The Day of Knowledge

Last night Lisa came with me to see Cat perform in "The Day of Knowledge" at Stage Left Theatre. It was a really intense show, about the school siege in Beslan, Russia, in 2004. Cat was amazing, as always, and the play, a work in progress, was well-written and thought-provoking. That little theater always puts on impressive performances.

Dining & Drinking

Tuesday night, Carrie, Lisa, Mira, Eric, and I went to the Trinity Pub for drinks after serving at Dignity Diner at Holy Covenant. Each week, the chairs in the church sanctuary are cleared out and replaced with tables, dinner is prepared, and then homeless people from the neighborhood come by for food and fellowship. Members of the church often volunteer to serve food, visit with the dinner guests, and help clean up. It's one of the ways Holy Covenant reaches out to the surrounding community.

A Few More Photos from the Weekend

Salute to a Soldier

On Sunday, my great-uncle Charles Lindberg passed away at the age of 86. Chuck was the last survivor among the men who raised the original flag on Iwo Jima.

A Whirlwind Weekend in the Windy City

So I headed back to Chicago on Tuesday night...and Tomkin flew out to Chicago on Thursday. Friday we went out to lunch with Kelly, Mary Beth, and their four kids. Then Tomkin hung out with me at work for the rest of the afternoon. That night we went to the Bad Dog Tavern for the reveal party for Carrie (from work), who had been in New York all week, shopping and getting made over for "What Not to Wear." That was quite a party! Carrie and Lisa came along, too. And I also got to see Jessica! Saturday, Tomkin and I went to the dog beach. The dogs were quite taken with him, and he was great with them. He's already getting them to be better behaved. That evening we went to "Jerry Springer: The Opera," which was hilarious. Yesterday Tomkin came to church with me, and then we joined other parishioners on the Holy Covenant float in the Pride Parade. That was crazy! There were thousands of people along the route, and we waved, cheered, high-fived, and danced along the way. It was quite a celebration. Tomkin headed back to the Cities last night, but I'll be seeing him again in 11 days, when I go back up to St. Paul!

Best Reunion Ever!

Sorry for the lengthy delay in blogging--it's been quite a crazy couple of weeks! My 15-year Carleton reunion last weekend was incredibly fun. I arrived on Thursday--got a ride from the airport with Christopher, Pam, Kieran, and Chelsea. I hadn't seen them since the last reunion (five years ago), so it was great to catch up with them. That evening we met up with some theater folks, and I went to a reception at the home of one of my art history professors. Then a bunch of us just hung out back at Myers dorm--Tomkin, Amy & Chad, Johanna & Lisa, Christopher & Pam, Scotty, Virginia, and other classmates. Friday morning the Violet Femmes (me & Amy) were back on the air at KRLX, reliving our DJing days, but now with much-improved equipment. Our friends joined us in the studio, and Kieran and Chelsea helped out as guest DJs. Later in the day, Becca and her brood arrived--Omar and their boys, Max, Spencer, and Calvin. We all enjoyed some delicious Surly beer (look for it if you're in the Twin Cities), and then we made our way downtown to Basil's for some fabulous gyros pizza. We headed back to campus to do some swing dancing to music by the Jaztronauts (led by Joe Weisman), then went and watched fireworks. Saturday morning was the parade of classes. I always think it's funny to cheer as the older classes go by, as though we're applauding them for still being alive. We made our way downtown and played some trivia at the Reub (in your face, Chamy!), and that evening we ate dinner back on campus, and Scotty broke a soda container while trying to bob for water keg-stand-style. Becca came back to hang out with us some more, and she and I took a long walk around town, with a stop at Dacie Moses to hunt for cookies. On Sunday, folks started to disperse. I had been planning to head home that day.... But I'd been spending most of the weekend with Tomkin (class of '91), and on Sunday he convinced me to stay up in the Cities for a couple extra days. Scotty went, too, and we had a blast. I got to see Tomkin's house in St. Paul, have dinner with a couple of his friends, and even meet his parents and sisters (who were all very cool). I was definitely glad he convinced me to stay. I headed back to Chicago on Tuesday night. It was quite a vacation!

Short Hiatus

Just a quick note to say that my college reunion this past weekend was amazing! I left on Thursday and just got home last night (thus the lack of posts until now). I'll write more and put up some photos in a few days--probably not until Sunday or Monday. Thanks to all of you for checking in!

Ghoulish Fun

We had a Ghoul Pool winner today for the first time in seven weeks (from the death of Guy de Rothschild). Unfortunately, it wasn't me! I haven't won since 1995. Hmph. I've been running the Ghoul Pool at work for about seven years now. (It was started long before that; I just inherited it.) To play, you bet on celebrities you think are going to die (they must be newsworthy and not have a pre-existing condition). There are different ways to play this game; the way we do it is to pay 50 cents per name per week; whenever one of your people dies, you get all the money in the pool. My biggest win ever was for Gregory Peck; I won almost $1400. (That's an unusually large win.) There are currently 160 names and 19 players in our pool. Here are the names I have: Louise Bourgeois, Robert Byrd, Beverly Cleary, Lucian Freud, Miep Gies, Sir Edmund Hillary, Stan Musial, I. M. Pei, Luise Rainer, and Sherwood Schwartz.

Tube Time

If you haven't already seen it, there's a good article about the Sopranos finale on Salon.com. And there's a good write-up about Rescue Me on MSNBC; the new season premieres tonight.

Hi, My Name Is Julie, and I'm a Volunteer with the Obama Campaign....

Saturday morning, Lisa, Sara, and I caravanned with six other people (including Mike, our group organizer) from Chicago to Dubuque, Iowa. We gathered with about 200 other Obama supporters on the grounds of an elementary school, checked in, then found a spot along the guardrail and waited for Obama to arrive. The secret service guys, in their ill-fitting jackets, scoped out the crowd. Finally, about noon, Dubuque's mayor introduced our next president, Barack Obama. Our senator came out to hollers and cheers from the crowd and shook quite a few hands before stepping onto the back of a pickup truck. We were only about ten feet away from him. He spoke eloquently, as he always does, about the problems our country needs to fix, and how we can work together to fix them. How he knows that people have hope for a better America. How we can improve health care, education, and national security. The rapt crowd clapped and cheered and shouted "Amen!" Those of us who support him really believe that he could be an agent for change in this country, that he could help repair the divisions among Americans and restore our standing in the world. After he spoke, Obama spent a long time working his way around the crowd, shaking hands, listening to concerns, signing books, and posing for pictures. When he got to our group, Mike pointed out that we were all from Chicago, and we're working to "make it happen." I was a little starstruck, but I managed to ask Obama if I could get a picture with him for my blog, and he willingly obliged. You can't see it in the picture, but he was holding onto my hand at the time. Getting to meet him was definitely a huge honor and thrill for me! Next, we all split up by precincts and were given packets with maps and household information. I teamed up with Lisa and a 50-something woman named Kay (from Dubuque), who was really cool. We headed to our area, and Kay worked one side of the street while Lisa and I took the other. I have decided that I really don't like canvassing. Thankfully, most people were nice (even the Republican woman who somehow made it onto our list), and we did have a couple good conversations. It's a little early in the game--we heard repeatedly that people were still mulling over their options. We did encounter a couple grumpy people, though no one flat-out slammed the door in our faces. The person who annoyed me the most was the woman who said more people need to get involved...but she's not planning to caucus. Kay graciously took us back to her place for a bathroom break and fed us some homemade cookies. After a couple hours of knocking on doors, we were exhausted! Lisa, Sara, and I ran back to our hotel room to freshen up, and then our Chicago contingent and Kay all met at Salsa's for some Mexican food and margaritas. Most of our group then headed to Riverfest, but Lisa, Sara, and I grabbed some Bell's Oberon beer at the Hy-Vee, went back to our room, got into our pajamas, and watched "Fight Club." We were pretty tired and loopy by that point. Sunday morning we met up with some other folks in our group for a relaxed breakfast at Cafe Manna Java. (There was an article in the Telegraph Herald about how Obama had knocked on a few doors in Dubuque himself.) Then we headed back to campaign headquarters and got that day's assignments. Sara, Lisa, and I went to our new neighborhood, and this time we all split up. I only talked to a couple people; almost no one was home. Our primary goal on these excursions is to get people to commit to caucusing for Obama in January. Sara got someone to do that on Sunday; as far as I know, she was the only one in our group. (Go Sara!) But at least it was good to get out there, make a few connections, and get some people thinking about Obama. We canvassed for a couple more hours on Sunday, brought our tally back to HQ, and got on the road. We'll be back in Dubuque to canvass a couple more times, once in the fall and once in January, right before the caucus. I'm not looking forward to knocking on more doors...but if that's what it takes to help get Obama elected, then that's what I'll do!

Yee Haw! Matt's 30, Y'all

Friday night, a group of us met at Carol's Pub to help cowboy Matt celebrate his 30th birthday. We downed cheap pitchers of beer, picked out some tunes from the jukebox, and kicked up our heels on the dance floor. It was some good ol' down-home fun.

Blame It on Baseball

To regular (and new) readers of my blog, I apologize for the dearth of posts this week. After eight months of editing the baseball book that so many of you have heard me complain about, we're finally wrapping it up this week. I've been working frantically day and night (with a quick break last night to take Scout & Chloe to the dog park) to get this book done. Hopefully, I shall soon re-emerge to live and post again! I'll be at Matt's 30th birthday party Friday night, and then a group of us are leaving early (6:30am) on Saturday morning to go campaign in Iowa for Obama, so I doubt I'll be posting for the next few days. However, once back from the trip, I'm hoping to have some good photos--perhaps of Obama himself, who is supposed to be in Iowa to cheer us on! Woo hoo!

The Fat Lady's About to Sing

There's a good article on Salon about the wrap-up of The Sopranos. (Caution: Do not read this if you're behind in this season's viewing.)

We're Number One, Part II

Chicagoans complain a lot about the mail, and now we know why. We have the worst mail service in the country!

Cheers to the Capital Campaign

This afternoon, Corydon, Matt, Carrie, Barrett, Megan, Sara, Cindy, Diane, Allison, Al, and I met up at Fizz to celebrate our accomplishments with the Capital Campaign. We're in the final stage of the campaign, just wrapping things up (though we'll be receiving donations for the next three years). So far we've raised $262,000 to use for much-needed repairs to the church. It's been a fabulous, successful endeavor, and I'm really glad I was a part of it. I'm also glad that it's almost over!