School days

Classes started up again at the Old Town Skyewl yesterday. I've got my hands full. Getting some private lessons rolling as well. I'm both excited to go back, and overwhelmed, and sad, and expectant. So pretty much the same as every first day of school, but I think I have more extracurricular stuff on my plate this year. Although I suppose that has always been the case for me. Classes went well yesterday but when I got home I was BEAT! I'm pretty glad that I still get to take it easy on Tuesday mornings, and then go to yoga and get my ass kicked by Tomoko. She is the best and the toughest!

The end of my brief vacation from teaching was good, and despite best intentions to be healthy involved a fair amount of (awesome) eating and drinking. From a gift certificate dinner in Little Italy to Moacir's extravagant going away party in the suburbs and the tail end of Molly's going away party, from random dinner with Julie B in our backyard to playing a solo set at a new bar for Jeremy's fundraiser, from a pancake-flight brunch will Molly at Orange to giant Kuma burgers and wine and performances enjoyed at Second Story, from all-day coffee at Lovely to Chinatown Chandler cousin dinner washed down by the Handlebar and the Hideout, from brunch at Feed to Manan's goat-roast goodbye party and Joe's nice-cream cake rooftop birthday party, from desayuno at Taco Veloz with Abbey to a Two Brothers pairing 6-course dinner at Simone's for Moacir...

Holy shit! I guess it was even awesomer than I realized!

I know some people like to spend their money on clothes that aren't falling apart and cars that have all 4 headlights, but I prefer to consume mine.

This poem is called "Cold Feet"

It was fall when I woke up this morning
and I nearly cried
watering the flowers' final sparse and sleepy blooms

By the time I stood in corduroys
tasting a bite of turkey
with two hands around my coffee mug

I was ready
for the wind


------



I haven't written a poem in ages but I woke up with one. Also, a stranger randomly commented on my Hideout Block Party post from September 25 of last year, which is now an auspicious date... How much happens in a year! I reread my few posts since then and it made me want to post something.

The poem is about the way Midwestern weather teaches you to adjust. I love the seasons and I always change my mind about which one is my favorite, ready for each one as it comes and sad to see it go (okay, maybe not winter). Summer had me fooled this year though. I love summer more than ever. I love it. And I was dreading its end. In about 15 minutes this morning, I suddenly flipped from feeling heartbroken about the end of summer to excited and looking ahead with that crisp back-to-school energy. I forgot so much about fall until today: fabrics and sweaters and warm things to eat and drink and tights and the light and the energy of cool breezes. I also remembered how I always am so in love with Ben in the fall. That was part of the reason we wanted to have the wedding in September. I was distracted by biking in shorts and walking to the gelato place and concerts outside and the blissful ignorance of living in the moment, but there is something about fall that makes me feel solidly happy. It's good.

Summertime. Since the last post, Ben and I went to New York to visit friends, St. Paul for the Macalester 5 year reunion, Wauwatosa for my bridal shower and Door County for our last family vacation at The Farm. We biked another 150 miler through Wisconsin and each raised over $1000 for MS. We ate al fresco and saw free concerts in Millennium Park and played with trick bikes at Tour De Fat and drank margaritas out back at the Handlebar. We watched baseball at The Cell and in Wicker Park and on TV in our living room. We had a Memorial Day party. We went to Meredith's going away party, and Christine's going away party, and this weekend we're going to Moacir's going away party and Molly's going away party. We went to Emma's graduation party and months later helped her move into her dorm at Loyola. We put deposits on flowers, the Handlebar, Pulaski Park, setup a wedding website, made and sent out invitations, bought fancy clothes, got fancy jewelry made, made hairdo appointments, bought vases and balloons and serving ware, met with the photographer and baker and officiant, ordered rings on the internet. We went to Joe's funeral and met baby Isabella. I performed kids songs at seven birthday parties, five Family Fun Tent gigs, Wicker Park Fest, Bike Safety Fest, and on stage at the Pritzker Pavilion in Millennium Park. It's A Girl played at Center Portion, the Green Mill, Folk & Roots and Phyllis's Musical Inn. Come Sund*y played at Space (my family came!) and recorded at Joyride Studios. I sang swing at the Old Town School's National Tap Day concert. The Lindsy Weinbrg Band played their debut at Folk & Roots. Ben produced a short film, shot two music videos, a couple live concerts, some commercials, the monthly Intrview Show. In two weeks, the Burnham Doc premieres and Come Sund*y plays at Jazz Fest.

I'm excited to play my fall songs. Moving on from "I get my kicks where I can get 'em" to "This fall, for the first time, my daydreams are fixed on the future that's yours and mine."

Now I will choose 15 photos of this summer.

WE MADE IT

This morning I woke up and walked beneath branches covered in bright blossoms and green leaves to have coffee at Lovely. I came home, opened all of the windows, took the storm door out of the kitchen and brought the humidifier and space heater to the basement. Later Molly and I walked until we found a place to sit and eat and drink outside, which happened to be super nachos at Picante, with BYOB Hefeweisens from D&D Liquors next door. In the evening Ben came home and Molly left, and when we were hungry again Ben and I got on our bikes, ending up at Twisted Spoke where we sat up on the roof and watched the sun go down over beers and burgers.

Yesterday I biked to a Kentucky Derby party with lots of cool people I hadn't met before in Logan Square. I won $40 when Mine That Bird came in first. We ate artichokes and then Ben met me and Lara and Steve at a fantastic coffee shop-- New Wave-- where along with great sandwiches, coffee, and cupcakes they have one of those enormous big box TVs from the 90s where you can play original Nintendo for free. In case you were wondering, Ben rules at Nintendo.

On Friday I biked with my little guitar to teach 4 classes, then around Wrigleyville to teach 3 private lessons, to Lincoln Square for a mind-blowingly good rehearsal of brand new material with Come Sunday, and then I met up with my old friend Liz and we sat in Garcia's till past midnight enjoying burritos and margaritas.

This is what we have been waiting for. This is it. Winter is gone. This is why we live here. IT IS AWESOME.


Pretty good weekend of total free time after last week's insanity: 4 gigs with 4 different bands. Congress of Star1ings at OTS, It's A Glrl at Experimental Sound Studio, Lindsay & Jesse at the Beat Kltchen, Baba Man0uche at Cheif O'Neill's. Plus the last week of WW, voice and piano classes I was teaching, the last week of the songwriting class I was taking, and family in town for Mom's bday and to see the shows. Everything came together great, the Beat Ktchen show was packed... what a high point. And now, it's warm out. Yes.

A bandit!

That's what I made out like today. A bandit.

In my voice class, Emmanuel brought me an apple. An apple. For the teacher. Wrapped in a little paper towel.

Jena brought me a piece of Dubble Bubble bubble gum! Yes!

Then I went to teach Megan's piano lesson.

Megan greeted me with an Easter Egg. Hard boiled, and the only two-tone egg of the bunch! It is blue and yellow.

Then when I left her mom gave me two (2) Easter cupcakes, decorated with green frosting, green-dyed coconut grass, jellybeans, and a Peep coming out of a little eggshell that is cut out of an Airhead candy. !

My measly dinner that I brought to eat before songwriting class is now a veritable feast! It's an Easter miracle!

Hello

I had a birthday back there. Photos of all kinds of birthday goodness can be found here: http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=235141&id=512180343&l=505927bc07

I went to Milwaukee for a weekend, saw Fiddler on the Roof at Tosa East. Biked around on sunny days, cried on snowy freezing days. Drank at the Handlebar. Did crossword puzzles with Ben. Wrote songs for my songwriting class. Cooked omelets and went to restaurants. Loved the cat. Had stress dreams about the wedding.

Mucca Pazza is going on tour and won't be able to play at our wedding after all. It is a total sad bummer.

Status quo, hints of spring fever, attempts at productivity, money stress. Planning a trip to New York with Ben in May. I haven't had a real trip for a long time. It will be good!

Working on being more focused as a children's music teacher. Cataloging songs, looking for new ones. Had a fun song-trade with Mom while I was home. Working on planning the concert I'm playing with Jesse in a few weeks. Thinking about thinking about recording that kids album. Doing lots more thinking about doing than actual doing.

You should probably come visit Chicago.

Incredible!

Adeline had kittens!!

(click the photo for a closeup if you would better like to see their tiny faces)

Hey, how was February? And the beginning of March?

Well, funny you should ask. A lot of awesome stuff has been happening. In the beginning of February I was sick.



I was talking online to Janna, my old roommate in Seattle about how I was home alone sick and nothing sounded good, and she helped me to figure out something that sounded good: chicken pot pie. AND THEN SHE HAD A CHICKEN POT PIE DINNER DELIVERED TO MY HOUSE.



HOLY CRAP. It was delicious. And from a fancy steakhouse. It looked real nice in our new white plates.



She even got me dessert. This incredible apple pastry thing, with a separate container with a scoop of ice cream covered in streudel. FANTASTIC. And there was also a bag full of fancy bread from the restaurant, which I made into French toast in the morning. It was one of the nicest things anyone has ever done for me.

Thankfully I recovered from my sickness in time for Valentine's Day. Ben and I had a nice breakfast at Lovely, where we sat for a long time reading and crosswording, and then got ingredients at Whole Foods for a Hopleaf-style dinner of Belgian beer, frites and mussels.



We rearranged our living room this month, as you can maybe see in the photo. It's way better. After the dinner we biked to the Whistler (trendy new Logan Square hotspot) for Poppy's annual erotic fiction party, which this year was also a fundraiser for the Women's Heath Center. Totally cool.



MEN



And then we biked to the Hideout, where their third annual "Makeout Party" was taking place, complete with super cheesy 70's lounge tunes performed by mostly members of Mucca Pazza.



It was a good night. We're trying to get Mucca Pazza to play at our wedding, so we've been trying to see them a lot and let them know how much we love them. Ben and I, seperately, have had several serendipitous run ins with the leader of the band. We also keep seeing band members in their side projects and we saw Mucca Pazza as well. It's definitely helping our chances.... yay! It's kind of a fun thing to type "Mucca" into that "Search blog" bar on the top of the page and see the thousands of times I have recommended that everyone I know see that band. If they play at our wedding... EVERYONE I KNOW WILL SEE THE BAND. YES.

Chris K visited, and we heard all about his recent trip to Central America and went to a Mardi Gras party hosted by the mom of one of my students! Kind of crazy, but really fun. They couldn't have been nicer, and even brought me a sack lunch of muffaletta and gumbo and party leftovers in class on Monday!

I have been doing tons of recording this month. I recorded more songs for this guy, which is a strange project to be a part of but if he wants to keep paying me I'll keep singing his crazy songs. I recorded also with Come Sunday:





And with It's A Girl:









I love being in those bands. I'm super stoked for our recordings. Played with Come Sunday this past weekend at Elastic. Pretty good show, good turnout. So fun to play music I love with talented awesome people I love to hang out with!

Ben turned 27. His parents visited and we ate at Mado where they specialize in smoked meat and crazy homemade sausages, which they served on a pig shaped platter:



Emma also visited schools and we discovered some new favorite places: Metropolis Coffee in Rogers Park and the Bourgeois Pig in Lincoln Park. Oh the sandwiches! AH!

On Ben's actual birthday we ate Brazilian food (and flan dessert) at El Nandu:



And then drank the cheapest pitchers in town at J & M.





Then Molly turned 29 and we drank not the cheapest but maybe the trendiest tastiest drinks in the hood at the Violet Hour.



We had to wait over an hour to get in. But look at those fine ladies!!





Birthday speech after we all sang. "Is this thing on?"



And then we found cheap pitchers after all, at the Innertowner. Check that freakin' amazing mohawk!!!



In the morning Ben took me to "surprise breakfast," which is when I'm too sleepy/decaffeinated/hungry/hungover to decide where I want to eat, and he drives somewhere and I'm happy. But it was a real surprise, because we went to Lou Mitchell's, Chicago breakfast institution, where we had never been and where they greet you with a complimentary house-made donut. Dang it was tasty.





Other stuff: I started taking a songwriting/creative process class with Sue from Come Sunday, and it rules and is totally jumpstarting my creativity. I've got a kids show booked at the Beat Kitchen on April 26th where I will be joined by my fabulous and talented BROTHER. The wheels are in motion for the recording of a kid's album, which I will HAVE DONE by June 17 so I can sell it at my summertime gigs. The money from that will go towards an album of my more grownup songs. I lost two of my private lesson students but am gaining 3 (including one guitar student!) so it works out. I hung out with Emily all day yesterday, and we had coffee and played each other songs and had wings and beer and walked in the light rain. I love Emily.

This blogging thing is hard to keep up with. I'm going to try to do a little post more often because I like keeping track of stuff but I get bogged down if too much time passes. Plus I have this sweet camera now so I can show you all the cool stuff. And, as a reward for reaching the end of the post, cat in a bag.

Internet celebrity

Hey cool I am on the internet again!

Try this link.

We had a super small class and ended up doing a bunch of partner poses at yoga on Friday. It was really fun!

I swear I am working up a really killer three-part blog post that has pictures and everything. It is coming soon.

Blahg

My current schedule allows me quite a bit of free time. It looks like this:

Monday:
9am WW
10am WW
11am WW
12pm Lullabies
2pm Piano
3pm Piano
4pm Piano
5pm Piano

Tuesday:
Day off! Yoga at noon.

Wednesday:
3:30pm Piano
4:30pm Piano

Thursday:
4pm Voice
5pm Voice
6:30pm Private lesson
7pm Private lesson

Friday:
9am WW
10am WW
11am WW
1pm WW
4pm Private lesson
4:30pm Private lesson

Saturday / Sunday:
Probably at least one bday party gig

Mondays and Fridays are jam-packed, but Tuesday Wednesday Thursday I have tons of time to myself. I think I would appreciate this more if it were not winter and leaving the house was a little less daunting. I always am better off when my time is scheduled rather than unscheduled, and many hours alone in my house leads to a whole lot of nothing. Like usually I'd rather take my free time in chunks than in days at a time. I'm not complaining... I just need to get better at motivating myself to DO things.

My general feeling of winter blahs was not helped by some tragic news this week. My aunt Lynn died on Sunday evening, rather suddenly. She has been sick and battling all kinds of physical challenges for most of her life, but her death came right out of the blue during a period when it seemed she was on the up and up. She was only 40. I'm thinking a lot about my uncle Karl and her son Eric and the challenge of grief this is going to leave them. It is heartbreaking. Going home for the funeral on Saturday.

Anybody have tips for escaping these winter doldrums? Or for self-motivation? I've got half of a song I could finish writing, a piano and a guitar to practice, some books to read, some classroom songs I could practice/learn.... Writing this blog post has left me feeling slightly accountable to you, dear readers, so maybe that will encourage me to get more done.

On the other hand there is just so much I could Google!

New dawn

This morning I woke up in a country with a black president.

Yesterday was my day off work, and Ben took the day off too. We sat on our couch in our little living room, coffee cups in one hand and champagne flutes in the other, watching the inauguration from entrances through to the parade. We cried. We yelled and laughed. It was a beautiful, unbelievable day.

I remember when Clinton was elected when I was in 5th grade, but I don't have any other memories of presidential politics that don't involve extreme disappointment. Disappointment in the American people, disappointment in the president, disappointment in the world, disappointment in humanity, disappointment in the future. Now it has all turned around. It is an incredible feeling to be lifted with hope, to dare to allow optimism to take charge. To feel excitement and pride about the American people, the president, the world, humanity, the future.

Watching Ben tear up at the magnitude of the historical moment and the barriers that were crumbling as Obama was sworn in reminded me of what caught my eye ten years ago. Ben stood out in our suburban high school as a fierce advocate for equality. He raged against capitalism and prejudice, and his political sensibilities made him unpopular with many and a fascinating source of inspiration to others like me. Since then I have learned the many aspects of Ben's personality and come to love everything about him, but watching his reaction yesterday reminded me of his commitment to doing what is best for our world. It made me love him even more, and what was most overwhelming was the proof on the stage in Washington that our country was making that commitment as well.