Take a break.

"...run away with us for the summer, let's go upstate!" While I may be channeling my inner Schuyler Sister with this title, it's mostly just to segue into the fact that I've been on a bit of a break from the blog and a lot of other aspects of normal-person life, like sleeping, for instance. 

There's a lot going on currently - I've done the classic Lizzie thing where I stack several dozen things on my plate all at once, and generally pretend I have it all together. While this always results in a ton of fun/great memories/general adventures, it also means I push things like writing to the wayside. 

Things I've been up to in between/as part of the craziness: 

Cat came to visit! We had a blast catching up, hanging out with bandies and exploring Minneapolis (mostly its bar scene!). 

Michael experienced his first Guthrie play, Kaufman and Ferber's "The Royal Family," and took a peek at the Endless Bridge despite the frigid winds. 

Kelsie's birthday shenanigans started with happy hour and creme brulee at The Happy Gnome...

...and continued last weekend with a hilarious evening at Rival House!

I celebrated St. Patrick's Day...HARD. Stories of shenanigans to follow at some point. 

Hal, Nicholas, and I grabbed pastries and drinks at Spoon and Stable last weekend - so delicious as always. 

These two have been my go-to buddies for the last several weeks - they're the best stress relief. Recently, we've tried out the newly-reopened Lexington, saw "Beauty and the Beast," hit up the Parade of Homes, and spent a hilarious morning playing old-school arcade games. They're my utter favorites. 

More regular posting to come soon...in the meantime, cross your fingers and send some positive thoughts my way in hopes that everything I'm juggling stays smoothly airborne! 

The arts roundup - September-November 2016

God, I've been so bad at writing lately. Seriously think I need a resolution on how to not suck at maintaining this space. Excuse this time? The world's most brutal bout of cold/flu/PLAGUE that struck me down in tandem with the lovely polar vortex Minnesota enjoyed this weekend. Bleh. You know it's cold when the inside of your windows are completely frozen over...

It's always warm in theaters, though, and I've kept my hot streak of being a professional audience member going strong this fall! I've shared plenty about "Hamilton" (still OMG-ing a month later) and our holiday choral road trip, but that's just the tip of the iceberg...

September kicked off with a VIP donor preview of the Minnesota Opera's 2016-17 season, hosted by new president and general director Ryan Taylor. With discussion of each opera, why it was programmed, and how it was going to be staged, along with excerpts from each, Jodester and I had a ball...even though she's NOT an opera lover and isn't my usual opera date! 

Legit the next weekend saw my actual opera plus-one driving down from Fargo to join me for the season-opening gala, Gounod's "Romeo et Juliette!"

Nothing like getting all black-tied up for a night in a theater. My happy place ;) The set for Romeo and Juliet centered around giant roses and hanging swords, which was graphic and cool and engaging. The opera, maybe not as much...it ranks lower on my list of favorites thus far. 

We still had a blast, though, and enjoyed the VIP afterparty too! 

That Thursday, Hal, AJ and I endured an utter fiasco trying to dine at Parlour before the Guthrie's Open Call night at "Sense and Sensibility." We're talking waiting two hours for a burger, only to receive them EIGHT minutes before showtime and having to scarf them in my car en route to the theater. Definitely my finest hour. 

We made it on time, though, and I LOVED the show. Jane Austen is my eternal homegirl. 

I'm also loving the (recent?) trend of revolving setpieces and turntables. "Sense and Sensibility" made extensive use of it, as did "Hamilton" and a few of my other favorites. Then again, the Guthrie's set shop never really ceases to amaze me. 

October ushered itself in with a performance I'd been looking forward to since February...the incomparable Renée Fleming opened the Schubert Club's 135th season at the Ordway! Matt was kind enough to join me...

...and to refrain from mocking me as I fangirled out so hard and took crappy iPhone photos of her. I spazzed hard, not gonna lie. The champagne reception afterward didn't hurt matters either.

(The above is what happens when an iPhone 5 is zoomed all the way in a dark theater and faced with OPERATIC LEGEND.)

Next on our Guthrie docket in October was "The Parchman Hour," which knocked my socks off in all the best ways. Focused around the Freedom Riders of the equal-rights movement, each actor played numerous roles, and digital media was used to stunning effect to illustrate their stories and the events surrounding them. I'm loving the Guthrie's powerful programming under Joseph Haj, in his first full season as head artistic director. 

Just days before the election, Jodester and I headed to Orchestra Hall for the first package of our season... Copland's "Lincoln Portrait," narrated by my bff (not kidding) Alan Page, seen above rocking VERY snazzy socks and dissecting the continuing relevance and power of the piece. "Lincoln" was followed up by prodigy violinist Esther Yoo performing Bruch's violin concerto, and the evening closed with an absolutely stunning rendition of Dvorak's "New World Symphony." 

I recently started thinking about how the hell I would pick if I had to choose between the orchestra and the Guthrie...answer is that I genuinely don't think I could. EEK!

Less than 24 hours after "Hamilton," Michael was back down from Fargo and we met up with his utterly lovely friends Michael and Antinea for Wagner's "Das Rheingold" at the Minnesota Opera! My first Wagner!! The Opera faced the challenge of fitting Wagner's super-sized orchestra into a too-small pit, so instead used the pit as part of the stage and put the musicians onstage right in the heart of the action. It presented an innovative, visually engaging and, for me, totally riveting solution to the issue, and I fell in love with the grandiose scale of Wagner's style hard and fast. 

Of course, pre-show dinner at the Saint Paul Grill as the Rice Park lighting ceremony took place, followed by post-show drinks and dessert at Meritage didn't hurt either. :) 

Lots more to come! I'm not even halfway through my calendar of LITERALLY 36 ARTS EVENTS THIS YEAR EEK! 

The weekend update

When it's hovering around 70 degrees in Minnesota in November, one gets out and does things. This last week or so has been no exception...I have barely been home! 

Thursday was the second Open Call of the year, "The Parchman Hour" at the Guthrie...which Matt, AJ and I pregamed at Freehouse. 

The show closed this weekend, but it absolutely blew my mind - the fusion of digital effects, soul, gospel and popular music, and an unbelievably talented cast conveyed the message of the show so powerfully. The programming the Guthrie is putting on continues to leave me so excited for its future under new artistic director Joseph Haj! 

On Friday, Jodester and I made a pilgrimage to the lovely Saint Genevieve in south Minneapolis - a beautiful little French café in the old Lynn on Bryant space. Their champagne list is comprehensive...so we built our own flights! 

After running into multiple people we knew, including one of my favorite high school English teachers and the wife of a college friend of my father's, we settled in to savor the creamiest rosé...

...along with a perfect-size-to-split croque Madame and a butternut squash dish that I'm still fantasizing about. 

Naturally, nothing pairs better with champagne than perfect French fries and bearnaise! 

Having snacked ourselves silly and gotten completely champagne buzzed, we headed off to Orchestra Hall to hang with my bff Alan Page, who was narrating Copland's "Lincoln Portrait" that evening. The pre-show discussion featured Page and new associate conductor Roderick Cox, discussing the power of American music to influence perception and open social dialogues. It definitely got interesting...and sure feels topical in the light of this week's events! 

The program, in addition to "Lincoln Portrait," also featured 22-year old violinist Esther Yoo making her Minnesota Orchestra debut on Bruch's violin concerto, and closed with Dvorak's stunning "New World Symphony." I can honestly say it's probably one of the most stirring programs I've ever seen there...superbly conducted by my silver-fox crush Osmo Vanska, and just incredibly moving and passionately performed. So grateful to live in a city with such a superlative symphony! 

I had a sleepover in Lakeville with Papa Bear and Jodester, mostly so I could check out their new bathroom renovation...that floor ahhh! 

After much deliberation, we headed to Glam Doll Donuts for a "light breakfast." Funny how a light breakfast gets so much heavier when one member of your group can't pick a flavor...cough...RICHARD. (My personal favorite is the blackberry Hennessy donut, closest to the camera in the photo above. Get it! You won't regret it.)

Then off to Lake of the Isles, for one of the most stunning fall walks ever! 

Temps hovered around 65-70 degrees, the sun was shining, and it felt like everyone was smiling. If Minnesota was always like this, nobody would ever leave! 

Sunday found me at a different lake...Harriet this time, to play with my favorite pup, Molly! Kelsie is kind enough to borrow her and share her with me whenever she likes...and we took her on her first 5k as we walked the whole lake! 

Miss Molly was having none of it. She wanted more attention than she was getting, and crapped out, naturally, right around the halfway point. It took us almost two hours to get all the way around with a capricious, hyper and then exhausted pup! 

So we rewarded ourselves with beer, naturally. First at Indeed, then down the block at Able! Molly was her cuddliest, most snuggly exhausted self. 

And I, being a Molly fiend, was in heaven. 

Nothing better than an Internet full of adorable puppies, right?! 

The Basic Bitch Fall Checklist

Last weekend was really one for the basic bitch record books. In addition to carving pumpkins with Kelsie on Saturday, I legitimately won Basic Bitch Bingo on Sunday morning: 

Let's play, shall we? 

Puffer vest: check

Flannel plaid buttondown: check

J.Crew from head to toe: check

Leggings: check

Pumpkin spice latte: check

Photo of my feet in leaves: check

All I need are riding boots and a blanket scarf and I'm golden. (If you need a laugh, go search the #basicbitch hashtag on Instagram...there are a shocking number of photos that look just like this one. Only less picturesque, if I may say so myself.)

I was grumpy on Sunday morning after a night of restless sleep and an early-morning trip to the office, so I took the long way home and stopped for a latte on Grand Avenue in St. Paul. On my way up, I drove down Summit Avenue, famously one of the prettiest streets in Minnesota, and couldn't help but park the car and go on a little ramble. Look at those leaves! 

I've realized this fall that I am a fiend for sugar maples...the way their leaves turn the whole spectrum of yellow into orange, before settling into that searing red color. The stretch of Summit I parked and walked on was all sugar maples, up and down both sides of the street and so old that their branches nearly converged overhead. It was, in a word, sublime. 

I mean, look at that. I ended up walking to the Cathedral and popping in for Mass...which, combined with the caffeine and the walk, totally lifted my curmudgeonly mood and set me up for an absolutely lovely day. 

Since I am the most basic of basic bitches, though, I've been taking #omgfallleaves photos all fall...Sunday was just the pinnacle of my basic. More below: 

More Cathedral views on my walk back to my car from work...much earlier in the season. What are these little yellow-leaf trees? I love them inordinately. 

The perfect fall morning at Lake Harriet

More yellow trees in St. Paul

An earlier pass down Summit Avenue - what's not to love about blue-sky autumn days? 

Heading in late to work after a board meeting - the sugar maples outside the building are stunningly beautiful. 

I mean, LOOK. The sheer variegation on those leaves alone is enough to convert me into one of those October-loving, #itsfallyall basic ladies. 

And my personal fave: walking home from a mid-October Mass through Loring Park, I chanced to look up and this beauty caught my eye. Is there anything more quintessentially "fall in Minnesota" than that blue sky and that RED tree? It's affirming over and over again why I live here, and love this season so much. 

And we end with more basic feet in leaves photos. Happy fall, y'all, enjoy it while you can because pretty soon those feet in leaves will be more like "feet in snowdrifts!"

Molly the Goldendoodle

Warning: cute puppy overload ahead. 

World, meet Molly the goldendoodle. 

Molly is Kelsie's grandparents' dog, although in my mind she belongs to Kelsie and, by extension, to me. Molly is an 8-week old, 3-pound bundle of utter adorableness, and Kels "borrowed" her for the day to take on a walk and fulfill all my cuddly-puppy cravings. 

It took us over an hour to go maybe half a mile at Lake Harriet yesterday, for a multitude of cute-puppy reasons. First, this was Molly's first big walk, and we think she was incredibly overstimulated by...everything. Every leaf, sewer grate, crack in the sidewalk, and twig was worth examining...to say nothing of the dozens of bikes, children, runners, and other dogs she had to sniff out. We'd go about ten yards, then she'd stop and wait for adoration from passers-by. Which she got, like, EVERY TIME. 

"How old is she? What kind of dog? Will she get big? OMG LOOK AT THE PUPPY." 

We were in heaven. She'd take her adulation, then try to follow whoever had been petting her as they walked the wrong way away from us. Then she'd stop a minute, then sprint another ten yards or so. Needless to say, it was an adventure. 

Eventually, she just completely gave up and collapsed into the cutest puddle of fur in the biggest pile of leaves. And she rolled around and just laid there and was essentially like, "Girls, I'm done. Please ensure I continue to receive a ton of attention and pets without having to walk another step." 

So we took our sweet time heading back to Kels's car, and did the only logical thing...headed to a brewery with a tired, cuddly puppy to enjoy a beer. 

As at Lake Harriet, Molly was the most popular attraction at the Indeed patio for a solid hour-plus. She was cuddled. She was petted. She was cooed over and adored by generally everyone who entered the brewery or passed our corner table. 

She also made friends of the four-legged variety (while being cuddled by Matt, who ran over to join us the second he saw my obscenely cute Snapchat story featuring Molly taking on Lake Harriet). 

Eventually, it was all just too much and little pup needed a nap. So I cuddled her and listened to puppy snores and generally went to heaven. LOOK AT THAT PUPPY FACE. Excuse me while I go make silly cooing noises in the corner for at least six minutes. 

All in all, a generally perfect Sunday Funday. And now I want a goldendoodle puppy of my own...although I think I'll be vicariously living through Molly field trips for a long, long while!