april wrap-up

Holy guacamole! Only one other post in April? *Sigh.

I wish I could tell you it was because I had some big life-altering news, but nope, nothing out of the ordinary. Well, maybe a little bit - I joined a bowling league. Yeah, you read that right, I'm bowling, dude!

Might as well grab a snack, I'm going to recap the whole month in this post.

April 3: Dad and I ran up to Peru, Indiana - "The Circus Capital of the World" for cousin Lynne's surprise 50th birthday party.

Dad and Lynne

Part of the surprise was on us - I had the wrong time and venue.

Elk.

Luckily the VFW, Elks Club and Legion are all with in a blocks so we were in the right lodge in no time.

Lynne.

I've gotten to know Lynne much better in the last few years. Even though we are pretty close in age, I was always shy around her. I thought she was so much cooler, funnier and self-confident than I was. I discovered last year that she also loves Johnny Cash. For Christmas I gave her my autographed photograph of Johnny. I figured it helped make up for all of the gifts of underwear and crocheted tissue box covers she got as a child from her godmother, Aunt Eleanor. For her birthday I gave her a postcard that was sent to Grandma Nora in 1909. Lynne is a postal carrier, and I guessed (rightly so) that she'd appreciate it.

Lynne and cousin David. Dave and I are just four days apart in age.

It was a fun evening - I need to spend more time with the cousins.

April 4: Extreme Makeover: Home Edition wrap party. There is not much I'll get my Red Key shift covered for, but this was one of them. My friend Anne-Marie Dezelen puts on a hell of a party and she was in charge of this one (here's a reminder of the birthday party she threw for her husband).

I had fun rubbing elbows with the beautiful people. Anne-Marie did a fabulous job. You can see more photos here.

April 5-8: My house used to be a stop on the underground railroad of touring musicians. Hundreds of singer-songwriters have slept on my sofa. Seth Horan holds the record for the longest residency. I was thrilled that he stopped in Indianapolis for his three day tour gap between Saint Louis and Chicago. We had not seen each other in five years! In that time CATH closed, I started working at Second Helpings and writing. Seth had even bigger life changes - he's now married and is moving to California.

I had a blast having him around. We fell into our old friendship in a matter of minutes. And I forget how fun it is to have someone to do something with. As comfortable as I am doing stuff by myself, I enjoyed eating out and seeing music with him along. We heard everything from a guy with a playing a solo set on a Farfisa organ to Todd Rungren.

April 8: Dad's 73rd birthday. Dad's birthday fell on his Wednesday volunteer day, so we all sang Happy Birthday to him.

Dad told the group that Wednesday is his favorite day of the week.
Mine too.

April 11: Easter. I went to J.R.'s parish. My brother always "buys" the front pew at a church fundraiser and I sure do enjoying knowing where to find them in the church. Mass was at 9:30, which makes it a challenge to be all fresh and pretty after an ending at 3:00 AM smoky waitressing shift. I left my house at 9:00, which should have put me at the church with five minutes to spare. But I zigged instead of zagging and walked in at 9:33.

The doors to the church sanctuary were closed and there was an usher giving us latecomers the stink-eye. When the everyone stood up for the Gospel reading a family of four and I decided to make a break for it. The usher/security guard hesitated and chose to chase the family - they were moving slower, weighed down by the baby. I was able to slide in to the pew with J.R.'s friends and family.

June Bug and her little brother brought up the offerings. Those kids make my heart swell.

June Bug and Anna

We had a lovely brunch afterward. My friends were playing in the lobby -- thereby confirming my family's suspicion that I know every musician in town.

Circle Trio

Mom

There were plenty of games and things to keep the kids occupied.

April 12: Dyngus Day, or Easter Monday is also called Wet Monday in honor of the water based pranks that are traditionally pulled off on that day. I'm so happy we didn't know about that when we were kids. It was raining that day, so we got a good dose of the wet part anyway.

Bethie and me.

My dear South Bend-born brother-in-law Ron Trojanowski introduced our family to the holiday.

We've enjoyed the polka music and kielbasa at the Chatterbox Jazz Club the last several Dyngus Days.

Ron and Beth

Polka!

And proving that I cannot be left to my own devices, even for a minute I joined the Chatterbox bowling team (The Chatterbowlers) while I was there.

Thursdays: The Golden Gloves boxing matches are held at the Tyndall Armory.

This was the fifth year that I've had season tickets, and I tagged along with my friend Novella Nedeff for a few years before that. I have a hard time articulating why I enjoy the matches so much, but I think this photo helps sum it up. I get to sit behind two retired fireman, watch kids from the Christamore House box, eat popcorn and soak in all of the diversity our town has to offer.

April 16: CAR (Community Awareness Reception) turned in to a van for Second Helpings. J.R.'s friend Greg Eddy handed me the keys to a one-ton van at the reception!

A conversation in the cow barn at the Martin Luther King party led to a tour and the donation of a van for Second Helpings. I'm continually amazed by the generosity of my friends and the community. You can read more about it here.

April 16 and 17: Christamore House Guild Book and Author reception and luncheon. I went straight from the Second Helpings reception to the Christamore House Guild Book and Author reception. It was hard to know how to dress that morning. Sometimes fashion magazines will have pictorials of clothing suggestions that will go from "board room to ball room." The photos are of unnaturally beautiful woman wearing a designer suit that they whip the jacket off in the back of a chauffeured Town Car to revel a shiny beaded camisole. They add diamond earrings and even higher heels and step out of the car on to a red carpet.

They never write about how to dress for a nonprofit job and fancy-smancy party with real-live authors. And changing clothes in a S-10 pickup truck with manual transmission. I wore a top over my little black dress and boots. I whipped off the top added heals and raced to the party. I was so late the shuttle bus was bring people back to their cars. The grounds and house of the party hosts were amazing. The house was so big I had to send my sister in law a text to find her. And I never did run across a bar (apparently there were four).

I missed hearing the authors speak, which is my favorite part. But I did get me chat with Mary McGarry Morris. Her latest book, "The Last Secret" main character is named Nora. I can't wait to dig in to it.

The luncheon the next day is always lovely. It is fun to be a lady who lunches.

April 16-22: Ann was in Indianapolis. My youngest sister Annie was in town for a week. I didn't get to spend nearly enough time with her. We did get to have lunch with Mrs. Herr on Saturday.

Ann, Mrs. Herr, Beth, Nora

April 18: June Bug's First Holy Communion. It was a beautiful day. I can't believe how grown up and beautiful she is.

It was an amazing day. The whole family was together to celebrate this wonderful sacrament.

Beth, June Bug, Anna, JD, J.R., Ann, Ron, Mom, Nora, Dad

June Bug and Aunt Nora

Extreme Food Drive: The food kept pouring in all month. Last count 35,000 pounds!

April 28: Slumber party with Miss Katy. Her twin brother, Evan was having a heart procedure (everything went well, but he still needs a little more fine tuning), so Katy spent the night with me.

We had a grand time. I picked her up at her sitter's, my mom came over and we spent a few hours lovin' on her and then she went to sleep in the pack 'n play next to my bed. She slept for ten hours. I slept in ten minute increments - waking up to make sure she was still breathing. She's a beautiful sweet child. I look forward to watching them grow up.

And that folks, was the month of April.
If you want to read what I did music and event-wise. Click here and here.

extreme makeover: home edition

This week has been a total blast for me. I was a great way to shake off the winter doldrums.



Being out on the Home Makeover site every day was a real treat. The weather was not perfect (I was knee deep in mud at times) but it was great to be in the fresh air and around a real-live project that you could see progressing quickly. So much of what I do each day does not have an end or is not very sexy -- completing our insurance audit is not nearly as fun as watching a house be built in seven days.

After my Monday volunteering gig and having a media pass I knew my way around and explored every nook and cranny of the neighborhood. The neighborhood in general is in pretty bad shape. Lots of abandoned and unsafe houses.

The area went from a thriving blue-collar neighborhood in the 1960s, to one of the poorest parts of town after the loss of the railroad industry and the addition of two interstates (I-70 and I-65) running smack through the middle of the neighborhood. The highways geography divided the neighborhood. Desegregation of schools in the 1970s meant that kids were being bused outside of the neighborhood, diluting even more the sense of community.

That said, there are still a few neighborhood folks who really believed in the community. The Home Makeover recipient is one of them. Bernard McFarland is a single father of three teen-age boys. He grew up in the neighborhood and returned there after a four-year stint in the Navy. He and his sons were living in a house that needed some structural work and all three boys were sleeping on mattresses in one room.


Bernard started a mentoring group for children in the neighborhood. I had the privilege of attending a fundraiser for the family and hearing first-hand the impact he had on these kids.

One teenager said the most important thing he learned was, "how to dress." Can you imagine not having that parental over site? I swear my mom could tell from three counties away if I was wearing a slip. Other kids shared that they didn't know they could even think about getting an education beyond high school. Bernard was running the program out of a trailer next to his house. He now has a 900 square foot library in that spot.

I was blown away by all of the work Estridge Homes did in the neighborhood. They really went above and beyond for the community. Even the production crew that travels with the show said it was more than they'd ever seen done. One of my favorite coffeehouse customers and uncle to Ben and Kirsten was in charge of the peripheral work. I spent an evening following him around to see the projects.


By the time it was all over, Estridge (with the help of several vendors and donors) accomplished this:
Planted 1,200 trees.
Free internet access to 450 homes.
Donated 100 computers to neighborhood students.
Cleaned 30 streets of trash as well as yards, alleys and vacant lots.
Landscaped 22 homes.
Redressed 16 alleys.
Put new roofs on 2 homes
Demolished 2 abandoned homes. Put new siding on a church.
Worked with the city and local funders to create a community center from an empty school.

Brother J.R. This view is from the back of the house and library.

It is no wonder I stayed at the site until after dark every night. I was soaking up as much of the community spirit as I could. And I decided that I feel fairly at comfortable in a hard hat and boots.


And watching this guy (assistant director of the show) work didn't hurt matters any.

For more photos:
Home Makeover site Wednesday, April 1
Fundraiser at Butler's Hinkle Fieldhouse, Wednesday, April 1
Home Makeover site Thursday, April 2
Home Makeover site Friday, April 3

march wrap-up

Akk! Another month passed by without keeping my promise to myself of blogging more regularly. If only you could read the posts I've written in my head...

One reason that I was out of touch last three weeks is that I had a secret! And it is hard for me to keep such exciting news quiet, so I stayed home and told the cat. And Cliff (I figured telling someone in Nebraska was fairly safe).

The Sunday night, tear-jerker show, ABC's Extreme Makeover: Home Edition came to Indianapolis. And they are holding an Extreme Food Drive for Second Helpings in conjunction with the construction of the house. Any food that we cannot use for prepared meals at Second Helpings will be sent to food pantries in the neighborhood (Martindale-Brightwood) of the makeover home.

Second Helpings provides 880 meals in that neighborhood every single week. We also redirected 131,000 pounds of food in the last six months to the Saint Vincent DePaul Food Pantry that serves the neighborhood. In the first two days of the Extreme Home Makeover we’ve collected over 800 pounds of food.

I am just amazed by all of the behind scenes things on this project. There is a staging area across Keystone (a major street in the city) in an industrial park. All of the trucks are queued up and ready to go. When I left Monday evening they were pouring concrete for the resource/library building and working on the basement for the house. One day later they were putting on the roof, running the electricity and putting in the HVAC system.

The show travels with a crew of 70, a security company and trucks of supplies. The community has stepped up with 3000 volunteers, donated goods and labor. All of the food for the volunteers and crew has been donated.

I am most impressed by the work that is being done in the neighborhood. Two abandoned houses have been demolished, several houses painted, tons of trash picked up, windows replaced and 1500 trees planted. It warms my heart to see some basic quality of life things that most of us take for granted being addressed. I can’t say enough about Estridge (the builder for the project) they’re doing things right.

view from the golf cart

I volunteered on Monday and had the best, yet most nerve-wracking volunteer job ever. I told them I'd do anything but drive. So of course I drove all day. I shuttled VIPs around the site in a golf cart. It was disconcerting to look over my shoulder and see a cement truck behind me as I crossed Keystone. My next job was driving the shuttle bus. Sarah Fisher was one of my passengers. I think I sweat through all four layers of clothes I was wearing having her as a passenger. For the record, she was lovely and didn't do any backseat driving.

I also have a media pass, so I'll be photographing the progress each day.

Monday, March 30

Tuesday, March 31

The Golden Gloves matches started this month - John Mellencamp's son is fighting this year adding to the excitement. I've had fun playing with the camera. I really need to take a class - in my spare time.

My favorite thing I did this month? Shopping with June Bug, Mom and Anna for JB's First Communion veil. I was searching for the perfect Godmother gift for such an important occasion - the veil was perfect.

shamrock walk

In my life I've waffled between being a hyper-planner and a not making plans at all. I think I've settled on being a go-with-the-flow sort of girl. And I could not have planned this day any better anyway.

I signed up for the Shamrock Walk months ago and sent brother J.R. a link. I talked Dad in to participating in the walk the day before. It wasn't until Dad and I were on our way downtown that I thought to call J.R. and ask if he was running.

We were able to find J.R., my friend Sheila and ran in to some Red Key folks in the thousands of people gathered on the Circle.

The four mile walk went through the city, around Irish Hill and past St. Patrick's Catholic Church. J.R. ran and Dad and I walked. Our goal was to walk fast enough to NOT get get tossed in to the trolley picking up the extra-slow folks.

We did it!

Here is Dad crossing the finish line (J.R. patiently waited for us) with Mike, Johnny and Dawn (Red Key regulars).

The clock shows 1:17, but I think our actual time is closer to 1:15 since we didn't cross the start line for a few minutes. Not bad for a 73 year-old guy and his daughter!


Dad's never met a stranger, especially one with a tray of post-race brownies.

We celebrated after the race in the swanky Columbia Club with a bucket of (fake) beer. It was a wonderful way to spend a Saturday morning and I'm looking forward to the next walk with Dad.

maurapalooza

A big bonus to keeping the house tidy is that I can entertain on short notice. 

Maura was visiting from Portland so I had a little post-nonprofit event fawn over Maura party. 

It was fun to catch up with her, we have that long-time friendship that can be caught up on a few words. We have several things in common. We're roughly the same age, have a history of dating younger guitar-player types and have never married. 

I had a secondary motive for having the party - I still had a whole bunch of beer, wine and booze left from the Saint Valentine's Day party. I was hoping to clear some room in my fridge. Instead, thanks to my generous friends I would up with more beer than I started with. I did manage to finish the last bit in a bottle of Jameson. 

It was great to hang out with the gang and a great way to get back in the swing of entertaining. 

hanging on my ear

I feel guilty about all of the unwritten blog posts that are floating around in my head. As I was cooking burgers at the Red Key last night, I realized that they were "hanging on my ear." Chances are they won't get written. 

I have been writing my ever-shrinking ass off (26 pounds lost - 4 to go). You can read all about the music and stuff here: QueenBeeMusic. 

I've also been working on the house. I'm trying to keep things clean and tidy. My old ways of writing in a nest of books, papers and Twizzler wrappers are gone. It is hard work to keep up! I've also sorted though all of my clothes - some to a resale shop, some to Dress for Success, some for a yard sale and some had to be pitched. I had a pretty impressive concert tee shirt collection, but years of waiteressing in them have taken its toll. I can't believe how emotional I got about tossing some of them. 

I've also vowed not to walk out of the house looking like crap. I'm obsessive about brushing my teeth, but not so much my hair. I'm working on applying makeup somewhere besides the rear view mirror.  In the last month I've worn a scarf as an accessory (not just to keep my neck warm or cover up a coffee stain), worn something besides big silver hoops in my ears and necklaces other than my beloved John Travolta (Sweathog years, not Scientology). And in the biggest fashion news: I WENT SHOE SHOPPING! 

Thanks to Kristi's Christmas generosity, I made my first trip to DSW. It was totally overwhelming. I'm glad she went with me or I'm sure I would have run screaming from the store. 

Here are the shoes that I got with the gift certificate, they are darker than they appear in this photo - a lovely brownish-ivory color. And yes, that is a leg lamp in the background. I said I was keeping the house clean, nothing about classy!

In my new found quest of self-improvement I fell for some fancy skincare creams. "Look younger! Smooth lines!" Ha! I broke out so badly that my face puffed up (yeah, that smoothed those lines right out) and I my face was covered in tiny blisters (looked like teenage acne, so yeah, younger) and had to get a prescription for magic make-things-better cream. 

I've also been making myself separate myself from work a little bit. I realized that I was at the dangerous point of wrapping my identity up with my job. I've been making myself stop on the way home from work and do something - be it a bowl of soup at the News Cafe, dinner at Yat's or a trip to the grocery store. Something to create a division between work and home. It seems to be working. 

All of this self improvement has brought some excitement too. The boys seem to be noticing. Nothing close to a date, but fun stuff. For the first time since Joey Ramone gave me a nod in 1983, a musician openly flirted with me on-stage. Lose weight, wear a mini-skirt and cowboy boots, throw a camera over your shoulder and next thing you know you're on a tour bus. 

I need to work on my technique from there. Chattering nervously about how we listened to the band while touring Ireland and that we drove through their hometown singing their songs at the top of their lungs was probably not the most impressive thing I could have done. Here is the review and photos from the show.

See you soon!