who just got engaged - Heather has moved to Seattle with Dave to follow shortly and, since I am once again date-less, he graciously agreed to be my escort). Women may have to shave their legs and buy tampons and put on makeup, etc. etc. etc., but we don't have to wear suits outside in the summer. I think we win.

Wedding in Chattanooga...

And a few weeks ago, my best friend Kate and I met up in Atlanta for the wedding weekend of our good friend Amy. It was a fantastic trip kicked off by renting a car at Enterprise a few days after someone had driven through their plate glass windows. "We had to run for our lives," drawled the desk clerk. Apparently, a mom had screaming kids in the back and floored it instead of hitting the brakes. She totaled a car in the parking lot, totaled the car they were in, crashed through two plate glass windows, rubber-burned tire tracks on the carpet and crashed through two offices in the back. No one was hurt, but the family did want to rent another car. Needless to say, they were denied. We managed to get to Chattanooga and back without a scratch. I had never been to Tennessee before and was really impressed with the charm and friendliness of Chattnooga (perhaps a future Cuzfest locale?).

It was a gorgeous day on top of Lookout Mountain. The ceremony was in the yard of Ben's parents' neighbors and my friend Amy could not have looked cuter if she tried. Check out those emerald green peep-toed pumps! 

The reception was at "Fairyland" country club in this old castle-like building hanging off the

 side of the mountain. We could see seven states from the pool deck... or at least we could before the party started. Then it got dark and there was an open bar, so no one was seeing much of anything after awhile. They had an amazing band and tons of fun friends from all over the country. It was the most fun reception I've been to in a long time (probably since Kate's wedding this past December in DC, actually... see pics below - another great band, another beautiful location in the heart of DC, more great people. I have really lucked out with amazing friends marrying wonderful people ... and throwing great parties). 

We spent the next day lounging around on the rooftop's pool and doing the New York Times crossword. It was a perfectly lovely weekend, but it was very hard to come home. There is at least one more wedding this fall for a friend from high school and then I think the baby showers will pick up speed. 

Wedding in DC...

Kate and Brian were high school friends who met up again after they had moved to Colorado a few years ago. He couldn't love her more if he tried and they are two of the happiest people I know. Their wedding was at Brian's high school's church in downtown DC and the reception was at a hotel near the Mall with a fantastic Irish pub where we all went every night before bed. I love Kate's family and have known her for years since our first summer at Choate. It was absolutely beautiful and so fun to celebrate with such fantastic people. 

The church where they were married - so beautiful!

The row houses where I stayed with my friends from Choate who got married a couple of years ago, are lawyers in DC, and are now expecting a little girl.

Me and Mitch, the nephew of the 

groom who became the best man when Brian's 

brother got sick. His toast brought the house down - one of the best I've ever heard.

The morning after the wedding a bunch of Kate and Brian's friends snuck away with the happy couple and had breakfast before taking a walk on the Mall and visiting the Native American museum. Everything was within walking distance, including the gorgeous church where they were married.

4.1.2009: Taken for Granted

There are so many little aspects of my day that I take for granted... yesterday, for instance, I received world-class health care for free during a regular check-up, drove around town in a car I trust to keep going and keep me safe, typed on my wireless laptop while listening to the music I wanted to listen to through my headphones, and ate at a restaurant and a coffeeshop without worrying about how to pay for it. I spent time with several good people who care about me (and vice versa). I slept in a comfortable bed and turned on the heat because I was cold. Nothing spectacular happened - that was a normal day for me. There are times I wonder how I got to be so lucky that a day like that is normal... how many people in the world don't have what I simply take for granted? How different of a person would I be if those things were gone? Deep thoughts.

On a lighter note, I have a good joke. I can never remember jokes, but this is one that I told Will weeks ago and then he told me back yesterday and I laughed just as hard.

What are the two sexiest animals on the farm?

Brown chicken, brown cow.
(said, of course, a la "bow chicka bow wow" sexy music-style). Did you at least giggle?