I’m in the glider, watching the Brewers (up 1-0), digging the cold and grey of a rainy Sunday afternoon. This morning Ross and I hit the coffee shop and talked for ninety minutes or so. He thought I was approaching him with a business proposal. Er, no. I’m not that ambitious. Later I lifted weights, cleaned, did the elliptical, and ate enough pizza to balance out the elliptical. I’ve already started getting everything ready for tomorrow. If I organize my clothes, lunch, backpack, etc. for Monday morning I sleep better Sunday night. And you should never, ever, listen to me closely here, never ever engage in social activity on Sunday nights. That’s just wrong. Take it easy. Quiet. You know what I mean.

Last night we took in the symphony. Beforehand we ate dinner at a restaurant near Beans and Barley (I can’t remember the name, but the restaurant was too hip for me, everyone in black like they’re waiting for their big break in film). We stopped at the beautiful lake Alterra’s for coffee/hot chocolate then cut northwest to the symphony parking garage. M wasn’t feeling particularly well, maybe the wings she ate threw her, so we didn’t stay for the entire symphony program. No big deal. I had heard the Brahms before.

Yesterday I finished the Hamsun and started a re-read of Demons. Oh, I watched Rockarolla, too.

So how am I doing? Pretty well. I feel slightly in a holding pattern, waiting for the semester to start, looking for another creative outlet. I’m not under duress, I think, but I’m a little tense with inactivity. But I can breathe through it. In a good way. Maybe I’m in a period of calm and not sure what to do with it. Maybe I should just crash on the couch and just feel good about Sunday. Why not?

The view from our symphony seats, five minutes before the program starts...

Eleven days since an entry…that hasn’t happened in years, probably since I was finishing the dissertation. I think I needed to get away from text.

So about what I haven’t written? Some highlights:

• I finished Twilight and started Hamsun’s Dreamers.
• M and the boys arrived home safely from Florida.
• Work has been busy, but I’ve survived with a minimum of drama.
• I’ve worked out thirteen days in a row and will probably take off today.

Let the rest of the last ten days or so be forgotten, I guess.

I feel like I should have something more important to say here. Something is percolating in my mind I have to get out soon, but I’m not sure how to articulate it just yet. More later.

Today was a good day, and I usually don’t have good days when M and the boys are out of town. This morning I woke a little after four, earlier than expected, as I didn’t fall asleep until ten. I decided to skip working out too early and took a decadent shower (showering without working feels decadent to me these days) before six. Toys, papers, and packaging from the new camera were strewn across the kitchen island, so I cranked a DBT/HS mix and cleaned. I started laundry, checked email (although I said I wasn’t going to get online more than thirty minutes today) and talked with M. I was part of a small crowd standing outside the library door as librarians opened the doors. Come to think of it, there are always people waiting outside the library doors a few minutes before opening; I think most of the waiters want first dibs on the good computers. Slumdog Millionaire stood on the “lucky day” shelf. I snagged that sucker and got on the road, leaving the radio off and soaking in the grey Milwaukee morning. I swung off the highway near downtown and found a parking spot across the park from St. John’s Cathedral. I snuck inside the deserted (except a troll-like old woman) church and sat in the back before I took any pictures. I thanked God for my family’s health and tried to figure out how Milwaukee’s flagship Catholic church got away with excluding kneelers. After a few minutes of quiet prayer I snapped some pics, although the cool crown of thorns/crucifix suspended in the sanctuary’s center turned out to be less photogenic than I expected. I guess you need to see the piece live.

I cut south to the highway and slid a little further south through one of Milwaukee’s old neighborhoods near the basilica. That neighborhood is beautiful, all tight rowhouses with tiny gangways between buildings and narrow, crowded streets. I parked in front of a cellphone store directly across from the majestic basilica entrance. Locked doors left me panicked for a moment until a Latino man let me in through one of the smaller adjacent doors. The basilica is huge, not quite St. Peter’s huge, but I was reminded of some of the Italian cathedrals, sure. Half a dozen side altars, stately confessionals, and one of those preaching platforms with a stairway wrapped around the base infuse the larger space with scale and a quiet grace. I prayed (the basilica has kneelers) and took some pics. A priest said hello while I had the camera in hand so I assume pics were ok. Two of the angels near the altar caught my eye. Their eyes were peaceful, like the Laverna ceramics. Each angel held a staff with electric lights, like those longer, fuller Christmas lights that you don’t see much anymore, except these bulbs were white. I find the basilica’s presence amazing. Here’s this stately, beautiful building right in the middle of a working class neighborhood founded by Poles and Germans who stuck around for a couple generations until they sold their houses to Latinos and moved to the suburbs. I love Milwaukee.

More later, phone keeps ringing.

Some Chicago pics...

1. Watching tv in hotel rooms is cool!
2. Little M and S.
3. T and S teach little M to play video games.
4. N thinks little M has small toes.
5. Isn't this pic fantastic? T took this pic of a polar bear and his little brother at Lincoln Park Zoo.

I’m in the coffee shop, 8:47AM, just enough time for a quick note before I pack up and relieve M of two sick children so she can go to work. I woke near three, ran three miles, etc. then drove here at 7 to answer emails and grade.

Lately I’m tired. I’m trying to schedule a meeting with the dean to talk it through. Sometimes I wonder if I’ve been an administrator for too long; one of my great mentors told me, after twenty years as a principal, that he stayed in one position too long. I don’t want to fall into that trap. We’ll see. Maybe the long transition from winter into summer (I hesitate to called it spring here in Wisconsin) is getting to me.

For the moment I’m going to listen to Aimee Mann and watch the cars drive up and down Franklin, just for a minute or two. I see someone painted the fire hydrant black. Have a good day.

Sorry for the weeklong blog absence. This week at work was tough, esp. later in the week, when I followed a day of observations with a day of teaching and followed that with a day of meetings. By Friday night I wanted to eat pizza and get drunk. Of course, I fell asleep at 8PM.

At the moment T and S are watching “Baseball Tonight” in anticipation of the first real baseball game of the year. I’m looking forward to the summer evenings on the couch with the boys and the Brewers on television.

These last few days have been cold and grey. My sinuses are slightly out of whack. I’m trying to drink as much water as I can in an attempt to head off any sinus problems that’ll keep me awake. Maybe I’ll take melatonin tonight. Friday morning I lifted weights (pulled a muscle on my left side) but I skipped cardio both Friday and Saturday. This morning at the Y I managed a decent elliptical hour and finished weights a few minutes ago. What else has happened lately?

• I finished Bryson’s “Made in America” and started “Candyfreak”.
• S, N and I visited a Cedarburg candy store and looked through the racks and all the old-time candy. N bought those little chocolate pieces with sprinkles on them (nonparaleils or something?), T bought some sour balls, and I bought candy cigarettes. T and N picked out “Orangeheads” for T.
• I bought the four disc criterion set of Bergman’s trilogy, the one that includes “Winter Light”, “The Silence”, and “Through a Glass Darkly”. Even with a 30% coupon I felt decadent purchasing the set. But the library doesn’t stock Bergman films (what the hell?) and I love these movies.
• T, S and I have played baseball out back the last couple days. They want me to play constantly, and I feel like a bastard for turning them down. But I’ve also had fun watching the older two and N play like brothers should.
• I hope I sleep ok tonight. Tomorrow holds ANOTHER meeting in the morning, then I’ll find time for paperwork the rest of the afternoon. I need a quiet office afternoon.

Ok, that’s it for now. I can hear the boys wrestling upstairs. Maybe I’ll turn on some music. Good night.