Month September 2012

And I’m Ready to Go!

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I’m excited for the adventures to come this week!

First Ave Danceteria

Adventures begin Saturday with Kieran’s Irish Pub and First Ave for Glen Hansard!  I’m excited to see him in concert for the second time!  Someone was tweeting during a concert in Washington DC last week and they were amazed so I am prepared to be amazed.

My bags are packed!

Thankfully I am packing slightly lighter than this – but only slightly!  🙂  How many clothes does one need for four days and nights in NYC?? And how many pairs of shoes to go with those clothes?  And how many purses to wear with those outfits?

Goodness.

I know that I overpacked, I always do, but I will have choices.  I haven’t even checked the 10 day forecast yet, so I packed for most eventualities.  Most.  I am not ready for cold or snow.  That won’t happen this week, although they are talking about some of that crazy weather for MN next weekend!

Things on the agenda for this NYC trip:

  • The movie “Pitch Perfect” – looks like a fun movie for music-loving people!
  • Depending on the weather, maybe a trip to the top of the Empire State Building (I haven’t been during the day) or a walk over the beautiful Brooklyn Bridge!
  • A walking foodie tour of Greenwich Village with Adriana Trigiani‘s tour group!
  • Central Park in the Fall!
  • The High Line in the Fall!
  • Avenue Q off-Broadway!
  • The Strand book store!
  • Forbidden Broadway!
  • Once – for the second time!
  • Bring It On!
  • Any other adventures that may come my way on my birthday week in New York City!

Sounds like I will need lots of energy for the City that Never Sleeps – So I’d best be getting sleep now – if I can!  I’m so excited to be on my way…

print by Mae Chevrette – She does beautiful work and I want them all! http://www.etsy.com/listing/110518539/limited-edition-14-x-11-paper-print-the

 

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Happy Monday!

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Ah.  A great break from work has almost come to an end, but I really like the shift that I am working this week (2:30pm – 11:00pm) so I still get to stay up a little later and sleep in a little bit, so it fits my natural cycle.  I have a suitcase out and started filling it with a few things, and have a list going of other things I need to think about and plan before next weekend!

Halftime @ Mayo vs. Winona – Friday Night Lights

But this weekend was awesome…

  • Book club and Mexican food and catch-up time with the FC gals Thursday night
  • Pampering with free gifts at the Estee Lauder counter Friday morning
  • Mayo Football at Winona Friday night – their Homecoming game, but Mayo won the exciting game
  • Trajan’s football game Saturday morning – a perfect fall morning for football!
  • A singing “gig” in Winona Saturday afternoon
  • Pizza and a DVD (OT: Our Town) at Judy’s in Winona Saturday afternoon
  • Dancing to Hitchville at the Wicked Moose for Kristine’s birthday Saturday (until the wee hours of Sunday morning!)
  • A great sleep-in and matinee of “Trouble with the Curve” on Sunday afternoon
  • Girls’ Night In hair coloring party at Angie’s Sunday night
  • and now… muffin baking and blogging before heading to Rushford for choir and the How I Met Your Mother season premiere!

I just re-watched the double season finale of How I Met Your Mother this morning so I’m ready for this season – is it 8? The final musical selection got me searching the internet to see what it was and I’m delighted to say that I have it in my iTunes!  It ends with “The Wind” by Cat Stevens.  Such good music in that great show – and several Spotify playlists to prove it!

How I Met Your Mother

How I Met Your Mother (Photo credit: tchuntfr)

Back to work tomorrow, but I’m armed with a list of things to do and think about and plan for.  Maybe I’ll have time to blog my itinerary for the fun that begins on Saturday!  It’s all so self-indulgent!  I love it!

I also have a birthday coming up next week (hence the fun schedule to come!) and it’s kind of a cool number, I think.  I’m kicking around some inspiration for lists – nothing as grand as the 40 things to do before turning 40.  But maybe 4 lists of 11 things?  I will see.  I also read somewhere someone was putting together a list for 10/10 – like 10 things to say YES to and 10 things to say NO to.  That’s do-able, too.

Other stuff:

  • I subscribe to a Timehop email and daily I get a re-cap of my Twitter and Facebook posts from one year ago.  It’s been fun to look back at that time and see what goodness was going on.
  • I read a few old blog posts of mine.  I have blogged 225 posts since February 2010.  Crazy, eh?  225 isn’t a lot when you think that I’ve been blogging for almost 3 years (yikes!) but I guess that’s more than a blog a week.  I blogged a lot and was kind of clever when I was unemployed!  For example, I did 40 days of blogs with another blogger who was celebrating her 40th birthday.  I also blogged daily using the Satellite Sisters Uncommon Senses as a theme.  I liked that.  Maybe I’ll reprise it monthly or something.
  • I don’t get any (or many) comments on my blog.  I don’t know why that is.  Probably because the people who really read it get it via email and it’s not as easy as commenting when you’re on the website.  If you do read it via email, I hope that you clicked that dance video that I posted after I saw The Intouchables.  What fun it is!!!

Well, enough for today!  Must get ready and get myself to Rushford!  It’s a beautiful sunshiney Monday!  Enjoy!

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Our Musical Monday

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Last Monday we had tickets to a unique concert experience.  A very cool musician was starting a Supper Club Tour – performing in people’s homes all across the United States with the concert-goers bringing the supper.  He is wrapping up the Midwest portion of his tour this weekend, I believe, and then starting the West Coast portion in Des Moines (Des Moines = West Coast? Who knew?) in October.  He asked for people to open their homes for the event.  I wanted to volunteer either my parent’s home or my brother’s home for a concert spot but decided that my life is chaotic enough – so we just made it our mission to get tickets.

Tickets obtained (the show was sold out!) so we needed to figure out what to bring for supper!  I finally thought of cheesy potatoes and Marissa agreed that was the perfect Midwestern potluck food.  Then that day I realized that the bow-tie wearing Jeremy also warranted a little bowtie pasta salad!  His handmade bow-ties were part of his merch, after all.

The address of the venue was emailed out on Sunday and ours was an art studio downtown Rochester – not a home but a cool space.

Fagan Studios for the Supper Club Tour

We arrived and found our names on the guest list (no tickets issued) and tried to find space for our food!  What an incredible amount of food! When lining up, it was hard to decide what to eat, as there were four full tables of deliciousness to choose from.

Supper: Table 1 of 4 = good stuff!

We got our yummy food and then Jeremy began playing.  He played for 90 minutes, which just flew by!

Singing one of his smart and quirky songs, I’m sure.

I asked about his writing process, because that always interests me.  I know I’m a writer-wanna-be.  He says he will just obsess about a lyric or a melody until he’s done with it or sick of it.  He finds deadlines to be helpful and wrote a beautiful song for his wife.  On Valentine’s Day.

Here’s the lyrics to one of his songs that I like:

Beautiful Children lyrics

Warm house, cold hand
I was standing outside,
Trying to find your doorbell
At 2 am
Ran all the way,
Hope that you weren’t sleeping

You rubbed your eyes
Gently with the palm of your left hand
We talked a while
And you told me how much you appreciate me
and I knew that it was time for me to stay or leave
So I started walking home,
Sawing teardrops in the snow
We’ll be friends forever
But i’m afraid that you’ll never love me

You met someone
At the show when you went home for the weekend
And he makes you laugh
Somehow I remind you little of him

Two perfect hands
A part time job that says that he loves children
I lost my tongue
Until now you never felt that you missed anyone
And even tough it’s early,
You think it could be love

Another heartsick lullaby
But i can’t seem to make you cry
We’ll be friends forever
But i’m afraid that you’ll never love me

Does he love you?
Does he love you?
I hope he loves you
If he doesn’t,
At least you’ll have beautiful children, beautiful children

He played a couple of new songs, including “Someday Someone” and “I Want to be Your One Night Stand.”  Very fun and clever. Afterwards we got our photo taken with him and bought some Merch (from him, not a Merch Girl – another of his songs).

Good times

We had such a great time.  And the cheesy potatoes were a HIT as the pan was empty when I picked it up!  Not many people can say that.

Looking forward to our next Musical Adventure – as soon as next Saturday!  Glen Hansard at First Ave…

Ah, life is good.

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Friday Night Lights!

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I just started creating collages of photos that I have taken with my phone.  

A little late to the game? Probably.

Does my phone take collage-worthy photos? Probably not. 

Is my phone battery conducive to relying on it for memorializing my day?  Ack.  No way.

Is my day too trivial to be memorialized?  Debatable 🙂  

But there you have it.  I made a TERRIBLE collage of our MN State Fair trip, but it isn’t share-worthy.  Maybe I’ll try again.  

Practice makes perfect, right?

My first phone photo collage!

The collage above is a fun glimpse into my first football game of the season.  

I love football season. Crisp fall nights turning into crisper fall nights.
Hot chocolate and popcorn.  Good stuff. 

I look forward to another night under the lights watching my nephew and his friends.  Football is always better when you have a personal relationship with someone on the field.  

What are you doing this Friday night? 

Do you have a favorite photo collage app?

Again with the Movies

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I guess my movie-going and movie-watching has slowed a little since early summer, but I have seen some great movies.  I think I saw the best one this weekend in the theater – “The Intouchables.”  This is a French gem which is based on true events about an affluent quadriplegic, Philippe, who hires Driss — a young Parisian petty criminal — to be his caregiver.  They are an unconventional pair – the classical-music-loving cerebral man in the mansion and the pot-smoking man from the streets – and they both are changed by the bond that they form.

I loved this part of the movie, where Philippe knows he will be bored by his “surprise” birthday party, but Driss brings joy to the evening.

I think I’ve gotta get me some Earth, Wind and Fire!

I also loved the scene where they went to the opera.  Just classic.  See it, if you can!!

Other movies seen at my local theatre include “Hope Springs,” “The Campaign,” and “Step Up: The Revolution.”

“Hope Springs” was not what we were anticipating – very much NOT a romantic comedy.  Serious stuff, relationships!

“The Campaign” had some pretty funny moments, but was not great.  Fun night out with the kids next door.

“Step Up: The Revolution” was my first Step Up experience!  It was one of those movies that I smiled all the way through – sometimes because of delight but mostly because it was just so cheesy.

Eagle vs Shark

Eagle vs Shark (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

On DVD I really liked “Peter’s Friends” – a British “Big Chill” – and “Stardust” – a mishmash of “Princess Bride” and “The Witches of Eastwick.”  🙂  I also enjoyed Jemaine in “Eagle vs. Shark,” a quirky New Zealand movie.  And it was fun to see “The Importance of Being Earnest” after reading it and listening to the audiobook!  Oscar Wilde is so witty!

I’ve been following bloggers who are at the Toronto Film Festival and started creating a list of movies to watch out for.  Top of the list for me are ‘Sleepwalk With Me” and “Safety Not Guaranteed.”  Also, “Argo,” “The Perks of Being a Wallflower,” “Pitch Perfect,” and “Anna Karenina.”  There are others I want to see but this is a good start!

Next on my “agenda” are some musical events!  First, Jeremy Messersmith’s Supper Club tour in Rochester Monday night (!) with Marissa.  Can’t wait! It will be unlike anything I’ve ever done before.  Then Glen Hansard at First Ave on Sept 29 and some great musical events in NYC!  Woot woot!

So much to look forward to…

What are you looking forward to this fall?

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A Little Bookish Post

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I haven’t written about books for a while, mostly because I haven’t been a rock star in the book-reading department lately!  I spent a lot of my August reading time catching up on my magazine reading.  There is no way I will meet my already-modified reading goal for 2012, but I’m ok with that.  I’ve enjoyed the books that I’ve read this summer, choosing fluff, classics, and good old recommended fiction.

The Shoemaker's Wife

The Shoemaker’s Wife by Adriana Trigiani

Isn’t that a beautiful cover?  I wouldn’t mind a poster of it in my “library” upstairs.  The orange would totally clash with my cherry-colored walls, but that would be cool, too.  I love books by Trigiani.  I am looking forward to a walking food tour of Greenwich Village with her tour group!  I’m going to TRY to re-read one of her books before I go!
Pillow Talk

Pillow Talk by Freya North

This was one of those little fluffy books that I read for some mindlessness.  It was “meh,” according to my Goodreads review. 🙂  Just a little too long.

 

Thanks For The Memories

Thanks For The Memories by Cecelia Ahern

Another mindless book which I picked up cheaply at B&N a while ago.  It had an “intriguing premise and surreal plot,” according to my Goodreads review.  Deja Vu 🙂

 

The Importance of Being ErnestView the full version of this book online

The Importance of Being Ernest by Oscar Wilde

I listened to this on audio (soooooooo delightful!) and read it free on Kindle (sooooooooooooo witty!) and participated meagerly in Wallace’s 3 week readalong.  And then I watched the movie.  Such good stuff!  Why did I wait so long to read some Wilde?

The Art of Mindful Living

Mindfulness for Beginners

Mindfulness for Beginners by Jon Kabat-Zinn

Two audio books read by their authors who are “gurus” in this area.  I am feeling a little scattered this summer, so it was good to listen to these and I hope that I can continue to think about them and put mindfulness into practice!

The Sweet Life in Paris: Delicious Adventures in the World's Most Glorious - and Perplexing - CityView a preview of this book online

The Sweet Life in Paris: Delicious Adventures in the World’s Most Glorious – and Perplexing – City by David Lebovitz

How fun! This was a fast read, because it was filled with recipes that I’ll never make or already have a good enough recipe for thanks to other great books filled with recipes.  But he is a hoot.  I think that if I go to Paris, I will try to look him up and make him buy me lunch.  I would have to prove myself a worthy dinner companion, but I think he would do it!

Beautiful Ruins

Beautiful Ruins by Jess Walter

And then I bought this for Ferragosto.  Set in a small village in Italy in the 60s and jumping forward to Hollywood today, it was a gem of a story – “Beautiful and unpredictable – just how I like ’em” is how I put it on Goodreads.

And now… The Chaperone

The Chaperone by Laura Moriarty

I am enjoying this a lot!  Only about 1/3 through (I think – dang iPad), but a nice and engaging story.

FC book club is setting up a date, and we are supposed to have read “The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks,” which I’ve heard is not too engaging.  I’ll skim it and then we’ll move on.  Book club is mostly about connecting with those women, right?  🙂

I think I’ll try to participate in the Book Club that the Emergency Department has going.  I’ve read almost all of the books they’re reading, but that’s ok.  Again, it’s about connecting, right?

And speaking of connecting, very excited to start Year Three of the Cosmo Girls tomorrow night!  Ready to dive in and organize the year!  Yay!

Well, off to read!  Haven’t said that for a while, but I mean it!  🙂

If you’ve made it to the end and have any ideas for other BOOKISH things to do while I’m in NYC, please let me know!  I plan to do that book/walking/food tour in Greenwich Village and to find The Strand bookstore.  Anything else that will be easy and fun?

Yay!

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