I Say It's My Birthday

That's right. Today's the Big Day. I am now 35 years old--a veritable state of venerability, you might say(thanks, Elaine).

I get a 3 day weekend for my birthday, and we started celebrating Friday after dinner with a little trip to Lincoln Square, our old haunt. Believe it or not, I have never been to a Cold Stone Creamery. I've always been happy with Sweet Occasions, our favorite ice cream place in the city, but we decided to try something new, so we headed to the Cold Stone Creamery that opened up this past year in Lincoln Square. It was interesting to watch the girl behind the counter fold my chosen ingredients into my ice cream. I had the German Chocolate Cake (since I was in a German neighborhood and it was almost my birthday and all), which was chocolate ice cream with pecans, coconut, caramel and brownie pieces mixed in. It was really good, no doubt, but I have to say that the ice cream itself was not as good as Sweet Occasions'. And I'm sure there were around 1400 calories in the concoction, but let's not dwell on that, shall we?

To avoid having Cadence bounce off our walls at home after her sudden ingestion of all that sugar, we walked over to Giddings Plaza, one of our favorite places to let Cadence run around and meet all the other kids who are also working off their various sugar highs. She soon made friends with a boy who must have been around 5 years old. She led him on a high-speed chase round and round the plaza. He finally got tired (cuz she could totally outrun him), and he gave up the chase.

Another reason I wanted to go to Lincoln Square was so that Ted could get me my birthday present, a couple CDs from Laurie's Planet of Sound. The CD in particular that I wanted was Wilco's new one, Sky Blue Sky, which just came out this month. I had already heard a few songs off the album, so I knew I would love it. The other CD I ended up having Ted get me was The Sea and Cake's latest full-length called Everybody. I had downloaded this album off emusic.com, and I love it. I can't wait to see them at Pitchfork!

Well, we don't have too much planned for the weekend. Ted's at work right now. I've promised Cadence a bus ride today, so we'll be taking off soon. Tonight, I think I'm having dinner w/ my cousin Kris and our mutual friend Connie. I need to find a BYOB place for dinner cuz Ted picked up some Tripel Karmeliet for me to share with the girls tonight. I wish I could go see Babyteeth tonight at the Hideout. I know Ted would totally let me go while he stays home w/ Cadence, but I haven't gotten a lot of sleep the past couple nights, and I'm totally feeling it.

Man, I MUST be old.

I guess at this age, I have to save all my rock 'n' roll energy for the one big show next week--The iG0 Audio Emissions CD release show that the Detholz! are headlining. My friend Derek Becker, the manager for the 'Holz was sweet enough to put me on the guestlist and get me a media pass so I could try out my new camera at the Metro, which has the best lights in the city for a small venue. The photoshoot is part of my plan to convince the folks at Pitchfork to allow me to bring in my camera, which is considered "professional" because it has detachable lenses and will not be allowed at the Pitchfork Music Festival in July. We'll see how that goes.

Anyhoo, have a happy Sarah's birthday, y'alls!

Ice Cream, Anyone?

It should be obvious to anyone who's met my round body in person that I absolutely ADORE ice cream. And now I have my very own custom Timbuk2 that reflects my penchant for neapolitan.

The dimensions of the X-Small Messenger bag were a good fit for a couple Domke padded inserts, and voila! I had myself my own urban messenger camera bag. It's big enough to fit my Nikon D40 with either the 18mm-55mm or 55mm-200mm lens attached plus the other unattached lens plus my little SB-400 speedlight.

Now I'll always be ready to catch little moments like this one. Awwww...Ain't they cute?

Three Thoughts Thursday #2

#1--This one isn't so much a thought as it is a little piece of advice. "ALWAYS LOOK BEFORE YOU DRINK." That's right, folks. You never know what might be in that tall glass of yours. If I had heeded this little piece of common sense, I never would have ended up with a spider in my mouth this morning. And I'm not talking a little tiny jumper. It was at least half an inch big, and that's how I caught a blurry glimpse of something brown going in my mouth as I was taking my last gulp. Luckily, I had enough wits about me not to swallow, and after a second or two of blinking my eyes, wondering what the heck was floating in my mouth, I decided to spit the water back into my glass. That's when I saw the creepy critter, flailing its legs helplessly in the shallow pool of water in the bottom of my glass. I'm quite proud of myself that I somehow maintained composure instead of reacting how I normally do to spiders, which is to scream like a 2 year old who's had their cookie confiscated and to jump on the nearest chair. My still-sleeping family would not have appreciated that, I'm sure. I'm still kind of grossed out by the whole thing though. Ted and I are such big wussies when it comes to creepy crawly things. Cadence, on the other hand, hasn't learned to be afraid of them yet, and we're hoping to foster that lack of fear so that we can designate her the household bug remover (we don't squash—we relocate).

#2--In a couple of days, I will be celebrating my 35th birthday. I just can't believe how old that sounds. I mean, I remember watching the show thirtysomething when I was younger and thinking to myself that those folks were really old. And now, here I am. Not merely thirtysomething, like thirty-one or thirty-three, but undeniable and securely in my MID THIRTIES. Holy cow.

I have to admit, though, that I've always felt kind of old. I distinctly remember the last day of school in June of 1980. I was walking home, report card in hand, with all my little friends, when I had an epiphany. "Wow," I thought to myself, "I'm going to be in the 3rd grade in September. Now I'm REALLY old." And at 25, when I became a quarter of a century old, I grieved the loss of my youth and was convinced that any age greater than 25 sounded so egregiously old.

#3--Speaking of lost youth and being a kid, I sometimes wonder about all the events of my life, how so much was meaningful to me in that moment, but now, however, there seems to be so little that I actually remember. What happens to memories when you forget them? I suppose that by definition, they are not memories any more. It makes me wonder what juicy morsels of my past lie hidden in the deep recesses of my squishy brain. What friends have I forgotten, who were at the time so totally going to be my BFF? What heartache did i suffer that I was totally convinced I would never survive? What joys did I relish, not realizing then that the memory would someday fade? I wonder…

See. Miracles CAN Happen.

Well, my laptop survived Tropical Storm Cadence. So far so good. And thank goodness because I had not yet uploaded my photos from Saturday night when we got to see our friend Jozka and his beautiful girlfriend Susannah who were visiting from Ann Arbor. Joe was the happiest I've ever seen him, and that made me happy too because I've often worried over him.

Joe was roommates with Ted @ 800 South when we first started dating. He and I bonded over Douglas Coupland and songs played on guitar. He's one of those people with whom I've shared some very special memories--moments of pure joy and pure sadness. He moved to Ann Arbor that summer after the Infamous 800 South New Year's Eve Party where we first met, so we were friends in the same city for only about 8 months. We only see him sporadically now, but it always warms my heart and brings back some of the sweetest memories ever.

Oh Crap.

You know, it was bound to happen. I bring my laptop home from work everyday, just in case something happens (like a blizzard, migraine, or the stomach flue) and I can't go into work the next day. So I shouldn't be too surprised finally to have my first accident involving liquid and my laptop.

Yes, it's true. Cadence spilled water on my laptop. I wasn't home when it happened, so I'm not sure what the details are. I don't think the laptop was on at the time, and it was in its closed position, but things aren't looking good...

After waiting a few hours for everything to dry, I tried turning on the laptop, and it just can't get itself started. It'll turn on, the fan will start, and then everything goes dead. It'll turn on, the fan will start, and then every goes dead again. And again. And again. Until I turn it totally off.

It's times like this that I can't help but start believing in miracles, because what else can you do but hope and pray or curse? Like how sheepish am I going to feel when I have to tell my boss the bad news tomorrow? The IT guys are totally going to make fun of me. I don't really care as long as they can resurrect the darn thing.

Well, that's what I get for leaving it lying around within reach of a toddler.

The good news is that I already uploaded my photos from our trip to our CSA (Community Supported Agriculture) Farm, Scotch Hill Farm, in Brodhead, WI. I spent most of yesterday weeding the strawberry patch and the lettuce rows, so I'm pretty sore right now. I have to say, though, that it was a great experience.

You definitely gain a deeper appreciation of where your food comes from, especially if you get your food from a local organic family farm. Holy cow, the WEEDS! The WEEDS!! And the ones invading the strawberry patch were the WORST. Crimeny! You could barely see the strawberry plants through the tall dense forest of weeds!

Pulling weeds is a great way to bond w/ your fellow human beings. I had a great time chit-chatting w/ my gal pals from church, collectively realizing what a blessing it was to have this opportunity to be close to the earth and see (literally) where our food comes from.

I highly recommend participating in a CSA if you have one available in youre area, or just spending some time getting your hands in the dirt.