The Next Dark Age
We're in it Now
Doing the Shakespeare
My awesome friend John did me a good turn by going to the Bird Walk with me on Monday. In the 90 degree heat. The joke was that my mother pledged $25 if I didn’t walk more than three miles. So that was my excuse. We don’t have a final number for the fundraising, but I know that Erica’s project on Crowdrise is showing $780 right now, my employer is in for $20 more, and most of the donations weren’t even recorded there.
Anyway. The least I can do is plug John’s show. He is performing in New Rock Theater’s production of MacBeth. The Reader has reviewed it, and it seems to be great. And the comments on the review were snarky right out of the gate, so that might be worth a click. If you are into that kind of thing.
This is the coolest playbill I have ever seen:
It is running on weekends through June 25. You can get tickets here. Which I still haven’t done yet. But I will!
Edit: And another review is here.
Exiles in the Garden, by Ward Just
The more I read from Ward Just, the more I love him. Exiles in the Garden
At the heart of the story is the romantic idea of the lives of European expatriates living in America after World War II. Many don’t feel at home in their homelands and many others really can’t go back.
Alec, the son of a longtime Midwestern senator, marries one such expatriate. The title refers to the garden parties of the next-door-neighbors where Lucia, the wife, finally begins to feel at home. Drama ensues.
Americans are often told that we cannot possibly understand the woes of other people in other parts of the world – which may very well be true. Many of us cannot possibly understand the psyche of the person that sees hardships like one’s country being overrun by Nazis and Soviets, losing one’s home and being sent to death camps or gulags. But this book makes another point:
For decades, Americans were roundly criticized for isolationism. For not interfering in other parts of the world when we were not being directly threatened. Now we are roundly criticized for the opposite. It does make one wonder what the rest of the planet expects from us.
I am just provincial enough to say that Alec was my favorite character and I found Lucia, with her “you can’t possibly understand”, tiresome. Although I did note that her view of Americans was reminiscent to me of Ian McEwan’s from The Innocent
Overall, I am happy to say this was another winner.
At the Children’s Museum
Glenview is very proud of Kohl’s, its childrens’ museum in the Glen Town Center. Very hands on with the pretend grocery store and pretend sandwich shop and pretend vet’s office, etc. My brother’s family bought a membership this year and we took the kids over today. I was interested to see how each child navigated it.
Alex, age 6, was a lot like me. He ran through each exhibit rather quickly, then doubled back to the things that he really enjoyed. Ainslie went into the pretend library – with all of the real books – and camped out right here:
At the real computer. The child is two and a half years old and I could not tear her away from this screen. All I did was get her to the menu of “toddler games”. She went through each one and found the one she liked. It involved a choo-choo train where you match the letters on the keys to the letters on the doors of the freight train doors to unlock them.
Scott got her away from it for awhile, but at the next opportunity, she dragged me by the hand back to the pretend library with the real computer games. This gave “growing up with technology” new meaning for me.
And I guess I know what to get this one for her birthday.
P.S. Her pigtails are uneven because she wouldn’t sit still when her mother tried to fix them after nap time.
I Joined Twitter
Three things happened at about the same time:
1. I sketched out something of a social media proposal for a Refuge for Saving the Wildlife, where I volunteer.
2. My friend and fellow volunteer, Susanna, read the proposal and asked if I am on Twitter. No. One might wonder how I sketched out said proposal if I am not even on Twitter.
3. My brother, who refuses to join Facebook, finished a story with, “And so I tweeted that to my congressman!”
So I signed up. It took me 15 minutes just to claim a username, as the good variations of my name are already being used.
(sigh)
I followed a couple of people I know and gmail found me some more. And then…what to tweet?
I am a blogger. An amateur blogger, but still. I should be able to come up with some great opening line, right? This is the forum I will want to use to talk with my peers and promote my causes. I’d better come up with something interesting to say!
Nothing.
So I started to look around for the ways these different accounts link together: Twitter, Facebook, LinkedIn, Crowdrise. Then I realized that I hadn’t updated my Crowdrise page with the new location for the fundraiser the Refuge is holding on Memorial Day. Thus my first ever (accidental) Tweet was:
Bird Walk location has changed: it is now at Lutheran Church of the Holy Spirit – 30 Riverwoods Road.
Technology is beautiful, isn’t it?
So it was an inauspicious beginning. The real question is how I might use this tool to network with other local volunteers? How might the Refuge (or the other organizations I work with) use it to build and support their communities? Will I be able to figure it out with all of the shiny objects they put in my path?
These are not rhetorical questions – any insight would be appreciated!
Why that Game is Not the End of the World
That would be the Bulls game last night.
- With no hockey and no basketball, I can finally finish that biography of Albert Einstein. Seriously. Haven’t been reading enough.
- I am going to be on the road a lot next month. I wouldn’t like to be separated from my Lucky Couch when my team is in the Finals.
- If we had to lose that series, I rather prefer The Choke. It gives the team something to be mad about next year.
Blanket 20
It seems that the fleece doctors at Project Linus are getting clever. This blanket, from Penny’s stash, came to me prepared with the three panels of fleece machine stitched together:
You can see that the themes don’t quite match up, but the purples totally do. I could not believe I found a Linus blanket for which I could use this yarn – Vanna’s Lion brand in Purple Print. Purple Print has a dark purple, charcoal grey and dark slate blue. I loved it, but it didn’t seem kid-friendly. Until this fleece. It is an odd one, but I am certain there is a kid out there that will find it awesome.
Three rows of single crochet.
Blanket 19
More fleece from the last Starbucks night. I wanted something bright:
Seriously, the flash in my camera phone messes up the color of everything. Again, three rows of single crochet using Red Heart Sport yarn in Pumpkin.
Conversation with My Brother at the Project Linus Fundraiser
Him: ….so I tweeted that to (my congressman).
Me: (…)
Me: What did you just say?
Him: I tweeted it to (my congressman).
Me: You’re on Twitter?!
Him: Yeah.
Me: You aren’t even on Facebook!
Him: I know. It’s weird that you aren’t on Twitter.
Me: I have a blog.
Him: Microblog!
Me: I fancy myself a real writer.
Him: I don’t have the attention span.
Me: I. Know.
This was about 45 seconds after I asked him to make me a new blog for my birthday. He told me that he wouldn’t even discuss it until I could articulate what I wanted.
Damn programmers.
The fundraiser seemed to have a lot of traffic, which was great. I hope someone sends out a number for what was raised. I bought six raffle tickets for a gorgeous blanket. Then my nephew, Alex, went and won the thing.
I knew I should have taken a picture.
Blanket 18
It seems I stitch more quickly when my team is losing. I finished this during the Bulls game last night:
Three rows of a single crochet using Vanna’s Lion Brand yarn in Pink. Leftover from a previous project, I am please to say.
My mother saw it and said, “Are those bagels? That is some crazy looking cream cheese!”
I will be delivering this to Project Linus at the Fundraiser at Culver’s tomorrow. Again, from 11am until closing, if you mention Project Linus at the Buffalo Grove location on McHenry Road.
Double (or Triple) the Linus
I have had two Project Linus events this week, with a third coming up on Tuesday.
Wednesday, after a horrid night at the Refuge (we lost a cockatoo), I ran home and changed so as to head over to Starbucks for the monthly gathering of crocheters (is that even a word?). This gathering serves two purposes for me:
- Hang out with a very nice group of ladies that encourage whatever small shred of the crafty I possess.
- Swap the pieces of fleece that I have gathered over the last month for the “prepared fleece” – pieces that are already cut and hole-punched so as to be ready to stitch.
The Next Dark Age 