mizarchivist

Yes, I made a Crow reference. I'm like that sometimes. ::grin::

Stress reduction... For reals, having Jaime only be out a week of work is a huge burden lifted. I felt confident enough in the world to go buy some cheap-ish sneakers and get rid of 3 pairs of unpleasant black shoes in the same trip. My old sneakers cause my hips to hurt, so let's not wear them, eh?

Random T interaction... I had an amazing interaction with a woman on the train on the ride in this morning. It took from Alewife to Central to finish my meditation (that's 11 1/2 min, fyi, for those of you interested in the meditation OR how long it took me to get through that part of the commute... today). She was an older lady named Jane (guessing my mom's age or somewhat older). She was chatty and I was feeling chatty so why not? I actually like talking to strangers on the train if they are nice and I'm not otherwise engrossed in my own thing. It was a perfect 5 minute friendship, thus illustrating that they don't have to last forever to be worthy and valuable.  Also, I am my mother's child. So very.

Kid stuff... My kid-parenting regrooving seems to be working out so far. This is nice. I feel proud and pleased.

Work stuff... I have the office to myself due to the demands of today's schedule on the remains of our office. It's been OK. I just let myself be damn sad yesterday. Not denying or trying to tamp down my feelings was really nice.

Fun stuff...  I'm going to see the Indigo Girls with caulay on Thursday in Lowell and going to see the Doubleclicks at Thunderoad with samuraizergling and some other folks on Saturday. Yay fun! I was looking at the ticketmaster lawsuit info- turns out I've seen a LOT of shows in that time-frame. I am not certain I'll be able to use even a fraction of the settlement in the time allotted.

asciikitty and I had a date last night, which is rare! We are often quietly doing stuff together at home, but it's not the same as going on an adventure.
Warby Parker and Fluevog did not provide enticing retail therapy; not true for ascii who left with two pair of very-good-for-her shoes. Win! Thai food: win! Fiddle player as opening act, part of Ani's backup band, a fiddle player named Jenny who was good enough to have me get her CDs at the intermission.

And Ani.
Oh, my Ani. There was a time when I'd be sure to catch every show she had in my town. She was at the pinnacle of my muscial temple from the moment listened to her my senior year of college and long into my time in Boston. But as the political landscape darkened, her music did, too. It was music that was needful and good to make, but not the music that spoke to me. But I'm ridiculously loyal. I haven't missed many albums in the intervening 12 years since my interest diverged. I'd still go to most shows, but the previous two times, concerts at the Orpheum were... just not great. I left feeling grumpy not elated. Going this one more time felt a bit like a gamble.
I don't know... times changed? Venue (Berklee not Orpheum, and no booze on site... and Berklee instills in it a sense of reverence for music. In my opinion), time passing, median age of audience leaning way more towards 40 than 20 (yay), and that she'd not been out on the road for a while following a second child arriving.

She walked out onto the stage and .... I forgot how tiny she is. I forgot about that boucy gait, the mad glee, the energy that bursts from her and then a bit more with restless feet under the hot lights- The ridiculous jokes that start in the middle, that she almost doesn't tell but then can't help herself. I didn't know how deeply I missed all that, being in her presence, til she was there again and I regained a part of myself I hadn't realized had faded so far into the background that it almost wasn't there at all. A layer buried deeply under the person I am right now. She played Not a Pretty Girl then You Had Time for the first two songs, and at the first chords of You Had Time*... and the realizations tackled me and lo, I wasn't wearing anything I couldn't wipe my hands nose on. Thankfully.

I wasn't sure I could feel THAT way again, because where Ani was musically was just so far off... but now with two kids and who knows what else, her perspective and mine have so much more overlap. And my sense of activism is stronger than it was 7 years ago. Meeting in the middle? Her mom-stories just made me cackle... and her energy, that of a kid with a day pass to go play with her friends after long confinement. Her son is a year and a half now, and this is her first tour since he arrived. All that creative energy was diverted for all that time, and then let loose, she's just compulsively creating. (I wouldn't know ANYTHING about that, nope, not at all) She shared a song that she had only finished that morning, and apologizing too much for not just playing the old stuff.  But she did play older stuff, thank the goddesses. It really was a gift, to have her let me have my nostalgia, and to give me a window into where she is now with her boundless enthusiasm and glee.

All this to say: I will be buying her new album(s).


*video from her September tour this year, so you get a bit of talking first, a feature not a bug for me)

My trek out to the hinterlands of almost-NY (Tanglewood) was great! Thanks to caulay and ahf for hosting, and for a great travel partner of taura_g.
Walking into Tanglewood made me think very much of what it was like to be at Interlochen and just have amazing music + woods. We had pavilion seats. The Indigo Girls had already started when we got there, as it was a longer slog than expected. It was a bit of an older crowd since Joan Baez was headlining, so between the culture of Tanglewood and the fanbase skewing more towards her everyone was very well behaved.  Kind of too well behaved. We found out later it was a lot to do with the default security settings, which is more appropriate for the BSO than for a rock-ish concert. After Joan's set (the 4 of us hung outside of the pavilion on the grass, which was much more companionable), they combined forces into a super folkie force for good. At that point Joan asked security to chill and let us just do our thing, which involved standing up (gasp!) and walking around in the aisles. Their last official song was Water Is Wide, which was pretty devastating. So gorgeous and heart-breaking. The vid I found is from last week but the same tour, so you have all the right elements, just not with that Tanglewood... thing. ;) OK, I might be ribbing the venue a bit.

The one downside of the day: dinner. Ohhh god. Eveyone but caulay had pretty much bland food, and his was over the top spicy. And so slow. Ah well. First world problem. The ride home included a brief but stunning view of the Super Moon. It was, in fact, super.

Now bed.

 I worked last Saturday, so I have today off- (woo!)
Stuff done:
read up on new health insurance. Some. I still am somewhat mystified :P
sorted a bit of the kitchen table mess
started laundry
put away winter wear (scarves and stuff)
emptied dishwasher, refilled with waiting dirty implements
put away stuff on counter
did dishes
went through kitchen shelves to remove things I don't think we're keeping. Anyone need a vase or 3?
CD project revisited* -- A-Co completed. 

I have had some lunch (it was lame). I did sleep in some and took a bath. I have a book I'd like to keep reading. There's also Cook's Illustrateds to go through to figure out what new thing might get cooked, particularly if it requires really big tomatoes- (produce of the month are insanely large tomatoes- not a kind I normally eat in any way. Sauce? Probably)

*CD Project: ( really nobody cares about this- not as such.  ). Hi, welcome to the wonderful world of persnickety archive behavior! The thing is, I know I'm the only one who cares.

I felt like a jerk for breaking the rule on no vid in the church, but I also thought if one was unobtrusive and not doing the whole thing so one can explain even a fraction of what it was like... Then yes. That.

So-

Evensong song

In UK wrap up- Yesterday was nothing but travel and food that was disappointing. We got home an hour after landing (10:30pm) and I managed to sleep to 6:30. Go, me!
quiet_elegance  has been busy as a bee and dealing with his usual semi-annual lung infection (on the good drugs, will not share germs) so there's decidedly no food in the house, save the ton of chocolate I brought home, and that's not dinner.
My plans now that I'm home are minimal. I'm not sure how I feel about that, but I also think sticking around the house some and spending time with q_e are rather important.

Part 1- talking about art stuff-( Craft Fair )

( Etsy )

( craft fair prep-fueled anxiety dream )

Part 2- I actually do other things sometimes-
( KT Tunstall concert )

( Travel )

( Work )

( State of (un)employment for q_e )

I've now been writing for a damn long time and need to stop now.

Today's the first day I've been back in my office, therefore the first normal-feeling day since I returned from vacation.
Because I wrote everything down in analog form, I haven't felt a huge push to write about the trip. The very short version goes:
-arrived in Rome
-saw OLD STUFF
-ate insanely good food all the time
-walked to exhaustion just about every day
-drove to Florence (survived, even)
-saw more OLD STUFF
-failed many saving throws re: shopping.
-saw the countryside one day, including picking up wine/olive oil at one of the countless farms that sell to tourists/passers by

The rest will be tl;dr but not quite yet.
If you'd like the mostly unedited (yet) pictorial journal, it's here.

The inevitable of going to do so much impressive stuff in a concentrated manner is the hangover (emotionally). I expected and got just that, which has made the past few days a bit of a challenge, but not so very horrid.

Sunday was W00tstock at the Wilbur theater here in Boston. The ones that have been elsewhere (mostly West coast) have been exceptionally well-attended. This one? I'd call it "intimate." The w00t could not compete against that which is Halloween in Boston (or Salem, as the case may be). Also, no Wil Wheaton is a factor not to be overlooked. I am probably oversensitive, but I feel like the driving force of Paul & Storm were hugely disappointed by the really low turn-out and for some reason I've been unnecessarily defensive about it. I fear that because of the string of bad factors, they'll never consider going to Boston with W00tstock again (preferably one WITH Will).
Anyway- enough angst. The show was entirely fun.
Standing in for Wil were two of the guys from MSTK/Rifftrax who did their magic with an educational video about grass from the 70s and another informational video on how to shop from the very early 50s (or late 40s) I need to see more of their work, of course. I'd never been huge into MSTK mostly from lack of opportunity. I've never gotten into Rifftrax.
Grant Imahara talked about working at ILM and being a stand-in C3PO at publicity events. SO cool.
Marian Call: geeky singer who uses a typewriter for percussion. Go on and look her up, I'll wait. .... OK, I know, right? Adorable!
Ig Nobel award guy: much more interesting than I expected. He did a review of some of the recent winners and some old favorites.
Adam Savage: stand up comedy in a wookie suit. Yeah, it was crazy-funny
Paul & Storm: did a usual set of their old reliable favorites. I've seen them at least one or two times a year for a while now (as often as they're in town)- so I know their stock stuff well, but it's like hanging out with old friends. They closed the night with a rendition of the Captain's WIfe's Lament that left my sides hurting from all the laughing.

Work... is work. I'm back, I'm glad for the quiet and doing stuff mostly at my own pace. It took must of the day to filter through all the email. There's an archive conference up in Keene NH this weekend. I'm headed up Friday and staying overnight (hm, I don't think I totally unpacked my travel toiletries bag, did I...?) I have been making faces about going, but really, I am looking forward to some do-stuff-on-my-own time. I have to do certain things while there, like attend a 4 hour meeting on Friday and go to workshops on Saturday, but I get to choose the workshops and choose exactly when I come and go. Also, I never did start Boneshaker in my Audible queue. That should be an interesting thing for the drive.

I applied for the sART at the Station craft fair in Worcester, scheduled on Dec. 5. I hear if I got in or not this Friday. I think I prefer "yes." I have so much stock. It would be good to sell stuff. Hey, if people are kicking around hoping to get inspired by hand-crafted art for holiday gifts, let me know. I am able and willing to do custom work if I have about 2-3 weeks lead time. Ping me in email if this sounds like a thing you want to do.

I don't know why I think I should write posts when I'm brain dead. A visit from G-BFF Dale and his partner Lou was fantastic-- and somewhat alcohol soaked. We started off with sushi with Sang on Friday. They'd never had scorpion bowls- there were mandates to fulfill. Then Saturday involved a tour of Sam Adams. The brewery's in Jamaica Plain (walking distance from my house from grad school). I'd not been since that era, but the 25 min tour did sound somewhat familiar. They let you have some free beer after and you can keep the juice size sample glasses. If you want the freshest beer ever, that's where to go. Unless you make your own, then you already know where to find such a substance. Doyle's has some sort of deal with the brewery and they serve a metric ton of SA's product, including flavors you can't get outside of Boston, so we trekked there for snacks and Red Brick (or Summer Ale). They let you have the perfect pint glasses :

I have to buy my Ani ticket today.  Thank you, remember the milk.

It turns out it helps to listen to the Indigo Girls while sorting through GLBT records. I feel more patient and sympathetic to the insane lack of organization in the current stack of records, the obscene duplication, and plethora of not-created-by-actual-organization stuff. When I get tired of the Girls, I'll move onto Brandi Carlile. Not that I'll run out soon. There's 93 tracks on this Pod (and I cut out the ones I really don't like).

Not unrelated: Girls concert: a mere 3 weeks and 2 days away! My cousin Katherine will be visiting me that weekend and we get to folk out with caulay.