Saturday – I went to see Stary Olsa a couple of times. My spouse and sister-in-law visited and brought L with them, in civvies in his stroller. We took L to see the lemurs at the Petting Zoo, which he loved. Sunday – I watched Stary Olsa a couple more times. L was with me and I really wanted him to hear them play “Ob la di Ob la da” or “The Wall,” which are his favorites, but he couldn’t sit through a whole show and anyway, I don’t know if The Wall was in any of their sets. I never heard it. My parents also came to visit and came to our 11:30 set at Folkestone, which was nice. We went to see ..read more

I missed doing this last week because 3rd weekend– Labor Day weekend– is three days, with only 4 days in between to recover and get stuff done. Now unfortunately I am struggling to remember it. So here are some quick highlights: Saturday – We were playing our afternoon (4pm) set at Queen’s Pub, which has been rather hit or miss in terms of audience engagement and tips, and a woman, seeing my bodhran, asked us to play a song with bodhran. I only play it on like 2 of our songs just to give me something to do when there’s no flute/whistle part, and I’m not great at it, but one such song ..read more

Another great weekend of the 2017 Fest season! The biggest thing, of course, was that it was the first weekend my new band, Sycamore Gap, performed together. We’ve been rehearsing together for about a year, but that is definitely not the same as performing. It was a little rocky at times, but that’s to be expected, and for the most part people didn’t seem to notice or care. We got some really nice comments from several patrons and fellow performers, and in general things went well. Because this is Minnesota, weather was another big thing. There was a lot of rain this week, and rain predicted f ..read more

This weekend I began my 14th year working at the Minnesota Renaissance Festival. For the first five years, I worked at Royale Sweets, a booth and associated cart that sell delicious chocolate treats. My sixth year, I slung beer at Mac’s Pub. The next three years, I was a musician in the Terpsichory Courtly Dance Troupe, then I helped found a band specializing in nautical-themed music, Hardtack Jack. We performed together for two years, and then I spent the next two years as a solo flautist. This year, I’ll be with a band again, joining forces with two other veteran Fest musicians. The new band ..read more

Just submitted this to my local paper. They did post my letter from last week; I didn’t check to see if it was in the printed edition, but there were only 3 new letters posted online, so I’m assuming yes. Pretty sad that I had enough material for a completely new letter just one week later… (edit: I previously accidentally posted an earlier draft instead of the final piece I sent to the paper. This is the final piece.) Last week I wrote about several strange and disturbing occurrences that took place in the first week of Donald Trump’s presidency. Unfortunately, this week has brought several m ..read more

I’m afraid this blog has morphed into a kind of action log lately (not that I’m posting everything I do here). I should get back to writing about other stuff, but my big introvert struggle right now really is activism. I saw another good suggestion for introvert activism– writing letters to the editor of one’s local paper. The article I saw pointed out that though it seems like no one reads these, people do, often older people who tend to come down on the conservative side of the political spectrum. So, appealing to these people might not be a bad idea. To that end, I submitted the following l ..read more

I haven’t written in quite a long time. Things have been busy. More on that later. For now, I am practicing introvert activism. Here is a letter I just wrote to Donald Trump: *** Dear Mr. Trump: Despite your instructions on 60 Minutes last week to those who would commit hate crimes in your name to “Stop it!” incidents are still on the rise. Recently, a white supremacist rally in Washington D.C. ‘hailed’ you as the president they’ve been waiting for. At Standing Rock, police used a water cannon in freezing conditions in an attempt to disperse crowds protesting a pipeline being built through the ..read more

I watch Star Trek pretty much every day. That probably sounds totally weird, and maybe it is. But Star Trek and I have a long history together. We’ve been through a lot. My earliest memories of watching Star Trek were watching The Next Generation in the basement of my childhood home. We’d watch it while eating pizza and playing board games on family game night. I don’t know if I had strong feelings either way about it back then, but I have very fond memories of those moments, now. And I always held onto a love for the series and the values it espoused. Indeed, I attribute much of my commitment ..read more

Today I cried. That was not happy, but I needed it. My son, not even two years old, came over to hug me and pat me on the head. Later, I was cuddling with my son under a blanket on the couch, watching Curious George before his bedtime. Both of the dogs came up, Gilly lying down between my and the kiddo with his head on my shoulder, and Trip behind my curled legs. Cuddles with all 3 of my babies at once. Doesn’t get much better, Even later. Trip snuggling next to me, sarm, his fur so soft, his paws smelling like Doritos ..read more

Warning: Gratuitous mommy-gushing ahead! Proceed at your own risk. My son is coming up on his second birthday (in March) and he’s learning new words every day. I can’t believe how excited I get with every new word I hear! (As an introvert, I’m not usually too excited about people talking, haha ). But every time that little boy says a new word, it feels like I’m learning a small piece of especially delightful news. These are the words that he knows as of today: Mommy Daddy Auntie Papa Nana Baby Coopie (dog name) Bacco (dog name) Kali (a friend) TT (daycare provider) Scooby (Cooby) Puppy Woof ..read more