There have been other things going on my world besides the BFT so I figured it couldn’t hurt to take a quick break from the stories and catch up on what else is happening around here. I have no idea how many people are reading along with the BFT posts anyway and that’s okay – I'm glad when people do, but it’s mostly so I don’t forget the stories. But the world continues to do its thing and sometimes you have to acknowledge that, so here you go.
1. We got back from the BFT late on August 10th, spent a couple of days not really doing much of anything other than staring at the walls and reassuring the cats that yes, we were really back, and then on the 13th we started the process of moving Lauren from one apartment to another. This involved a 16-foot rental truck that Kim drove, as she enjoys those challenges – I drove the minivan with stuff from the basement and garage – and took three days because all of the leases in that part of the world end on August 14 but none of the new ones start until August 15 so even though Lauren was moving a grand total of 75 yards up the road she still had to be homeless for a day. Honestly, if we’d had an afternoon’s overlap we could have done this with a dolly, but so it goes.
We drove up on the 13th (because the forecast accurately predicted that it would rain all day on the 14th and there are few things more dispiriting than loading or unloading a moving truck in the pouring rain) and filled the truck with Lauren’s stuff, her roommate’s stuff, some of her new additional roommate’s stuff, and some of her boyfriend’s stuff since it was a big truck. There were maybe a dozen or so people helping out, between all the various parents and family members involved, so it went fairly quickly. Our friends Heidi and Travis said we could park the truck by their house for a couple of days, and we dropped it off there and let it get rained on all day Monday and then went back up on the 15th to unload. This of course was a madhouse of big trucks, small spaces, and balky elevators, but it all worked out in the end and nothing on the road changed shape in any way.
2. There were a number of subsequent trips later that week to get the last of the stuff out of the basement from where it had been all summer and do some grocery shopping, but eventually it all got settled and now they’re set for the new school year. They do say that they’ll be there until they graduate, which we appreciate.
3. Our friends John and Carrie spirited us away for a day in Milwaukee one Friday and that was a lot of fun. John is from Milwaukee so mostly this was a tour of some of his favorite places. We hit the Italian bakery and the Italian grocery and loaded up with good things, some of which we ate for a picnic by Lake Michigan, found a biergarten by a river which also served cider for those of us who don’t care for beer, and then ended up at a frozen custard place, and if you think our lives revolve around good food and good company you’re not wrong. Also, there’s a shop in Milwaukee dedicated to darts, juggling, knickknacks, and ultimate frisbee, and there should be more room in the world for such shops.
4. Speaking of which, the Home Campus Breakfast Crew managed to put together its monthly meeting at our Local Bistro. Kim and I had actually forgotten about it in the rush of events but fortunately a text message went out and we dashed over and had a good time.
5. We celebrated Labor Day with Kim’s side of the family yesterday, since that was when we could get together. We had good food and good company once again, and lots of it. What else can one say? Life has been pretty good around here of late.
6. Meanwhile the semesters are starting at all of my various campii, which means I need to figure out where I left off in my preparations before leaving for the BFT and then I need to get everything ready. I’m pretty sure I’m set for tomorrow at least. And perhaps for the rest of the week as well. After that it gets hazy.
7. I’ve been enjoying watching the Fragile DudeBros melt down over the success of the Barbie movie. The range of fluids they claim they would be willing to put into their eyes to avoid seeing it (seriously – hot sauce?) demonstrates an impressive immaturity and convincing proof that everything the movie was arguing is absolutely correct. It’s fun when people do their opponents’ work for them.
8. Also, the continuing meltdown of the American right wing as it careens ever deeper into treason, mental illness, and outright Fascism, remains grotesquely fascinating, particularly as der Sturmtrumper collects criminal indictments and the party that once tried to paint itself as the supporters of “law and order” tries to destroy the justice system to get him off the hook. The fact that Donald Trump has any support whatsoever is a damning indictment of American morality, intelligence, and patriotism and the fact that he is currently leading the pack of glib authoritarians, soulless theocrats, and performative cruelty artists that the GOP has put forward to compete with him for the presidential nomination next year is a sad sign of a republic in decline. The Founding Fathers would have had this resolved by midnight on January 7, 2021, but times have changed and we’re stuck with him.
9. On a somewhat related but more positive note, the four of us plus Lauren's new roommate Anita went to see the production of Caberet that was put on at Local Businessman HS a couple of weeks ago, and it was fabulous. I’d never seen the show before – neither the musical nor the movie – so it was new to me. All I knew was the Liza Minelli hit from the 60s, which seems kind of a “welcome to the party!” anthem when you hear it on the radio except that when you see it in the actual production it’s heartbreaking, a last cry of resistance in a darkening world. The play is set in the waning years of the Weimar Republic and you know what is to come even when the characters don’t and you know, at least statistically, what will happen to them. It has a disturbingly relevant anti-Fascist core to it, really. Let me tell you, when one of the characters revealed the Nazi symbol he was wearing the temperature in the audience dropped like a stone, which I will take as a good sign. But the show was well done and the cast was astonishingly strong. We went mostly because one of Lauren’s best friends was playing the role of the MC – the main entry character for the audience – and he was fantastic. Nolan, you’ve got a career on Broadway just waiting for you to take it.
10. Everyone should say happy birthday to our cat! She officially turns 19 today, which is older than the vast majority of my students. She’s blind, mostly deaf, and rather arthritic, but otherwise in pretty good shape – she still goes outside now and then, though have to stay with her when she does. She may yet make it to 20 at this rate. We can hope.
1. We got back from the BFT late on August 10th, spent a couple of days not really doing much of anything other than staring at the walls and reassuring the cats that yes, we were really back, and then on the 13th we started the process of moving Lauren from one apartment to another. This involved a 16-foot rental truck that Kim drove, as she enjoys those challenges – I drove the minivan with stuff from the basement and garage – and took three days because all of the leases in that part of the world end on August 14 but none of the new ones start until August 15 so even though Lauren was moving a grand total of 75 yards up the road she still had to be homeless for a day. Honestly, if we’d had an afternoon’s overlap we could have done this with a dolly, but so it goes.
We drove up on the 13th (because the forecast accurately predicted that it would rain all day on the 14th and there are few things more dispiriting than loading or unloading a moving truck in the pouring rain) and filled the truck with Lauren’s stuff, her roommate’s stuff, some of her new additional roommate’s stuff, and some of her boyfriend’s stuff since it was a big truck. There were maybe a dozen or so people helping out, between all the various parents and family members involved, so it went fairly quickly. Our friends Heidi and Travis said we could park the truck by their house for a couple of days, and we dropped it off there and let it get rained on all day Monday and then went back up on the 15th to unload. This of course was a madhouse of big trucks, small spaces, and balky elevators, but it all worked out in the end and nothing on the road changed shape in any way.
2. There were a number of subsequent trips later that week to get the last of the stuff out of the basement from where it had been all summer and do some grocery shopping, but eventually it all got settled and now they’re set for the new school year. They do say that they’ll be there until they graduate, which we appreciate.
3. Our friends John and Carrie spirited us away for a day in Milwaukee one Friday and that was a lot of fun. John is from Milwaukee so mostly this was a tour of some of his favorite places. We hit the Italian bakery and the Italian grocery and loaded up with good things, some of which we ate for a picnic by Lake Michigan, found a biergarten by a river which also served cider for those of us who don’t care for beer, and then ended up at a frozen custard place, and if you think our lives revolve around good food and good company you’re not wrong. Also, there’s a shop in Milwaukee dedicated to darts, juggling, knickknacks, and ultimate frisbee, and there should be more room in the world for such shops.
4. Speaking of which, the Home Campus Breakfast Crew managed to put together its monthly meeting at our Local Bistro. Kim and I had actually forgotten about it in the rush of events but fortunately a text message went out and we dashed over and had a good time.
5. We celebrated Labor Day with Kim’s side of the family yesterday, since that was when we could get together. We had good food and good company once again, and lots of it. What else can one say? Life has been pretty good around here of late.
6. Meanwhile the semesters are starting at all of my various campii, which means I need to figure out where I left off in my preparations before leaving for the BFT and then I need to get everything ready. I’m pretty sure I’m set for tomorrow at least. And perhaps for the rest of the week as well. After that it gets hazy.
7. I’ve been enjoying watching the Fragile DudeBros melt down over the success of the Barbie movie. The range of fluids they claim they would be willing to put into their eyes to avoid seeing it (seriously – hot sauce?) demonstrates an impressive immaturity and convincing proof that everything the movie was arguing is absolutely correct. It’s fun when people do their opponents’ work for them.
8. Also, the continuing meltdown of the American right wing as it careens ever deeper into treason, mental illness, and outright Fascism, remains grotesquely fascinating, particularly as der Sturmtrumper collects criminal indictments and the party that once tried to paint itself as the supporters of “law and order” tries to destroy the justice system to get him off the hook. The fact that Donald Trump has any support whatsoever is a damning indictment of American morality, intelligence, and patriotism and the fact that he is currently leading the pack of glib authoritarians, soulless theocrats, and performative cruelty artists that the GOP has put forward to compete with him for the presidential nomination next year is a sad sign of a republic in decline. The Founding Fathers would have had this resolved by midnight on January 7, 2021, but times have changed and we’re stuck with him.
9. On a somewhat related but more positive note, the four of us plus Lauren's new roommate Anita went to see the production of Caberet that was put on at Local Businessman HS a couple of weeks ago, and it was fabulous. I’d never seen the show before – neither the musical nor the movie – so it was new to me. All I knew was the Liza Minelli hit from the 60s, which seems kind of a “welcome to the party!” anthem when you hear it on the radio except that when you see it in the actual production it’s heartbreaking, a last cry of resistance in a darkening world. The play is set in the waning years of the Weimar Republic and you know what is to come even when the characters don’t and you know, at least statistically, what will happen to them. It has a disturbingly relevant anti-Fascist core to it, really. Let me tell you, when one of the characters revealed the Nazi symbol he was wearing the temperature in the audience dropped like a stone, which I will take as a good sign. But the show was well done and the cast was astonishingly strong. We went mostly because one of Lauren’s best friends was playing the role of the MC – the main entry character for the audience – and he was fantastic. Nolan, you’ve got a career on Broadway just waiting for you to take it.
10. Everyone should say happy birthday to our cat! She officially turns 19 today, which is older than the vast majority of my students. She’s blind, mostly deaf, and rather arthritic, but otherwise in pretty good shape – she still goes outside now and then, though have to stay with her when she does. She may yet make it to 20 at this rate. We can hope.
11. Also, apparently this is the 15th anniversary of 4 Quarters, 10 Dimes. Happy blogiversary to me! Who knew this would still be going on? Thank you all for sticking around.
Just letting you know that I’ve been following your trip blogs. It sounds like a fantastic trip!
ReplyDeleteWe saw Cabaret too and Nolan was amazing! Hopefully he can make it to Broadway! We saw the movie when it first came out eons ago and although I can’t remember it I can remember talking about for days afterwards. Aging minds are certainly interesting.
Happy birthday to your cat and happy 15th anniversary to the blog. Hope there’s celebrations all around.
Glad to have you along! :)
ReplyDeleteNolan is one of the most gifted physical comic actors I've ever seen in person, and watching him incrementally shift from "entertaining clown" to "deranged clown" over the course of the second act was astonishing. I hope he gets all the recognition he deserves.
Thanks!
Surely 'campi,' no? But - as you would guess - also following, albeit belatedly.
ReplyDeleteQuite possibly! Most of my Latin comes from the University of Making Things Up As You Go so it would not surprise me in the least that I got that one wrong. :)
ReplyDeleteGlad to have you following along! It's been fun writing the stories down. I'm kind of stuck right now because our time in Prague was so circular that finding a way to tell the stories that makes sense even to me has been difficult. I'll get there!