Couldn't believe it

We haven't really been grocery shopping since our trip to London, since we've been busy busy. Last night I was really craving a bowl of cereal, and I wanted the Cinnamon Harvest Kashi shredded wheat cereal. So on our way home we stopped at Jewel and got one box of cereal and one gallon of milk. I was excited to come home and eat it, and I poured myself a bowl.

And the cereal was totally stale!

The expiration date isn't until December 2007 but trust me, they are soooo stale. It's gross. I hate stale cereal.

Totally lame.

sunshine, biking, singing, beer and greasy food

If those aren't reasons for Jana to move to Chicago then I don't know what's gonna convince her. She's thinking of coming here for law school and I hope she comes because she is awesome! She stayed with us on Saturday night and we had so much fun. We went to Taco Veloz, did some window shopping, made frozen molasses cookies, had a pitcher and pizza at Santullos, and then rocked the house at Piece where there was live band karaoke. Jana, who has been a karaoke host in Minneapolis for a few years, was one of the first people to get up and sing. She timidly started by saying "I've never done this before!" referring to the live band, and then proceeded to BLOW EVERYONE'S MINDS with an out-of-control version of "Heartbreaker." It was amazing and she made instant friends with the host, the bass player, and several audience members.

Amazing. I followed with a slightly sexually subversive version of Billy Joel's "You May Be Right," which at least one guy told me was his favorite of the night. We tried to go to this other karaoke bar but it sucked so much that we came back to Piece, where Ben met up with us and where Jana was able to close down the night with a spot-on version of "Me and Bobby McGee." Nachos at home before we crashed for the night. Woke up in the morning and it was sunny in the 70s, and we waited in the glorious sunshine before having bloody marys and brunch at Flo. Jana is great; since we graduated from college the two of us have grown in similar directions in many ways. This makes for fun, fun times.

Sunday night I had a show with Baba Mnouche. The show itself was really great. I wore my new dress from London and we had a much better handle on all of our songs. Finn's mom stopped by which was pretty cool. We rehearsed for two full hours right before the gig, which was hard enough after spending the previous night shouting in a smoky bar. I'm having a bit of a hard time finding the balance of how involved everyone wants to be in this band. I have a lot of fun with it but I don't know if I'm ready to make it my whole world in the way some of them seem ready to do. I also simply don't have time. On the other hand, I have a ball performing and people really love us. We got asked to come back for three more Sundays in April. Hopefully my friends from the school will be able to make it out one of those times; it would be nice to have a fan under the age of 40. Not including Ben, my biggest fan.

It's the birthday boy or girl

Well I'm 25 today. It doesn't feel much like my birthday except I don't usually wear a dress and fancy shoes to work. Ben made me a yummy breakfast of scrambled eggs with ham and onions, toast and tea. We're all about tea now since we came back from England.

Yeah England! Our trip was totally awesome. It was fun to visit Isabel, the weather was great, we saw lots of different parts of the city and took a day trip to Cambridge, we ate and drank well.

Here in my standard blog-list form are the highlights of our trip:

Tuesday
Gorgeous sunny spring day!
Dropped our bags off at Isabel's work in Kensington
Picnic sandwiches in Hyde Park
Prince Albert memorial
Jet-lagged stupor
Transferred bags to Isabel's school via Portobello Road
Attempt #1 to ride London Eye; changed our minds on account of extreme late-afternoon brightness
Street musicians
Fish & Chips at Chandos Pub
Wandering near Trafalgar Square
Chocolate & whipped cream waffle
Crowds and paparrazzi at premiere of Sienna Miller movie
Nodding off over pints at the Lamb & Flag
Met Isabel after class at 10, headed home
(Isabel rents a room from a lady with two kids, 25 and 14. Her landlady: energy conscious, protective of her space, clean, loud, dramatic, fan of weed. We always came and went with Isabel. Couldn't really hang out outside of Isabel's room. Couldn't put paper in the toilet or flush unless you went #2. Turn off all lights when you leave the room. Shoes off on second floor. We were always on our toes a bit when we were at home.)

Wednesday Amazed to feel awake and rested
London Eye
Guards at the London Eye discovered the pocketknife in my purse; the long-lost pocketknife I'd given up on finding, fallen into the lining, which had made it through airport security in my carry on bag. Funny, happy.
2012 Olympics publicity event
English lunch at Frank's Cafe
Tate Modern
Fun tube slides
Tea in the museum restaurant
Peek into St. Paul's Cathedral
Internet cafe
Indian dinner at Mela
Tube to Camden Town, which felt a little like Brooklyn
Went to Dublin Castle, hipstery bar
Met Isabel at school, went to pub across the street
TV producer in the pub bought us drinks and became our friend
Greek bartender- quite a character
Played a guitar and was joined by drunken Brit singing enthusiastically on "Blame it on Cain" by Elvis Costello
TV producer tried to convince me to come back to London to audition for X-Factor, the UK's version of American Idol
Fun times

Thursday
Buckingham palace pre-changing of guard
Harr0ds Department store food halls in Knightsbridge
Picnic in Hyde Park of food from Harr0ds
Met Isabel, double decker bus to Camden Town market
Kebab lunch
Pints in a corner pub
Ben & I went to get tickets to see Boeing Boeing, a French Farce playing at the Comedy Theatre
National Portrait Gallery
G&Ts before the show
Boeing Boeing! 7 doors on stage. Farcey. Funny.
Met Isabel at the Royal Oak
Master Kebab takeaway

Friday
Ben and I went from the King's Cross railway station to Cambridge
Rented bicycles
One zillion bikes are everywhere in Cambridge
Perfect sunny biking weather with a little breeze
King's college chapel
Bike path by the river Cam
Ploughman's lunch with homemade sausages at the Green Dragon
Beautiful English countryside biking
Free service at King's College chapel, choirboys and all
Ben started to feel a bit sick
Train to London
Met Isabel over crappy Italian food
Pints in Trafalgar Square

Saturday
St. Patrick's Day
Slept in!
Met the landlady for the first time
Went to Portobello Road
Lattes and almond croissant
Bought tea for friends from a girl with an American accent whose family turned out to be from Wauwatosa.
Peanut snacks
Nutella & banana crepe
Focaccia sandwich
Spicy chicken burger
Shopping the market
Red dress! On sale! Handmade in London! Fits perfectly! I'll buy it!
Not actually on sale. 65 pounds instead of 30 pounds. Put it back. Left sad.
Decided to buy it after all. Came back, ready to see if she'd bargain at all.
"You're back! I'm just marking this dress down! The sign's confusing and it's not just you who thought that it was on sale. I can sell it to you for 30 pounds!"
New dress!!
Went to Chelsea mid-football game but couldn't find a bar showing the game anywhere
Watched some rugby instead
Got caught up in post-game crowds on the tube
Waited in line to see art exhibition in East End; didn't get in
Got dinner from the Pieminister outside Vibe Bar
Drank wine
Shots from Shot Girl
Smirnoff Ices
As we left there was a big line and bouncers and everything; we'd just missed the cover charge
Realized Ben left his back inside; was only let in to get it "because of the accent"
Big Bhangladeshi parade of victorious Cricket fans
Free bottle of wine, Bollywood and Indian appetizers on Brick Lane
Fun drunken times

Sunday
British Mother's Day
Slept in again, through early morning POUNDING music and smoke drifing up through the floorboards
Met Iffy's cousin to pick up mysterious envelope
Trek for English Breakfast at highly recommended Alpino- Closed!!
Yummy English Breakfast at Turkish caff across the street
British Museum
Free organ recital at Westminster
Pints at Chandos pub
Sunday Roast at Masons Arms, just before kitchen closed!
Closed down Masons Arms
Walked home singing "Satisfaction"
Watched TV till we fell asleep

Monday
Took Isabel to work and left our bags there again
Went to the Kensington Palace Orangery for a fancy tea breakfast
BEST
SCONE
IN
UNIVERSE
Fancy fun times
Picked up our bags, said goodbyes
Tube to Heathrow
Flight back; broken TV on my seat!
Long crappy ride on the Blue Line to Division
Home again!

So there you go. It was a good time. We were sad to be back, but both Ben and I had lovely welcomes back to Chicago on Tuesday. I worked with my favorite Tuesday night crowd and then went to the Hideout with Kevin to see this 91 year old bluesman named Honeyboy Edwards play with Devil in a Woodpile. Ran into members of the band we open for at Duke's. Then Emily happened to show up! Tamales from the tamale guy! Danced late into the night. Diner food. Ben saw some punk and noise bands with Mike in a muffler shop in Logan Square. Barely slept, but it was a great welcome back to town.

I'm gonna go walk in the sunshine. It's (pretty) good to be back!

Home again!

Londontown

Click the photo to view all of our pictures. Click on slideshow; turn captions on or off as you please. Recommended soundtrack: Good Day Sunshine, Two of Us (The Beatles), London Calling (The Clash), Good Weekend, Modern Art (Art Brut), All Things Bright and Beautiful (John Rutter), Portobello Road (Cat Stevens), Smile (Lilly Allen). More stories to come.

Greetings from the Capitol!

We're in London! Ben and I are stopping at this little internet cafe to take a break from roaming the neighborhoods of the city and to look for tips on a good little place to eat some Indian food. We also were checking into some special fun during our trip to Cambridge on Friday. I'm very excited about that.

So far the best thing about the trip has been...... the weather!! It's amazingly beautiful, especially for London, and everyone is out and in a great mood. We walked around all day yesterday, after barely sleeping on the plane. We had the day to kill until we met up with Isabel at 10pm to head home. Luckily we were able to leave our bags with her, but we spent much of the day in a jet-lagged stupor, roaming around taking it all in. The very first thing we did was have some take-away sandwiches on a bench in Hyde Park-- gorgeous. Then we saw the Albert memorial near Royal Albert hall, walked around Kensington, headed up to Isabel's school and briefly walked down Portobello Road, dropped her off and took the tube down to a stop where we came out right next to Big Ben, meandered around the city center, Trafalgar Square, had fish and chips in a pub, walked some more. We were nodding off over our pints at the end of the night and were very grateful to make it back to Isabel's and go to sleep. This morning we woke feeling fine and dandy and capable of being excited to be here again. Rode the London Eye, had shephard's pie and peas and mash at a tiny cafe for lunch, went to the Tate Modern where there are these fabulous slides to ride down as part of an installation exhibit, went to St. Paul's but didn't stay as they're closing down for the day. Ben just found the city's nicest WC, located inside the National Portrait Gallery. We're hoping to go there later to see more than just the loo, but even if not, Ben gives it a thankful thumbs up.

It is fun to be here. It's neat to see all the Londoners, fashions, architecture. Lots more to do: gonna see a play for sure, maybe sold-out Faust if Isabel's hook-up pulls through, or the Tempest with Patrick Stewart, or Equus with naked Harry Potter. Gonna see a rock or punk show, also organ recital at Westminster. Plus St. Patrick's day is coming!

We'll try to post again soon. Love across the ocean!

Tomorrow:

AWESOME! Fun stories to come!

Look!

I found me on the internet! Aren't they so cute and wiggly?

Happy Montues!

I am so glad that it is Monday afternoon. I have had every second of my time spoken for this past week, and it was so awesome to get home from work today, heat up some soup, write in my journal, fuck around on the guitar, take an impromtu nap, and come to Gallery Cafe to shoot the shit with the guy behind the counter over coffee and a scone. It feels great.

Yesterday was a super-long day. I left Wauwatosa at 6:45, drove straight to work, clocked in 9 hours, went home and showered and put on a dress and makeup, drove up to Rogers Park, rehearsed over half a sandwich with Michael and Kris, went to Dukes and did our gig. It went will. Tony was there on violin-- for me the highlight of the whole hour was his solo on Somewhere Over the Rainbow. Improvising three string chords with the "someday I'll wish upon a star..." trill over them. He is amazing! We also had Mike on snare and brushes for a little extra rhythm. Michael took a solo or two and Kris also played the lead line on her bass for a song or two. We hadn't had a chance to rehearse much all together so our last minute arrangements sometimes failed when we weren't on the same page, and I started Bye Bye Blues in the wrong key and basically blew the entire first verse. But overall our performance was strong and people really dug our energy. We were opening for this band called Sons of Susan which is a West coast swing group, and they especially dug our performance and were dancing around. They were really nice and I'm excited to play with them again on the 25th.

After the show I was totally wiped and I came into the living room, plunged my forehead into Ben's shoulder and slept there for an hour on the couch before we finally went to bed. When I got to the top of the stairs I found a huge box wrapped in newspaper that said Happy Birthday Lindsay (a little bit early). I was too tired to open it so I thought I'd put it off for the morning. This morning I asked Ben if I should open it and he said yes.... Then he asked if I knew what it was, because I was acting so laissez faire about the whole thing. I had no idea; the reason I wasn't making a big deal about it was because I thought it was going to be a fake present, like a souvenir from the Domes or somewhere he had been in Milwaukee with his parents, all small and cheesy and wrapped in a big box. We had made an agreement not to get big birthday presents for each other because we are saving money for our trip to London (leaving in one week!) and throwing a big party on Friday. I got him just a cookbook for his birthday.

I opened up the present and it is a brand new fancy travel backpack for our trip. Holy shit. He broke the agreement. Big time. He wanted to get me something nice for future travel together, and also thought if I had a nice new pack maybe I wouldn't dread packing with all of my being like usual. His plan worked because I am especially excited to go on our trip! Anybody have any suggestions for London?

10:30am feels like noon and 7am

My schedule is all thrown off. I haven't been getting enough sleep, and this morning I woke up at 6am to drive from Milwaukee to Chicago in time to open the school at 8:30.

I was in Wisconsin for two reasons. #1: It was Ben's birthday on Friday. His parents took us out to this great restaurant called Crazy Water. Good food, good times. #2: Jesse's senior voice recital was on Saturday. It was incredible. Half classical, half jazz, all very entertaining, all awesome. Closed with Lucretia MacEvil by Blood Sweat & Tears, with a full horn section. So exciting. My parents threw a big reception with a flowing chocolate fountain, and afterwards took a big group of family and friends out to Frank's Pizza Palace for fun, fun times.

Driving back this morning was beautiful. Big bright sun, no traffic, good tunes.

Baba M@nouche gig tonight. I really want to do an awesome job after hearing Jesse yesterday. It's too bad I have to work for nine hours beforehand. I'm thinking of taking a slightly longer break during the afternoon to run home and take a shower and change. Not a lot of time between closing up this joint and heading all the way up north to Duke's. Gotta get swanked up.