"Allez, viens!"...off to Paris!

Zut alors, campers, the day has finally arrived. The day I've been waiting for since (no joke) last June. We leave for Paris today!

So I'm a huge dork...our French textbooks in high school were called "Allez, viens!," which translates to "Come on, let's go!" That's EXACTLY how I'm feeling this morning...just one big ball of energy kind of zinging around tapping my toes and shouting that in my mind. In just a few short hours, Mom and I are headed to MSP, where we'll catch a flight to Boston and meet up with Em. We arrive in the land of baguettes and berets tomorrow morning, and I can't wait to share everything we have planned with you. 

We've worked so hard to put this trip together...from researching restaurants to planning tours, putting together ridiculously complex Excel spreadsheets and terrorizing (and being terrorized by) the wait staff and elderly women of the city...and I can't wait for it to come to fruition. Although our ten-day forecast looks like it holds lots of rain, I'm already anxious to stroll the streets, wander the museums, and take it all in. The trip's coming at a perfect time, with all the angst and weirdness of April behind me and nothing to worry about but making fantastic memories with my mom and sister. 

While I won't be checking in on social media often (if at all), I've set up scheduled posts while I'm enjoying the City of Light. Check back in for those, or follow along on our adventures via my Instagram and Twitter (@MissSchweg on both!). Au revoir, mes amis--Paris, I'm coming for you!

Bookworm: April 2015

“What do you know about yourself? What are your stories? The ones you tell yourself, and the ones told by others. All of us begin somewhere. Though I suppose the truth is that we begin more than once; we begin many times. Over and over, we start our own tales, compose our own stories, whether our lives are short or long. Until at last all our beginnings come down to just one end, and the tale of who we are is done.” -Cameron Dokey

I sort of feel like I have an unfair advantage on the reading list this month. With five days to do nothing but laze around on the beach/in the pool with books while in Mexico, I plowed through way more than my usual count! 

Loved: 

Is Everyone Hanging Out Without Me?, Mindy Kaling

William and Harry: Behind the Palace Walls, Katie Nicholl

Before Midnight, Cameron Dokey

Belle, Cameron Dokey

Enjoyed: 

Big Girl Panties, Stephanie Evanovich

The Museum of Extraordinary Things, Alice Hoffman

Geisha: A Life, Mineko Iwasaki

Beauty Sleep, Cameron Dokey

Tolerated: 

Diana: Her True Story, In Her Own Words, Andrew Morton

Just Ella, Margaret Peterson Haddix

Night Dance, Suzanne Weyn

Re-reads: 

I Didn't Come Here to Make Friends, Courtney Robertson

April in Transition

As I sit here staring out my bedroom window at the sliver of Minnesota sky I can see, I'm noticing a trend in my life over the last several years. April, for me, has always been a time of terrible and challenging and wonderful transition that naturally forces contemplation.

Do you ever feel like you have those times? My year seems so seasonal. I'm always giddy in December and content in August and short-tempered in November. April always forces me to take a hard knock or two and learn a good lesson. 

My beloved boss, Seth, is leaving my company...his last day is Friday, but our last day in the office together is tomorrow, due to my upcoming trip. He's been offered a professional opportunity he would be a fool not to pursue, and I'm ecstatic for him and his family to start a totally exciting new chapter. Selfishly, though, I'm devastated. Like, cry-in-the-bathroom-at-least-twice-daily devastated. My role with my company has changed so much already in the last four months--with him out the door, the ambiguity and uncertainty that I thought had cleared from my professional future is only amplified, instead. I'm losing my favorite companion and a mentor that I truly didn't appreciate until I knew he was going to be gone. 

This time last year, the "career" tenet of my life couldn't have looked more different. It was stable, peaceful, and satisfying in a way I had never really known as an adult. Instead, last April, my personal life was a shambles. I got dumped by the guy I thought I was going to marry, and the entire trajectory of my life shifted. I guess it's payback for the three separate Aprils in college when I was the one ending relationships...

The April before Jon dumped me, I had to face the hard truth that I absolutely hated and would never be happy in my job at Ernst & Young. Given I had started that job planning to make it my professional home for life, that realization rocked and shifted my world as well. And before that, all the other Aprils of undergrad and high school, just seem to me to be replete with stress and struggle and studying for finals. 

So what is it, April? Maybe it's something to do with spring...a spring-cleaning for the soul, of sorts. Maybe it's that, every winter, I hunker myself down and hibernate for awhile and let my dreams and plans and future take shape. I get complacent and comfortable with where my life is going. And it feels like the second I do that, those dreams of the future come crumbling down, blown away by spring wind, washed down the drain by April showers. I always find myself learning lessons, this time of year. To value my friends and family more. To speak up for myself. To be unafraid to admit my own unhappiness. To maybe skip fewer classes or take better notes in Managerial Economics. To accept the love I know I deserve but to be fair when I know I can't give others the love they deserve. 

And with Seth's imminent departure, I'm sure that I have more hard lessons around the corner. I'm going to hold his role in the interim, and possibly longer, if I can prove myself worthy and capable. I'm going to face more challenges in an effort to be taken seriously and respected and treated as an equal. I'm going to have to re-assert my desire and need and craving for balance in life and work. Most significantly, I'm going to have to adapt to a work environment lacking in his IM witticisms, companionable, unmotivated-to-actually-work coffee runs and cute children popping by every so often. It's weird for me to think that when I get back from Paris, he'll just be gone.

I guess I have to keep reminding myself that every year without fail, I've found that the adage holds true and April showers bring May (or, at any rate, eventual) flowers. My challenges always yield something worthwhile. Here's to 2015 proving the adage right yet again. 

A taste of summer: weekend-style

Minnesota's been treated to some totally beautiful weather lately, which means we've all moved our lives outside as much as possible. The last few weekends have been spent with friends and family boosting our vitamin D (and our BAC) all over the Twin Cities! 

Prior to our disastrous (first-half-only) trip to "Mr. Burns" at the Guthrie, Mom and I celebrated her April birthday at Yardhouse and Anthropologie in the West End! I savored a Moscow Mule (they make fantastic ones) and we split tacos and chatted. Anthro throws birthday parties on a monthly basis with private shopping, treats and drinks, and a 15% discount. We had such a blast picking out pretty things for Paris...my only sorrow is that we left fast to make it to our terrible show! 

We also celebrated at home with Dad...he grilled burgers, picked up a Farmington Bakery cake, and pulled off an epic surprise with a beautiful David Yurman bracelet. Of course, a "House of Cards" marathon was also called for! 

I'm proud to claim I've gotten Kelsie hooked on A La Mode manicures, and we spent a great Saturday morning gossiping with our favorite ladies and freshening up our fingertips after Mexico. Margaritas for lunch were the logical next step in that equation...especially since we could enjoy them outside on the patio at Rojo!

To keep taking advantage of the amazing weather, Claire, Mike, Eva, Josh and I took the party to the next level...literally. My building's rooftop patio boasts spectacular views of Loring Park and a plethora of comfy patio furniture, and we mixed up cocktails, parked ourselves in a sunny spot, and spent hours discussing bucket lists and life goals and how amazing the summer is going to be!

After a fairly tipsy dinner at Loring Kitchen, we headed to Kelsey's birthday party (not my Kelsie, a different friend!) and spent plenty of time playing fetch with Winnie, her precious dog, and a very soggy tennis ball...fun fact: Kellen, above, proposed to Mollie, his girlfriend of ages, last weekend! So excited for them!

This past weekend, Claire's good friends Mikey and Scott, who went to Notre Dame with us, came into town and shenanigans of course ensued. We took in a Twins game that involved very little actual watching of the game (they lost) and very much enjoying of beers and Barrio guacamole while soaking up the sun. $20 tickets get you top-deck seats...the stunning views of downtown more than make up for the fact that the players look like they're microscopic. I also proved that I apparently really need to work on my selfies if we're going to keep this trend up all summer!

On Sunday, we battled hangovers to suffer through (me) or enjoy (everyone else) the brunch buffet at Kramarczuk's...I can't wait to go back when I have an appetite that hasn't been suppressed by nausea! The long, epic walk we took around the Mississippi River did plenty to clear my head and offered up some pretty beautiful views, as well. How cute is everyone?! I can't wait to hit this path on a day with less wind and fewer clouds. 

While the temps have taken another nosedive and while my focus is back on my impending trip to Paris, the last few weekends have proven to me beyond a shadow of a doubt that I'm in for a truly fantastic Minnesota summer. Can't wait to see what upcoming weekends surrounded by friends have to offer! 

A Very Guthrie April

One of my absolute favorite places in the Twin Cities is the Guthrie Theater. I was fortunate to grow up in a family that prioritized arts exposure, and our love of performance has stuck with all of us as we grew up. My first Guthrie experience was a season ticket pass my mom gifted to my sister and me when I was in seventh grade, including “Pride and Prejudice” and “Romeo and Juliet.” I fell in love instantly, and since that fateful 2003 season, I’ve been incredibly lucky to have seen over 40 productions by the Guthrie…including four visits there in the last four weeks. It’s been a very Guthrie April, and has truly been a case of the good, the bad, and the ugly!

Starting on a high note: As I mentioned here, Hannah and I took in a performance of “A Midsummer Night’s Dream” from the front row. “Midsummer” is admittedly one of artistic director Joe Dowling’s all-time favorite plays, and never disappoints when he stages it…I’ve seen two different productions by the Guthrie in the twelve years I’ve been a regular attendee. This one was absolutely transcendent…stunning use of digital media as a backdrop, costuming that couldn’t have been more perfect, and a cast of truly stand-out actors, including the super-hot Nicholas Carriere as Oberon and Tyler Michaels, Minneapolis’s uber-talented new breakout actor du jour, as Puck. I often caught myself holding my breath in sheer delight at how utterly beautiful the whole production was.

Of course anything that followed “Midsummer” would have seemed a bit lacking to me, but I was completely taken aback by just how ugly the “ugly” of the Guthrie’s April offerings proved to be. This year the Guthrie introduced a great young professionals’ organization, Open Call, which has totally enhanced my experience as a patron of the theater…tickets to four shows, monthly happy hours, and admittance to the Midsummer Night’s Ball, which I mentioned here. Our third show was “Mr. Burns, A Post-Electric Play,” and I had absolutely zero idea what the show was about.

The premise of “Mr. Burns” was, if not promising, at least thought-provoking…the USA has just experienced a nuclear holocaust, and the survivors are attempting to find meaning and rebuild their shattered lives. The vehicle through which they do so? Attempting to reconstruct an episode of “The Simpsons” from memory. Structured into three parts, the show begins with the survivors around a campfire, interrupting and talking over each other as they attempt to remember a lost fragment of the show. From then, the audience is rocketed ahead seven years, to find that recreating sitcoms as “plays” has become a popular form of post-apocalyptic entertainment, and our survivors are a company of actors performing “The Simpsons.” The third act jumps ahead another seventy years and illustrates how distorted anything gets with time, transforming “The Simpsons” into some kind of Gilbert and Sullivan-esque vaudeville. We wouldn’t know…we left at intermission.

I’ve never left ANY performance in my entire life at intermission, campers. Truly nothing I’ve ever seen has hit a nadir where I felt like my time was better spent trimming my cuticles, but I found myself suffering through Mr. Burns wishing I’d had the wherewithal to pack a nail file. The dialogue was stilted and scattered, the staging was stiff and forced, and the acting felt lackluster and uninspired. It honestly seemed at times like the actors had all been thrown up there with little preparation and even less investment in what they were portraying, and it carried over into the audience. It’s not just that I’m not a fan of “The Simpsons”…it could have been “Friends,” or “Gossip Girl,” and I would still have been counting the minutes. With laughs few and far between, we weren’t the only ones making a hasty exit at intermission…a trend that, according to the Guthrie’s Facebook page, has continued through its entire run.

Fortunately for my love of the Guthrie, we returned a short four days later for a preview night performance of Arthur Miller’s “The Crucible.” Another of Dowling’s favorites, this production couldn’t have been more of a reverse from “Mr. Burns.” I vividly remember reading the play in Terri Delebo’s Honors English class and loving the incisive social commentary and powerful, moving prose. This production featured several Guthrie/U of M BFA candidates as the bewitched girls, but Eric Heger as John Proctor (obviously) stole the show. I had chills when he uttered the famous lines “You have pulled down Heaven and raised up a whore!” and “BECAUSE IT IS MY NAME!” and was genuinely tearing up by the end. The set is sparse and eerie, the movement and staging truly seems possessed at times, and the alternatingly restrained and insane sides of the characters kept me on the edge of my seat. A must-see, for anyone who appreciates theater!

Finally, and appropriately, my mom and I were incredibly privileged to attend “In Conversation” on Tuesday night for Joe Dowling’s final interview as the artistic director of the Guthrie. After a twenty-year tenure, Dowling is preparing to step down this June, and it truly signifies the end of an era for Minnesota theater. I’ve heard him speak (briefly) once before, but this presented an entirely different level of candor, humor and charm from him. He truly is one of the most formidably intelligent, charismatic, witty speakers I’ve ever had the honor of listening to. Topics ranged over his lifelong battle to overcome natural shyness, his impressions of Minnesota at the beginning and end of his time here, his friendship with Arthur Miller (um, HI), his role in developing the Guthrie’s new space and revitalizing its repertoire, and his hopes and plans for the future. I clapped until my hands were raw at the end…he leaves behind big shoes to fill.

One of the best quotes from the evening related to what makes a play good: per Joe, theater must challenge you, touch you, inspire you, move you, teach you, or in some way leave you feeling connected when you leave the theater in order for a play to be a success. I think it’s clear that, for me, the Guthrie has managed to do all of the above, and I look forward to years of continued enjoyment to come in the “downtown Ikea” of a big blue theater on the Mississippi River.