I needed this weekend. The last two days of Phantom Tollbooth were astonishingly difficult: trying to create a 45-minute play out of a long, wordy novel is nearly impossible, especially with a group of kids who are so invested in the story that the idea of skipping parts is just unacceptable. We ended up with so much great material that we had to cut two huge scenes on Friday, which, needless to say, was difficult for the kids, making it a really rough Friday for all of us in Tollbooth-land. The day persisted in making me miserable when, less than 200 feet away from my house, I hit too big of a bump on my bike and took all the air out of my back tire.
Like I said, though, this weekend made it all better. My friend Ilana and I had tickets to see Dr. Dog at First Avenue & 7th Street Entry Friday night. We started the night out with chips and salsa and the Olympics opening ceremonies (if you missed them, don't bother looking for them - they were pretty awful) and then made our way to the Downtown area with plenty of time to spare before the opener, Field Report, took the stage. First Avenue is a really cool venue: it's massive, but somehow still manages to feel really intimate. The outside walls are covered with stars with the names of every artist who has ever performed there, from Booker T. & the MGs to Nirvana to Cypress Hill. The music nerd in me was freaking out about all the history - I was going to be standing in the same room as Paul Simon and Kurt Cobain did once upon a time!
It almost goes without saying that Dr. Dog gave an incredible concert. I can't believe how privileged I was to have been able to see Beirut and Dr. Dog in the same week. (Somehow I forgot to blog about Beirut - I think it's because I'm still speechless from the beautiful concert they gave.) Because I lived on a little tiny island for most of my life, I didn't spend high school seeing concerts, so they're still really novel for me. I'm running out of words to describe these two concerts, so I'll give you a few photos to make up for it.
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| Beirut |
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| Beirut (We met the accordionist after the show!) |
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| Dr. Dog |
The combination of Phantom Tollbooth and the Dr. Dog concert was pretty exhausting, so my lazy Saturday morning at the Seward Cafe felt long overdue. After buckwheat pancakes, half a gluten free vanilla cupcake (I never would have guessed!) and a few cups of coffee, I found the energy to walk my bike over to The Hub Bike Coop. The fix for my flat took far less time and cost a lot less than I expected, and the coop was a really cool place. The plan was then to grab some takeout from the Afro Deli, a Somalian restaurant in the neighborhood, and then watch some Olympics. It was my first encounter with Somalian food, and I loved it! The Twin Cities have the largest population of Somali people in the United States (don't ask me why), so where better to try some kéké and sambusa?
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| Vegetable sambusa, fried dumplings filled with lentils, cilantro, and onions; and kéké, doughy noodles and vegetables with cilantro and "Somali seasoning" |
The rest of Saturday was spent lounging on the couch watching people exert far more energy in a matter of minutes than I had all day (all week, probably). Today started out similarly, but Ilana and I managed to get up off the couch and take a four mile bike ride into St. Paul. It was my first adventure into Minneapolis' smaller, more residential twin, and it proved to be a really lovely place to spend a Sunday. The bike ride across the Mississippi was beautiful, though once we hit St. Paul, the roads became far hillier (who knew the midwest had hills?).
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| The view from the bridge to St. Paul |
By the time we hit Izzy's Ice Cream, Ilana and I had without a doubt earned our ice cream. Izzy's is a really wonderful place that serves really inventive ice cream flavors, and with each scoop you buy, you get an izzy for free. What is an izzy? It's a mini scoop of a different flavor of ice cream (the size of a watermelon scoop) on top of your regular sized scoop. It's absolutely adorable. Because we just so happened to make it to St. Paul for Izzy's 12th birthday, we got a second izzy on top of our ice cream for free! I had a scoop of raspberry chocolate chip topped with an izzy of Norwegian chai and an izzy of Summit Oatmeal Stout. I thought it couldn't get any better, but then they gave us free t-shirts!
The weekend is coming to a close with women's gymnastics and leftover Somali food. It's been the perfect balance of adventure and relaxation before another week of four- and five-year olds in the mornings and K-3 in the afternoons. If it's anything like last time, you may not be hearing from me much this week.
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