departure

It would have gone swimmingly had it not been for that message – the one that came in early in the morning: hello, we’re looking for a condo in this area and we like yours... can we see it?

Well no, I’m leaving in a couple of hours... but later this week, my occasional traveling companion who is not this time my traveling companion can show it...

And because I am entrusting a showing to said occasional traveling pal Ed, I have to make triple sure that all is in order. (Why I felt that I needed to refresh all sheets, towels, etc is beyond me, but one wants to be thorough...)

And so it is tight, time-wise. I nearly miss the bus that takes me to the bus. Which, due to the construction around town, I also nearly miss. And it continues to be thus. An accident on the highway, resulting in a back way to O’Hare, and so on.

Such is travel: something happens and you adjust. Again and again.

I’ll post now, but without a photo. You know what an airplane looks like, right? I’m near the gate, looking at a line of airplanes. I hear we’re taking off in ninety minutes. Time to exhale. I have nothing more to rush for, to catch, no sharp connections to keep me on edge. Time to sit back and think about what it means to be going elsewhere.

one last time

Flowers again, but this time with a purpose: We’re carting them over by truck to Ed’s farmette for the remainder of the month. There, first Ed, then his cat sitter will water them through the heat of the summer days.





I’m leaving tomorrow, but it’s a long journey and I wont get to my destination until Monday morning – which, I believe will be Sunday evening for most of Ocean readers (Madison will be 14 hours behind me in time). I didn’t have to go the long way, but I’ve done this routing before and I like it: wouldn’t you choose to fly to Japan via Paris, and then over central Asia, rather than the boring way over the Pacific, even if it does add hours in flight?

I’ll be posting. Of course I will. Ed, my occasional traveling companion and thus an occasional distraction, is not traveling with me. He’ll join me for a little while later in the month, when I have a break from teaching. And so surely I’ll have time to post on Ocean. And an internet connection will surely be easier to find than when I was last in Japan, six years ago when I often had to resort to dial-up to do a daily post.

Such changes since then!

A clarification: I am going to join the faculty of a university in Kyoto for a very brief while. I’ll be teaching an intensive course in law there. As always, you wont read much about my work experiences on Ocean. But oh, there’ll be so many other good things to focus on here!

tiny gift of flowers

Take the flowers and run. (They were at a bus stop on my partial ride back from the office.) And it will be like that tomorrow, too. Take them. Enjoy them, toss them aside. I cannot give you more. Four letters fill all conceivable spaces of this day: WORK.

flight

I write this as the air conditioning is pumping ungodly amounts of cold air into the condo and my head is spinning with all that I need to do in the next two days.

And there’s another spinning item in the condo – Ed’s toy helicopter.





I’m not quite sure why he has it, or why it is at the condo right now. You could posit that he is trying to cheer me up (daughters left early this morning), but this would not be accurate. My guess would be that he is attempting to learn something from it (Ed does not acquire toys for play reasons), but it’s only a guess. He wont say.

In the meantime, I sit here with frightening certainty that I will not be able to finish all that I need to finish before I take off on Friday.

And don’t hold your breath on this forthcoming trip: it’s not a fun and games thing. It entails more work.

But let’s not get ahead of ourselves. One other peculiarity of this evening is that my daughters bought a bag of cheese puffs sometime in the course of the week-end. Here again, I don’t know why. They are, typically, such fans of Red Hot blues. So add to the vignette of a flying toy helicopter this bag of cheese puffs. And yes, I know that there was an article in the NYTimes today on the death of the cheese puffs inventor.

Weird coincidence.

glorious food

It’s Monday, but I am at Lazy Jane’s, standing in line for a breakfast of eggs and toast. A delicious way to begin the week.





My daughter’s apartment is close by and we think about how many breakfasts we’re likely to have here once she moves in. Mom, want to come by for a coffee and waffle/scone/grits with eggs?

Later, we come back to her apartment to measure spaces. We look out at the bar across the street. The patrons see us and wave. We go down for a “welcome to the neighborhood beer” and I am surprised to see that the bartender is someone I once worked with, back in my L’Etoile days of moonlighting at the restaurant.

A patron tells me how much he loves coming here – to this friendly bar in the middle of laid back Willie Street – such an integral part of easy going Madison in the welcoming Midwest. (He himself is from the Netherlands). I nod. I’ve heard it all before. And I happen to agree.

We eat dinner at Graze, the less expensive end of the L’Etoile kitchen. Tory, the chef of both comes out to say hello. I think – perhaps he has hit it right. Perhaps he has anticipated this need of ours to release our inclination to be social in a place that serves good (but not budget breaking) food.

Such a noble goal, no?

birthday

Happy birthday, my oldest one. Oh, I’ve had the whole day to say this to her. Having a summer birthday has made things easy – she has nearly always managed to return home for a visit around this day, and this year it’s not even fair to say that she is visiting, as in a few weeks Madison will be as much her home as it is mine.

Happy birthday anyway.

Her sister and her dad are here as well and this girl sure loves it when we pack in a full day of family favorites – a Hubbard breakfast, a walk by the lake...





and a picnic at the Spring Green American Players Theater.

That’s not easy to pull off when the show (All’s Well that Ends Well) starts at 6 and you have to throw together the well thought-out menu – lobster rolls (thanks, Seafood Center, for agreeing, just this once, to boil the lobsters for us – anything to save time!), ricotta and mint stuffed and fried zucchini blossoms with fresh tomato sauce, jalapeno curried corn, and pesto pasta. Still, we all cook and we amaze each other at how quickly we can pull this meal together.





By 5, we are at the picnic tables at APT,  ready to eat.











The evening is warm, but there is a faint breeze. We walk through the forest to the theater -- a routine that is so familiar! How many years have we been coming to see a Shakespeare play here? Nearly twenty?










After, we drive back to Madison just as the night is setting in. Three young deer cross the road in front of us and I have to be glad that we were driving slowly enough to love and not disturb their presence.


At home, the chocolate on the orange almond cake did not dissolve in the heat of the day. As we come closer to midnight, she plays her new guitar and her sister and I settle into that calm and warm moment that you experience only at the end of a very beautiful day.





Happiest year ahead, sweet child of mine.

this last day of July

Three markets and several outings later, including one evening run to the Union Terrace, and I am spent. And all because of them:



(daughters)


It's a splendid day of vivid colors and delicious indulgence.










Summertime in our town. It could not have been a finer day. 

vampires

The thing about daughters is that they stretch you. You watch vampire flicks (True Blood? What the hell is True Blood?), and you run down to catch the latest Sundance offering, and then, at the end of the day, you cook.





And you have no problem opening a bottle of rosé that you carted over from France because it’s worth it, they love it, you love it with them, you love them with you, you love everything about the day, despite the rain and the absence of photographic opportunities.

Ah daughters... they nudge you out of your own complacency and make you take note.

packed

Riding the bike to campus, I think again how I underestimate the time needed to get there. I’ve done the ride hundreds of times and still I leave too few minutes for it.

I focus on the road, I weave between pedestrians. During summer months they walk without thought to bikes. They don't know that we are to share.

Even during the tightest rides, when there are no minutes available for lakadaisical thinking, I cannot help but notice the magic spots along the way. For instance this one, along the lake path, where this couple (or pair of friends?) pauses to have a relaxed conversation (I can tell they are relaxed; they exude relaxedness).





I love my new camera to pieces but I cannot take the time to really use it, because this week, I will always be in a hurry. You have this photo from today – enjoy it, because that’s all I have for you.

Why this sudden madness of too few hours? Time is catching up with me. But, next year (I tell you!) it’ll be different.


I walk up the hill toward my condo, two grocery bags filled solid. A guy in bright red high tops comes up behind me. Say, you walking up that hill? Yes.... May I help you with those bags? I can take one... No, really, I like the challenge.


My daughters are coming up tonight. For the week-end. I may take out my new camera then and really play with it.

Though probably not a whole lot. These girls are doers. Most likely, the hours left in July and the hours that start the month of August will be packed.

next

And now I come the what next portion of the story. It’s all well and good to sell your condo and move on, but you really have to know where it is that you’re moving to.

Of course, I’ve given it thought. I would not have put the condo up for sale if I hadn’t considered the next step. Vaguely tossed around ideas. But when the for sale sign went up (metaphorically speaking as you cannot place for sale signs in condos), I considered them in full force.

And I came to some conclusions. Ed tells me – don’t rush. Take a while. Try it out.

One more example of how different he and I are. People like me, we don’t try out things. We don’t believe that answers come from repeat tastes of the same dish over and over again. We taste it, like it, don’t like it and proceed accordingly.

That’s a quick update. Why no photos? Well now, it’s because a new baby has arrived: slight in pounds and size, she is, nonetheless, a beautiful baby. But I have no time to format her. Meanwhile, her older sibling is hiding. She doesn’t like the competition.

The new “girl’s” name is Nex (actually Sony Nex5, and no, she's not an SLR). It’s so fitting, isn’t it? Next home, nex camera... so very nexy sexy and adventurous, no?

UPDATE:

Sexy Nexy broke out and started her tour de force. This is her second shot (the first one was of my foot; it shall be archived).

home

I can’t remember ever spending this many waking hours cleaning a place that was already pristine immaculate. That’s what marketing your property is like for me – eliminating any signs of having made a mark on my living space.  

Perhaps I went overboard. Buying a new duvet cover for example.
Ed asks -- what the heck is a duvet?

It’s like a quilt with a French pronunciation.

Since when is a quilt called a duvet?

It’s not duh-vet, it’s doo-vey.

Why aren’t we looking on Amazon or e-bay for a cheap one? And what’s wrong with the one currently on the bed anyway.

It is so thread bare that I can no longer patch the rips. Besides, it does not show off the bedroom well.

Show off. That’s what you need to do – to wake people up so that they'll notice. And since today I have a showing, everything has to shine.

The duvet, new cover and all, never looked so good.






Sigh. I have in me five showings. After that I wont care. Take it or leave it. Look beyond the fingerprints, for God’s sake. It is such a better deal than the newer less well finished units that the developer is trying to foist on you!

And yet, I want to attract the right person. I put this space together. I want a person with heart and soul. Erring on the side of being happy.

Ed says I haven't an entrepreneurial bone in my body. Perhaps he's right.

kindness

You have to think that we continue to procreate and recreate and create and tally forth because, on balance, we, as a people, commit more acts of kindness than acts of unkindness. We aid and abet rather than kick, topple and destroy.

Yesterday, on that terribly delayed bus from Minneapolis to Chicago with a stop in Madison, I saw more compassion than complaint, more sympathy than anger. It made the ride that much better for everyone.





Do you remember my issue of early April? My little purse fell out of my backpack on an Air France flight. I lost then and there all ID cards and credit cards, as well as some 150 Euros in cash. I filled out search forms and made inquiries and got nowhere. Form emails told me that if I do not hear from Air France within two weeks, I should assume all was lost and proceed accordingly.

So I proceeded accordingly ...until, lo, almost two months later, I received an email that my purse had been found and I could have it back for a mere 65 Euro (maybe $85) shipping fee.

I hesitated for a long long time. Most cards had been replaced. The purse had been replaced. The wallet had been replaced. Okay, a new UW ID was still on my "to do" list, but there, the fee is a mere $25. Surely less than 65 Euros. No brainer: let it go.

And yet...

You have to think that we continue to procreate and recreate and tally forth because, on balance, we as a people commit more acts of kindness than acts of unkindness...


Last week I finally became comfortable with sending in 65 Euros for the purse. I knew, deep inside I knew, that doing the right thing (sending back the purse, with the 150 Euros in it) would feel good for the finder of it and that given the chance, most would err on the side of good.

Today, the package came.

We tore open the many protective layers, we took out the old tattered little bag, we looked inside. Aha. All credit cards (now cancelled, but still...) and ID cards accounted for.

And the money purse is there as well.

I open it and peak inside.

No bills. No 150 Euros.

Almost as a joke, I think, the person left behind the coins: 1 Euro and 65 cents.


I felt deeply disappointed. In human kind, in the spirit that pushes us toward survival of the kindest, the best of the lot, the fair, the honest.

But then I thought: well, say a passenger finds the bag wedged under the seat. She picks it up, looks inside. She wants to give it up in its entirety, but then she thinks – if I give it to the Air France agent, then either the agent, or the lost and found agent, or the shipping agent will pull the cash right out of it. So it may as well be me who gets the bonanza. Why should I make it easy for someone else to profit unfairly from my honesty?

So the better (for me) interpretation is that we are all good people at heart. We just don’t fully trust that the next person will also be a good person.

And I wont contribute to that thought process by being, henceforth, distrustful. I prefer to remember the many many conversations that took place between strangers on the curb in Minneapolis, waiting for five hours for the bus to come. Kind, good people who opened their souls with stories of life’s tragedies and good deeds. My kind of people.

wedding in Minneapolis

I want to start and end this post with Minneapolis. I’ve neglected it thus far, even as the city defines my days here.

And it continues to define this day, Sunday, even though I should be, by now, in Madison.

I admit – I am losing faith in public transportation in the Midwest. The Megabus, battered from an earlier accident, rumbles in late. The orderly line ceases to be orderly. Everyone is anxious to find a good seat. At the very least, we all want to avoid the bad seats. We're on board.

One rumble, then silence. Another rumble, more silence. The bus cannot sustain power long enough to even pull out of its parking place. We sit cramped and hot, waiting, hoping, even as we know we're not going anywhere. There’s good news and bad news... The good news is that we’re not being invaded by Godzilla-like monsters. A driver with a sense of humor. I remember him from Thursday. He was mildly funny then too, when the AC broke down. The bad news is that y’all have to get off and wait many hours for another bus.

It surprises me how quietly resigned to this fate everyone is. Most are traveling to Chicago. It’ll be past midnight now before they can hope to get there. At an airport there would be a revolt, a demand for compensation, or at least free lunch. Here, the feeling is that you paid little and you get little. People sit down on the sidewalk (Megabus does not run out of terminals to keep costs low) and wait. The air quickly fills with cigarette smoke and stories of horror on the highway. The trash bin at the corner is already overflowing. Trash litters the sidewalk.

I want to get away from the bus stop.

As so often, I am the lucky one. I have energy and I have almost no luggage and I have money for a cappuccino. I hike over to Dunn Brothers coffee roaster and settle in for the wait.





I’m spending some minutes now thinking about yesterday’s wedding. If you could use only one word to describe it, you’d have to say “beautiful.” Lovely in every detail..

Even though I almost missed it.

The cars of the various invitees traveling from the hotel were pretty full and so I decide to walk to the Weisman Art Center – the place of the ceremony, reception and dinner.

At first I think it may storm, but the clouds blow over. I'm truly enjoying the walk. (See this cable car lookalike? The customers pedal along as they sit at the "bar.")




















Until I reach the river and am told the bridge is closed. Preparing for fireworks tonight -- they tell me. Yes, but if I don’t cross it here, then I am thrown off my googled route. Sorry.

I walk over to the next bridge (a lovely one!) and cross there, right by the locks...





...and try to understand how now best to make my way to the museum. The original google locator timed it to be 50 minute walk. With the detour, I have gained minutes of walking. Too many minutes.

Then there is the construction...

I ask for directions – ohhh, a woman tells me. It’s far! It’s ten to six. "Far" and "ten minutes" are not a good match. I hail a cab and get in. Get me to the wedding, quick! Weisman Art Center.

Okay, but that’s just two blocks. Sorry, I still have to charge you $5 anyway. There’s a lesson in there somewhere. Not sure what it is, but it's there. I arrive hot and thirsty, but pleased, too. It is two minutes to six.

And soon my sweet friend and her husband walk in...





...and the groom's parents and various wedding party people and finally my friend’s daughter and it’s all so, well, beautiful!

Poems are read, music is played, melodies reverberate against the tall white walls lined with paintings. Gorgeous stuff.

And then it’s over.

Trays of drinks and food come forth – champagne cocktails and old fashioneds, exquisitely presented in hues of orange and bronze, canapés and flatbreads and puffed pastries...





... the lovely bridesmaids sit back and relax. Everything was as smooth as can be.





...and outside, the dusk rolls in.

The bride and groom are toasted...





....the cake is cut...





...the dancing begins. Marlo – grandson of the other friend here – obliges me with a dance and the evening rolls forward with great merriment...

I take a last handful of photos, including of Marlo and his mom, and Marlo with his mom, dad, his aunt, and grandmom...









...and of the fire tinted skies over Minneapolis outside.





... but soon after ten, I am ready to leave it to the next generation to party on. I go outside and think how best to retrace my steps, just as the fireworks end with a final big explosion...





An hour later, I am at the hotel.



On Sunday morning, I feel like one does after a party – in need of good coffee and protein. I walk over to Hell’s Kitchen for a breakfast of delicious eggs and fried potatoes.





And I take a closer look again at this city of glass and concrete – so incredibly vivid against the blue sky.

This is Minneapolis. The city that looks always fresh and solidly put together.




























But, I’m ready to go home. Even as I wait at the curb and wonder how many more hours before a bus comes for us. It's going to be a very very long day.

prewedding, continued

Still searching and sampling. A morning run to a Baker’s Wife and then the Angry Catfish. The first has a traditional air about it.





The second has coffee and... see if you can guess from one of the posters what else:





No, not lady's (under)garments, though I am very sympathetic to the plight of the woman who bikes in skirts and dresses. The shop also sells and services bicycles. The coffee, by the way, is superb. (Hi Marlo!)





And I should point out here that Minneapolis is a city that's rich in (coffee and) bike culture -- having also adopted the bike rental program (the Paris model) of pick up here and drop off there, and if it’s for a half hour it’s free, and otherwise -- $5 for the day. And perhaps more importantly, this city is (unlike Paris) a bike friendly place, though I do think you have to view these virtues in perspective: if I can only stand to bike in Madison April through October (and then not every day in April and not every day in October), how much shorter is the biking season here?

But, today is warm. We end the morning bakery run with perhaps the most known of the lot – Rustica café and bakery. With a cool assortment of Danish-like pastries, brioches, and galettes, it wins as the day’s favorite for baked goods.








Okay, sweetened up, we proceed with the rest of the day.

[I have to mention this, because if ever the was a running thread to this week-end it is that of the camera snafu that has seized all non-eating and visiting spare minutes of my waking hours and some of Ed’s as well. I wrote some while ago that I sold my malfunctioning SLR and was ready for something different. My “something different” did not arrive on time for this trip and in any case, it’s been sold out nearly everywhere. Trying to accomplish an Internet purchase where a dealer would actually be able to deliver on a promise has been a major challenge. I have made endless tiresome orders and cancellations on my credit card -- reflecting the fact that it's a mean world out there, in camera sales. Eventually, the mess will be straightened out, but if someone tells me Internet buying is a cinch, I most definitely have a counter example for them.]

Eating aside, we are doing some strolling and people watching too, especially in the late morning hours, as we walk to the farmers market by the Mill City Museum. Beautiful. And colorful. Let me just put up one or two photos that might show off some elements you’re not likely to see at out Madison Saturday markets.









And now, errands for bride’s family behind me (400 powder blue coctail napkins -- check; one soft camera lens cover -- check), I’m finally ready to walk over to the wedding itself. It’s a bit of a hike so I must get going.

prewedding

I am in the thick of color. And I mean so much more than the hues and tones around me. (Though not to ignore those!) If you’re not impressed by vignettes from a day of good people and good food then come back tomorrow, or better yet – the next day.

If you’re bemused that I should travel far, early in the morning, with a food loving bunch in search of a good bakery, right before we are to head for a wedding brunch, to be followed by an early dinner at the new and exquisite Piccolo, then read on.

No, I changed my mind. Go ahead and retire for the night. I should as well. Still, did I mention here how delightful it was to go through the day (as described above) in the company of Marlo?

He’s the grandson of one of my friends here. He was with us at the bakery (see how he takes to the iPhone here, with his dad, Jonny, a chef at Madison’s Underground Food Collective)...





... and he was with us at the pre-wedding day brunch (there’s my friend-- the proud grandmother, with her two daughters and her grandson)...





...and he neglected his nap so that he could watch with us the sun throw dappled light on plates of exquisite food, accompanied by the best white wine sangria ever...









...and he was with us at dinner, but I did not photograph him much then. Can’t let the little guy become too comfortable with all the attention. Okay, one photo:










He was such a good little guy. He didn’t even mind it that we got hopelessly lost and he didn’t roll his eyes when his grandma and I demonstrated our complete ignorance in working the GPS on the iPhone. Oh, you mean the icon stays put and the dot is supposed to move? Ah.

It was a wonderful prewedding day.


Excuse me? You want to see the couple about to be married? I can oblige. From a late night moment at the hotel bar, all glittery and golden.






And in the shadows, the three good friends -- the grandmother of Marlo, the mother of the bride, and the blogger. Seen it all and then some. Satisfied that our daughters are doing just fine.