All through the night

This morning I woke up and realized that I had not once woken up in the middle of the night coughing. First time in about a week. My sickness has been gone but my throat has been healing. Hip hip hooray for healing!

The weekend turned out to be good and full. After work on Saturday I went out for dinner with Molly at the Handlebar, where I am becoming a regular, and then went to Danny's with her and some friends for her roommate's birthday. I was excited to be invited because I never go out dancing, although I do have fun. The place really filled up while we were there, and the people brought tons of cigarette smoke with them. So much that I had to leave. It was like when you're camping and sitting by the campfire, and the smoke keeps blowing in your face but you try to patiently wait it out, and then you finally realize that you're in the smoky seat and you can't breathe and it's time to get up and move RIGHT NOW. So I went home a little early, but it was fun while I was there.

Then on Sunday I got brunch with Meara and Alan at Lula, and it was amazing, because it was brunch at Lula. Afterwards Meara and I shopped till I dropped, and then a little bit more. I'm not so good at shopping all day. But I did find some nice fall clothes at a resale shop. Took the train out to Duke's, where our gig was postponed due to the fact that there was a Bears game on and the bar was packed with fans. Eventually we did play a couple of short sets, and Ben showed up and drove me home.

I've been picking up a lot of work shifts to help pay for our upcoming trip to Seattle. Ben and I are going out there for most of a week in October, and I'm really looking forward to it. We were talking about doing some camping in the mountains, but we're now rethinking that because we may not have proper rainwear for Seattle in the fall. Still, it will be a good time, and we're going to go hiking, and see Brandon's show, and play with little Owen, and drink perfect lattes. I think it will be worth it that I had to miss the season premiere of Heroes when I picked up a work shift Monday night. Thank heaven for TV on the internet.

I made it!

Yesterday I had to teach four 45-minute classes and then in the evening I had a show with the Babas. I had been worried about getting through that day since my sickness really set in on Monday afternoon, and especially since it had been bad on Wednesday. I refrained from talking to anyone in between classes, but my voice was still raspy and delayed by the fourth one.... Stayed silent all afternoon drinking tea and sucking on lozenges and even spraying weird herbal sprays into my throat, and with the aid of a nice hot mic I made it through my gig!

What a relief. I hadn't realized how much my worrying was getting me down. I am a worrier.

So now I feel basically better except for an occasional cough. And one huge middle-of-the-night coughing fit. I'm crossing my fingers for uninterrupted sleep tonight. The worst part of my coughing fit was that when I woke up, for some terrible and unintelligable reason, I was dreaming the song Achey Breaky Heart. For serious. So then I was stuck with it throughout my fit, and every time I awoke to cough again later in the night, it started up again in my head. "Don't tell my heart, my achey breaky heart, I just don't think it understands...." And then my brain started to recall the line dance that goes with the song, which I know for some reason. Probably from when we had line dance as a unit in gym in middle school. What was up with that? You can only imagine how much a group of midwest 7th graders loved that unit. In any case, my brain is SO WEIRD.

I'm really sorry I just got that song in your head.

Ben's uncle Keith calls a song in your head an earworm.

I'm all about italics today. They're so slanty.

I ended up working today, picking up a shift from a coworker. It wasn't bad though; it is a slow week of the session, and I spent much of my shift working to clean the office. The school is an old-timey, quirky kind of place, but the kitch and dust and crap that had accumulated in the office was over the top. Earlier in the week our boss took a bunch of stuff down and cleared a lot of things out, and I followed in her footsteps and scraped off old scotch tape and organized and went through the small item lost and found.... The office has the potential to be really nice, without losing its home-grown quirkiness. I am happy to help it along its way.

Since I was working 9-5 on Saturday, Ben decided at the last minute that it would be a good time to go home to Wauwatosa. So now on top of working all day Saturday, I have no plans for Saturday night or all day Sunday. LAME. I will probably hang out with Meara, who is in town, which will be certain fun.

Boo sickness!

Uhh, being sick is so BORING. My fever is gone, and my sickness is now localized to my throat instead of my whole body. Hopefully that will clear up, at least enough to get five hours of singing out of myself for classes and my gig tomorrow. I went to work today, and it was pretty slow so it was very doable. But man, I read the whole internet four times yesterday and today there was nothing new. I came home kind of early and there's nothing to do. It's beautiful out but I'm not up for biking or picnicking (I love the K in picnicking) or walking around. I have some songs I'm working on but my brain's too lame to be creative. I had to turn down an invitation from Molly to do 10 cent wings tonight. Boo! I love wings! I love beer too! Boo resting! Boo lethargia! Boooo!

This is why kings and queens have court jesters. I would like a court jester to come and entertain me now. Or maybe.... A ride on a train? Through the country with pretty music? Or a sunset. I could totally handle a sunset. Or maybe home movies.

I have a strong belief that in Heaven there is this room with big comfy chairs and a big TV, and you can go there and watch movies of any point in history. But mostly of your own life. So you can finally settle arguments about what really happened, and see the good times over and over, and see what you were like as a little kid, or what your parents were like as kids, or what it was like to just be in a normal day at any point in time. And since it's heaven it's real easy to forgive everyone in case you find out something that might hurt your feelings. I feel like watching those movies right now. Flipping through nostalgic memories.

I'm seriously going to be so bummed if that's not part of Heaven. I think about it all the time. It has helped me to put to rest many worries, second-guesses, and wonderings.

You give me fever

100 degrees when I woke up this morning. I'm home sick. I slept till 12:30, watched 2 episodes of Star Trek Next Generation, ate soup, and am watching Sweet Home Alabama on TV. Daytime commercials are amazing. Have you seen this one for Cocoa Krispies where the milk turning brown is like this big special moment between the kid and the mom?

Oh my god, and now a few commercial breaks later there's a regular Rice Krispies one with the kid listening to the cereal talking? Amazing!

I am starting to want some Pizza Hut Dippin' Strips Pizza.

Sweet satisfaction

Totally just beat Bloxors.

Yessssssss!!!

I'm sick too

Just like everyone else on the planet, apparently. I'm in the sore throat, cracking voice mode. Yesterday was more of the stuffy headed zombie mode. I avoided people all day and focused my energy into cleaning; I was too out of it to distract myself so I got quite a lot done by focusing on one task at a time. Now our house is lovely and I just want to sit in it. And play (Warning: highly addictive awesome game!) Bloxors.

The weekend was good. I biked to the Riviera to see Rilo Kiley on Saturday night before late-night drinks at the Handlebar with Jess and Molly. Couldn't find anyone to go to the show with me, and I'm proud of myself for going alone. The show was okay. I was crammed into the crowd and spent the whole show craning my neck to see Jenny over tall dancy guy's shoulder in front of me and through the shifting space between wide neck guy and floppy hair guy. I didn't even notice the hotpants and silver tights until the encore, because I could only see sequined sparkly pieces of her at a time. She was good, like she is, all hot and strong-voiced, but I was a little disappointed that everything just sounded exactly like the record. My favorite song of the night was a totally different version of "Rise Up With Fists," which is a Jenny Lewis song but not a Rilo Kiley song. I was grooving into it but the crowd was not with me; they just wanted to sing along at the top of their lungs, matching Jenny syllable by syllable, and weren't fans of new, different, or Jenny-less stuff. I've often thought that if I was to build my idea rock band it would be similar to Rilo Kiley, or to the New Pornographers. After Saturday's show I don't know if I have the ego to be the front woman in the way Jenny is. I had much more fun watching the New Pornographers at Pitchfork playing with each other.

I guess it's another reason that my commitment to Baba Mnouche has not been 100% lately; I don't relate to the rest of the band. I'm the only girl and the only one under 45. Plus it's lonely to be the only one people are looking at. I have my fair share of ego, don't get me wrong, and it's fun to be in front getting all the attention, but in a bar full of sketchy drunk old dudes, I wish there was someone to share their eyes with. Or to harmonize with! My favorite! I feel like I do my thing and the band does theirs, but there's not much working together. Not to mention someone to have a conversation with between sets. My bandmates are nice guys and all, and really good musicians, but when I told Tony I was going to see Rilo Kiley he'd never heard of them, and when I said it was Indie Rock he was like, "Oh, wow, with the sitars and everything?"

In any case, our gig last Friday was really fun, and I have lowered my commitment in other ways, like telling the band leader that I just can't do every Sunday night anymore. They're still gonna play every week, doing instrumentals and things without me, but I'm every other week now. He recognizes that those guys in the bar are awful leery, that it's a long commute for me, that it's late, and that it's not enough money to make it worth it without being convenient or extra-fun. Now that we're the only band we don't have the crowd of friendly young folks that the other band we used to play with would bring in. Plus we have to play later, so we don't finish till 12, and it takes me at least 30 minutes to drive home, and at 12:30 the available parking spaces are far away from our house, and I have to walk home, take off my makeup, get to bed, and teach WW at 9 the next morning. I had started to dread our Sunday night gigs at about noon on Saturday as we planned out the weekend. I only recently stopped working at the desk every Sunday, and my newly free day was already hindered.

So this Sunday I had the whole day off! Ben and I had breakfast at Swim Cafe, and watched football, and I went to the Renegade Craft Fair, and we played with kitties at Treehouse, and went grocery shopping, and then went back to the Handlebar for dinner with Aer1n and Andrea. Good times. Good to hang out with different friends. It was a fully relaxing, fun day, which unfortunately developed gradually into sickness. It was good I wasn't singing that night.

Tea time.

I am totally on metromix

http://metromix.chicagotribune.com/events/festivals/summer/34845,0,4160918.event?coll=mmx-home_top_hedsh2o

Yeah dudes! Just got home from Celtic Fest Chicago. Show went well; I played a lot of regular kids stuff and then threw in Coulter's Candy and Leezie Lindsay and Loch Lomond. Jenny and Jeremy from Macalester showed up, and we sat in the shade eating fish and chips and watching some little kids playing fiddles and bodhrans and flutes. When fall rolls around and Minnesota calls, bagpipes are soothing to the soul. I left with a few less business cards than I went with, which was good, but also a throbbing scalp, a rudolph nose, and a strange patch on the front left side of my neck and collarbone. Last year the performer's area was in the shade. And though it's cooler out, standing in direct September sun from 12:30-2:30 is enough to do my poor skin in.

Last night was a fun gig at the Hidden Cove. Towards the end, a lot of kids on bikes showed up for the karaoke which was to start after our set. I remembered how much I like playing for crowds of happy good-mood people, surprise surprise. I was especially happy to see them after two giant free mugs of beer for dinner. Ben took me to the Golden Nugget for a more substantial dinner of biscuits and gravy. I like diners.

Off to put aloe on my skin. Stupid weak germanic-celtic skin.

Oh god

I made a little salad for dinner with what we had around, which was lettuce, carrots, sesame seeds and tasty dressing. After I made and ate my salad I picked up the bag of sunflower seeds to put them away. The first thing I noticed was what seemed to be a string attaching one of the seeds to the opening of the bag; I realized it was some kind of cobweb, and thought maybe we ought to wipe out the shelf in the pantry. But then I looked closer, and saw how some of the seeds seemed to be kind of in clusters, and there was definitely a cobweb thing on the inside of the bag, and OH SOMETHING IS FLUTTERING ITS WINGS INSIDE THE BAG FLYING LIVE BUG and the bag flung out of my hand onto the counter as I suddenly found myself located on the far side of the next room. When I finished shuddering in horror I screwed up my courage to just pick up the bag and throw it in the garbage can, and went back into the kitchen with determination only to WHITE CRAWLING THING WHITE CRAWLING WORM MAGGOT ON THE COUNTER NEXT TO THE BAG and this time my convulsions of disgust nearly sent me running for the toilet as I wondered what I had haphazardly poured on top of my salad.

I don't know why my bug phobia always seems like good blog fodder. Why do I make these pathetic confessions to you people?

My limp and my eye are magically better. I don't think it was a sty, Betsy, because it was not on the edge of my eyelid where stys are, but the whole soft darker undereye area that was puffed up. I decided it had to be something in that eyeshadow I wore. Probably eyeshadow sparkle maggots.

Last night was a doozy of a Tuesday that got rolling with a big party in the office, thanks to two off-duty coworkers who just came by for the good times, and one Ben ChandIer who also came to hang out and share our Budweisers. I don't know if I had ever had Budweiser before we went to Wrigley a few weeks ago. The beer I had there that followed some perfect ballpark peanuts was totally delicious. Budweiser is pretty satisfying for a shitty beer. But here's a warning: Do not follow your bottles of Budweiser with bottles of Miller. I think the competing companies put something in there to make them fight each other in your stomach. Miller beers are $1 at The Store on Tuesdays, and Budweiser was there for the sharin' at the desk, so really I had no choice, but the forgotten number of bottles consumed gave me a fuzzy headed hangover that lasted all throughout this beautiful day. I just kept eating stuff. It was one of those.

Fall is here, all of a sudden, and the thing about Fall is that it is the best.

Good Weekend

And it was. On Friday night Ben, Poppy and I got dinner at a new and fabulous sushi place in Logan Square, and then Ben and I hung out at Mike's playing cards. Mike is moving away today, which is a super bummer especially for Ben, since he's Ben's best friend in Chicago. We had a good time drinking Newcastles and just hanging around.

Saturday Ben made a tasty breakfast fit for kings, and then we went to the Hideout Block Party. It's less than a mile from our house and we saw some of our favorite bands: Art Brut and Mucca Pazza were the best, and we also saw Poppy and friends in the Blue Ribbon Glee Club, and The Frames. (Side note to everyone I know: please make a point of seeing Mucca Pazza, someday, somehow. Your life will be a little more amazing.) We didn't make it all the way to the end to see Andrew Bird, since we were hungry and a little festivaled out. Still, it was a cool event, in a big urban warehousey kind of space, perfect weather, kids watching the bands from nearby rooftops, good people watching. We biked to the Silver Palm, a diner in an old train car. It's not far from our house but we'd never been there. What a find! We had burgers and split a molten chocolatey cake for dessert. Since we always find ourselves saying, "Where can we get a good burger in this neighborhood?" and "Where can we go for a good dessert in this neighborhood?" and "Where's a good nearby place to sit outside?" and "Where can we go for a little cocktail kind of drink but that isn't full of yuppies?", we are thrilled to have found the Silver Palm, which answers all of these questions. Plus it's inside a neat train car and is the classy kind of dive with pin-up girls on the walls. Love it. Came home and watched The Illusionist. Remember when that movie and The Prestige came out at the same time and looked like the same movie? We picked the Prestige to see in the theater, which was pretty good and creepy, but we picked wrong. The Illusionist was way better.

Sunday Ben went to watch football at Delilah's with Mike, as has been their custom the past 3 years. I went for a long bike ride and enjoyed the gorgeous day with beautiful Lake Michigan. There's something about those warm days in September where you are still comfortable in short sleeves, but there is a breeze to let you know that fall is coming. It was a perfect day. Ben and I later had dinner at Earwax before my show at Duke's. Earwax is a long-time staple of the Wicker Park artist scene, and is already in its second location. However, it is one of the few remaining hipster venues in the neighborhood, as everything keeps getting squeezed out and replaced by banks, expensive restaurants and expensive bars/clubs with bouncers and dress codes. In the three years we've lived in the hood, we've seen many beloved places go (R.I.P. Leos Lunchroom) and many, many places move in; there has not been a single new place that Ben or I have liked at all. When we left Earwax at 6pm on Sunday night, it was about half full of interesting looking young people with hip clothing and tattoos. The place next door, Bin Wine Cafe, was jam packed with Gucci purse-toting makeupped women with straightened highlighted hair and men with gelled do's above their vertical stripes, cargo shorts and flip flops. Rent is going up, boutiques are taking over and there's nowhere to get a sandwich for less than $8. This neighborhood was in flux when we moved here, which is part of what made it attractive, but it is becoming rapidly unbearable. Bummer.

In other news, my usually reliable body seems to be falling apart. I've been walking with a gimpy limp due to the attempted removal of some plantars warts, and this morning I woke up with my right under-eye swollen to the point of obstructing my vision. Here is a picture of me. I have no idea what caused this, and while my eye is slightly better than earlier this morning, I still see a giant lump when I glance down. And the inner top of my cheek is starting to look red. Maybe it was something in the (not my usual) eyeshadow I wore yesterday? Maybe the smoke at Duke's? Something in Earwax's sesame slaw? A mid-dream punch in the face? I don't know. I called the doctor but haven't been able to get a hold of anyone. I'm hoping that tomorrow it will be magically better.

Gray skies smiling at me

Today was my first day of WW classes for the session. They went well, some packed full and some with barely enough students to run, but I felt good about them and had a fun morning singing with the baybays again after a few weeks off. Last night I worked hard crafting a letter to pass out today. There already exists a little brochure called "Guidelines for WW" but you open it up and it's just a list of 10 or so rules and a couple of phone numbers. I wanted to give the parents something more welcoming and make sure they understood the reasons for the rules, because otherwise, what's the point? It's simple stuff: participate in class, no food, turn off your cell phone. Still, some people have never thought about the fact that their baby needs to be shown how to sing along or follow a fingerplay or be a member of a group class. Or the fact that introducing a handful of cheerios to an otherwise engaged toddler takes him out of the group dynamic, away from the song or activity, distracts the other kids, and leaves the carpet full of ground-in crumbs for the next class. I talk a little bit about this stuff on the first day, but everyone is eager to begin class and anyone who comes late or joins later in the session misses the infomation. I've never had any serious problems in my classes but I do feel strongly about how I want my classes to run and I'd like the other grownups in the room to understand and help maximize the fun and learning.

Ben helped me fine-tune my flyer and I am very proud of it. It is very me; friendly, eager, wanting everyone to be on the same page. I think it was well-worded and I hope it set a good tone for the session. I felt like a good, prepared, professional teacher. My goal this session is to use one new song each week. It's hard to find the balance between enough repetition for the kids and enough new stuff to keep the mood fresh and the adults engaged. Today's new song was John the Rabbit. (Yes ma'am!)

Yesterday I taught a bilingual children's choir. It's a class for 5-7 year olds that sings songs in English and in Spanish. The choir hasn't had a lot of kids for the past few sessions, but suddenly this session there are 15 new kids. Because of some miscommunications, the class was without a teacher on the very first day, a fact that was discovered just a few hours before the class was to begin. My front desk boss recommended me, and so I stepped in at the last minute. It went as well as can be expected for a hastily prepared lesson and a group of kids antsy from first week of school. We sang "Cantad Con Tu Voz," "El Cocodrilo," and "The Lady and the Crocodile." Mostly it was great to be asked, and I spoke a little with the director about working with other children's choral classes.

It was challenging yesterday, and I was nervous, but it made me so happy to teach my Worms today. I feel very at home in those classes. I love those kiddies!

Saved drafts are the death of this blog

I started writing that long post last Thursday, and then didn't have time to finish, and saved the draft, and now another whole long weekend of stuff has happened. Everyone's trying to cram all the fun possible into the end of this summer and there's just no time to write about it.

Friday: Finnsat all day, rode many busses, Peggy Notebaert Nature Museum, Millennium Park, exhaustion of entertaining a 5 year old for 10 hours. Evening perked up over a margarita and Mexican dinner with Ben, and some Arrested Development.

Saturday: Brunch at Cozy Corner. Groceries. Oil change. 3 hours at Treehouse Animal Foundation playing with kittens.

Oh yes, we're going to get some kittens. Or maybe a three legged cat.

Picnic at Montrose Beach, with crackers, cheese, olives, marinated mushrooms, fresh tomato, chocolate and Fat Tire. All romantic on a gorgeous summer night. Jump started a dude's car. Arrested Development.

Sunday: Played the kids stage at Millennium Park for the last time. Bought new shirts at Old Navy. (Take note: spending money is going out of style.) Cleaned the house. Were visited by the Konieszcka family, in town to take Gina to DePaul. This is the family of Ben's best friend from high school. We grilled brats and hung out in our backyard. I played at Dukes, in a weird setup without a bass player.

Monday: Labor Day. Brunch at Meli. (Banana pecan waffles are amazing.) It was a summer holiday, so of course our grill was fired up and friends were chilling in our back yard all afternoon and evening into the night. It was a huge success, especially for a rather last minute decision. No pig shoulders but a lot of sausages and beers. Meredith, Marjorie, Jess, Lauren, Margaret, Pete, Laura, Mike, Christos, George, Jessica, Saud, Megan, Poppy. A hodge-podge group of good-timers. We had the candles and torches lit which provided pleasant ambiance but not enough light to stop me from stepping on a pint glass and getting a piece of it through my shoe just far enough poke into the side of my foot. Nothing major, just a little sting.

FYI: Chicago's Pizza DOES deliver at midnight on Labor Day.