Deb's Lunch … and dinner and breakfast too

So behind ….

Last time I wrote was Saturday, April 12. In between then and now, we went to Chicago for a short visit, I had most of a work week, including my annual review, and we had belated Passover on Good Friday.

The Chicago trip was fun even though the weather wasn’t the greatest and John wasn’t the happiest. We took the train down, arriving on Sunday afternoon.  We checked into the hotel, and then wandered a bit on Michigan Avenue. Back to the room, a little email, and met Al for dinner at Cantina Laredo, a place I ate at last summer during the librarian’s conference. It was after Mark had gone home for kitty rescue – our friend Martin who works at the Smithsonian Libraries picked it. We decided it was too late for a movie, and went back to the room and watched Game of Thrones.

I signed up for the Omni’s rewards program to get free wifi, which meant that we could order morning coffee & beverages delivered to the room, as long as we put the little hangtag out by 2:00 AM. So I had two mornings of waiting for the knock, getting up and collecting my coffee – that came in a thermal pitcher, with real, though plastic, mugs – and getting back into bed with coffee and laptop, and doing email to start the day. How civilized. After coffee, we took the L down to the southern Bongo Room. I was a little disappointed with my breakfast choice – egg sangwich on a croissant – the egg was cooked perfectly to my over medium order, but it was really greasy – I think they buttered the croissant, and there was cheese in it too. The potatoes were good, though.

We walked off breakfast by heading north through the legs sculpture. We strolled through the Art Institute, mostly looking at the permanent collection, because we saw the two Christophers – Williams and Wool – at the beginning of March. We continued north on Michigan, and decided to do the Chicago Architecture Foundation boat trip. Which was fun, but we shoulda bought the tickets at Hot Tix for half price instead of spending the full $40 apiece.

We went to Starbucks at the Intercontinental to try to thaw out, and then John and I met at the hotel room, and took the L even further up north to his apartment and I took him shopping at Whole Foods. By then it was snowing – kind of sucked.

We met Linda at a place called Farmhouse on W. Chicago. When we got off the subway, John thought we were going back to the hotel, so insisted we needed to be going east, while I insisted that west was the right way. I ducked into a doorway to shield my iPhone while I looked up directions , and a passer-by thought we needed help – I said we just had to fight it out, and meanwhile John realized we had to go west. Farmhouse was pretty good – farm to table, so everything came from Wisconsin. I had a bowl of white bean & kale soup, that had nicely spicey chorizo in it, and a beet salad. John & Linda had burgers, Mark had trout, and Toni had fish fry. We shared an order of French fries, and they were good, but not as good as Pig in a Fur Coat – too small to easily dip in the house-made ketchup and mayo. Again too late for a movie – back to the Omni, and John and I went for a beer at the hotel bar.

Tuesday we woke up to icey sidewalks and went to  Xoco for breakfast. I guess the bad weather was on our side – only time we’d ever been there that there was no line. It’s been open longer now, too. We stopped at Hot Tix to see if Mark & Toni could get tickets for a show on Wednesday – and they did – Million Dollar Quartet.

Then up in the Hancock Building, to view the snow on skyscraper roofs from the 94th floor. We took the L up to Fullerton, then walked back down by way of the Lincoln Park conservatory and zoo. Tuesday night was the National, so we went to Rosebud on Rush for pre-show apps. John met us. The show was good –  my quickie summary as we were leaving: they opened with a lot of old songs that I knew. And they closed with Fake Empire. I really like the lead singers voice; he has a great range and he’s a crooner, not a screamer. I was charmed by their matching Rickenbacker bass and guitar. And the sound system at the Chicago Theatre was good enough that you could understand the words.

We stopped and bought 2 flavors of Ben & Jerry’s at a convenience store, then borrowed spoons from the hotel restaurant to eat it. I got all packed, since I was taking the L out to O’Hare in the morning, to bus back to Madison, and had to be out the door at 7:15 AM.

And that all went OK, too – made it out to O’hare with about 30 minutes to spare. I got Starbucks coffee and a banana and some kind of energy bar – dates and cranberry and orange, kind of an off-brand Lara bar – at the Hilton across the way from the bus center. Made it to my 1:30 meeting. It was a looong day though – woke up in Chicago, and didn’t get home until about 7:30 PM (has another meeting at 5:30 on the square, but I got the 19 bus all the way home). Then I had to wipe up the kitty paw prints from all surfaces before I could collapse in front of TV. The payoff was I watched the Mad Men season premiere, that Mark DVR’d, skipping commercials. And after going the whole trip thinking I’d forgotten my hair brush, I found it in the bottom of my pack.

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Film fest (and weekend) flotsam: ticket stubs, including symphony; bagel ticket; book I bought at author event at the library

So Friday was part of the film fest, although we didn’t go to any movies. We were supposed to, or at least I had two tickets for The Dog, a documentary about John Wojtowicz, the person who Al Pacino’s character in Dog Day Afternoon is based on. The Dog was showing at 4:15 in the afternoon. I had two tickets because Mark doesn’t “do” documentaries. The original plan was for Toni and me to go right after school and be back in time for Mark & I to go to the symphony, and Toni to go to back to school for a dance. But I would’ve had to leave work by 3:30 – ha, like that was going to happen. And Toni needed time to get ready for the dance. So no Dog. I read a review by a guy who saw it at the NY Film Fest, and hated it, and one from someone who saw it at SXSW and loved it, and watched an interview with the directors – still not sure if I’m happy or sad that I missed it.

I ate the last of the BBQ tofu for supper, and dropped Toni at a friend’s, to go to the dance, and then Mark and I still to time to do a real lightning stop at this art show at the old train station – quick before they turn it into a bike shop. Then off to the symphony. Home in time for Deadwood (that HBO is running in place of the Sopranos) and also managed to watch Johnny Depp and Joseph Arthur with Peter Buck and Mike Mills on Letterman, on my iPhone. They were all on on Thursday, also the night that Letterman announced his retirement. So that was Friday.

On Saturday, I got up and went for a walk to the bagel store. I ran into a neighbor, and we got caught up on what our kids were doing. Then I came back and Mark and I drove to the indoor market – I wanted to buy chickens for Passover so too heavy to carry home on foot. We dropped the chickens & other farmers market purchases off at the car, and walked around the square to get coffee and a bagel and a scone at Collectivo.

I did some work and fooled around with taking no-iPhone selfies.

I went back downtown at 2:30 to go to an author event at the public library that my friend Jenny told me about – the author is a rare book librarian at NYPL, who’s done a book about crafting, inspired by library resources.

Our 2nd film was a set of shorts about The Lumberjack, the oldest movie made in WI. It’s a town movie, docu-dramas that were made by itinerant film companies in the early 1900s; film archives gold. Small film companies would travel to towns and small cities, and contract with the government and/or chamber of commerce to make movies that would show off the wonders of the town. They usually used citizens as volunteer actors. The Lumberjack was made in Wausau in 1914, by the Paragon Feature Film Company. I think this is a YouTube of one of Paragon’s other films, The Blisveldt Romance. The Wisconsin Center from Film and Theater Research got a grant to restore the Lumberjack in 2011. But really the best part of the program was Steve Schaller’s 1983 documentary about his work researching The Lumberjack, When You Wore a Tulip and I Wore a Big Red Rose – the title of a popular song of the era – you can hear it at Library of Congress. Anyways, in 1983, Schaller was in time to talk to some of the stars of the movie. He dubbed the tinted nitrate onto video, and there are some really sweet scenes of  Schaller sitting with elderly ladies seeing themselves and townspeople they remember on film, almost 70 years ago – then, 100 years ago now. And the woman who played the piano for the movies is amazing. In the film, Schaller has a huge jewfro and big square glasses – he came to the screening, with much smaller glasses and balder head.

Then we zipped home, dropped off Toin, so she could go to a benefit concert at school, and headed to Sundance for  Club Sandwich. We had wanted to see it at TIFF and couldn’t get in. It was enjoyable, but light. A single mom and 12-year old son vacationing in the off-season at a resort. The mom is starting to come to terms with the fact that her son is hitting puberty, not a little boy anymore. And to underscore the point, another family with a 13-year old girl shows up. One of the reviews I read said, “Commercial prospects for the sweet, exceedingly slender pic appear slight.”

Today’s the first day of the WI Film Fest. We’re going to one movie, Salvo. I think it’s kind of an Italian gangster movie – IMDB says the main character is a hit man. Toni’s film studies teacher recommended it.

The movie’s not until 8:45, so it’s already been a work day. Into the office at 9:00, to try to sort out what’s starting to sound like 35 or 36 library science grad students who want to do their required internships this summer. Last summer there were only 23 so I was able to supervise all of them, but with this many, I’m going to need help. We had a meeting in the afternoon with the branding company that we’re working with to try to come up with some new logos, and materials to hand out at conferences when we’re trying to recruit students, or go into conference programs, or online. It was kind of excruciating – I think we were expecting a little more facilitation from the consultant, in addition to the branding work. So afterwards, I just came home, feeling brain dead. And it was quarter to 5:00. So, I didn’t send a single email for the teaching event I’m planning for the first week of June, or look at the agenda for the phone meeting I have tomorrow.

I made stir fry veggies and rice, using up some of the dip veggies from the indoor barbecue – cauliflower and celery and broccoli. With toasted almonds and tofu.

Stirfy veg with tofu & almonds

And, it’s already been a week …. Monday and Tuesday John was as depressed about grad school as he’s ever been – so so was I. Monday I walked with Ann, then took my laptop in so that the tech guy could remove Windows XP. I worked at home the rest of the day, and got quite a bit done, but this seems to be the time of the year when there’re just a bunch of things that keep falling off the end of the to-do list. Tuesday morning I had a meeting, then came home, ate, and went to work the polls. I don’t know what it was that I ate – giant bowl of oatmeal with dates and bananas? the Bubbe prunes the day before? the hummus & pita I ate when I was on break at 4:30? – but by 6:30, 7:00 p.m. I was miserable with stomach pains. And, as an election official you are warned repeatedly not to expect to go home as soon as the polls close at 8:00 – you have to help make sure all the ballots are properly sealed up, and take apart the voting booths, and take down all the signs. Things looked pretty secure by 8:30, so I signed out, came home, got into pajamas, and made a big cup of ginger tea. Drank it and rested the warm cup on my belly while I watched an episode of House of Cards and the very last Sopranos ever. With cats to hold me down. Just adding the link got “Don’t stop believing” going through my head again.

And PS – we didn’t like Salvo much – it was supposed to have aspects of spaghetti Westerns, was filmed in ruined industrial landscapes in Italy, and the description made it sound like it was going to be sort of funny – going  to make fun of mafia hit men. But it wasn’t. It was slow moving and drab. The theater where it was shown is annoying too. It’s this brand new room in the Chazen – it can project anything, and has a great sound system – but the seats don’t even have enough leg room for someone the size of me. And they creak, and people were coughing – so the watching experience was as drab and slow moving as the film.

My spring break week wasn’t much of a break. Monday was my first day back after PLA. Tuesday I had to do a webinar – and it was John’s birthday. Wednesday I had to appear in court for my failure to remove snow ticket. Thursday I had two meetings – both of groups that I am co-chairing, where we’re filling in schedules for upcoming week-long events, (one in June, one in August) and a conference call. Friday I decided to work at home, because I needed to grade assignments for my online courses, write  two more assignments and post course content for all the units after spring break.

Since I didn’t have to get dressed, I started work early, and had enough done that we went to see an early show of Saving Mr. Banks at 4:30 at the cheap theater. I felt my phone vibrate while we were in the movie, and when we got out, there was a message from Rach that an artist friend had died suddenly on Thursday. I had just been chatting with him over beers on Tuesday, while Duffy’s band played.

David McLimans, 1949 – 2014. Photo by Patrick Joseph Blough Flynn

We picked up Pasqual’s, went home, ate, and there was still time to do a little more work and watch the Sopranos at 10:00. It was an early movie. Oh, and I bought WI Film Fest tickets, too. We’d kind of been dragging our feet – tickets went on sale on March 8th. We got 9 films, and there’re a couple I’m pretty happy about. I’ll do my usual reporting when the Fest starts – April 3 – 10.

I went and got a leg wax Saturday AM at 8:00. The esthetician was a guy – first time I’d had a guy instead of female. I guess the salon I go to is adding more services for men. He’d just moved here from Chicago, so we talked about that. And winter driving – he just got his first car.

Went to the co-op, came home, washed my hair, and got dressed to go to a memorial for one our librarian friends. It was at the Moravian Church by Dudgeon School, that we could walk to. I’m really going to miss Mary Tipton – she looked like just an ordinary little old librarian lady, until she opened her mouth. She had a wicked sense of humor and was interested in everything. I usually saw her at the Farmers’ Market, making the rounds with two or three other retired and soon-to-be-retired librarians. She had a great smile – I am going to miss that smile all summer.

We were back from that by 2:00, so lots more time to work. Got all the assignments graded.

I made these sourdough biscuits and beef & vegetable soup – with tomatoes and corn, like my mom used to make. The biscuits were OK – they were from a very precise recipe, by someone really trying to historically, accurately, recreate biscuits of the 1880s – pre-baking powder. So he used controlled temperature proofing, and gives all the measurements in grams, ounces & cups…. I figured if these were campfire biscuits, I should be able to use some of this and some of that. I had fed my starter the Sunday before, but didn’t know if it was 100% hydration, and it hadn’t replenished at 76° for 12 hours ….

Sourdough biscuits

I guess Sunday was a good day. I got out for a walk. We had pie twice – bacon for breakfast and rhubarb for evening TV snack – using up last year’s rhubarb from the freezer, because it’s spring. I took the kids to Hilldale, and made a Sentry run, and got more work done on my class.

I made power bars (these are the ones from 2008) for my brother’s annual birthday bike ride. It’s 57 Varieties this year – but he’s pushed it back from March 29 to April 5 this year – so a little hard to get motivated. I used the Heidi Swanson recipe I’ve always used in the past – no fruit this year, and lots of coffee. I made the bars Sunday; I’ll try to get them sliced up and packed Monday night.

Bacon Quiche

Rhubarb pie made with last year’s frozen rhubarb

But I can’t help feeling a little melancholy. That I am at the phase of life where death and memorials are the news and social events. Have to start interspersing, like Rach said, instead of so and so died, so and so went to London for 6 weeks, because they’re retired, or “oh Look, so and so’s got a new grandchild.”

The mail came so late on Saturday that I didn’t get it until Sunday morning when I went out for the papers. And it was all f**ked up. We got mail for just about every address on our even side of the block, 2122, 2124, 2128, 2134, 2136, and 2140. Some of it looks like bills – I know I got one neighbor’s MG&E bill – and one envelope looks like a check. So that was disturbing too.

If there weren’t still dishes from pie making in the sink to be washed, I’d head straight for bed.

So when we got here, the librarians were sharing the conference area with dishwasher soap salesman – EcoLab. Now the Big 10 tournament folks are coming in – I think I waited in the Starbucks line with Penn State staff this morning. Starbucks in the Onmi Hotel, so one of the nicer hotels, and there were a bunch of guys in nice athletic gear, with Penn State Logos, and the  Penn State bus parked out front.

I walked a little further from the Convention center at noon on Thursday – thought I might go camp out in a Starbucks. But when I got there, it wasn’t a very nice Starbucks, so I went and had a cup of chili at the Old Point Tavern.

Old Point Tavern

Walking back, I saw an abandoned diner I liked – the sign still rotates

abandoned luncheonette

abandoned luncheonette

And it became apparent that the Big 10 Tournament is moving in.

Indiana Monuments Circle with Big 10 tourney sign

Illini Lane – didn’t find the Badger street until Thursday night – it’s actually the block depicted above; the part of Meridian St. that deadends at the monuments, where we ate at Napolese Pizza

Big 10 tournament banner in the hotel

In addition to being an old train station, the hotel had all these plaster people hanging around (kind of like George Segal’s – these gay & lesbian couples used to be in Madison, but they got trashed, so went to Greenwich Village). There was a pair of nuns by the turn off to the lobby, and various other folks sitting on benches and of course a train porter. Here’s a combo of other blogger’s shots & official views from the hotel.

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And here’re a couple of shots of Shapiro’s from our last morning (Friday) in Indy.

Shapiro’s sign – there’s cursive one on the side, but I didn’t get a shot of that

From across the street, so you can see how big it is – my shadow in lower right. Meredith offered to take a picture with me in front of the sign, a Shapiro, at Shapiro’s – too meta for me