Spring cleaning

I went 10 days without any alcohol, caffeine or sweets.

It was hard. Alcohol was the easiest to eliminate, though it was the main thing I wanted to cut out. Hanging around with these musicians all the time, doing gigs, working in a social environment... One Tuesday evening after having mid-day drinks at Emily's cookout I was feeling gross, and looking at the calendar I realized that in the past 20 days only 2 of them had been booze-free. So I decided to take a break. I was also feeling full of Emily's cake, and Easter candy, and miscellaneous sugary sugars, and since I wanted to see how I might feel different clean of poisons for a while, I decided to cut them out as well. And then I thought about the fact that my morning cup of tea was paving the way for a big coffee in the afternoon, which I never used to crave... so caffeine was out too. It was a good test of willpower and a good little spring cleanse. The caffeine was hard but now that I'm off it I am hesitant to get back on that horse. It's pretty great to feel awake as soon as you wake up and not be a big crab in the morning. Caffeine was a physical addiction and the headaches were a bitch, but I can't tell you how badly I WANTED some sugar sometimes. I ate a lot of fruit. And drank a lot of water. And herbal tea, which was my only treat. My insides feel good and hardy.

Last night I ended my cleanse in one go with the excellent Chocolate Stout Cake at the Heartland Cafe. Mmmmmmmmmmmmmmmm.

I can't really tell how my experiment affected me though because I have had bad allergies and congestion, which has made me sick to my stomach, and for the first time in my life I think I am losing my voice. This is very bad, because it is my livelihood. I think it's due to allergies, because I didn't do a ton of extra singing very recently, and I haven't even been to a smoky bar in two weeks. Unless I'm losing it because I'm not having enough beer and cookies and coffee. I'm trying to rest it. Not speaking much, sleeping a lot, drinking water and tea... I even bought a neti pot. It's crazy! Yesterday was a hard voice day, with 4 WW classes in the morning, and then I subbed two piano classes which involved hosting "piano parties" as it is graduation week, and then a gig with Congrss of Strlings. We sang a hot cover of the Bangles cover of Hazy Shade of Winter. It was rockin! I only had to sing 4 songs with them, and they went fine, but that was in a loud smoky bar and when we left I realized that my voice was destroying itself and I didn't speak for the rest of the night.

Now I'm at work trying not to answer the phones if I can help it. Duke's gig tomorrow night. New session of classes starting Monday. Yikes.

Been doing well lately. My cleansing time was a good time. Tea with Emily at Bookcellar, Handlebar with Taavo, Meredith, Kiki and Alex, renting Notes on a Scandal, biking to brunch with Ben at a great place in Greektown called Meli, first ever kids' gig at Costello's with Baba M@nouche, Apart pizzas in the park with Taavo & Meredith before seeing Grindhouse at a crappy theater in Rogers Park, great birthday gig in Deerfield on my way to Pat's surprise party in Milwaukee, fun last days of the session in WW with some kids I've had for 4 months, yoga class, guitar class graduation (The Universe Song from Monty Python's The Meaning of Life, complete with choreography and slide whistle), watching Heroes in bed, Earwax brunch with Emily, Finnsitting.

I am reading Eat, Pray, Love by Elizabeth Gilbert and I highly recommend it to everyone. Abbey gave it to me when she was in town. It's basically the story of this woman who decides to reinvent herself after divorce and depression through a three-part travel plan: she will go to Rome to focus herself on the pursuit of pleasure, to an ashram in India for the pursuit of devotion, and to Bali to somehow balance the two. It's wonderful. I am dying to travel though and my plans keep getting stymied. Ben is planning a trip to Italy with his parents this summer, and I can't go, so I've been trying to think of exciting things to do while he's gone for 12 days. I was ecstatic when I found that bike ride, and I was planning to go visit Emily for a few days during her month in Nashville. But I don't think I can do either. Turns out those 12 days cover the last week and the first week of a session at work, and I am not allowed to sub out the last day or first day of class. And then the last week of that next session? My family's Door County week. As Ben and I would say, TBT. In other words, IT SUCKS!

Who wants to visit me? June 12-24?

Forgive the long post. I'm trying not to talk today, and I'm not really what you'd call the quiet type. I talk ALL THE TIME.

Who wants to do this with me?

Ben's gonna be in Italy. Anybody want to go?

http://www.geocities.com/letourdeshore/index.html

Awesome! Awesome!

Ode to my cell phone

Once upon a time, a girl was hanging her bike up on the bike hook. She had forgotten that her bike bag was unzipped, and as soon as she tilted the cycle upwards, her cell phone fell out of the bag and onto the concrete floor. As if this weren't enough, her kryptonite bike lock simultaneously fell off the end of her handlebars and landed right on top of the screen of the phone. Miraculously, the phone still worked, but the screen was cracked and crappy looking.

The girl used her phone regularly for several months. Then one day at 7pm, her phone said, "BEE-DOOT!" The battery was low. She plugged it into the charger. The next day, at 7pm: "BEE-DOOT!" The next day: "BEE-DOOT!" Her battery was dying. Instead of buying an expensive new battery, the girl decided it was time to make an insurance claim and get a brand new phone.

Yay! A new phone!

Boo. Losing all of the pictures from the past year.

Here are some highlights:

Cell Photos

Dudes!

Look what I just found by accident! It's the highlights video from last year's F&R festival my work puts on every year. Check out the third band. Also, Emily's band is rocking in there somewhere with the full horn section. Awesome!

whirrrzZUG-ZUG-ZUG-ZUG-ZUG-ZUG-ZUG!

I like that I work in a place that has a pencil sharpener. It reminds me of the time someone in Jesse's dorm at the music conservatory was roaming the halls looking for a pen, and nobody had one.

I had a dream that my family was on vacation in some kind of lodge and Jesse was supposed to meet us there, but he got kidnapped and they were going to kill him, and we didn't know what to do and we were trying to use the internet to contact people and the phone was ringing but we weren't sure if we should answer it or not and it was very tense and I felt so bad that I hadn't gone to see Jesse's musical this past weekend because now he was going to be dead. Good thing it was just a dream. But I'm still sad I didn't get to see his show.

I've been dreaming a lot lately which is good because it means I'm getting good sleep. Although it seems I feel sore all the time. This is maybe because I'm biking more with the spring-ish weather we're having from time to time. Or wearing high heeled shoes? I don't know. I keep having crazy cramps in yoga class where I have to break out of whatever pose I'm doing and stand up straight again so my hips stop winding into tiny knots.

Yesterday was a good day. I was overcome by springtime and spent the day sweeping our walkway, picking out plants and soil at the 'Po, potting pansies and filling our home and yard with living things. A homeless man asked if he could help me clean up the garbage in our alley and as I had no cash I gave him a bagel sandwich and a banana. Did laundry, was productive. Helped Ben make good pasta dinner. Went to guitar class and then came home and Ben and I split a bottle of Trois Pistoles and got all giggly.

Today was also a good day. Back on my birthday, Emily told me that as her gift to me she wanted to host a get-together of some kind and cook food for me and friends. This idea developed into a lunchtime cook-out today at Emily's nice little apartment, which is on the same block as the school, which means that people actually came because they didn't have to leave Lincoln Square. A lot of folks showed up and we ate all kinds of grilled things and a big chocolate strawberry trifle and a drink Jenna brought called a slippery fish. We talked and played with her dog Hank and pretended it was not dropping 20 degrees over the course of the afternoon.

Sunday was the annual wigglwrms retreat. Everyone left rejuvenated with lots of new ideas and fun songs. That night was another good gig at Duke's. Having fun with Baba M@nouche.

Saturday good rehearsal with Congress of St@rlngs. Saw a great movie at the Music Box; everyone go see Black Book.

Friday my dad and sister came to town. They visited my WW class and then we got some Italian ice. We spent the afternoon walking and shopping a little bit in Wicker Park, playing Catch Phrase, and then we went out to dinner at Lula before they headed back to Milwaukee. That night I saw William Elliott Whitmore play at the school; he was opening for the North Mississippi All Stars, and I went to see him with my friend Kevin because we always listen to his stuff on our shifts. It turned out to be a weird show. The school reeked of pot because the NMAS are a super jam band. WEW was wasted and only played 5 or 6 songs and we didn't get to talk with him at all. Then the next band dragged on and on, Kevin left before the show was over and I was stuck there by myself listening to 15-minute slow jams. It was lame.

Fading back further into the week... Fun at Handlebar with Ben... Babysitting Finn a lot.... Saw Emily at Davenports... Went to Body Worlds with the Chandlers... Easter in Milwaukee with the W-Ks, made a big salad with Julia, sent Mom off on her mission trip, dinner at Comet, rented Millions and Children of Men...

Springtime, keep a'comin!

April (snow) showers

Congratulations, you've made it to April. As your reward for suffering through the winter, please enjoy an afternoon of snowflakes.

I got my bike out of the shop today. When it was 80 degrees a week ago I wanted to take it out for a ride and discovered that I had worn the brakes off. So now it's all re-padded and cleaned and tightened up and running smoothly, and I remembered that

I love it.

Got my hair cut today. Pretty short. Didn't end up dying it red, though a little something in me has been itching to play with the color. Problem is I'm a chicken, and I'm aware that my regular hair color is pretty striking the way it is, and growing it out would be really bizarre, and I'd have to color/draw on eyebrows every day. So it's short for spring.

Last night I went out for dinner and beers with my long-lost friend Liz from the bakery. She is awesome, and we get along so easily, but we're bad at seeing each other on a regular basis. We had a great time and had much catching up to do, but hopefully now that we're fairly caught up we can get together without all the pressure of filling in details.

I've had this really weird mix of busyness and lonesome time to kill lately. Busy with the band, which is starting to be really fun. We recorded a version of Oh Susanah for the upcoming volume 4 of the songbook CD. We've been playing at Duke's long enough that people are starting to actually coming out to give us a listen, and I'm hopeful that our other shows in April (15 and the 29, 6920 N. Glenwood, no cover) will have some friendly faces in the house. Look how fun it is!

Check out the dress from Portobello Road, henceforth known as my Susannah dress. I love to dress up for the shows. I'm getting good at rocking the high heels. Our show last Sunday was one of the best, and nobody we knew came out to hear us. But we put on a show for the other band that plays Sundays and had a blast. Getting to know those guys has been nice. We all like each other. It's exciting.

What else. Been working a lot, doing birthday parties for the kiddies, babysitting. But then I keep having weird gaps of free time when nobody's around and I'm trying to find a way to keep myself company. Ben is doing a lot of work with the Chicago International Documentary Festival, which is awesome, but means that our schedules have been totally off. We went to the opening night reception last Friday and had a really fun time, but then I was home alone all day on Saturday and he was home alone all day on Sunday, and all of our nights and days have been opposite each other. We both had the morning open today so we did get to have some breakfast at the Cozy Corner. But that's pretty much it all week. Between the Twins opening day and my guitar classes and shifting work schedules and projecting movies and gigs and visitors in town we just aren't lining up too well. I've been spending a lot of time with the ol' internet, or with a notebook and a pen, or a guitar, or a glass of wine or a cup of coffee, waiting. For my work shift to start or somebody to meet me or the phone to ring. I get my fun in on Sunday nights and Tuesday nights, but my weekends seem barren. And during the week it can get lonesome to have all of your free time condensed into 3 hour chunks in the middle of everyone's workday. Thank god that now I can fill it with bicycling. I need to always make sure I'm doing enough physical activity that I don't get too deeply entrenched in my own head.

I have been feeling lately like a very physical being, and at first I thought this was rather new. But the more I think about myself, the more I realize that I have always engaged myself in activities that allow me to combine the mental or the emotional and the physical or tactile. Swinging, crafting, fixing things, acting, biking, walking to my destination, playing instruments, baking, dancing. I have been thinking a lot about the physicality of singing. When I'm on stage at Duke's and I have the chance to just let my voice fill up my whole self, I feel really present and solid and secure. I have been playing the piano again lately too, trying to remember all of the songs I used to know, and I end up sore. I like the big chords and the rich sounds that I can feel. It's why playing a keyboard is never quite fulfilling, and why being able to experience a pipe organ opening all of its stops thrills me in a deep way. I've been thinking about trying to really take this further and instead of using my free time to sit and write or just think to myself, to take up running or just do hours of yoga or see how far I can bike before my time runs out. I wonder how this would change me. I can only think it would be for the better.