I guess I should get a peace lily.

Thanks for the plant ideas. Mom also sent me an email about a Chinese Evergreen, which sounds pretty good to me too. I think the real problem is the cold more than anything. I don't know. I just know that my money tree and my coffee plant are losing lots of yellowish leaves, and my schefflera is pretty much dead. I think overwatered it. I think also that I need to repot my coffee plant and move the money tree away from the heat vent. The prayer plant from Kendra is doing okay. Could probably stand to repot that too.

I forgot to mention that last week I bought a new coat at H&M. It's black and awesome. I also got new mittens and a hat. Julie B said my new winter gear was "unstoppable."

I am excited for Christmas. You know how some years people ask you what you want for Christmas and you have no ideas? This year I have five million ideas. I want some big things though, and I'm trying to decide if I want to sacrifice all the CDs and clothing for musical instruments. I am also trying to figure out buying presents for other people. I like to get in the holiday spirit, and I'd love to send Christmas cards and get presents for everyone I know and make lots of cookies and decorate a lot, and I hate having to set a limit on spreading Christmas love. I'll just have to do it on the cheap so I can dole out a lot of goodies.

Ben and I are trying to plan a trip to London in January or February, and I'm kind of nervous about having money for that too. We have to figure out details and buy tickets soon. It's hard for me to conceptualize becaue I'm not that much of a traveler and even though it will be really awesome I have to stop myself from thinking of all the little Chicago-based things I could do with my money instead. It still feels like something I am somehow not allowed to really do. I can just.... decide to go to London? I can buy a ticket and go there? It seems impossibly extravagant, even though flights are fairly cheap, and we'll stay for free. I start to think instead about the new shoes/pants/socks/shirts/jewelry/awesome stuff I could buy, or how I could worry less about food prices. Too damn bad, cuz I'm taking these holey jeans to London.

And then I get back to Christmas and how maybe I should ask for some new jeans.

I guess when I get into this loop I start to think that maybe I don't have enough money to do this after all. And the week of work I'll miss. It's not like I get any vacation days. And I think about more important stuff to buy, like health insurance. Well. We'll see. Ben really wants to go and I know we'd have fun.

This computer is making a really high pitched sound that nobody else here can hear and it is giving me a headache. Aghh.

Thanksgiving very soon. Lots of food, lots of family. Workin on some pies. Looking forward to it!

I killed my plant.

I think I have to go to a greenhouse and just say, "Hi, do you have any cold-loving plants that don't need much sunlight or attention?"

This week was pretty good, though I've been kind of sick. Didn't go to see Lez Zeppelin after all; spent a quality night doing dishes and laundry and going to sleep. My sinuses have been on strike, stomping around waving signs in the air and poisoning my throat and face. I have had more tea and water and soup this week than any other time in my life. I had this gig on Wednesday night at the cultural center, plus lots of rehearsals and regular WW teaching and was really nervous about the state of my vocal chords and ability to resonate. In the end, I made it though the sorer, tireder times and was nice and clear for Wednesday night.

We were part of this big performance art event at the Cultural Center called Site Unseen. Here is a tiny description of the night. Our piece involved butoh dance, a giant domed room that I got to sing in, plexiglass backpacks, iridescent short shorts, Taavo Lily Ben Alex JulieB and me (different Ben), traffic-like fastwalking, slow motion, convulsing, body dragging, insect movements, and I got to wear a baby blue BMX bike helmet. The piece finally came together really well. Taavo had invited me to be a part of it, and I invited Julie. We were there mainly as vocalists, imitating an Arvo Part piece in one part as we improvised falling minor scales over a sustained string drone for eight minutes. Then later I sang the John Rutter melody to Be Thou My Vision, first just on oohs and ahs and then with the words, acapella, slowly, while the group of performers walked around the room super slowly. It took about 13 minutes. But it was really fun to sing in there and sounded great. Julie and I joined in then for some walking and movement stuff. I really had fun being a part of a performance like that. It was the first non-concert peformance I've had in three years. It felt great and it was fun to get to know the group. Ben came to the show and sat through both runs. Then afterwards we went to Skylark with Julie and her roommate Brad and Jason. Very fun times!

Monday was the 7 year anniversary since my first date with Ben, after opening night of my high school's performance of See How They Run. 7 years is a long time! We went out to a very fancy restaurant called May Street Market. We had drinks, and then appetizers (I picked the maytag blue cheesecake with red wine poached bosc pear, arugula, spiced pecans, and bartlet pear sorbet-- stunning!), entrees (I had roasted venison medallions in a pistachio crust with chive spaetzle, carrot puree, and lingonberry sauce-- hooooooweee!!!) and dessert (vanilla semifreddo, caramelized bananas, double chocolate ganache, caramel sauce-- g'damn!) Ben had some kind of salmon appetizer and ducky dinner. It was super extra fun and fancy. We had a really really fun night together.

Last night we got dinner at Smoke Daddy with Jess and Taavo. Meaty! Saucy!

Fun for tonight remains to be determined.

timekiller

I subbed 4 classes in a row this morning. It was hard work. I've been kind of gross in the sinuses, and singing for four hours for babies who never met me before was not the easiest on my voice! But it went well. I like subbing. Babies tend to be interested in you because you are a person they've never seen before, as opposed to subbing for like 6th graders who know you are a person that has never seen THEM before and are prepared to take advantage of that fact.

Now I'm at the Grind, my favorite little coffee shop near the school, killing some time in the neighborhood before heading over to Jenna's at 5:30. We're having a book discussion about the book Life of Pi with a bunch of coworkers. We are each going to bring a pie. We are big nerds. I made apple cranberry.

Something smells kind of chocolatey. Thus, awesome.

This week has been kind of nice. A tiny bit less busy. On Monday Ben had a very bad day because he got in his first car accident ever. A tiny fender bender, but no fun! To cheer him up we went to Feed for dinner and then hung out and had tea at Filter.

Tuesday was the normal busy day, but I got to work with Aerin that night, which was super excellent fun. We figured out how to use the conference call button on our phones and for a minute or two, 7 lines in the front desk and music store at the two schools were tied up because we were all on the phone with each other. We went to a new bar after work, had a good time. It occured to me that Tap After Tape was always on Tuesday nights, and I was glad that Tuesday is still my happy drinking night. Not really sure why, but Tuesday is a great night for fun times.

Wednesday Ben and I got dinner at Taco Veloz and then went to Hyde Park; there was an early free screening of Stranger Than Fiction at the movie theater he used to run on campus. We hung out in the Pub playing shuffleboard before waiting in the freezing night for half an hour and then seeing the movie with a jillion collegey collegey college kids. It was a very strange crowd. Everyone was ready to burst out laughing at absolutely anything at the drop of a hat, just because Will Farrell was on the screen. I liked the movie a lot, but as Ben said, it's like Will Ferrell's Truman Show. Still funny but a lot more story oriented than his usually slapstick goofy stuff.

Thursday I made the pie. I can't wait to taste it. It looks very flakey.

After the book club tonight Emily is playing at the Old T*wn School!! It is a big deal. She's really nervous about it. Even though she is totally amazing. It's weird, and so great, to have friends who make music that is SO GOOD that when you go to see their shows, it's not just because you're friends, it's because they are able to blow your mind with their amazing performance and lyrics and soul. I'm really excited. You should check out her music. Buy a CD. The Barefoot Session is a good one.

Biking is AWESOME. Don't forget: biking is awesome. I've been doing it a lot. Yesterday I bought some sweet knee socks to keep me warm with my pants rolled up. I biked along the lakefront path yesterday after work. The sun was just just starting to set and it was beautiful and very life-giving.

Ben just told me that he's going to Indianapolis on Saturday and coming back Sunday afternoon. I gotta find fun stuff happening tomorrow so I don't get lonely. Oh! Maybe I will go see Lez Zeppelin with my work friends! I hear they rock like you'd never believe.

totally solid

Sorry about that long post the other day. I realized it's an indication of one of my personality traits, and that is my inability to skip any steps of a process that I've thought about taking. For example, before I go to work, I like to get up and dressed, make coffee, eat breakfast, wash my face, fix my hair, put on a little makeup and brush my teeth. Then I get my stuff together, fill a water bottle, and go out the door. I usually get up about 7:50 to do this stuff and get out the door around 8:30. If I sleep in and don't get up until 8:05, I will still do all of this stuff. I realize that I could just get up, put on clothes and a hat and chomp on a stick of gum and get out the door, but it is incredibly difficult for me not to do all the things in my normal routine. That's part of the reason why I'm just a little bit late everywhere. It's a problem that I have been working on, with the help of my intensely punctual boyfriend, to both his approval and chagrin. Chagrin because I'm still not very good at it. Lots of days I think, "Maybe I'll just never be late again! I'll reform! I can change! I can be on time!" And then I'll decide that I really want to wear these pants today, so I'll just realquick sew on this button before I leave because it will probably take only about 1 minute.... I'm wrong, and late.

In blog style, I hadn't blogged for two weeks, but I had thought about blogging lots of things during that two week period. So I had to write them all down before I was finished.

I'm a little bit crazy. I also obsessive-compulsively turn all four knobs on the oven clockwise as far as they will go to the OFF position, all the time, even when they're already off. I probably do this at least once a day, and in other people's houses.

Okay, that sounds really crazy. I'm not insane, I promise.

Although my comment to Chrissie in my last post was mostly a joke, I have been doing a fair amount of boozing lately. When you're so busy and working all the time, you feel like you have to make the most of it when you only have a couple hours at the end of the night, and so it's easy to up the ante on fun with some social lubricant. Believe it or not, a lot of the musicians and performers I work with are pretty good drinkers. That's how we roll at the OTS, and that's how we all get to love each other a lot and why our school has such a solid foundation of awesomeness. Well, plus all the talent.

Anyways, despite my solid foundation of awesomeness, I've somehow been feeling a little gross and flabby. Wasn't biking much cuz of the weather, hadn't done yoga in a few months. So this past week I put an end to that. Pulled out the ol' yoga CD and did an hour of practice on Tuesday before biking (2 miles) to work and then back that night. Biked up to Lincoln Square (5 miles) and back for work on Wednesday, Thursday, and Friday. Went to a great yoga class on Friday. Biked to Lincoln Park on Saturday and Sunday too. It has been cold this week, but sunny and gorgeous, and I LOVE biking in the cold. Even when it's only like 30 degrees, if you're dressed right, it's so great. After just this one week of keeping my bod a little healthier, I'm feeling so much better. My body is very grateful.

Last night Ben's family came to town to see a concert at my work, this Acoustic Africa show with some great folks from the Putomayo CD line. They took us out to dinner at Lula, my favoritest restaurant, and then to the show which was great fun. Two hours in a room brimming with positive energy and good rhythms and melodies. Loved it. Got my dance on.

Then Ben and I got slices at Santullos. Then I went home and put flannel sheets on the bed. Ohhhh, flannel sheets. I was sooooooooo cozy.

Hello dudes!

(I wrote a lot of stuff. You may want to read a few parts and then come back later. I don't want you to get Lindsay-brain overload. And what I really mean is you'll probably get bored here. But thanks for reading.)

So, it's been a long time. If you have a blog you know that sometimes you're just not feeling it. But I think I'm coming back. Ohhh, I'm a coming back. I've just been super busy, and I don't really blog at work, and work involves lots of computer time, so then I don't want to squeeze even more computer time at home into my busy-ness. And then you sorry suckers don't get to read what I did that day. And then from the looks of this thing it seems like I've been sick for weeks and weeks, instead of just the few days of ickyness in real life. Well. Now I will update you.

Things I have been living:

Congress of Starlng rehearsals, leading up to last night's big damn CD release concert/party. Full band: Andrea guitars keyboard piano, Aerin tenor guitar and other guitars, Shannon drums, Brian bass, Lindsay vocals keyboards electronic noises, Lexie vocals shaker, Tamika cello, Anne violin, Jack cajon djembe. So it was a big ol band and a lot of work finding time for us to coordinate and rehearse. We played straight through the album, including the hidden track at the end. We also wore masks and were the opening band, Hostile17, which was an inside joke for Buffy fans, one of which I am not. Still, we played only three songs, and they were the theme songs to Buffy, Angel and Firefly, and I thought it was a funny idea. Plus they were haaardcoorre. For this show, Andrea taught me how to use some of her new computer programs and the midi keyboard to recreate sounds that are used to make rhythm tracks on the album. It's been really hard for them to play live with the recorded tracks in the past, so this time I was putting the sounds together live. It was hard to relearn the way the "buttons" on the keyboard worked, like instead of notes of the scale, they were clinks and water droplets and baby noises and cats. And the sound it made when I pushed this C key was twice as long in duration as the noise on the C key an octave above it, and the pedal worked differently, and higher up keys were not necessarily higher up notes, and keys I was pushing down at the same time that would not make a good chord sound on a piano made perfect sound combinations, and the sound that comes out of this G key was not a lower pitch than the A key right above it, instead it has the same pitch and the same sound but the A key is louder than the G key. So I had to rewire my brain a little, which was like mastering a tricky tongue twister. Lots of people came and the night was a great success. Plus I got to walk in and go up to the maitre'dee and say, "I'm with the band." Who hasn't wanted to say that?

I was asked to record a song that one of Andrea's students had written. It is a timely song, kind of a silly dramatic ditty about Cook County government and players in the upcoming election. This guy wrote it and wanted to try and get it out there before the election, so he hired me and a guitar teacher from the school and bought some studio time, and we went out one night and made a sweet little recording of this song. It sounds just great, and it was very fun to go to a studio for the first time and sing inside the little soundproof vocal booth with the round screen in front of the mic and headphones and everything. I have to give this guy a ton of credit for having the drive to take this little song he wrote and hire people to put it together and sound awesome. I can email it to you if you wanna hear it.

Rehearsals for the butoh-style movement piece I'll be singing in at the Cultural Center on the 15. All I can say about that is goddamn, it's amazing to sing in a giant domed room with incredible acoustics.

Subbed some WW. Did a kids 2nd bday party on the 34th floor penthouse party room of a building two blocks from the lake. The party itself was really fun but I had a weird interaction with the kid's dad, who as I was leaving gave me a tip (pretty standard), and then reached into my bag of shakers that I had to buy to do these parties, took one out and was looking at it. It had neat rainbow colored beads in it and was kind of cool. He was talking about how much he liked it, so I was telling him where I got it, and then I'm getting my stuff together, and he gives me a few more bucks from his pocket as a little bit extra tip, and I'm getting ready to go, and he says, "Hey is it okay if I take this? For my kid? I just, I think it would calm him down- (touches my arm) That's not gonna screw you up is it?" and in the situation I couldn't really say no, or at least I was kind of flustered and said, "Uh, okay," and he said great and walked away. It was a little thing, but it made me feel really shitty, because suddenly there was this obvious power dynamic that hadn't been there before, where this guy who hired me is just TAKING something that I own. Didn't ask if he could buy it from me, it wasn't like his kid didn't want to let it go and I gave it to him, just buttered me up a little and then took my stuff. I suddenly felt very used. And it's weird, but being a performer for hire, it's only the people with lots of extra money who are going to pay the big bucks for you to play at their kids 2nd bday for under an hour. Sometimes I feel like simply my presence at that sort of event means that the point of me existing is allowing rich people to do rich people things. That night I worked at this benefit at work, a big fun concert and silent auction and fundraiser, since we are a non-profit. And there I was ringing up giant orders of people with lots of money to play with. Don't get me wrong, I think it's super great that they're supporting the school, and with the parties too I really love being able to do that for people and make occasions really special by using my skills, but the serving aspect of it and the power imbalance that sometimes shows up got to me a little bit that day.

In other news, I still completely love teaching WW classes. Love it a ton. I have so much fun and I can't believe it's my job. My classes this session are really great, great kids and great parents and nannies in there. Triplets in one class. I'm going to do their bday party in December, and I am SOO excited about that. They are little smart sweethearts and they make me grin.

There was Halloween. I performed at the Spooky Singalng at work, a big kids Halloween concert. It was super great, lots of cute costumes, fun songs, collaboration with 3 other teachers went really well. My boss said she was impressed and thought we did a great job, everyone had fun. Thanks for all your song suggestions!

I needed a great costume, hence the V. Hungry Caterpillar. Much of my recent time not blogging was spent creating that costume. Bought sweatshirt & pants, sewed elastic inside to make bulgy caterpillarness, spent lots of time fingerpainting foamcore, and cutting it out, and pushing little holes into food pieces with the cap of a lipstick. It was a great fun project and I was super proud of the results. People dug it! Kids especially were able to figure it out pretty quickly, and I was so pleased. I wore it to my classes on the 31st also, where I nearly died from the cuteness of everyones' outfits. When we went out that weekend though, I didn't go as a caterpillar. Instead Ben and I pulled together Joel and Clementine from Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind and went to a great party in the neighborhood.

Other stuff. Babysat Finn. Had to pick him up from school and take him to his dad's new place, so they had to buy a carseat for our car. For two days I was driving around with a carseat in the back. Crazy. We had a fun time, although the fire alarm went off while I was there and Finn got pretty freaked out. We went downstairs with the other tenants and a truck came and everything, and the alarm was really loud and Finn hates loud noises. It was a false alarm, but Finn talked about it all night and kept asking me if I was SURE that it wasn't going to go off again, and then said, "I never want to come back to this apartment again!" which was not good, but eventually I got him calmed down and I think things will be fine. It's hard to get a scared kid to go to sleep. I've never had to do that before. It made me really sad for him, because I hate being scared.

Jesse came to Chicago! At first it was just going to be him and a friend coming to town for a concert (Jamie Lidell), but then the friend had a friend, who had a friend, and suddenly four people were staying at our house. I was worried about how the night might play out with such a crowd but it ended up fine and really fun. I went with them to the show and then we got pizza and found enough floorspace for everyone to crash, and in the morning Jesse took us all out (!) for breakfast at the Cozy Corner. It was a lot of fun.
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I had lunch with my long-lost friend Liz at the gallery where she works. It was happy. I have been having good friend times and good talks, with Emily and Lauryn and Julie B, and good phone conversations too with Janna. Yay friends.

I clocked in 1000 miles on my new bike. I still love my bike. Every day.

Other: Saw friend Kevin's play, Tracks. Went to excellent bar afterwards, the Hungry Brain. Saw movie The Prestige. Had fancy dessert one night at Lula. Had yearly evaluation at work: I meet or exceed expectations! Things are all good with my job now. Huzzah!

So, that's pretty much all the stuff. Today I'm going to do yoga and some data entry project and close my old bank account at TCF. I have been gradually switching to Chase. So far it's awesome. Tonight I'm going out for dinner and then to see Borat with Taavo & Meredith & Ben. Tomorrow Ben's folks are coming to town to see this Acoustic Africa show at the OTS. Should be a fun weekend.

Yay blogging!