#23: Table at a zine fest.

Completed 3.26.11

I tabled at the Chicago Zine Fest the other weekend. It got off to a bit of a rocky start. I spent literally the entire day beforehand copying, cutting, assembling and stapling zines until 11:30 at night. Blair and I got on the Megabus to Chicago at 7:30 am, and about two minutes after we were on the bus I realized I had forgotten them all at home. After a couple minutes of freaking out and brainstorming plans that wouldn't work, I realized I had one copy of each issue in my backpack, so I could make copies when we got there. Unfortunately, I had spent $70 on copies the day before, and really couldn't afford to do that again. But, I called my lovely boyfriend during my panic, and he offered to pay for the new copies, as his contribution to my endeavor. Awwww. Then I had to enlist the help of Blair and Melody to help me assemble them all, which they graciously did. I also did a reading at the exhibitor reading the night before, which was a lot of fun. The day of the zine fest was a long day, but I had a great time seeing friends, meeting new people, having interesting conversations, and trading with lots of people and getting lots of new zines.

Like I said in the last post, this was kind of my "last hurrah" in the zine community. And it was a nice way to go out.

Besides the zine fest, I had a great time in Chicago with Blair, Melody and Jason. We ate lots of good food and talked a lot about criming, and our new best friends Darquavious and Cheezegravion Q. Pimp. Thus, I went on my fifth vacation, completing #43: Go on five vacations.

Travel bug.

I'm really wishing I could work on the last of my five vacations for #43. The last couple days all I can think of is wanting to get away. I've got that itch, y'know? I think it's the weather, getting a couple months into winter, and with a major snow storm brewing outside. Unfortunately, I'm living pretty hand-to-mouth right now, and have no savings for traveling. So, I just have to wait out this winter at home, while dreaming of other places I want to be.

The last couple days all I can think about is how much I want to be back in Scandinavia, walking down the narrow cobblestone streets of Gamla Stan in Stockholm or the Haga District in Gothenburg; sitting on the Aurajoki river in Turku, listening to music from the jazz restaurant; eating at Earwax Cafe in Chicago; going out to Denver to visit my brother and take Robert to the mountains; Peru and Macchu Pichu; Spain, Italy, Germany, Boliva, Chile, Mexico, Guatemala, Nicaragua and Belize. I want to do it all!

Where are you dreaming of?


photo of Gamla Stan, Stockholm, from here.

#7, #43, & #71.

#43: Go on 5 vacations. Vacation #4, 12.26.10-12.30.10, Robert, Chance and I went to Marquette (where we used to live until a year ago) to visit his Mom and friends, and I made a day trip down to Escanaba to see my friend Barbi. We stayed at the hotel I worked at for 2 1/2 years, and it was great getting to see my old co-workers, because they really were my friends and family when I lived there. We had a great time seeing Robert's mom and her boyfriend, and a few of Robert's friends. The dog really loved all the extra snow, and jumping around/climbing snow mountains, and he was such a good travel dog, very well behaved.

#71: Walk on the beach 20x: One morning I took Chance down to the shore of Lake Superior. He had a lot of fun exploring the lake, beach and rocks. We also jogged down the beach, thus knocking off another one from item #7: jog 20x.

Chance really loved playing on the beach, and I felt so happy to be there. Being back at Lake Superior, I just had this feeling that I was "home". I spent so much time on that beach the almost four years I lived in Marquette, and it was always where I was happiest, most at peace. It's where I went to reflect, write, called loved ones that lived far away, gain perspective. I miss it so much. Like Deb from the hotel said, "Lake Superior gets in your blood."

Ice along the shore. Lake Superior doesn't really start to freeze over until February or March. It's so large that it doesn't start to warm up in the summer until about August, and conversely, takes a long time to cool down, so it takes a long time to start freezing.

Frozen rocks and a view of the lighthouse at McCarty's Cove.

My cute little guy in his winter sweater. Love those big ears.

Pure beauty.

Rock island at McCarty's Cove (not the same ones pictured above). In summer of 2009 my mom and I waded out to these rocks, the water so cold our bones hurt. But the water line receded and a little land bridge allowed Chance and I to walk out to them.

5 Easiest Tasks to Complete

These are the tasks which I seem to be having no problem completing! These are all tasks which couldn't be completed all at once, but which I'm finding I don't need anywhere near the whole 2.75 years to finish.

#3: Go on four walks in a week, 5x. I've already completed four of the five, I guess I had a need to get out of the house a lot! Plus, my friend in Escanaba likes to go for walks a lot, and one of these weeks included hiking in the Rockies.

#43: Go on five vacations. I've already gone on three vacations. I don't have any concrete plans for the next two, but I'm sure I'll manage two vacations in the next two years. Robert and I already have vague plans for a trip in the fall--something to celebrate his 30th birthday, my 25th, and our 4th anniversary. Woo!

#55: Grow my hair out. This one doesn't take too much work! Though, I know soon it'll be a length I don't like, and I'll want to cut it! Right now it's starting to look a bit too Justin Bieber for me, but I'm finding new ways to style it.

#76: Clean the bathroom once a week for a month, 3x. This has ended up being a lot easier than I thought, especially during the summer since I'm not working. I've decided Monday is my cleaning day, so I clean the bathroom, do some dishes, and either vacuum or clean the kitchen. It feels nice to keep on top of things before they get dirty.

#99: Watch 10 documentaries. I've watched six so far. And have at least five more in our Netflix instant queue right now.

#43: Go on 5 vacations

Vacation #2: 07.01.10-07.14.10, To the Rockies w/ Mom.

My mom and I took off on the road in her RV van for two weeks, hitting up all sorts of places along I-90, on our way to the final destination of....the Rocky Mountains and visiting my brother. Here's the places we went:

Rockford, IL.





We stopped here on a whim to go to Rockford for a museum we read about in a tour book. Outside of the museum was a beautiful nature walk through the prairie, complete with weeping willows. The museum had exhibits about the Rockford Peaches (A League of their Own was my favorite movie when I was younger), sock monkeys (Rockford is the home of the seamless sock machine, and thus, the sock monkey), and a small airplane, my favorite kind.




Madison, WI.



We stopped in Madison for an evening and a morning, biked around the Monona Terrace Convention center, designed by Frank Lloyd Wright, ate at the Great Dane Pub, and walked along State Street. In the morning we biked all along the lakeshore bike path to downtown and went to the farmer's market--it was totally bonkers and packed. The above photo is from a booth selling every type of jelly you could ever think of--and then some! Like sour apple and jalapeno jelly--who'd of thought to put those together?! The opening in the line of jars is from the one that I bought--Queen Anne's Lace jelly. Yep, they made a jelly out of a flower/weed. It's super yummy.



Mitchell, SD.

The home of the World's Only Corn Palace! A building covered/decorated in corn. Since it's still early in the year, it's not totally done yet--but they were working away at it! We ate corn on the cob, aaaaand got ice cream.




Mt. Rushmore, SD.



Yeah, the novelty of Mt. Rushmore wore off on me pretty quickly, but it felt like one of those things I was obligated to see, y'know? It bothers me that Roosevelt is up there, but that's a rant I won't subject my lovely blog readers to.




Crazy Horse Memorial, Custer, SD.

More on this in another entry!


Rocky Mountain National Park, CO.

We camped inside the park, with my brother and his girlfriend joining us on and off, and went for long hikes within the park. The mountains are beautiful and peaceful, majestic and awe-inspiring. We saw moose and elk and bighorn sheep. It was a beautiful few days. We also spent some time outside of Denver at Chris and Tracy's house, which was nice. It was my first time meeting Tracy, and I really like her and was happy to have some time to get to know her.



It was a great vacation, but it was a long vacation. We both got homesick, and ended up coming home a few days early. We drove home in a day and half (15 hours straight on the last day!) and got home on Wednesday, instead of Sunday. Then I got to spend a few great days in the Detroit area with my friends and family before returning to the U.P.

#43: go on 5 vacations.

i feel like this will not be difficult to complete, and perhaps i should have had a higher goal number, seeing as how i've been on three vacations in the last three months (not counting two trips to detroit!). but, at least i will definitely complete this task! and my vacations should be slowing down now.

so! the first check on this list was 4.23.10-4.26.10 when i went to duluth, minnesota for the weekend. robert's work sent him to duluth for three weeks, so on the second weekend i drove the 5.5 hours to visit him. the drive was a little bit boring, but i got to drive through a number of small, U.P. towns which was nice.

duluth was a pretty interesting city to look at. it's on the coast of lake superior (my favorite great lake!), and full of steep hills. it makes for lots of dramatic views. i got into the city at night, and it was great driving over lit up bridges and being able to see the whole city all lit up. the two fulls days i was there it was cold and rainy and windy, so unfortunately we just drove around the downtown a bit, and couldn't walk to explore it much. i would have loved to take some photos of the buildings downtown, but alas. we did find a few great restaurants, though!

wildlife spotted on the drive to/fro duluth: 3 deer, 1 herron, 2 bald eagles, 1 wild turkey.