Day in the Life of an Idiot

 Hey, y'all, I hope you're doing well.

I'm feeling sort of low. Does anyone have a cheerful story to share? If so, I'd love to hear it!

Image: Classice Yule Log with three white candles, bedecked with boughs and ornaments (surrounded by silver reindeer).

HAPPY SOLSTICE to all who celebrate. And those who don't? I hope you had a lovely Sunday all the same. 

Our Solstice was much as it is most years--a quiet, family affair. We have some traditions, the first of which is making rosettes (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rosette_(cookie)). I have attached the Wikipedia article if you have no idea what a rosette is--it is, in fact, a deep fried cookie. Personally, if done well, I think they taste amazing, like sugar and AIR. Because, basically, the batter is ultra, ultra thin and you use a cookie iron to to crisp up a lot of vanilla and sugar-flavored nothing. Our recipe actually comes from a class I took on Christmas cookie making several years ago, but very likely (this being Minnesota) comes by way of Norway, though possibly Sweden or Finland. 

The cookie making class is memorable because I was the youngest person in the room. I really figured that probably I'd be the oldest, since I presumed things like rosette, pizelles, krumkaka, etc., were the sorts of things that grandma would pass on and, maybe, it skipped a generation. Nope. It was me an all older ladies and on older guy who kept telling everyone that he took the class hoping to pick up a lady. (Yep, he was that old.) Anyway, me and all the older folks all had a lovely time and I was really only there for the hidden rosette knowledge because everyone agrees there is "a trick to it." 

And, there is.

The trick is making sure the irons are hot first--but also not too coated in oil. But that little layer of hot oil will, in fact, help them come off. In fact, ours often just fall off the iron into the bubbling hot oil. So, we always have to have tongs to hand.


Image: me patiently waiting for the bubbles to slow down the appropriate amount. Mason in the forground. Our kitchen all around and a few exampes of the cookies drying on the paper towels. The irons come in a lot of shapes--star and flower/rosette shown. Not pictured is the Christmas tree. 

We never want the rosette process to be arduous so we only make as many was we feel up to, call it good enough, and then I usually make a fun lunch like deep-fried shrimp.  We have charcuterie for our Solstice dinner meal, light our Yule log (pictured above), open presents, and then take a bit of the Yule light upstairs in a safe, insulated container and keep the light  burning for the longest night. 

I like to joke: if the sun came up on December 22, thank a pagan!



Our Solstice gifts are always books. There is a version of the Icelandic Yule Cat where the present you must recieve is not new clothing, but a book. We decided to adopt that tradition. Mason got a Terry Prachett book (and a gift certificate for Uncle Hugos) because he's been on a Pratchett kick lately; Shawn got the last and final Phil Rickman novel The Echo of Crows; and I got Bad Gays: A Homosexual History by Hew Lemmy and Ben Miller. My gift is one I asked for because I've really enjoyed their podcast by the same name. 

Also as is traditional, someone's present must include the Solstice wrench. It has been Mason for many years, now, in part, I think because we started using it to baffle a child who could very distinctly tell the shake of LEGOs. 


You can keep your King's Cakes, we have the Solstice Wrench!!  


By chance our friend John J. sent along a bunch of other book-related presents and so we opened those at Solstice as well.



Image: Shawn inspecting a surprise gift (one of many!) from our friend.

A lovely time all around. 

So, again, I hope you all had a lovely Solstice. If not, we can all enjoy the return of longer days. More sunshine! Hooray!

 Okay, once again, I have failed to keep on keeping on with the blog. But, the vibes of Wednesday called to me, so here I am (as is becoming typical.) I have no idea what it is about Wednesday that provides time for me to think, "Oh, right, DW," but it does seem be The Day it Happens.So here we are.

Today, Saint Paul is blanketed in snow. I note this as it applies to several things I want to talk about.

First, my car, which is in the shop. It has not, in fact, failed me in any serious way. But, Mason is taking his drivers' license test tomorrow and our car needs to pass inspection. One of the things it needs to have? Two working front lights. What does it NOT currently have? YOU GUESSED IT. I was almost not able to bring the car in today because firstly, Troy is booked up weeks in advance due to all the holiday driving/travel that people do. I was able to plead my case with him and we agreed that if I dropped my car off ASAP in the morning, he'd just pop that new light into it at some point in between the regular work. If he has time, he'll make things more profitable for himself by giving me an oil change (which I told him to feel free to do, because Troy prices very failrly and a single light change is going to cost me almost nothing.) 

But secondly? The sky opened up and DUMPED snow on us. I don't know the official number of inches, but we crested at least 4 inches (10.16 cm for my metric friends) because Saint Paul declared a Snow Emergency.

For out of town people, a "Snow Emergency" isn't really an emergency as in "OH GOD EVERYTHING IS SHUT DOWN," but more, "Hey, Saint Paulies, time to move your car to one side of the street or the other so that the plows can come through!" It's also the day when snow emergency workers, like ticketers, go to work. 

You may recall from previous episodes that last snow season (2024-March 2025), I worked as what Saint Paul Public Works colloquially referred to as "taggers." Our official title might have been "ticketers?" But, our job was to drive around the city and write out parking violation tickets, get cars towed, etc., so that the plows could come through and do their thing. 

I am hired for the snow season (2025-26), however the job has changed. We are now "runners" and will be no longer writing tickets. That job is now in the hands of retired and reserve police officers. What does a runner do, you ask? Let me describe it and you can tell me if you think this job will be any fun. A runner will ride along with a police officer, brush the snow from license plates, and stick tickets in windows.

Yep.

There is a reason they did not interview me for this job, nor ask for a resume. 

However, it feels like a job that really doesn't need to exist, doesn't it? 

The saddest part is that I LOVED being a tagger. It's sad because everything I previously loved about that job, the police officers now do. I believe I wrote about this at length before, but basically the things I used to love about the job are all very silly. No one likes handing out parking tickets. However, there were some "fun" things that absolutely played into that part of every kid who used to make siren noises and run around pretending to be a cop. (And yeah, ACAB, but when I did this, I was 5 okay??) Like, in the old job we used to get to use the radio to call in vehicles in need of towing, etc, and we got to use a code that included our temporary badge number. RADIOS, y'all. They're just fun. Because you get to say, "Over." Or in our case, "Clear." Once trained, we got to go out, alone, in company car with heated seats and (sometimes!) heated steering wheels. We got to put on the flashing lights. We got to wear a safety vest. We got to learn the somewhat arcane process of handwriting tickets in those old booklets you sometimes see if you watch 1970s cop shows. DUMB STUFF. But, like, it made the job tolerable, you know?

But the fun part was never, ever: go out in the cold and stick the ticket on the windshield. 

Is the pay good? I mean, it's OKAY. But the shifts are TEN HOURS. It's never less than that. 

Also, speaking of ACAB? I'm not particularly thrilled at the idea of spending ten hours in a squad with a cop. What are we even going to talk about? The last ICE protest I went to? Because "say, were you there?" could get pretty awkward, pretty quickly. 

By chance, I had to turn down this snow emergency. As noted, Mason has his big test tomorrow and I need to be available to drive him out to the test facility. I do not try to work the late shift because I'm pretty sure Saint Paul would not pay me for sleeping in the squad car, and I can not do 8pm to 5 am. I'm too old for that shift. Luckily, there's usually also a day shift.

I'll let you know what it's like when I finally do one, though. Maybe I'll be surprised and there will still be awesome things. 

 
Image: Buttercup atop a radiator, perched on a quilt just made just for him (and all the other cats).

Today is lefse day!  We always make a fresh batch for the holidays (we'll do it again for Christmas/Solstice.) We make our lefse from a box, because I actually like the taste when lefse is made from instant potatoes. Also, it makes that part of the process dead easy.

I hope all of my friends who got snow today also got the opportunity NOT to have to go out in it!  Have a great Thanksgiving, y'all.

 One really fun thing that I did lately is finally listen to/read The Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde. 

This came about because my son has heard me go on and on since I read Frankenstein for the first time earlier this year about how GAY Victor Frankenstein was for his most sincere friend Henry Clevral. Being Mason, he said, "Oh, huh. Have you ever read Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde? I recommend it," without, of course, spoiling the fact that it's pretty much common knowledge the Robert Louis Stevenson had based Jekyll and Hyde on his real life gay friends.

If you doubt me, check out the Wikipediea entry's "inspiration and writing" section: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Strange_Case_of_Dr_Jekyll_and_Mr_Hyde#Inspiration_and_writing  Stevenson apparently literally named Jykell after a reverand who was very likely gay and several of his known gay associates, specifically John Addington Symonds. Symonds apparently read Jekyll and Hyde and said (and I paraphrase), "I am in this book and I don't like it."

Anyway, The Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde is short and well worth the read.

Having thoroughly enjoyed that experience, I have been pondering if there are other classics that I've ignored over the years due to the trauma of having been an English major. (When one is forced to read a lot of classic leterature, one grows weary of its ponderousness.)  My friend naomikritzer has talked me into trying out Anne of Green Gables. I'm not sure how well this one will stick because it is in no way genre or genre adjacent like Frankenstein and The Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde.  But, we'll see. I found someone on Spotify who did a lovely podcast of Anne of Green Gables with multiple voice actors playing the various roles, so it could generally just be a fun way to experience the book. 

I know it's not Wednesday, but what are you reading? Anything fun? Anything weird? Anything AWFUL?

 It's been a day for weird email interactions.

First up is Silent Book Club Singapore. Silent Book Club Singapore contacted me about "highlighting" Unjust Cause (a curious choice being the second in a somewhat unpopular series) for their November 15 gathering. Of course, the inital email mentions no fees, but I could smell it on them. There are plenty of legit places that will offer to have you Zoom in to a club meeting, so I was a tiny bit hopeful.  Hope springing as it does, eternal, I wrote back and said, sure, tell me more... 

Alas.

The second email was immediatly, "for the low, low price!" ($100, not actually low, friends.) 

So, fellow authors? Beware. They're not legit.

Next, when I should be working on the sequel to Boy. Net, I wandered over to my ancient Hotmail account to clean it up. It occured to me that I actually have a lot of mail from many years ago on just stilling unread on Hotmail (now Outlook, but it still functions) and it behooved me to start trying to clean that stuff up. So, I'm clicking away, registering names only long enough to determine whether or not the email is worth saving, and there, in the middle of 2020 is an email from an old high school friend. The email came to me shortly after George Floyd's murder and it's from the one high school friend that I really, really wanted to have reconnected with. I had two besties in high school and one of them completely disappeared on me... and here she was, reaching out FIVE years ago. She wrote to ask after good places to donate post-the uprising and, I guess to make the email feel worth it, tell me about how her children (and dad and dog) were surviving the pandemic and lockdown. 

Both of these emails were deeply demoralizing. 

I sent my old high school friend a "hey, I guess I ghosted you five years ago? Hey, awkward, but I didn't mean to," email from my real gmail account, but I'm not expecting a reply. I've actually tried to reconnect with this particular friend several times over the years and have gotten zip. I suspect that I was just a sudden "Oh, I know someone in Minnesota I can ask about good charities" stray thought and not a real desire to reconnect, since... well, I did write several tims over several decades. And, maybe those also ended up in email accounts barely checked? But, also? I'm not actually hard to find. I mean, I guess Googling "Lyda Morehouse email" you do get directed to my Hotmail, something I should figure out how to correct that, but dang. 

Anway both interactions I kind of made me feel... I don't know, not "used," but definitely not loved for myself. 

lcohen  pointed out last night when we were chatting that I have been posting a lot of things lately that make it seem as though I'm down on myself (or my writing career,) and I just want to assure you all, I'm doing fine. There is, alas, an ebb and flow to one's writing career and I've been in the ebb (whichever one is the lowest) for a long, long time now. So, that does wear on me? But, it's also just where I am. Tomorrow or in five years, maybe I'll be back in the flow. You never know. 

But sadly, the ebb is where all the scammers find you and try to prey on you.

And I dunno, missing an email from my friend just sucks.

 
Image: (Photo credit Vee Dang). Me, being dramatic at the show at Bryant-Lake Bowl

First, for those of you hoping to get a chance to see/hear this, I was initially excited to know that Cole usually video tapes and records these. When I asked after getting a copy of it this morning, Cole said that the video cut out about 45 minutes in and the audio has some kind of horrible background hiss. There is some hope for the audio recording, but it's going to take some cleaning up and I don't know how much time/energy/expertise Cole has to devote to that. :-(  Sorry, y'all. If I get it, I'll post it. If not, c'est la vie.

Especially since you missed a great show!


Image: (photo credit: Gerriann Brower) Me and Scott Keever at Bryant-Lake Bowl.

I have to say that I'm impressed that in both of these shots (taken by different people at different times, obviously,) I am actually looking up from my reading. In Ger's picture, you can see that we managed a decent crowd too, which is impressive given that it was technically a "school night," being a Sunday evening and a lot of folks have work the next morning. 

As an extrovert, there's this thing that happens to me when the spotlight hits me and I feel eyes on me. Rather than get nervous, I blossom. As soon as the first laugh come back from the audience, I lose myself completely to the moment. So, the reading went really well. There was only one moment when, looking up from my podium, I accidentally picked a middle distance to stare at that included the spotlight? So, when I looked back down at my page I briefly had to try to read around the big silver "burn" spot on my eye! JFC, what a dummy. I did not do that a second time!

Speaking of missteps, if there were anything I could do over it would be the interview.



Interview: (photo credit: Gerriann Brower) From left to right: Lyda Morehouse, Cole Sarar, and Scott Keever

I should have had time to consider my answer since Scott went first, but my mind was fully blank. Cole asks this wonderful set of questions that are based on the idea of "what do you love about yourself or your community?" (and then "how about in 5 years? How about 40?") I wasn't sure which community I wanted to talk about (queer, nerd, gamer, writer?) and so I kind of nattered on about the writing community that I've cultivated over the years and I kind of feel bad about making a joke at naomikritzer 's expense about how I hoped "people in my life" would stop winning so many awards so I could stop being jealous/envious. And, I didn't mean to put her on the spot and I certainly didn't want to make things awkward, but I kind of maybe did? I don't know what entirely possessed me. My only excuse is that I was fully exhausted and unprepared for this interview. (And to be clear, Universe, I want my friends to win ALL the awards, all the time!)

What I wish I'd talked about instead? How LLM/AI are going to affect the writing/creative community in the next five years. I mean, I don't know the answer as to how we are going to be able to save what we love in the face of AI/LLMs, but it would have been 100% LESS AWKWARD.

Ah well, live and learn, I suppose.  [Insert joke about how at least I didn't randomly bring up Hitler!]

I was super-prepared for the show--though at least two people asked me very specifically if we'd rehearsed. The second time I had to ask, "Did it seem like we didn't??" But I think people were actually responding to how polished we were--at least that's what the second person implied. If anyone  has ever been to one of my readings, they'd have known I rehearsed because normally I can't help but editorialize. I managed only one aside. So, that should tell you everything you need to know! We definitely rehearsed! Three times, actually!

Anyway, it was great fun. 10/10 would again.

 A friend of mine from my D&D group (Nick) suggested that we go see Chainsaw Man: The Reze Arc together.

After my experience with Psycho-Pass: Providence, I suggested we see the subtitled version even though that meant seeing it in IMAX and at 10:30 pm. The tl;dr of the link above is that, because I tend to watch my anime in Japanese with subtitles, I actually had a hard time telling who was speaking when I watched a dubbed movie of a franchise I am super familiar with. I was surprised how many scenes required me being able to know who was speaking---when a character was on the phone or had their back to the audience--and how similar English-speaking voice actors seem to be in terms of regional accent and vocal range. I feel like, even though my understanding of Japanese is minimal, I do subconsciously detect Kansai dialect when I hear it and so even when Japanese VAs vocal ranges are similar, I know who is who. Anyway, you can read my whole rant about it linked above, if you want. 

Back to last night's movie...

I am a moderate fan of Chainsaw Man. I reviewed the first couple of volumes of the manga in January of 2022 and found it decidedly OKAY. Denji's boob obsession kind of turned me off on the page. But, when it became super popular and the anime came out in December of 2022, I watched it and sort of understood the hype. Although I will say that Mason and I were also watching Jujutsu Kaisen at the same time as Chainsaw Man, only we had a break in between seasons of Jujutsu Kaisen because we were watching together and he had this pesky thing called a college education, and when we returned to Jujutsu Kaisen, I was often like, "Yuji? I thought his name was Denji."  (To be fair to me: both demon hunters who are aligned with demons themselves, both kind of stupid boys, both in funky little trio poly situations with a dark-hair dorm mom-boy.)  

Given my inability to distinguish between these two mega hits, I was grateful for the fact that the movie wouldn't be starting until late because that gave me a chance to rewatch a lot of the series. Crunchyroll has this condensed version you can watch which is good because it seemed clear to me from the trailer that I was going to be expected to remember who was who and what had happened previously. I actually got through most of it before Nick showed up. He showed up early, actually, so we sat and watched a half hour or so on the porch.The original anime doesn't exactly end on a cliffhanger, but I was glad we reviewed it because I'd forgotten about the shark demon, Beam. 

The movie was... FINE. I mean, I was telling Mason this morning when he asked about it, it didn't really feel like a continuation of the story in a if you don't watch this, you're missing something sort of way. He said, "So more of a character development piece?" I nodded, but added, "In so much as Denji has a personality beside boobs. This movie his character development can be summed up as: which is more important? The boobs I imprinted on, or NEW boobs? (And both sets of boobs want to kill him.)"

But it was fun to go out. The IMAX wasn't standing room only, but it was decently packed for a 10:30 pm movie. The crowd was all otaku, of course, and at least one person cosplayed Denji. (I mean, the nice thing about cosplaying any of the Public Safety Division is that they basically dress like salarymen so all you have to do is pull of anime hair.) It's been a while since I've been in a crowd that young. 

For reasons known only to AMC Roseville, there were a RIDICULOUS number of previews before the movie. Like a dozen? It was far more than what I've come to expect, and I LIKE movie previews!  Only a couple of them were for other anime movies, so think they were sort of scattershotting the crowd hoping to lure some of us back with something, ANYTHING. 

Nick is someone I've known since college. He used to be one of my best friends, but we grew apart benignly, unintentionally. We struggled a bit to land on any subject to explore deeply in part, I think, because Nick has latched on to the fact that we have anime in common. And, as discussed here previously, saying you have anime in common is a little like saying you have TV in common. Finding the places where the Venn Diagram overlaps can be difficult, even among very voracious fans. I'm a tough one to match up with, too, because I tend to read more manga than I watch anime and some of the stuff I loved as manga never had an anime made!  And these days, of course, a lot of anime are being made from light novels or are entirely studio produced. (To be fair, Psycho-Pass was entirely studio produced and that didn't stop me from loving it, but the number of people who have seen that is small and so the Venn Diagram doesn't often connect there.)

Nick is very self-consciously fond of magical girl series, too, which is not a genre I often connect with. I do... sometimes, but I'm more often knee deep in shounen (see above.) But, we had a nice time doing that thing that fans will sometimes resort to wherein, since we have only the meta-genre/format in common, he told me the plot summaries of his favorites and I did the same for him. 

A good night out, all and all.

 Yesterday was our second rehearsal for the Cole Sarar SciFi Reading Hour. I'm glad we added a another session because I failed to do my homework this last time. Plus, I found it deeply distracting to try to read while Scott played--especially since he was electrified and we weren't. I read my absolute WORST. So, I guess it's good to have gotten that over with? Hopefully, things will only improve from here.

Some funny observations:

Our rehersals keep getting longer because Scott and I can't stop talking. Now that Cole is comfortable with us both, they are also joining in, but, inevitably someone has to say, "We should probably get to work or we'll never get out of here." 

The number of people that Scott and I have in common is starting to reach into strange and unusual places. I'm now starting to wonder how it is even possible that I have never previously talked to him before now. Like, seriously, he's very close friends with someone I regularly play D&D with. (lcohen , it's Carrilon.) The mystery is no longer "Oh, you know THEM?" but "Are you sure we've never been at a party together at some point???"

We spent a long time talking about what Cole likes about Convergence because I have been feeling kind of grumpy about that con ever since it moved to the hotel in downtown Minneapolis. Talking about it makes me feel like a fuddy-duddy, too, and I like that even less. Like, when Cole asked me why I'm not fond of Convergence, I started muttering about crowds and finding it hard to find the people I want to hang out with, and finally "eh, it's always felt like a party con." And, like, some of that is unfair. But, neither Cole nor Scott knew if there were any actual booksellers in the dealer's room--not, I had to clarify, "People sitting at tables with the books they've published" or people like Queen of Swords Press or Tor Books who are selling books, but only from their own publishing house. I mean, like people who are selling books who might potentially bring, say, Naomi's books or one of the Guest of Honor's books... or, you know, if it's Dreamhaven or Uncles, one of my books. They didn't think so, but the fact that that it never occured to them that one of the reasons authors go to conventions is to, you know, sell books, but don't actually necessarily want to have to sit behind a table hand selling their own books.... kind of tells me a lot. Like, I don't expect booksellers to be a con as small as Gaylaxicon (though Dreamhaven did have a spot in our dealer's room thanks to Greg being one of the GoHs.) because it's small. But, Convegence is massive. They should be attractive to a lot of booksellers. And yet... I don't think they are. And I think that's because it's still largely true that people don't go to Convergence to buy books.

The bookseller at Capclave was hopping. So, I don't think it's that booksellers can never make money at conventions. Greg and Lisa are forever travelling to conventions around the country, so it must be worthwile to them at least on some level or you'd think you'd have to eventually not go due to travel costs being higher than profit. 

Anyway, this led us to the Great Schism of Minicon and only Cole and I were old enough to remember experiencing it in real time. Cole's first ever convention was Convergence. 

I don't know where I was going with this. 

Anyway, it was a fun time. Part of what I hope to do today is spend a little time cleaning up some of the prose in my story. I wrote it very fast for an anthology and I'm kind of surprised my writers' group didn't catch some of my repetitive language, etc. But, some of that is less obvious when you read it, than when you read it OUT LOUD. Several times!

I think I need more coffee to be more articulate. Feel free, local and other Convergence attending folks, to drop me a comment about what you love (or don't) about Convergence lately.

While I was at Gaylaxicon, an email went out form Cole Sarar (she/they) who runs Sci-Fi Reading Hour desperately looking for any author who might be up for a performance in early November. I checked my calendar right away because I really enjoyed naomikritzer 's performance last year. I wrote about this here, but this is the gig where Cole pairs a musician and an author together. In Naomi's case, it was like getting to watch a radio play because the musician had the ability to do sound effects and she had reworked the piece so that Cole and she could share the narrative.

At any rate, ever since then, I've been thinking about what of mine might work for something like this. I don't write a lot of short stories, though I have written some. The short stories I have written don't tend to get very broad distribution (by which I mean, I have yet to truly break into any kind of traditional short story market. The one I did get in in the 1990s? SF AGE? Now defunct.) A few years ago, I wrote something for one of rachelmanija 's projects that I really loved. It was about a supervillain trying to adopt a cat. It's very silly and tonally and conceptually, the complete opposite of naomikritzer 's "A Year Without Sunshine," so I had no idea if that would appeal to Cole. But, I was recently reminded at Diversicon that one of my strengths is humor. I decided to take a chance and I sent that along with a note that said, "You're probably already booked, but in case not, I'm up for it, and here's the piece I'm considering performing."

I don't know if I was, in fact, the only one to reply or if my being ready with a specific piece made me more appealing than any others who jumped in, but I got the gig.

I will, of course, be reminding you as this gets closer, but for your records here's the pertenent information: the performance will be Sunday, November 2 at the Bryant-Lake Bowl & Theater (https://www.bryantlakebowl.com/). Doors open at 6 pm and the show starts at 7 pm. There will be a post-show interview with both the writer and the musician at 8:00 pm. Cost is $10 in advance and $15 at the door*. (Braynt-Lake Bowl has its November calendar up, but this show isn't, for obvious reasons, up yet.)

Also, my co-performer will be the lovely and talented Scott Keever who says this about himself: Scott Keever is an award-winning guitarist and composer from Minneapolis. He has specialized in solo guitar, primarily fingerstyle, utilizing resophonic, classical, jazz and folk guitar sounds in his explorations while also focusing on Celtic and Eastern European styles. His stylistic range can be heard on his solo albums "Solo Guitar: Vol. 1" (2018) and “Solo Guitar: Vol. 2” (2022) (both available on Spotify and Apple Music) As well as being a solo performer, Scott plays guitar, Bulgarian tambura and oud for Orkestar Bez Ime (OBI), an award-winning Twin Cities band that specializes in Balkan dance music. He is also currently a member of chamber pop group Follow The Firefly and has recently worked with Ukrainian Village Band. He has been a long-time musician and performer in the local Minnesota theater scene and has appeared in productions with Brave New Workshop, Flying Foot Forum, Walking Shadow Theater, Ethnic Dance Theater, O’Shea Irish Dance and Table Salt Productions. He has also composed music for short films, documentaries, theater, radio and podcasts.

If that sweetens the deal for you. Please come if you're interested, yada yada, but what I really wanted to tell you about was the rehearsal yesterday morning. 

Our schedules are such that all of us were available in the morning. We met at Cole's South Minneapolis house at 10:00 am. 

It is always a challenge for me to navigate Minneapolis. When I first moved to the Cities, I lived in Minneapolis, but now, after decades of living in St. Paul, I find that whatever fey creatures rule the leylines of Minneapolis have rejected me. GPS mostly helps? It still managed to lie to me about which side of the street Cole's house was on so I spent several confused minutes trying to decide whether or not we were actually supposed to meet at the taco shop at the corner, or what. But, thanks to my chronic fear of being late, I had plenty of time to figure it out and managed to arrive nearly precisely on time.

Cole's house is a typical Minneapolis two-story affair. (How do I describe this to out-of-towners? A lot of our houses in the Twin Cities are older, at least by Midwestern standards, so I'd guess this was a Craftsman era house--early 1900s.)  Cole did not offer the full house tour, but I was immediately at home to see a dining room table full of art supplies and other child-friendly detrius. It was a lovely, lived-in house. We chatted about this and that while waiting for Scott to arrive. Cole's ethnic heritage is Turkish and so she offered Turkish tea. I've had (and loved) Turkish coffee, but I was very intregued by Turkish tea, so I said yes immediately.  During that conversation I learned that their father immigrated from Istanbul, but never became a US Citizen. We spent some time trying to decide if that made her a first generation immigrant or second. We settled on one and a half, which I found amusing. 

Scott arrived in an extroverted, (likely) undiagnosed ADHD clamor. I, of course, liked him immediately. But, between Scott and I, thoughtful Cole had a tendency to get left behind as conversation lept from subject to subject without even a pause for a breath. I spend at least part of the time pausing Scott to make sure Cole--OUR ACTUAL HOST--was included.

I'm pretty sure that Cole hoped for this rehersal to be no more than an hour and a half, but we ended up going three hours. 

Whew.

The way this show works Cole will also read something, so we started by listening to their story. They had sent us something ahead of time, but as Scott and I sat on the floor listening it was very clear that what she sent was NOT this story. After it was over we had a laugh because Cole had been saying that the piece they wrote "matched" mine in tone, but what we'd gotten in the email was so much DARKER that I spent some time thinking, "Wow, well maybe humor wasn't as self-evident as I thought?" But, no, it was just a clerical error. Cole had accidentally sent us the piece that had gone with the previous month's show! 

I read my piece and then we spent a little time trying to figure out the order if the show, who would read first, etc. That's all still up in the air, and I don't think it really much matters. I think Cole's piece is longer than mine, but we need to fill an hour one way or the other.

Then, somehow, the conversation got on Neil Gaiman and that whole horror show and I discovered I have a ton of friends in common with Scott thanks to his association with Cat's Laughing and the general Venn Diagram of nerds, music, and Renaissance Festival. 

It was a good time, but ran late and so then I made a tactical financial error by suggesting to Mason that we hit his favorite Korean fried chicken place for lunch. We had a great time and great food, but this--it turned out--was not the time of the month to splurge. Money is a huge argument in my household and so the rest of the evening was not nearly as fun as how the day started. 

Captialism, man. I could really do without it.



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*If you're local and want to go but can't afford it, let me know. I have two comp tickets as part of the package. My wife never attends my readings and my son will be out of town, and I hate to waste these.