Ok, I'm blogging

I've been busy, and not feeling the blog this summer. Sorry everybody. I have done a lot of stuff. And there are pictures of some of them on the internet! Thanks to Ben (and Jana and Meghan) for the sweet pictures. UPDATE: You can view even more pictures of these things if you wish by visiting Ben's photos here.

I went to Molly's 4th of July party. Ate and drank and watched xplosions.


I went to Door County with the fam. Cooked food and biked and played games and swam and fish boiled and petted aminals at The Farm.


I worked and performed two times and had fun at the OTS Folk&Roots festival.
Rocked out, danced hard, got drunk.

Jana, Chris, friends came to stay at attend the Pitchfork music festival with us. Walking burrito party, rain, sweat, Vampire Weekend, Hold Steady, Les Savy Fav, blisters, party at our house, guitar playing for Jana, big breakfast in the backyard, mild exhaustion. (Jana's sweet post here.)

I played some kids gigs, at Millennium Park and at the Chicago Children's Museum. Take Me Out To The Ballgame is the big hit of the summer.

I went to Colorado with Ben, staying in Telluride with his family and in Boulder with Taavo, Kiki, Alex and Ben S. Hiked, ate, drank, rode bikes, rode a gondola, crashed a wedding.

The entire first floor of our house got covered with dust from the roofers next door via the windows we'd left open for Adeline; it was cleaned before we got home but Adeline had a gray tummy for a week.

Adeline totally rules.

I helped with a scene for Emily's music video that Ben is filming and hung out with her before she left her Chicago apartment for good.

I biked 150 miles in the BDBT and raised almost $800 for MS research.

I drank coffee, I drank beer, I ate late night pizza.

I played music, I heard music, I made up music.

I got kind of tan.

I got kind of burned.

I wore my pink sunglasses.


I am feeling both very present and very absent. Living in the moment has been good but I'm starting to feel overwhelmed by decisions and plans and preparations I have to make for the future. In the fall I am starting a brand new class at work, which I am super excited about, and which is starting to make me very nervous. My standards for myself are high and I want to do a good job, and I'm suddenly aware that I am starting from scratch with no official training. There's work to be done there. For my other classes too; I need to do some planning for the next sessions of Worms and Piano. Also, a friend pulled some strings for me and I have an opportunity to record an album, for free, which is unacceptable to pass up. There is work there too, and decisions to be made: Do I do my original singer/songwriterey things or do I do an album of kids songs? Solo or with a band? Who will play? What instruments? Which songs? I have gigs coming up with my grownup bands, at the Green Mill (!) with Come Sund.y and at the Art Institute with Baba M.nouche; I want those to be good, but I also have to decide how involved I want to be with those groups... There's a convention coming up that they're taking the WW staff to, and I have to decide how much of that I want to attend, although it's the same weekend as the Hideout Block Party where Neko Case and the New Pornographers, both of whom are high up on the list of artists I want to be like, will be playing one block from my house... I am a teacher and a performer and a kids artist and a grownup artist and a creator and a collaborator and a young person in the city, and I have to decide how to divide myself up. I want to do everything. But I can't. Saying yes is easy. Saying no is hard. Saying not anymore is the hardest. "It's the hour of action; I've got to decide..."

Someone just showed me this video. Have you seen this? It's wonderful; cute, and creative, and it makes you feel good. Really- I guess that's all I want to be.