Wednesday, August 25, 2010
My boy is flying. Without me. This has happened before, once, with his grandmother. This time out he’s all on his own but he seemed a-ok with it. Still. I want my baby bird to be well prepared. To that end I shelled out for a Samsung Strive. Yep, my 10 year old has his own cell phone. Not that I can really afford it. It’s been quite a week. Recent (and constant) pressures have me feeling like a rotten egg about to crack. In super slo-mo mode. We’re just barely scraping by financially. The city is giving me until Monday to clean up my yard (with my lawnmower that won’t start). Work is very busy - both the day job and the side gigs. And as soon as the boy gets back from this trip he will be starting the school year at a new school. Only the School District Center is, rather suddenly, re-evaluating our school choice. Worrying about it all has me prone to anxiety attacks that wake me in the middle of the night and tension headaches that knock me on my ass during the day. I’ve been trying to power through it while remaining as peppy as possible but I feel like I’ve hit a wall.
How about five good things instead? I know I could use some happy happy.
Speaking of the Soap Factory, last Saturday’s Minneapolis Indie Xpo there was a huge success, despite the weather and lack of a/c, as was Sunday’s Homegrown Experience. The entire weekend was busy with family and friends and events. Downtime was spent listening to this 60s melodic pop influenced Revolver, from France and thinking about cooking, but not actually doing it. I fully intended to make these apricot / strawberry / yogurt popsicles but haven’t had time to just yet. Now the weather has cooled off nicely (but my apricots may have gone entirely bad) so I plan to make this pasta sauce instead. And to do plenty of deep breathing, to get through the next two weeks without my son.
Wednesday, August 18, 2010
This week has been stressful but yoga helps. That, and I’m all amped up for the weekend ahead. Friends and relatives are coming into town as the long-anticipated Minneapolis Indie Xpo begins. A number of my friends (including the boyfriend) will have tables there.
The Minneapolis Indie Xpo was founded in 2010 as a one-day show celebrating independent comics and Midwest cartoonists. It grew out of the local comics community’s desire to have its own venue for exhibition and was cobbled together by two veteran event coordinators who happen to be big comics fans. You can call us “MIX†and, as the name implies, expect a bake sale at the show.
Tomorrow night St. Anthony Main hosts the Precious Little Film Fest - a special screening of Scott Pilgrim vs The World along with some animated shorts. Friday night there will be kick off festivities with book signings at Big Brain Comics and music at the 501 Club. Saturday is the big day with MIX itself at The Soap Factory, with donuts (vegan and non-vegan) from The Donut Cooperative.
Five other good things for this hump day:
As if our weekend wasn’t busy enough we’ve also got tickets for The Homegrown Experience on Sunday. The event will feature chef demonstrations, local restaurants, farmers, CSAs, co-ops, food producers, local vintners, brewers and more. That should be fun. After all that, though, I’ll need to buckle down and take care of business. And by business I mostly mean prepping the kid for his impending vacation and yardwork, lots and lots of yardwork.
Like sands through the hourglass…summer camp has come to an end. Yet the school year doesn’t begin until September 7th. I hadn’t lined up any childcare (all my money went to summer camp) but the paternal grandparents, who now live off the coast of North Carolina, have kindly offered to take the kiddo for a while. About twelve days. Longer than we’ve ever been apart. The boy is super excited but I don’t know if the duration of his stay has really registered. Thankfully he seems not at all bothered by the prospect of flying alone. His biggest concern? Swimming with sharks! And he hasn’t even seen Jaws, that I know of.
In keeping with the nautical theme…dating isn’t smooth sailing under the best conditions. There will always be choppy waters, from time to time. But dating as a single parent? Inherently rougher seas. We’ll be zipping along, not a care in the world, when BAM. Collision course with half-hidden obstructions, calling for major maneuvering. This hasn’t sunk us yet but sometimes the effort of righting the boat is downright exhausting.
I’ll have quite a bit of grown-up time while my son is away but not much free time. Rather I will be working the day job and shooting two weddings, missing the AmRep Records 25th Anniversary Bash (but attending ancillary shows before and after it), having dinner with friends at the newly relocated Heartland, grabbing brunch with other friends from out of town, finally getting a pedicure (with an Aveda Institute Groupon), maybe going to the MN State Fair and who knows what else I can cram in there.
Five good things:
This weekend wound up being the calm in the middle of the storm. I skipped out on all the free music festivals and the garlic fest and the beach and the Scott Pilgrim movie and took advantage of the time to get back to basics instead - laundry, cooking, cleaning, reading, listing more items to etsy, and taking a break for a Sunday afternoon trip to the Bell Museum of Natural History (free on Sundays). Could have kept the momentum going for tonight’s Japanese Lantern Lighting Festival at Como or to get out to one of the area drive-in theaters but nah, I’m enjoying the quiet too much.
Squishy tired brain can’t complete thoughts but can maybe wring out five good things for this muggy Monday.
Buhhhhhhhh? If I’m lucky I’ll be able to read a few pages of Justin Cronin’s The Passage before bedtime. Just don’t quiz me on them.
As intended we saw - and enjoyed - the near future sci fi thriller Inception the other night. And yesterday this video of “Things Being Destroyed Very Slowly” reminded me of my favorite aspects of Inception. Sure, I love the epic big bang boom explosions, but the float-y slo-mo gravity-defying shots were extremely satisfying.
Also on the horizon (and in the here and now):
- “China to build ginormous buses that cars can drive under” - whoa China, really? That seems like a good idea why? I’d be a-scared of getting smushed. While China seems to be thinking BIG Japan is thinking small. “Living Large In Really Tiny Houses” - doing so much more with less. Stunning.
- Speaking of BIG and small, Rebekka’s new series, Excess, showing small children with BIG BIG food items, is fabulous - “a tongue-in-cheek reflection on how those of us fortunate enough to live in privileged parts of the world have far more food (and other commodities) than we need, or can indeed consume.” And not photoshopped! “As with the first picture, nothing is faked, and a great deal of trial and error went into making the food in giant proportions.”
- Speaking of food, let’s talk popsicles - “Some Pretty Cute Food” and the next big thing? I’ve been talking them up for a while now, since Helados y Paletas La Chiquita brought their amazing popsicle flavors to my neighborhood last year like lime, tequila, horchata, mango chili, pineapple, piña colada and more.
- If/when things slow down some I have some new books to add to my reading pile. In no particular order: The Things That Keep Us Here, an apocalyptic novel about an avian influenza pandemic recommended by Mimi Smartypants; Justin Cronin’s The Passage, another epic about a virus that nearly destroys the world; Patton Oswalt’s upcoming Zombie Spaceship Wasteland; and, hailing the victorious parasol once more, Gail Carriger’s Blameless.
- Looking to the past Isabel Samaras ponders who “invented” (or defined) the concept of pornography and creates an amazing painting in the process.
David Byrne visited the Twin Cities recently for a session about Cities, Bicycles and the Future of Getting Around. I enjoyed reading his favorable report from the Heartland. Makes me think back to tooling around White Bear Lake on my brother’s hand-me-down BMX knock-off…and to long for another BMX or cruiser of my own. But my son has yet to learn how to ride a bike. If only we had the time/money/energy for that endeavor. Alas, summer camp has exhausted all three resources. And it’s already drawing to a close next week. But we have an intensely busy weekend ahead before then. He’ll be seeing his grandmother for the first time in nearly a year while I’ll be in sharyn shoots mode. Catch me if you can!
Attempting to cheer myself up by listening to The Budos Band and dancing (wiggling) in my chair at work. Safely within the confines of our air-conditioned workplace. Outside there would be no such dancing in this heat and humidity. Nearly need gills to breathe outside. It feels like standing in the mouth of some massive warm-blooded beast. Yes, we are in the thick of my least favorite Minnesotan weather…and we have nowhere to run to. But there are the usual distractions. Last night it was in the form of a 1+ hour long phone call to Qwest to reconfigure my randomly rogue modem, followed by an evening spent camped out in my bedroom with the one working window a/c unit. My son slept on the floor in his sleeping bag. The boy has been enjoying summertime slumber party mode and that is a-ok.
Today’s five good things:
Today’s escape from the heat will involve leaving my office’s central air to get into the car’s a/c to chillaxing in movie theater a/c. Finally going to see the much discussed sci-fi thriller Inception, from Chris Nolan. Maybe it will inspire some dream incubation and lucid dreaming in which I can convince myself I’m really enveloped in perfect Fall-like sweater weather. If only. All right, enough with the whining. Fyi…I made a non-whiny post to my other blog this morning.
As July comes to a close I am trying to keep my anxiety attacks in check. They’re mainly centered around how incredibly busy my August will be (and over my son’s random outbursts of pre-teenage rage). I have a horrible habit of stretching myself too thin. Need more gentle - or not so gentle - reminders that no, I can’t do it all. But when has that ever stopped me from trying?
Five good things for this fine Thursday:
Tonight there are two intriguing - and FREE - events happening at the same time. Naturally. The Walker Art Center is hosting Utopia Is No Place: The Art and Politics of Impossible Futures while The Cedar Cultural Center will have the wonderful Portland Cello Project performing on their patio.
This blog has never been about any one thing. I don’t have the attention span or focus for that. But I do tend to discuss (or photograph and think a lot about) food and cooking. We need to eat to live so yeah, it’s on my mind. Though I have a tendency to make it more personal, unlike many food bloggers. Maybe I reveal too much. But I prefer to hear what something may mean to someone and why. And I have been ruminating about and revising just such a blog post for several weeks now. Hoping to finish formulating these thoughts soon and to push them out into the world. It won’t be all-encompassing but more of a snapshot of what I’ve come to think and believe, and a blueprint for how I plan to continue on that path. In the mean time? Tuesday’s five good things (including one somewhat terrifying tidbit):
Right now it’s time to scarf down the lunch contained within Mr. Bento. And to look ahead to tonight’s kid-free dinner (which means being able to choose a restaurant that my picky kid “hates”). Tanpopo Noodle Shop? I don’t like the idea of it being in peril. Or perhaps the newly relocated Heartland? Gandhi Mahal? Namaste? All options sound good to me right now. All at once. Yum.
Last week my life was on a particularly uneven path - like driving on nothing but rumble strips. All the stress and gnashing of teeth left my jaw aching. And one of the bigger potholes in the road, so to speak, involved the need for Cipro…but thankfully Antrax exposure wasn’t involved (and I do feel much better now). So let’s stick to the roadside attractions instead! Five recent good things on the road trip of my life:
Somehow this is the last week of July. Summer has been barreling right along in blink-and-you’ll-miss-it mode. But I’m hoping this week’s shenanigans will, overall, include more ultra high highs than last week’s low lows. Better yet? I’d be happy to just coast through the week in neutral.
I had been feeling like I frittered away the weekend somehow, but it was restful. And necessary. Especially in light of what the week has brought me. So I’m glad I kicked back and watched the Joy Division documentary on Hulu. And finished reading Stieg Larsson’s The Girl Who Played With Fire. A good chunk of it was read while at the beach. Took the boy out to Snail Lake for some splashing around and wound up with a bit of sunburn on my back (but the boy was completely slathered in sunblock). Saturday night I enjoyed myself at Echo Arts despite, or maybe because of, dashing through a downpour in Lowertown. Complete with flash flooding! We ran through rushing water almost up to our knees. Ok, up to my knees. The boyfriend is a significantly taller creature. Sunday the kid and I enjoyed ourselves at the Gastro Non Grata / Little Locavores event at the MN History Center - thanks again Museum Adventure Pass program!
But then the week started in earnest and it all went to hell. My checking account balance was negative all weekend but I looked forward to the impending arrival of funds. That would have alleviated the pain except the check seems to have gotten lost in the mail. I do have a fair amount of money in a health savings account but I can’t touch that unless it’s health-related. Which may soon be applicable as I seem to be suffering from my first UTI (TMI) in years. Oh, and we seem to have mice - or a very small mouse - in the house again. And there appears to be something wrong with my sewer line. Xcel Energy is sending some professional drain company out to do a video inspection of a broken pipe, via my basement. And my son has his first zit. Oh puberty.
Yep. Everything, all at once. Always.
If only I could take a break from my life for a month I would happily apply to eat and sleep science at Chicago’s Museum of Science and Industry. Instead I will scramble and scrounge and attempt to make due, as usual. But that won’t stop the daydreaming.
Finally, in the spirit of shameless self-promotion and good old-fashioned capitalism, I’m finally selling some prints of my photos on etsy (and included an etsy link in my photography portfolio). Have a gander. Spread the word. And if you would like to purchase a print of something you’ve seen elsewhere (say, in my frequently updated flickr photostream), get in touch and I’d be happy to work something out. Thanks!
