SD 1160–1187: Padam, I hear it and I know. Padam. Padam.
Another month, another eventful Amtrak trip to St. Paul and back with a fun little pre-birthday stopover in Milwaukee. Life. Work. And the rest.
We’re going to Riot Fest again! The lineup is crazy good. The Postal Service! Dresden Dolls! Other bands! The Postal Service! THE POSTAL SERVICE!
Went to my first theatrical production since the before times, which was a co-production of From the Mississippi Delta between two local theater companies I do some freelance for. It was really great!
I spent a lot of time preparing for a big presentation on intro to development at work but forgot to actually share some base level introductory knowledge. Oops. Still happy with the work I did! It included finally putting together a deck on web 101 topics I have wanted to create for years.
I then made another trip to St. Paul to spend more time with my mom and sister and her family. It was A’s 10th birthday so got to help out with that as well. Brandi and I went to Perkins! All the restaurants were closed on Memorial Day so we ate at Dunkin’! I visited the Mary Tyler Moore statue! I went to the Minneapolis Institute of Art for the first time since before the pandemic! Why is the Bauhaus there? I still need to Google that. We saw the new Little Mermaid! Other stuff! I did not see any friends! I am bad at time management!
I had the worst acid reflux/indigestion of my life the night before Memorial Day. I thought I was dying. Then we had sushi and a single bite of green tea ice cream healed me. That was fun. No matter how many trips I make it is never enough time.
For the Amtrak trip back, I bid on a private roomette sleeper car and actually got it. Luxurious! And tiny. I also made friends with a sleeper car attendant. The rails truly are the future.
I left on Wednesday after Memorial Day for a two night stopover in Milwaukee. I did not even look anything up before booking the trip, and it turned out to be Pridefest weekend in Milwaukee. I got to see Alaska perform as part of a generations of drag party at This Is It! Wednesday night and then Trixie Mattel (the co-owner!) DJ’d with another queen on Thursday night, which I hit up after checking out things on the Summerfest grounds.
I also went to the Public Museum which was an experience. Glad I made it before it moves to a big fancy new facility in a few years.
I visited the Fonz. When will TV Land create a statue park in Chicago with Balki and Urkel?
Then it was back to Chicago for my birthday. Andy generously offered his patio for a long afternoon / evening hang.
There were more lots people here not wearing shirts from The Office. This is a terrible photo. I did such a good job.
And then continuing the theme of actually leaving the house and doing things this year, we went up to Midsommarfest in Andersonville for the first time in forever.
And then we made it to the Art Institute for the last day of the Dalí exhibit. I have… complicated feelings about Dalí. There were also way too many people there. But glad I got to see it still!
There is also a big Van Gogh exhibit up now focusing on his work overlaps with Georges Seurat, Paul Signac, Emile Bernard, and Charles Angrand. I really love all the studies Seurat did for La Grande Jatte. I kind of wish they had moved the painting to be included in the galleries as part of the exhibit, but you can’t win them all!
Check out this amazing sketch of the trees.
Why do I make these feel like a chore? 🙂 I had a lot of good times! I am writing this at a dumb, sad, cold, rainy time so am doing an awful job of reflecting on anything meaningful. Once I finally figure out how to hook up the complete MyrthCo archives to generative AI the output is going to be very… not good. Cannot wait!!!!!!
Diablo 4 came out! I have been pacing myself / busy living my best life so am only at the end of Act II still. Also, FFXIV 6.4 came out and this is the first patch in a long time where I have not cleared the new main story quests in the first few days. Gotta really double down and start focusing more on my video game time. Just in time to be out of town a lot in July. Also… there are two trips in September I should be taking but am pretending they do not exist so have been procrastinating on making real plans. Oops.
