Bookworm: October 2017

"She's the main character in her story, just like I'm the main character in mine." - Marisa de los Santos

Loved: 

House of God, Samuel Shem: I read this at Dave's behest, as he said this more perfectly encapsulated his experience as a medical intern and resident than any other piece of writing. The book is iconic among those circles, and with reason - reading it left me shaken, in a truly significant way. Its pull-no-punches style and near-callous description of how the medical profession erodes humanity hit me in very weird places. A must-read, at least in my opinion, for anyone who is/cares about a doctor/nurse/medical professional. 

The Girls at the Kingfisher Club, Genevieve Valentine: A Jazz Age riff on the iconic "Twelve Dancing Princesses" fairy tale, this drew me in with its intensely imagery-driven writing. I've always been a sucker for Prohibition-era fiction, and everyone knows that fairy tales have a special place in my heart and on my bookshelf.

The Precious One, Marisa de los Santos: I have loved Marisa de los Santos for the better part of a decade now, and her latest novel didn't disappoint. She has a gorgeous way with words that creates a richly-textured, incredibly evocative reading experience, and this tale of estranged family, lost loves, and navigating colliding worlds kept me riveted from the first page til I closed the cover.

The Alice Network, Kate Quinn: I followed the Reese Witherspoon Book Club on Instagram a few months ago and have, without exception, really loved her picks - she's an enormous bookworm, which just makes me like her even better! Also on the list of things I love: the World Wars, and this novel's parallel stories of espionage and revenge touch both of them - could it get any better?

Enjoyed: 

Talking as Fast as I Can, Lauren Graham: Huge "Gilmore Girls" devotee here...I really enjoyed Lauren Graham (Lorelai)'s behind-the-scenes account of filming the original series and the reboot, as well as peeks at her rise to fame and the relationships she's built along the way. This was honestly the first audiobook I genuinely, actually enjoyed from start to finish. 

Emma: A Modern Retelling, Alexander McCall Smith: Jane Austen is and always will be my girl, and as I grow up I'm realizing that I may be a lot more Emma Woodhouse than Elizabeth Bennet, oh the horror. McCall Smith relocates Emma and her motley crew to modern England, replacing buggies with Mini Coopers and governesses with ESL teachers. It was a charming, light, happy reminder of the original novel I loved. 

Saints For All Occasions, J. Courtney Sullivan: On paper, I should have liked this better - I'm blaming the fact that I read it on a series of cross-country flights from NYC to San Francisco. The story of two Irish immigrant sisters in Boston, and the fallout of one major mistake in both their lives, is told ranging from the 1950s to 2009, with plenty of other narrative voices chiming in along the way. I liked it, but preferred other offerings from Sullivan. 

Tolerated: 

Julie and Julia, Julie Powell: Another audiobook narrated by the author, and I have to say I think that ruined it for me. Powell's memoir is negative and cranky enough to begin with, but narrated in her grumpy monotone? It took so much of the fun out of the experience. Just watch the movie - or, even better, go out for French food instead!

The Last Queen, C.W. Gortner: I must have had this book for years - it had a Notre Dame Bookstore sticker in the cover - but I don't think I ever actually read it. Telling the tale of Queen Juana of Spain, a contemporary of Henry VIII, it was simultaneously smutty and dry...a poor attempt at channeling Philippa Gregory, and frankly nobody should try to channel Philippa Gregory in the first place. 

Vintage: A Novel, David Baker: Eh. This had its moments of charm, but overall the gastronomic, vinophilic mystery of a lost war vintage and a struggling, alcoholic writer left me lukewarm. And hungry. 

Re-reads: 

A Company of Swans, Eva Ibbotson: Every so often, I need Eva Ibbotson's beautifully written, just-the-right-amount-of-complicated, love-wins-out-over-all romances in my life, and last week was one such time. This is probably my favorite of her novels - I first read it at the age of about fourteen - and this is easily my dozenth reading. I think it's one of those novels whose familiarity just makes me fonder of it, in the end. 

Hannah Hits California!

A few weeks ago, I was treated to the loveliest few days ever as the always-delightful Hannah made her way west for a long visit! 

With multiple friends in the Bay Area, timing was perfect for her to take a week and come explore the best of our west coast world, and I loved every minute of my time with her. 

We had the most delicious boondoggle of a workday Thursday for me, starting with pastries at Pamplemousse in downtown Redwood City, followed by a lengthy lunch at Terrain Café at Anthropologie.

We sipped on passionfruit and blackberry spritzers, shared the pistachio hummus, and pretended it felt like fall with butternut squash bisque. The sunshine-soaked terrace and perfect temperatures made going back to the office so hard! 

While I wrapped up work for the day, Hannah explored Stanford's campus, which still takes my breath away every time I stop and look up and think to myself, "Hey. I work HERE." 

I left work extremely early and we met back up for manicures, then headed home for sunset views, Hanna cabernet (so appropriate!), and a woodfire pizza adventure with Dave and Laura! 

Takeaways from pizza night: 

- Dave is an EXCELLENT hand-tosser of pizza crusts. 

- I am not. 

- Our woodfire pizza oven is a complex and somewhat terrifying animal. 

- Pine nuts make EVERYTHING taste more delicious. 

- So does wine. 

I unfortunately had to work almost a full Friday (oh the horror!), but Hannah and her friend Sara enjoyed a day trip to Santa Cruz before heading my way for a low-key evening of appetizers and wine at Martin's West and Cask Wine Bar. 

Hannah and Sara spent Saturday in the city while I tailgated the Stanford-Oregon game with Dave and Laura, but we met up on Sunday for lots of wine tasting in Livermore! Hannah's trip fell during the peak of the Napa and Sonoma wildfires - about which I have A LOT to say very soon - but Livermore is actually closer and much cheaper for us than Napa/Sonoma, and did just fine in a pinch for a wine country experience! 

A fantastic added bonus - my beloved Meems was in town for a weekend with her girlfriends, and headed to meet up with us at our final stop of the day, Murrieta's Well! 

Along for the weekend? Natalie, who might as well be an honorary Schweg at this point - she and Emily have been besties since kindergarten (possibly earlier!). 

So fun to get to spend a little sister time together - I'm already excited for more Em time over Thanksgiving! 

For me, though, the highlight of the trip was my Monday with Hannah, mostly because it felt so much like old times. All touristed out, she and I opted for a night in featuring all of our favorite things. We started with an afternoon of wine by the pool, soaking up sunshine and catching up on the most absurd, minute happenings in our lives, then transitioned indoors for delivery Mexican, which we devoured on our patio. It felt just like old times at Rojo, happy friend tears and all (although the queso was NOT up to standard and we were on mezcal cocktails and wine instead of Rojo's lethal margs!). We wound down the evening in the best way imaginable...indulging our love of "The Bachelor" franchise, first with Sean and Catherine's wedding in our hot tub, and then with an episode of Emily's season - which Dave and I were watching at the time in advance of Arie's upcoming stint as The Bachelor! 

Having such a great, relaxed night hammered home for me just how much I miss, appreciate and love friends like Hannah. Being able to pick up right where we left off, with our ridiculous inside jokes, laughter, and heartfelt conversations, felt so natural and reminded me what an abundance of truly wonderful people I have in my life - both here and back in Minnesota. So grateful that she chose to spend precious vacation days in the Golden State with me, and can't wait until our next reunion! 

101 in 1001 #5: See a Broadway show...on Broadway!

You guys, hi! I’m fresh off a very lengthy blog break (partly intentional, partly accidental) and a fantastic trip to New York City with my parents and brother to celebrate my dad’s birthday. We had an absolutely outstanding weekend – shopping, drinking, sightseeing, and dining to our hearts’ content – but the unequivocal highlight of the weekend, for me, was seeing my first (and second!) Broadway show and checking off my 101 in 1001 #5!

I’ve grown up absolutely obsessed with Broadway musicals. My first trip to a show, the touring production of “Joseph and the Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat” with Donny Osmond, took place at the tender age of six…and my family never looked back. As anyone who reads this space knows, we all fell HARD for “Hamilton,” my dad and I share an affinity for “Phantom” that goes back over a decade, and I’ve seen too many touring productions on stage to even count up at this point. As much as we all love musicals, though, I’d never actually seen a show on Broadway before. Needless to say, when my parents floated the idea of a trip for Dad’s birthday, including seeing shows, I was all over it.

One of my deepest recent Broadway obsessions is with “Dear Evan Hansen,” the darling of the 2017 Tonys which has been universally praised for its richly emotive performances and the gorgeous music, penned by Pasek and Paul of “La La Land” acclaim. Ben Platt, starring as the anxiety-crippled, socially awkward title character, is ending his run at the end of November, and I couldn’t not see his Best Actor Tony-winning performance – especially after my parents and sister Em had already seen it and unequivocally raved about it.

Despite the fact that the ticket cost me nearly a third of my monthly rent, Friday night saw me absolutely losing my mind in the third row of the mezzanine as this stunning show truly left me speechless.  I rendezvoused with my family during intermission (we weren’t all sitting together, thank GOD) and was near-incoherent in my awe. While Ben Platt’s performance is truly a once-in-a-lifetime experience, the rest of the cast wowed in their own right, and the innovative staging and show design created a completely immersive experience.

I remembered with paralyzing detail how painful and awkward and stressful it was, at times, to be a teenager feeling like I didn’t totally fit in, to think in agonizing detail about how others perceived me and to worry incessantly about who I was. That teenage angst, coupled with the struggles of parents to understand their children and fulfill their own needs and desires, seemed to overwhelm everyone in the audience; the women sitting next to me had never heard the music and didn’t know the show’s premise, and collectively went through an entire packet of Kleenex in the first act alone.

After the show, we parked ourselves outside the stage door in hopes of seeing the cast up close and personal, but the closest we got was seeing Rachel Bay Jones (Tony Award winner for best featured actress!) drive by waving from her SUV after sneaking out the back door. I had a total fangirl moment, though, when we realized we could see into the reception room backstage, and watched Ben Platt greeting VIPs. To quote the musical, heavy-handedly, we were literally waving through a window...and it made my night!

While “Dear Evan Hansen” plumbed the deepest depths of my (admittedly soft-hearted, emotional, quick-to-cry) spirit, our Saturday night show, “A Bronx Tale,” left me grinning from ear to ear. We had originally purchased phenomenal seats to “Natasha, Pierre, and the Great Comet of 1812,” but the show closed early in September after a fair amount of casting drama. We searched around for other options aimlessly as a few more shows we were interested in closed, and ultimately landed on “A Bronx Tale” as a nice change of pace from the wringer that is “Dear Evan Hansen.” Based on a true story, and the ensuing Robert De Niro movie, the show focuses on the early life of a young Italian boy growing up in – you guessed it – the Bronx, being pulled between the rival good-and-evil forces of his upright, moral father and a local mobster.

While the show won no Tonys and earned much less critical acclaim than my beloved “Hamilton” or “Dear Evan Hansen,” the music (by Alan Menken) and the dance-heavy, big bold cast created an enchanting experience for the largely Italian, New Yorker audience. I’ve had “One of the Great Ones,” a rollicking love song, stuck in my head since Saturday night- and let’s be real, if every show was an emotional rollercoaster, I’d never make it through an evening at the theater without crying my mascara clean off.

So incredibly thankful to my parents for letting us celebrate in the greatest city in the world with them, and for planning not one but TWO Broadway experiences for us! I’m so hooked on the theater world, and have a feeling there will be many more cross-country flights in my future…after all, “Frozen” and “Mean Girls” both open next spring, wheee!

four years!

Four years ago I signed up for a Squarespace two-week free trial. I taught myself to code a website (in the most rudimentary and experimental of fashions). I picked out a blog name, wrote a cheesy, oh-so-basic bio, and hit "new post" for the very first time. 

MinneapoLiz is four years old today. Looking back, I can't believe I've been writing this blog for as long as I was in high school, and in college, and at Travelers. Four years is a solid timespan, campers...the kind of timespan that typically culminates in diplomas, or graduation parties, or commencement ceremonies. Here I sit, though - no diploma in sight, no recognition or celebration or graduation to the next step forthcoming - and I find myself contemplating just what this blog, in all its iterations, has given me instead.

Reading back through four years of posts, it almost feels like this continual chronicling of my life has been a collegiate progression. My "freshman year of blog," with awful formatting and cheesy rambling about playlists and the boyfriend and finding my way. A sophomore year of growing pains and breakups and, oh god, most basic of all basicness, starting the Brunch Challenge. And a junior year of friends and travel and drinking and socializing way too hard, way too often...and loving every minute of it.

Three years of very distinct life phases, which bring me here to this "senior year" of sorts. As with college, "senior year of blog," for me, heralded a sea change. I've never lived away from Minnesota, with the exception of my (similarly monumentally significant) four years of college. Here I sit on the balcony of my California apartment, watching palm trees swaying in the breeze and smelling the salt of the bay mingle with wildfire smoke and my coffee. And had you asked me this time last year, or the year before, or, goodness, the year before that whether I would ever be here in this place, I don't think I could have even conceived that it was possible. 

And there you have it - a shift which, I think, really just goes to show how much I've grown. It's like sitting in the stadium on graduation day, black gown sticking to my sweaty shoulders, remembering what it was like to sit in this same crowd of my classmates during the Freshman Welcome Mass. I vividly, viscerally remember that moment - looking back with nostalgia and pride at the evolution and adventure of the last four years as I sat there at the end of it all. With this blog, I have put four years' worth of nostalgia down on paper, virtual though it may be, and I can revisit "freshman year of life" with a click of a mouse. I can look back at brunches with girlfriends, vacations with my family, inside jokes and stressful days and my continual stumbling quest for happiness and fulfillment, and, with awe, see how far I've come. 

From where I sit, that's the most beautiful thing about what I've done with this space. As I always say on this day, I'm incredibly proud to have kept this space up for as long as I have, and to have committed to continually experimenting and re-evaluating and challenging my own conceptions of what I can do here. Happy fourth anniversary to my beloved blog, and to all of you, thank you so much today and every day for reading, reacting, and giving me so much joy in this bizarre, lovely adventure.

Schwegmanigans by the Bay!

As fun as wine country with my Schwegfam was, it only took up one day of their 3.5-day trip to Cali, and the fun didn't stop as soon as we left Napa. In fact, it started before Napa, the second Dick, Jodes and Jonathan showed up at my place on Thursday afternoon...

Emily didn't arrive until just before dinner, so I took my parents and Jonny over to San Carlos for a lengthy lunch...of the mostly-liquid variety...at Cask. 

Emmy got in, we headed back to San Carlos for a fantastic dinner of small plates and wine pairings at The Wine Project, and then back to my place for a palm tree sunset...

...and a belated-birthday celebration courtesy of Sprinkles Cupcakes! (Em's birthday is July 2, so she was NOT expecting this almost three weeks later...but my parents are awesome and never let a birthday go uncelebrated!)

Friday was Napa day, so we pick back up on Saturday. First, a bit of backstory - while my whole family has met Laura repeatedly over the last six years, Dave was a brand new face for them, and the Schwegfam likes few things better than new (victims) friends to (force to hang out with us) win over with our charming shenanigans. 

So when the Schwegs met Dave for the first time that week, it was kind of a bizarre love at first sight thing. Jonathan and Dave had, of course, already become bros during his earlier trip to the Bay, but my parents and Em were rapidly enchanted. To the degree that, when we decided to go out to breakfast on Saturday before heading to Stanford, Dave's attendance was NOT OPTIONAL in their eyes. Dave, however, had plans to enjoy one of his few days off going hiking. Fortunately, he's a gracious and lovely roommate/person and agreed to go to breakfast. At Stacks, when an extra mimosa showed up randomly, my parents, Jon, and Emmy all attempted to twist his arm into drinking it, despite his planned strenuous hike after food. 

Dave demurred, with the following exchange: 

Jodes: "Dave, honey, are you sure you don't want the mimosa?!" 

Dave: "Yeah, no, I just really don't like champagne." (Pause for look of slight horror on faces of entire Schwegfam.) "Oh, no, don't get me wrong, I LOVE alcohol...just not champagne." (Pause for look of dramatic relief on faces of entire Schwegfam.) 

Dave, you're a saint of a roommate and thank you for coming to breakfast with my wild and crazy family - we love you!

Long story short, Jonathan drank both the mimosas while wearing his sunglasses indoors because that's just how Jonathan rolls. 

I blame said mimosas for his incredible maturity the moment we rolled up to Stanford's campus...

I was so excited to show off campus to my family! I've really loved exploring it and spending more time there with work, classes and activities after-hours. The day, though, was rapidly nearing 90 degrees, and while the Schwegfam is incredibly good looking and very smart compared to the general population, we're not exactly known for our Stanford-level academic ability. So we just had fun instead...

Specifically, we walked around campus sweltering until we beelined for the bookstore, where Emily channeled her best inner Stanford student...

Dick...oh excuse me, his frat-boy alter ego Rick...joined the class of 2021 and got his letter jacket to prove it...

,,,and we screwed around making general fools of ourselves for a nice healthy amount of time. Schwegmans LOVE college bookstores. It's one of our things. 

Since Em couldn't decide whether to go the business, medicine, or law route, we decided to throw in the towel and seek cooler temperatures in San Francisco, starting in the Mission at Clarion Alley, a graffiti project that focuses on protest artwork. (We were a teeeeeeny tiny bit out of place. Oops.)

Once we saw our man Prince (RIP), we were good to go and headed toward Dandelion Chocolate for ALL THE SAMPLES and Brasserie St James for mediocre service and excellent cocktails. 

When we were in Northern California over the holidays, we stumbled into Fog Harbor Fish House on Pier 39 for a happy hour that turned into one of the best dinners of our trip. Dad, being a creature of habit, really wanted to go back, so we did! As much of a tourist nightmare as Pier 39 can be, it's worth checking out if you're a newbie to the San Francisco thing...and I highly recommend Fog Harbor for drinks, snacks, or a full meal. 

One of the biggest draws of Fog Harbor? Their house-made sourdough bread is baked every hour and served HOT tableside...like so hot that it's hard to pick it up at first. Both times we've been there, we've devoured multiple baskets of it. It's crack-delicious. 

Emily had insisted all evening that she wanted no further recognition of her birthday, but Dad is a sucker for any kind of party-style humiliation (and for free dessert). To get him back for the sneak-attack strawberry shortcake, Em, Jonny and I stealth-swiped the bill...a coup, if you've ever dined out with Dick and Jodes. 

All that was left was taking in a stunning San Francisco sunset to conclude our Saturday in the city...that Bay Bridge photo Em captured honestly makes my heart beat a little bit faster. 

In true Schwegfam style, we were pounding mimosas by about 9am on Sunday at Mayfield Bakery in Palo Alto, a brunch we were all kind of eh on...cinnamon beignets aside. 

After brunch, we headed back to Stanford to take in the panoramic 360-degree views from the top of Hoover Tower! I can access it for free anytime with my employee badge, and the day was so clear we could see all the way to San Francisco. 

After we wound down at Stanford, we took Jonny D to the airport and headed back to my place to relax and enjoy one last glass of California sauvignon blanc before my parents ran Em back. Little did we know, her flight would be delayed by three or four hours...so we turned right back around to pick her up and race back to my place for a little Iron Horse Reserve Cuvée!

Too soon, it was time to say goodbye to the rest of my Schwegfam loves, the only way I know how: with a raised glass and a "Cheers!" for the road. 

I can't wait for the next trip they make out my way...or for our next Schwegfam Five reunion in Minnesota over Thanksgiving!