Summer Weekends II

Yesterday was a busy day in Minneapolis--Rock the Garden, Twins Game, and the Stone Arch Festival. But it rained all day, so David and I pretty much stayed inside and ate (a fruit pizza with a shortbread crust for brunch, and egg, potato, and black bean burritos in homemade tortillas for lunch). We did get out for a film in the evening: Super 8, which I thought hit the summer-movie mark solidly, with a deft mix of thrills, impressive acting, nostalgic period details, and a great soundtrack.

Today, though, was warmer and dryer, so we biked to the Birchwood for brunch and then over to the second day of the festival. It was pretty crowded--bigger than I remember from my first year here.* David spotted a few friends we hadn't seen in several weeks, though, so that was a highlight. The other highlight was walking down to the north/east bank of the Mississippi at the base of the Stone Arch bridge. I'd never been down there, and the views of the bottom of the massive bridge, and the city skyline across the river, were definitely worth the climb down (and back up) the humidity- and moss-slicked wooden steps on legs sore from this morning's hot yoga.



*Wow; rereading that entry was a weird blast from the past.

Summer Weekends

Arnold Palmers--the drink of summer!

David at Old Arizona

Me at Old Arizona

Northern Spark
Last weekend was the Northern Spark Festival, a dusk-to-dawn celebration of art held at various locations around the Cities. It was also unbelievably gorgeous, with cloudless skies and temps in the lower 80s. David and I biked to one of our favorite patios (Old Arizona) for dinner, then to another favorite patio (Black Forest) a few blocks away to meet up with a friend and plan our festival approach.

Plotting our festival course

The three of us biked downtown, arriving at the Stone Arch Bridge in time for the opening festivities. Minneapolitans love their summer and their summer festivals, and everything we visited--outdoor installations, interactive pieces, performances, galleries, and more--was extremely well-attended.

We headed for home around 1:00 a.m., after the line to a piece we'd hoped to see downtown was too long to be borne in our exhausted state, but things appeared to still be hopping. We only made it to a fraction of the venues, but what we saw was very engaging, made even better by the shared experience of seeing it against the background of the city, shared with such a large community.

On the Stone Arch Bridge

Crowds at the opening ceremony

City lights reflected in the Mississippi

Open Streets

Pedestrian bridge on the just-established River Lake Greenway

This weekend was another inaugural festival, the Open Streets "ciclovía" on 20 blocks of Lyndale Avenue. For four hours, between 10:00 and 2:00, those two miles were blocked to automobile traffic and opened to throngs of bikers, skaters, and walkers--in surprisingly large crowds, especially as today was quite cool and overcast.

My new T-shirt

Along that stretch, restaurants, boutiques, and cafes opened their doors and set up sidewalk displays and there were performances by musicians and artists. There were also booths and games by various groups, including a reverse race (who could go most slowly without putting a foot down) and homemade ice cream (churned by pedal power on the back of a bike riding the strip!) by our beloved Nice Ride.

David by the rolling bandstand

For such a simple concept, it was almost unbelievably fun. Hipsters, dirty hippies, young families, seniors on cruisers, and everything in between swarmed the streets together, mingling happily with the officers who guarded the

At the southern end of the strip

intersections. We saw a chain of six recumbent bikes, linked to each other and peddling happily along like a many-wheeled caterpillar, and two bikes pulling a platform with a band performing live music--a piano, drums, and bass! Getting to ride along such a fun part of the city, without having to dodge cars, and surrounded by so many fellow citizens and bikers, filled me with so much happiness that I may have gotten a wee bit teary.

Hydrant drinking fountain

As I told David, it was two of the things I enjoy most about running marathons--getting to see the city from the unusual and intriguing viewpoint of the street, and the sense of shared community--but without the pain of actually having to run.


























Pictures from yesterday (which was sunnier and warmer!)

Brunch at the Aster Cafe (patio!)

David and his bike at the downtown farmers' market post-brunch

Snapping the city skyline on the ride home

Heading home after an evening ride

Leaving Europe

So I've definitely fallen off the update wagon recently, which is kind of a pity since the tales are always fresher and more interesting when they're recent--and it's lots less work for me to remember exactly what happened!

In fact, the past few days have been rather a blur, between my birthday in Florence, a whirlwind Venice visit and then overnight train to Linz, the Ars Electronica Festival itself, and then getting myself back here to Frankfurt. I'll post

more details later, but for now I'm at the gate for my flight home, again via Reykjavik (though with a far shorter layover), and we'll be boarding momentarily.

It's going to be a long day; my flight out of here is at 2:00 p.m., and although I'm scheduled to arrive in Mpls at 5:55 p.m. tonight, I'll be spending much more than four hours in the air! School--and with it my TA gig--starts tomorrow, so it should be an interesting week.

Year in Review: 2008

Remember this? I know the cool kids are doing a new meme, which I'll probably get to eventually, but for now I'm sticking with this old one--you know, for continuity.

1) Where did you begin 2007?
On Deanna's couch!

2) What was your status by Valentine's Day?
Thinking we were working things out, but mistaken.

3) Did you travel?
To Vegas and Palm Springs for Spring Break; to L.A. for Jeni's wedding; to Seattle for my 10-year reunion; to Honolulu for vacation; to DHS and Yucca for the summer (with San Diego and Hollywood); to Lincoln for kicks; to Chicago for Thanksgiving; from Palm Springs to Seattle for the holidays.

4) Did you lose someone or something you love?
Well, yes--not least, the Bruise. In retrospect, I probably kind of loved it.

5) Did you have to go to the hospital?
This year, no, thankfully.

6) Did you have any encounters with the police?
A cute cop came to make sure I was okay when the Bruise broke down. And one who looked almost young enough to be my son came to check us out on this last trip.

7) Did you start dating someone new?
No, but I did accept a few dates--an accomplishment for me.

8) What did you purchase that was over $1000?
Again, no objects. But, again, lots of school fees and rent. Lots of travel, if I count everything.

9) Did you know anybody who got married?
Yes! Jeni got married... and probably other people, though I can't remember them now.

10) Did you get in any car accidents?
Yes. I'll probably write about that later.

11) Did you attend any sporting events?
Hmmmm. Does the Twin Cities Marathon count? I was definitely there.

12) Did you move anywhere?
No moves!

13) Did you keep your new year's resolution?
Again, I don't think I made any.

14) What concerts/shows did you go to?
Nice Work Leroy, Mel Gibson and the Pants (sort of), Abraham... could that be all? A bunch of theater, especially Fringe Festival.

15) What movies did you go see in the theater?
Michael Clayton; Atonement; The Golden Compass; Be Kind, Rewind; Iron Man (x2); Made of Honor (cringe; would expunge if possible...); Shine a Light; Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull; Sex and the City; Mongol; Get Smart; Wall-E; Wanted; The Dark Knight (x2); Transsiberian (walked out); Pineapple Express; Tropic Thunder; Vicky Christina Barcelona; Burn After Reading; Quantum of Solace (x2); Australia. (Maybe more? I had help from this list.)

16) Did your hair color change?
Several semi-permanent shades, and Feria permanent once, with rather disappointing results.

17) Did you get any taller?
Nope--still 5'6.75" if I stand up really straight.

18) Describe your birthday?
Barrio and Town Talk downtown with a crowd; Labor Day festivities later in the weekend.

19) Did you get any new pets?
None.

20) What has been your favorite moment?
It might actually have been seeing my friends at about mile 17 on the TCM, holding a banner with my name. That was pretty amazing.

21) What's something you learned about yourself?
I can totally live without a car! (In Minneapolis, anyway...)

22) What has been your biggest worry?
Probably passing my PhD exams. Thank goodness that's over!

23) What was your best month?
Last year, I guess December trumped. This year, probably June--Hawaii! Other fun things, despite studying for my prelims!

24) What music will you remember 2007 by?
Probably my brother's music, again--Given the Time and Past the Future.

25) Who has been your best drinking buddy?
E? L? Seester?

26) Have you had to call the police on anyone?
I called the police when the Bruise was hit.

27) Have you gone skiing?
None this year, sadly.

28) Did you miss work due to illness?
Not that I recall.

29) Any like/love interests?
My lips are sealed.

30) Get anything new?
Some clothes--notably, a few jackets and a pair of rockin' boots. Ooh, and a new-to-me camera!

Anniversary

One year ago today, I was pedaling to a Fringe show when I experienced an unexpected change of plans. The short version of the story is that I crashed my borrowed bike (it was fine!), split open my chin and broke a tooth (I was lucky!), and got my first stitches (seven!).

Today, in honor of that anniversary, I've posted a gallery of the pictures I took in the following few days, as well as a few of my chin today. You do not have to look at those pictures! Most of them aren't bad... but I was kind of fascinated by the stitches in my chin, so consider yourselves warned.

So far, this year's Fringe Festival has been far superior. Despite the fact that I'm taking my exams, a friend and I have made it to four shows so far, and plan to see another one or two on Sunday. Given last year's experience (I didn't even make it to the show, but it was apparently so awful that the friends who did claim they would rather have been in the ER...), I might not even have gone this year, had I not met one of the actresses on my way home from the airport last week.

We were attempting to buy light rail tickets from the kiosks as the airport, and sort of chatting as we tried different things. When I had my ticket, I finally actually looked up at her, and realized we had the same hair. "We have the same hair!" I said. She laughed and agreed, and we chatted as we took the elevator down to the platform (both of us rolling massive suitcases); as we stood waiting for the train; and on the train until my stop. It was kind of a surreal experience, actually: not only did we have the same hair, we were almost exactly the same age, had traveled widely, were in graduate school (she was just about to start), were physically active and quite slim, and were adventurers. Talking to her, with her big blue eyes and beautiful skin, was like talking to a prettier, alternate-universe me.

Anyway, she was doing a one-woman show at Fringe, and she gave me a few of her cards, which I offered to put up in the art history department. A friend and I went Saturday night, and loved it! It was funny and engaging and not nearly as weird as some of the one-woman shows I've attended (at the last one I went to, the performer [a classmate, though not in my department!] got naked). My friend and I liked "Leaving Normal" so much that we were inspired to go to a dance show* Sunday (fantastic) and two shows yesterday, one a non-stop laugh fest performed by grown men dressed as squirrels, and one a brilliantly awkward and exquisitely strange show by a guy we'd met at the festival.

Fringe is just one more reason to love Minneapolis.

*There's a video on this page; if you're pressed for time, start at 1:44. I watched it again just now, and I totally want to go see the show again. Last night as I was entering the building to see "An Inconvenient Squirrel," I saw the male performer behind me. "You're the dancer!" I exclaimed, shaking his hand. "We loved your show!" He graciously thanked me, and I said, "Thank you!" That's how much I liked it! Enough to go inappropriately friendly on a complete stranger! Oh, wait...

Fragmented

They're arranging the pieces of the collapsed 35W bridge on the banks of the river by campus; this is the view from the Washington Avenue pedestrian bridge:



This morning Melissa and I ran our six miles at 7:00, so that I could be to class by 9:45. We had run six at about 7:00 last night, too, and even though I'd gotten in a lot of good sleeping in between the runs, and had made a valiant effort to do a lot of eating, too, I spent most of today thoroughly exhausted.

The approximately 13 I ran on Monday was the longest run I'd done since the half marathon in May, which is pretty woeful, considering that the TCM is in just a few short weeks on October 7. Mostly by accident, my training for this marathon has been pretty different from what I've done for the other two I've run. I haven't done as many long runs, but I have been doing longer "short" runs during the week, mostly 6-milers. I'm hoping they'll form the solid base that will enable me to run the TCM without dying.

It is also my plan to do long runs on the weekends I do have left. My calendar tells me I'm supposed to peak, with a 20-mile run, on the 16th. We'll see about that.

The good news is that the 20-miler is not, in fact, the following weekend, as I had worried; tonight I purchased a ticket to visit Ellen that weekend, for the Pygmalion Music Festival. I think she actually knows many of the band playing; I, being a complete square, really only know Andrew Bird. That is enough for me.

Lucky me

Tonight I was supposed to see Oscar Wilde's Salome, one of the Fringe Festival shows, with three art history friends at a venue downtown. I borrowed my neighbors' big cruiser bike, and was doing well, about half a mile from the theater, until I tried to enter a driveway to ride on the sidewalk instead of the street. I'm not sure exactly what happened, but I'm going to blame the bike's super-slick balloon tires for the freakish spin-out that happened next.

I stood up quickly, my sunglasses askew, feeling both stunned and foolish (I'm fine! What wipeout?) and wanting to make sure I was entirely out of the road. I tried to stand the bike up, and was afraid it was completely mangled until I realized that the handlebars had just rotated to the point that the tire was facing the seat. Then I realized that I was dripping blood. And that I had little chunks of tooth in my mouth. I spit them out and headed for the nearest building. (Doesn't that sound hardcore? It felt pretty hardcore, even as I felt ridiculously stupid.)

Inside, I got directions to the restroom and got a look at myself. There was a gaping gash just under my chin, and a quick look assured me that that bad boy wasn't going to close up on its own. Thankfully, other than some road rash on my bony parts--elbows, knees, and one hipbone (through the skirt(!)--discovered after the others)--the chin and tooth (a piece off the inside of my upper right first molar) were the only real damages. I went back outside, discovered I didn't have my phone, checked the scene without finding it, and was unlocking my bike while thinking about what to when a police officer came down the steps near me.

I approached him and asked him if he knew where the closest hospital or urgent care was. Actually, I think I babbled on about my University insurance and how I wasn't sure where I could go that would be covered and didn't know what to do. He told me Hennepin County Medical Center was just a few blocks from where we were, and that they were really good (they were where a lot of the bridge victims were taken a week ago). He said he'd be driving right by it, and offered to drop me off. "Is that legal?" I laughed, thinking of how having even an adult student in my car is grounds for termination from teaching. "Sure!" he said. "I'm just a citizen helping another citizen. The only difference is that I'm in a blue suit." I'm glad he was, and also that I'd gotten all cute for the play before splitting my face open. He was young--probably younger than me!--but drove a beautiful new-smelling Beamer and was super-nice about taking me right to the door of the hospital, and reminding me twice of where I'd locked my bike.

Once there, I was helped immediately by a triage nurse who took my blood pressure and the details of the accident before sending me to a large and friendly black woman for contact and insurance information. She asked what my job was ("You look like a reader!" "Is it my squinty eyes?" I laughed) and what nationality I was ("You look like New York," she said, "With your curly hair and all." I laughed again. "I like you!" she said.). I didn't cry at all until she asked for emergency contact information. Then I couldn't remember my parents' phone number, only Bryant's, and sort of fell apart. I did manage to come up with both numbers, and recover, and was sent to wait.

It took about two and a half hours for them to see me, and when I was called in, I got to go to the pediatric wing. That ended up being awesome, as my doctor was incredibly gentle and friendly and explained everything he was doing. Looking at my chin, he said, "It's a little bit smashed in there." "Smashed?" I laughed. "Yep. Smashed like a tomato," he said. "But it will come together really nicely. I've put sutures in much worse." He ended up putting in seven stitches, and chatted with me the whole time ("I'm allowed to talk?" I asked. "Yep! Just don't sing!" he laughed), about running, triathlons, and even Bowling Green, where he'd had a friend who played football. I left feeling infinitely better, with a bottle of Tylenol with codeine, and even able to bike home.

My jaw muscles are really sore (he said I probably dislocated my jaw a little bit and that the "little muscles all around it had torn some") but the actual wound feels fine and I'm trusting that it will either heal to invisibility or give me a hardcore scar to remind me of my first time getting stitches--and not to be stupid.

I have a dentist appointment for tomorrow morning, ironically enough--my first in about five years, and scheduled six weeks ago. I'm hoping they can do something about that chipped tooth while I'm in there. I'm also hoping I can open my mouth.

Sightings

"Where'd all that hair go?" he asked, handing me back my photo-emblazoned debit card.
"That was long ago," I said. "That picture was taken in 1998."
"I like it better," he said.
"Then?" I asked. "Or now?"
"Now," he replied. "I like short hair. A lot of guys like longer hair, but I like short hair, because you can wash it and go. I can be kind of a spur-of-the-moment kind of guy--some days, I'll just say, 'Let's go to Duluth! Right now!' There's no time for my wife to spend two hours drying her hair!"

I laughed.

He had just spent the past half an hour talking to me about my car and the rest of the work I needed--as well as the European style of car purchasing and maintenance, his relationship with his wife ("She tells me I should learn another language, because then I could bore people in two languages!"), and public transportation.

I had given him the card for a $700 oil change.* I was rather pained about the cost and ready to leave--but didn't begrudge the compliment.

In other news, today I saw both Mr. "Intestinal Fortitude!" and Mr. Obnoxious Seatmate. It would appear that the latter lives a mere two blocks from me; I felt the briefest pang of guilt upon that realization, recalling his plan to walk home from the downtown station and my own solitary taxi ride to my house. (Approximately 1:30 a.m.: "I have my trip all planned out! The first third was getting it into my head that my vacation is finally over. I've finally gotten that into my head. The second third is working on my computer, because my laptop has two and a half hours of battery, because I just charged it. I charged it at my grandmother's house. That was the last full charge I got. I'm very careful about charging it, so the battery is perfect. It has two and a half hours, exactly. So in the second third of the trip, I'll get some work done on my computer. My battery will last exactly the right amount of time. Then for the last third, I'll sleep. I want to be well-rested, because I will walk home from the station because I don't have bus fare. It should take me about 45 minutes, so I want to be well-rested. So I'm going to sleep from 3:00-5:30. That way I'll be rested for my walk home!")

I had awakened briefly as we came into St. Paul, feeling refreshed and rested--then realized my seatmate wasn't there, and that the latter situation was the likely cause of the former. I caught a glimpse of him in the back of the bus as we headed into Minneapolis, and didn't wait around in the station to find out whether he had moved to give himself more room or whether I'd managed to offend him in my sleep, as I'm afraid I did half-awake (and for which I apologized) by drifting off during his monologue on trip-planning. I do recall making semi-strangled yelps as elbows in the ribs jostled me from an already-fitful sleep; I'm afraid I can't take responsibility for any noises or gestures I might have made should I have been disturbed during a deeper sleep pattern.

Minneapolis is not exactly a small town, but I tend to stick to the same neighborhoods, so I guess it's not that surprising to run into locals. The strangest run-in this week occurred at the Stone Arch Arts Festival last Saturday evening with my friend Lynsi. I'm pretty sure I was miming my attitude about the heat level in my apartment when I began hearing, "Adam! There's your reading teacher! There's your reading teacher! There's your reading teacher!" Since I teach in the suburbs, I had pretty much planned on not running into any of my students, ever, so that one especially caught me by surprise. I'd only seen the kid once, and had no idea of his name, but the parents were very friendly, so we all smiled a lot and then went on our merry ways. Perhaps I should be more careful of flailing and lolling in public; I guess that's practically asking for a run-in with someone to whom I'm supposed to appear authoritative--or at least civilized.

*That included a new muffler and everything that connects it to the catalytic converter, and rear brakes.

Black Arts Swamp Festival...?

This weekend is the Black Swamp Arts Festival in Bowling Green. Bryant and I went last night to hear the Derailers (a Ruthy endorsement) and get an elephant ear, but didn't end up staying long.

Today we cruised the booths, which are set up along main street, and to which this photo does not do justice--there were miles of them (if you count up one side and back down the other), and huge (for BG) crowds!

I bought a pair of delicious earrings; Bryant took this picture.

As we were heading back home along Main, we happened on the Afro-Caribbean ensemble, finishing their presentation with an audience-involvement dance. I made the mistake of lingering to watch, and was grabbed and forced to dance by Rebecca, who has been in the group for years and actually can dance. Then Bryant made fun of me.