esprit de l'escalier

Fair instragram shots

Had a fun day at the fair today! Here are some instagram shots - more from my Nikon later.

Hello from me and this Buddha

Lots of stuff happening around these parts lately. I haven't had much of a chance to check in. I've been to DC again, have made some excellent new friends, am just generally trying to have some fun summer adventures. I'm hoping to get a longer post about my DC trip tonight. For now, a hello from me and this Buddha. Off to the fair this afternoon!

Beasts of the Southern Wild

I went to see Beasts of the Southern Wild tonight with my mother and my friend Tony. (I love that I have changed into my pajamas, but I can still smell my mother's perfume - Shalimar - on me from our hug goodnight.) The movie was beyond excellent. I do not know how to describe it. It was one of the most unique films I have ever seen. The little girl who plays the narrator and hero of the story is tremendous. I cried three times. Go see it.

Craft Wars viewing party

If you haven't seen it already, Esther has a great write-up about the taping of our show. I can't talk about how surreal the experience was for me, or how fun it was to compete with one of my best friends and favorite partner-in-crime. If anything, this whole thing cemented that she and I make a great team.

Tuesday night we had our viewing party at the Gateway Theater down on campus. I was so excited all day long and even more so when friends started showing up. We had buttons for people, and hugs of course. Then something crazy happened. The theater filled up and SOLD OUT. We a sizeable overflow crowd who watched the episode from the lobby, heckling, cheering, and generally being rowdy in our honor. Totally freaking awesome. Inside the theater the rowdiness calmed down a bit as we all watched Esther and I make it to the second round. I don't know if I've ever received so many text messages at once. Es and I were tweeting while we watched. Our Facebook pages were blowing up. It was really, truly amazing to know that so many people we knew were watching somewhere and cheering us on. 

Here are a couple of photos from the night. I'll post more of friends on Facebook, but now I need to hit the road! I'm headed to DC to visit lots of friends and family. My awesome friend Bertie is hosting a Kraft Wars Brunch (spelled that way to avoid copyright infringements), where we're going to watch the ep, drink some mimosas, and everyone else is going to compete in a mini craft war. I cannot wait.

PS: If you missed the episode and don't have cable, check iTunes or Amazon!

Craft Wars

This winter/early spring my good friend Esther told me she was applying for this craft competition reality show. (We learned later it was Craft Wars on TLC.) She needed an assistant and asked me to join her. I'm always up for an adventure with Es, so I said I was in. Over about a week or so, we goofed around in her basement, using power tools and getting crafting in front of a camera. We sent the videos in and lo and behold! We were in!

The end of March we flew to LA for our super secret taping. We had one day to ourselves where we explored LA - wandering Santee Alley, K-Town, and Little Tokyo. Then we had two long days in the studio for taping and interviews. That first day of taping was one of the longest, most sureal, and most fun I've ever had. Tori Spelling is the host. I got to hug Donna Martin!

Tomorrow our episode airs. If you are in the Columbus area, you should come by the Gateway Theater. We'll be watching it with a bunch of friends and are going to do a Q&A after. Or watch it on TLC tomorrow night at 10pm Eastern. Watch Esther and I run around, glue things, freak out about time limits, and craft our asses off! It will be fun. Esther and I will probably be tweeting while it airs. I'll post photos of the viewing party tomorrow!

Below are the promo videos for our episode! Here's an interview with Es with the Columbus Underground. Ack! I'm so excited.

Random photos of Darmstadt

I never did share many photos from my trip to Germany, from way back in January, so I thought I would share some now. Plus I'm missing my people there. (Hi people there! Kisses!) Darmstadt is full of some great art nouveau buildings and what not. January. Man, it's been a long time since I've had a vacation.

Traps of nostalgia

This week I have been feeling sad. I find myself like this on holidays, and yet it always takes me a bit of time to work through what is going on and see what is happening in my head/heart. You'd think I'd have caught on to the pattern by now, but sometimes I'm a bit slow.

Yesterday we had a barbeque/picnic with work. I was sitting with some co-workers I do not often socialize with and I was talking about how much I love the Fourth of July. The town I grew up in loves the Fourth. They have the best parade, tons of block parties, fireworks, big parties in parks. Even people who drive around town at 7 am with bullhorns shouting, "Wake up! Wake up! It's the Fourth of July!" To me the Fourth is about civic togetherness, kindness to strangers, beastly heat, friends, charred meat, dripping popsicles, strangers waving at one another. And now it's about nostalgia.

As I finished talking about why I love this holiday, a usually quiet co-worker asked me what my plans were. "Nothing," I sheepishly replied. He laughed. So did I. But I began to feel that yawning hole inside of me and I began to get sad. My plans to watch my hometown parade soon fell through and I was having a hard time finding people to watch the fireworks with, that didn't involve getting mired in traffic. My friend Julie saved me from myself and sad movies and we caught up with some other friends on the Whittier Peninsula to watch the big fireworks show last night.

Today I had planned to go watch the Doo Dah parade in the Short North, but my friend Tony called me and asked if I wanted to head to his aunt's lakehouse and go on a pontoon boat. I quickly decided to cancel my plans and join him. I'm glad I did, to switch up my day. I needed an out on my nostalgia trap.

Later in the day, after melting and reconstituting ourselves, we decided to go see Safety Not Guaranteed. It perfectly fit my feelings this week. It is all about the seductive nature of nostalgia, and how destructive it can be to yourself by causing you to disconnect from the present. But it's also about finding partners you believe in - people you can trust with your insecurities, who can help you through the hard parts of life, and with whom you can leap into the new and unknown. It was incredibly optimistic. And exactly what I needed to see.

My lesson from all of this is that I need to allow holidays to take whatever form they take in my adult life. I was talking to a friend last night about feeling unmoored. This is a general feeling I have, like I'm in between phases of my life, which seems to be amplified at holidays when I'm adrift from the structured traditions of my youth. I need to remember to enjoy the present. Mooning over the past is not the way to spend today.

Also, go see that movie. Aubrey Plaza is a treat in it.

Random musings from my kitchen

I am sitting in my kitchen, listening to Summerteeth by Wilco, waiting on some banana bread to bake, and harassing the cat with the laser pointer. I thought I'd take a moment to say hi. I have things to talk about in regards to the cat, but frankly, the topic is sort of exhausting me at the moment. I'm enjoying this album. It's been ages since I've listened to it. Some of you heritage readers may remember the massive Wilco phase I went through in my early to mid 20s. I say "heritage" because this blog is now seven years old, and I've known some of you blog-friends for even longer. Isn't that odd? Thanks for sticking around bloggy friends. And for those newer readers. Hi. Seven years is a long time. Thanks for still hanging out with me, so to speak.

Today I briefly IM'ed with my friend Elaine in Germany. They are nesting and getting ready for baby #2. She says this little one is a dancer who kicks and flits about all day. She and I were both wishing I could be there for the birth. I wasn't there for Ben's either, but she's so far away and I wish I could be there to help. I joked that my unlimited travel fund has not yet come through. She said that if I wanted an unlimited travel fund, I should date a pilot. I don't think she realizes that she wants me to turn into Liz Lemon.

The cat is alternating between amusingly watching me dance in my kitchen to clamoring for more laser pointer. I'm hoping to tire the sucker out. Tonight I went over to my friend Joe's, who said he had a surprise for me. I couldn't quite figure out what it was going to be, but he made some Thai iced tea from scratch. I had forgotten him telling me about how he had gotten all the ingredients. It was a nice surprise. We chatted for a bit and then he walked me back home through the park, where we surveyed the damage from the wind storm on Friday. Schiller Park lost a bunch of really old trees.It's sad to see them fallen. The park will be worse off without them.

The banana bread is done. I think of it more as a cake, since it is studded with chocolate chips and baked in an 8x8 pan. I'll advertise it as such tomorrow at the office's Fourth of July picnic. Hard to believe that the Fourth is upon us. My how time flies.