Fer cryin out loud

Last night I got a call from a coworker who needed me to cover his shift tonight. I pounced on the opportunity, because in case you didn't know, I am broke as a joke. And three weeks of no teaching is looming like a thunderstorm of empty pockets. So I came to work today, rarin' to go. I drove, because when I left the house it was 100 degrees and very humid, and it sounded unfun and unbreathable and awful to bike. But I was working at the location in Lincoln Park, where parking is precious. I finally found a spot on a residential street that changes to permit parking only at 6pm. It's no problem because at 6pm the meters become free parking, so you just have to move the car. Still, I was a bit late to work after driving around looking for a spot. It was a crazy day, first chance to sign up for private lessons, confusion about who was working leading to an extra person at the desk, lots of substitutes and absentees, old employees working who weren't up to date on the current info, misprinted notices, the whole deal. Maybe it was the heat, but everyone we dealt with just seemed to be off a little bit. A really crazy night. The guy whose shift I covered actually stopped by, bringing us cold beverages to apologize for the scheduling mishap, which was really cool. I chilled out with a kids guitar class for a while, since their substitute teacher had the wrong location and was late. I talked with my WW boss, who sat in on a class of mine today for the first time; she thought it was great! I ate my dinner, a yummy salad we made yesterday, and some cherries and a plum. I listened to William Elliott Whitmore, one of my favorite artists to pass the time on the job. We waited for the extra super slow computer program to process private lessons. I chatted online with Ben. I helped lots of customers. I sold tickets, I mailed out schedules. I listened to Neko Case. I browsed music on this computer. I MySpaced. I OH FUCK THE CAR I FUCKING FORGOT TO MOVE IT OH SHIT I got a fucking $50 parking ticket! Fuck! Shit!

So I figured it out, hours and taxes and everything... I worked for free, for 7 hours. Fucking bitches.

Not sweating.

Right now, I am not sweating.

Yesterday, I sweated A LOT. It was hazy in the high 90's with humidity of a jillion, and we had tickets to the Pitchfork Music Festival in Union Park. We had a ton of friends coming into town for the show. Chris and Dan were Ben's close friends in high school, and they came along with Dan's brother Joe and some of Chris's friends from Madison. Ryan was in from New York with a friend of his. Jana and Mikey were in from the Twin Cities. It was happenin'. Turns out that Chris's friends were the sons of the youth pastor at the Green Lake conference my family goes to every year, that I had attended for years myself. It's a small world!

The festival was pretty fun, but very, very, very hot. It was a long day in the hot sun and we were all a little delirious, but the music was fun. Art Brut was probably the best show of the day. The second best show of the day was Sitting Down In The Shade Watching Hipsters. After the festival we walked up to Happy Village to catch some of Margaret and Evelyn's birthday party. We had beer and cupcakes and sat inside in the air conditioning. It ruled. We made it back home, where Chris, Dan, Joe, Ryan and Leah were all spending the night. Some of us showered, we turned on fans and conked out. This morning I tiptoed over everyone and headed for work. Yay.

Other fun of the weekend included: a sweet cookout that Abbey and Jess threw Thursday night, with beer brats and homemade lime sorbet. Had a great yoga class on Friday-- I've been taking yoga at work as my free staff member class. The entire class is basically staff members; lunchtime yoga ends up being kind of a nice perk of the job. Andrea's teaching it this time around and it's been awesome taking class with her. I've been able to apply some things I learned to other situations, like stretching my neck out while I'm biking to keep it from getting sore. I love the yoga. Plus it has helped my arms to get totally toned; Abbey couldn't believe it when I saw her last week. She asked if I could do one-handed pushups, and I discovered that I can. Friday night we went out for dinner with Andy, Mike and Evelyn at a Thai restaurant in Lincoln Square and then had a beer at Club Foot.

I can smell that someone nearby HAS been sweating today. A lot. Stinky.

I heart accents

As I started pedaling to work this morning, some light raindrops began to pitter patter down around me. This meant it was time to haul ass. About a month ago I ended up biking to work in a downpour, and had to wear clothes from the lost and found all day. I wanted to get out of that rain as soon as possible, before the sky really opened up. My efforts promted the Irish man on the bike behind me to ask, as he caught up to me at a stoplight, "D'ya have a mo-tor on tha' bike?"

I patted my thigh and said, "Right here."

Feel a little gross

Am I getting sick? Maybe. In any case, I feel a little gross. For a while now I've been dealing with drainage in the froat, which caused great alarm in the two days previous to my singing gig. On those days I drank water endlessly and focused all my energy on healthfulness. My mucus was thinned, I sang for the people, it went great. Since then I have been feeling sick of dealing with sickness prevention and today I feel like a big piece of taffy or something. I taught two classes this morning, caught up with the mom on the phone, then watched Star Trek Next Generation reruns on TV for most of the afternoon. Since this was day nine in a row of workdays, it was pleasant to have a big open afternoon. I managed to pack up my guitar case and finally take it to the post office; the handle snapped off and I'm making good on my warranty. Then I walked into a shoe store or two trying to find cheap and better shoes for biking than my beat-in clunkers. My feet have been bothering me. Everything has been bothering me. I feel a little gross.

I sang Take Me Out To The Ballgame in class today, which is a good song, but I didn't know what team to say. In my second class I sang two verses, Cubs and then the second time White Sox, but it felt disingenuous. I don't have any ties to those teams. Can I say Brewers? That would be inappropriate. Twins? In support of Ben and because they might be the team whose games I see and hear about most often? "Home Team"? Lame.

There is a garage band in the garage next door. It's a keyboard player and a drummer. They fuckin love them some two beat triplets, man, I tell you.

Hi!

Hello! Greetings! Welcome!

Okay!

I'm here! And it feels good!

I've been really busy, but for the most part, really good. Here's what you've missed:
-When I was sad about the blog and job and everything, Ben and I went out for dinner at Feed, one of the best restaurants ever, and I WON the GOLDEN EGG from the little quarter machine, meaning that next time my meal is free! I immediately wanted to blog about this, and was thwarted... until now.
-I broke a string in a WW class, because I was rocking those babies SO. HARD.
-Ben's family came to town for Father's Day dinner at Treat and to check out the new house.
-Went to Milwaukee to take my brother out for his 21st birthday, Katie came too, we drunked ourselves and had fun.
-Went to Ben's old roommate's Jewish wedding at the Schlitz Audubon Nature Center.
-Went out for Taavo's birthday, and ate at Treat again.
-We threw a great 4th of July party which started with World Cup and ended in watching semi-professional fireworks shot off from our neighborhood streets while Julie B snuck off with my red heels.
-Huge couch fiasco: bought beautiful couch on Craigslist, borrowed van, couldn't get it into our house, tried three times in three ways over three hours, took doors off, etc. Resold it. Almost bought another couch, borrowed van again, caught at the last minute that the people had lied about the dimensions and it also was too big. Found another loveseat, arranged for van, had several failed attempts to pick it up due to her doorman and her building's weird regulations (you can't move furniture on holidays). Finally were able to pick it up and complete our move by sitting down in our own living room!
-Ben's mom and her cousin visited and we ate at Feed again.
-Had my final CCC concert of the season.
-Played on the staff stage twice at my work's big annual summer festival, first with Julia & the Storks, where I debuted my Audrey Song, and next with Congress of Starlngs. When I wasn't performing, I was working the festival, and after it all was over I had a ton of fun with Julia, Andrea and Aerin in the staff hospitality tent.
-Broke TWO! strings in one WW class, since they were all worn out from my many classes and performances and rocking outs. Teaching the toddlers has been fantastic, and each day that I wake up and head out the door with my guitar I am amazed and grateful that THIS is my job. Working the desk has been good too, having fun with awesome coworkers, and I'm very glad that the scary stuff seems to be healing and stuff with bosses is on the up and up, because I hope to be part of the school for a long time.
-Had a rude awakening, by the scary name of Overdraft Fees, to the fact that I am not making enough dough to continue living the way I have been, and am trying to budget carefully, spend little and work a lot.
-Ben and I have been totally awesome, thanks to rooms and our new house. We saw Superman and Wordplay and did lots of crosswords and took bike rides and sat in our backyard with tiki torches and ate lots of yummy things and made homemade power bars and are having a ton of fun together.
-Had another last-minute performance with the Starlings outside in Lincoln Square at a community party kind of thing.
-Won a party at Howl at the Moon, which was an exciting prospect but a total bust, since only 2 people showed up.
-Drove with Ben to Wisconsin to get the emissions tested, made it in at the last minute and were the last car of the day, then biked around "scenic" Kenosha to train for the Bike Tour a bit.
-Had an exciting opportunity last night; I got booked through my friend Jenna with the school's referral service to perform at this engagement party in the suburbs. They wanted to hire a vocalist to sing 4-6 Broadway songs acapella as a surprise for the couple. Turns out they also wanted some country, so I ended up singing Seasons of Love from Rent, Taylor the Latte Boy by Kirsten Chenoweth, Love is the Foundation by Loretta Lynn, The More You Love Someone (The More You Want to Kill Them) from Avenue Q, Happiness from You're A Good Man Charlie Brown, and Hello Young Lovers from the King & I. It was a little weird, but went great. They all enjoyed it and I got paid a pretty penny for doing something I love to do!
-I was very happy to be paid, especially for all the stress over choosing songs and rehearsing and taking special care of my voice. The three weeks of summer vacation when the school will be closed and I won't be making any teaching money are looming ominously in my future. At the same time, the family vacation to Door County is like a shining beacon of joy and I can hardly wait! I'm trying to figure out how long I can stay. As my coworker said, it's tough when you need the cash, but dually need the R&R.
-BDBT: Coming up. Pledges appreciated!

So. That's that. Awesome!