Hey, look everyone! Here I am on the Jumbotron at the Target Center! I'm there on the left screen, on the far righthand side. With my mouth wide open and my eyes closed, of course, like almost every other photo of me in existence. At least there was a reason for it this time - singing the National Anthem at a Minnesota Lynx game.



Calliope's spring season is pretty much over now. We had a mix of weird and good performances - from when we sang at the Midtown Farmer's Market and someone had a seizure, to singing the Anthem at the Target Center, to our own concerts at the Macalester Chapel. It was a lot of fun and I'm really glad to be back in choir and to sing regularly again. I missed it a lot. At the same time, tonight we have our last performance for the season and I'm glad to be done with rehearsing and performing for the summer.

It's full-fledged summer here, finally. It waffled between being cold and rainy and sticky and sort of warm-ish, but it hadn't made up it's mind to be really summery. The past week, however, it's been sunny and in the 80s, and it's nice.

My dad is visiting right now. He's here until Monday morning and I took the entire time off from work so we could spend plenty of quality time together. There are no big plans while he's here, mostly just eating and relaxing. We're going to head to The Beat coffee shop in a bit to see Rachel's art and then possibly to the Art Institute. It's nice to have time off from work and not be on a trip somewhere. Plenty of time for just sitting around, reading, walking. And ice cream. Ahhh.

Books are my life

The other day I was thinking about writing a book about working in a used/new bookstore and how probably it wouldn't be successful. After all, who really wants to read a book about someone's experiences working in retail? Not terribly interesting. There are plenty of stories I could tell about customers - strange things they've wanted, ridiculous questions they've asked, stupid things they've said ("The sun is a star? I didn't know that."). I could easily have a whole chapter on things found in buys (such as a bread knife) or things found inside books (such as the report cards of about 40 kids who went to my high school circa 1988-1993). Then there are the books themselves, everything from titles, concepts, blurb reviews from the cover ("This book is unputdownable!"), trends, author photos (Dean Koontz nearly always had Trixie, his golden retriever, in his author photos but she passed away last year), cover art, etc.

Of course, I'm not really serious about the book and just to prove it, here's the working title. It's compiled from parts of 12 titles of popular books of all kinds; usually ones that have been extremely popular during my tenure at the store that we get asked for allllll the time. If you can get the complete titles/series from which the parts came, you will get a cookie. Or my complete admiration.

A is for A Million Little Splendid Keepers of the Boleyn Water for Bees in Death for the Sixth Soul & Me For Dummies

The best part is that, for short, it would probably be called "Me For Dummies." I love that.

Probably I spend too much time at work.

Calliope!

Here are performance dates and information for the choir I'm in! Come see me sing (not by myself, of course, but with a great group of women). This is the press release from my director:

"Minneapolis, MN – Calliope Women’s Chorus is pleased to announce our spring season
program “Eat Well & Prosper”. Who doesn't love to eat? As a group of women, Calliope has a
fondness for fabulous foods and we also care about our health and our community. Through this
program, we seek to link our love of food with our concern for our environment and economic
stability through singing songs about food and agriculture - silly songs like George Winston’s
"Vegetable Alleluia" and thought-provoking pieces like "Farmer" by Kristen Lems will round out
an evening of beautiful music.

Concert Performances:
-June 14th, 7:30pm – “Eat Well & Prosper” Concert
-June 15th, 2:30pm – “Eat Well & Prosper” Concert

Additional Performances:
-May 10, 11am - Midtown Farmers Market
-May 31 - National Anthem @ MN Vixens Game
-June 1, 11am - Kingfield Farmers Market
-June 2, 7pm - QMC Concert @ Como Park Pavilion
-June 7 - NorthEast Farmers Market
-June 8th - National Anthem @ MN Lynx Game"

I'm singing at all but the May 31st and June 7th performances. The day we sing at the Lynx game is actually "Calliope Day" and I'm a little excited, despite the fact I know nothing about the WNBA. Being in choir again is so great, I can't even tell you.

For those of you who don't know, my dad is in Afghanistan for a project until the beginning of June. Just when my worry about him being there was abating somewhat, this happens. He's fine, though, and I read his blog which made me feel somewhat better. While I agree with his closing paragraph - that, as perverse as it sounds, it's good that he can experience this - I also remain incredibly glad that he (and everyone else I love) does not have to go through this everyday.

Ah, spring!

Did you know I live in a really cute house in a really great location? I do. Wood floors in the bedrooms, lots of storage space, plenty of windows and plenty of light, interesting little touches here and there like the glass doorknobs and the arch between the living room and dining room. We're five blocks from central Uptown and five blocks from Lake Calhoun. We live at the "quiet" end of Hennepin Ave., close to the cemetery, where traffic, both automotive and foot, thins out and the occasional passing of a city bus is the most disruptive thing. People walk past with dogs, going to Dunn Bros. or going to the lake, and smile and say "Good morning" the way people do in much smaller towns. It's a great place to live. I love it here.

And spring is finally here (fingers crossed - it better not snow again!) which means I can truly enjoy all these things right outside my door without slogging through mounds of wet and slush. It also means the price we pay for heating our adorable but very drafty house will be much less. We can even take the plastic off the windows! Don't get me wrong, I am a true Minnesotan and I stoically endure winter after impossibly long winter, but there is nothing like a quick dose of sunshine to cheer me up. I'm off to get me some vitamin D.

I will be back. Or at least, I will try to be back.