Last day of May.

I went for a walk last night to stretch my legs after a long afternoon spent in the car. After a weekend exploring new streets, it felt like a sweet indulgence to recycle familiar routes and keep myself company. This neighborhood is the first place I’ve ever felt completely at home—with its joyously unmatched houses, the bold well-loved cats who saunter down the sidewalks, the front-porch wine drinkers, the peonies bowing their heavy heads, the straight-backed and serene Lotuses in the park, the teasingly unfinished chalk creations—pink and purple sharks with impressively outfitted jaws and no fins, outlines of small bodies missing fingers and necks. I felt wonder at the particular angle of light over the rooftops and disbelief at the news. And I felt gratitude, too, for belonging to this space. I will miss it desperately when we move across town in the fall (everyone I've told says "you're renting a whole house? Upgrade!" I don't think it's a fair trade-off) or if we move elsewhere earlier...


Related:
Bernd has a shot at a position with Google in Austin, Texas. I can honestly say that Texas would sit right near the bottom of the list of states I’d happily call home… Couldn’t the position be in Chicago or Washington or Oregon or Minneapolis or DC?












Status updates on a yard sale. Closing. Closing. Closed.

Twin Cities.

We raced up to the Twin Cities for Memorial Day weekend (and crawled home today past too many accidents on I-94 and too many tired families outbound from Wisconsin Dells). We spent most of the day Saturday biking through downtown Minneapolis–20 miles or more in all, which felt farther in the heat—and swimming in Lake Calhoun. In the evening, we showered and tossed on some nicer togs to go see the Minnesota Orchestra perform Dvorak’s Serenade in D minor for wind instruments (lovely but a little sedate for my tastes) and Bela Bartok’s Concerto No. 2 for Violin and Orchestra, which Bernd loathed and I absolutely loved for its chaotic energy. We didn’t stay for Stravinsky’s Petrushka on Bernd’s insistence. I like Stravinsky, myself. Oh well!

On Sunday, we lazed in the morning and then met up with friends for coffee before hitting up the Minnesota Science Museum, which was all kinds of fun.










Scary stuff.


Alligator chomp!

Devil's Lake.

Yesterday, we slipped away to Devil's Lake to hike in the heat of the day. It was a sticky 92 degrees in Baraboo, and once when we plopped down on a boulder to rest, we were surprised by a long lean milksnake—no danger to us; milksnakes eat other snakes, not sun-struck daytrippers.










Wisconsin Explorers! My mom and I wrote these books!









Yesterday marked the first time I’ve worn a swimsuit in public (and by “in public,” I mean “outside of a changing room”) since I was 14. There were so many bodies unselfconsciously displayed there on that stretch of sand—fit and not, tanned and faintly unevenly pink, wrinkled and folded, muscled and bony. There was a space for every body there.

This morning, rain splattered down from a mostly sunny sky as I waited for the bus and everyone looked up, unable to help it—the businessman in his suit, the gangly teenage boys ditching school, the middle-aged woman with her pink tracksuit and impeccable hair—and me, too.

I am thinking in German again. I can barely articulate a sentence in English without its German translation springing thoughtlessly to mind.

Yep, pretty much.

I need to do an honest-to-goodness, quality, thought-provoking article link post soon, but I can't resist this one...

Eight-term congressman Mark Souder will resign over a romantic affair with a staffer... Souder is, of course, an evangelical Christian who is deeply opposed to allowing gay people to have legally recognized spouses to cheat on.

Graduation!

Mittermaiers!


Adam looks so hilariously fly in this picture.




I couldn’t keep my hat on to save my life! Evidence…




I was hamming it up for Bernd in the stands, but still… what a ridiculous face! Haha.


Bored stiff.

And they don't call me.

Google Voice's transcription service is such a joy. Bernd left me a Google Voice message on my birthday, while I was in the room, and reading the transcript back today makes me grin:


"Hi Sarah, I'm calling to wish you happy birthday happy birthday to Happy Birthday to You. Happy Birthday if there a [Sarah]. Happy Birthday true."

And my favorite part:

"and you're sitting here smiling at me drinking raspberries and they don't call me."

Graduation party.