Friday, October 26, 2007
Autumn - Where I live.
I live in Lauderdale! Its a small sectioning of of the Twin Cities north of Saint Paul, and west of Falcon Heights. About at the intersection of 280 and Larpenteur.
This is me and my bike, Grey Goose.
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Ok a bit about work:
I work at CommunityTix which is a ticketing service which provides full box office support, ticket printing, phone sales, web sales, conference registrations, door sales, etc. We work with theatres, choral groups, bands, a couple universities, and others to cover many different types of events.
I am the account executive. So I've analyzed my job to be sort of the liaison between clients and our office. (It is important to note the difference between clients - those who produce a performance/event, and customers - those who attend an event) I am involved with the initial set up of online and phone orders. This is new software for me! But I'm getting more and more comfortable with it. With questions about the event setup, it is generally my responsibility to contact the appropriate person.
I'm helping with the gate/door sales for a few events. We go to all these different sites which is so fun- A bit overwhelming at times though, I must say.
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Me and Tessa after Rocky Horror Picture Show. Last weekend was a slower weekend. I only attended this one show. This coming weekend is loaded up. We're seeing YoYo Ma on Friday, The Electric Arc Radio Show on Saturday, The Deception at the Jeune Lune on Sunday, and somewhere in the middle checking out a weekend expo.
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Ok now is the part I'm really excited about! These are some pictures of my swamp! Its not a swamp at all- rather a nature preserve maintained by the U of M- but it is my backyard, and I have a lovely patio from which to watch my birds and squirrels.
Check back for a full biography on my unfortunate little pumpkin. He had quite a horrific demise.
Oh as far as birds- thats a chickadee. There are also bluejays, cardinals, juncos, nuthatches, and woodpeckers. And so far I've only seen the one albino squirrel. There are dozens of regular grey ones, a little noisy red one, and a chipmunk who runs under my feet, cheeks loaded to the max. Oh and see my ducks?! I'm going to go feed them my dried out bread tonight and make some friends.
Monday, July 9, 2007
First weekend in La Rochelle
Monday, July 2, 2007
Through Normandy
The last day in Paris was about the end of most peoples' attention spans, including my own, and we saw Victor Hugo's house, the museum of Paris, a Picasso museum, another church, etc. But Ezra wanted to go to a Games Workshop store and it was like a time machine. Super cool. They're way into Warhammer here. He was pretty pumped. My one nerdy friend isn't staying for the La Rochelle program though. :( I'm in la Rochelle now, we spent the last few days through Normandy. Our drizzly weather continued, which didn't seem so inappropriate for northern France. We started in Giverny with Monet's gardens, and I know I've raved about these in the past, because they are like stepping into one of his paintings. They are incredible. Many of the flowers were not blooming yet because it has been so cold, but plenty were, and this place has my itch for a garden going like crazy.
Giverny the town itself is quaint and beautiful. Everyone has the little stucco tan house with the perfectly trimmed hedges and window boxes with gorgeous flowers everywhere. There are horses and cows and everythings very pastoral. Acutally this is most of Normandy. Much of it resembles the midwest acutally, lots of farmland and pasture and things, everythings just a bit smaller and a bit flowerier.
We saw the tapisserie de bayeux, which is a ... 70 meter? long tapestry embroidered in the middle ages to recount the battle of Hastings. Its very interesting and quite impressive.
PS- we've got the Richmond groups with us at this point, so our group tripled in size. Yuck. Now we're a tour group on a bus beside all the other big annoying tour groups in buses. And we don't know these kids well yet, so we don't like them. Many of them now have names and faces, so things are improving. One of them crapped on the bus and now we can't use the bathroom. Not impressed about that.
Anyway! So then we went to another church. and another church and another church. they were huge and beautiful and are all starting to run together a bit. Oh I should comment on the Basilica of St Theresa though. It was built in the 50s in a town called Liseaux, and its HUGE and the archetecture is different than all the rest. and the art is all mosaic tiles. All around and up and down and under and everywhere in this place. It is BEAUTIFUL. And Jesus was about to chuck some fireballs at us.
The bus rides aren't too uncomfortable. I'm so into the books I'm reading and my naps that I don't even want to get off to see the sites we're visiting. Its tough though, 2 hour nap, museum. 2 hour nap, garden. etc.
We stayed in Liseaux at a little hotel that was tres cher ($$$) and was so old and cute. We were fed a catered meal of Beef Bourgion, quiche, and chocolate mousse. The waitress dumped my red wine on my lap. So that was kind of a bummer, but noone was hurt. The group went across the street to a small brasserie for drinks, and I was so full that I just stayed for one, but they remained and got pretty roudy with the locals. "High Five" doesn't translate real well.
The next day we went to the beaches at Arromanches. Dreary day again, but definatly aided in the atmosphere of the town. And finally the ocean! Arromanches is right on the edge of Gold beach, and did not see any major action in terms of disembarkment, but was surrounded by it. Omaha is straight south. We went to a museum and got a nice rundown of the building of the artificial port that was the backbone of d-day. --- Oh I had the best pizza in my life- cream, goat cheese, and some prochutto type meat. Strange, but amazing. Anyway, then we wandered a bit within this place that would feel a lot more nostalgic and things if it weren't for all the CRAP people sell. I'm sick of souvenirs. I'm buying post cards (Of course), but gah. All this memoribilia takes over the acutal purpose of the site you're visiting. We also saw some of the german coastal defense guns (super creepy), and the American cemetary.
We stayed in this little bungalows that night, I called them "huts" and got scolded. They were really cute and comfortable. This was at the base of Mont St Michel, a stronghold built on an island mountain surrounded by the most unreal tidal activity. The tide comes in at the speed of "galloping horses", and maybe thats an exaggeration, but apparently some bus driver went for a cup of coffee once and found his bus afloat. So the stronghold is basically impossible to siege. A monestary was the first thing up there, and it became sort of a place of pilgrimmage. The town feels very medieval with narrow streets and little shops and churches everywhere. Its in a Celtic area too so the mysticism isn't just from the church. I took the French tour, and though my french is ok, I would so rather get the whole history down rather than every other word for language sake.
I just ate way too much. Its too good though, and the meals are in courses, so its easy to pace yourself for more food. Its STILL raining, and I'm basically unfamiliar, but I intend to do some jogging. We'll see how my knees feel about that.
Tuesday, June 26, 2007
Day 8 & 9
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Ok and today was Verseilles. Which is so enormous, I can't even begin to describe. It was very cold and windy and rainy though, so that really afflicted the visit. The sun came out a bit as we were released into the gardens. They are also unbelievably huge, and are kind of a labyrinth. I eventually split from the group and had a really nice walk around, and then took the train back to town by myself. Which is so easy. The metro system in Paris is extremely user friendly, and we've been trucking around enough that I almost felt like I fit in today.
Sunday, June 24, 2007
Day 7
Bourbon
Friday, June 22, 2007
Day 5
Then Vaux-le-Vicomte.
This house was built by a man named Fouquet. He was the financial advisor to Louis XIV, and if you're at all familiar with this period in history, there was a lot of money flying around France at this point. So he had access to the royal treasury, and built himself a house. Sneaky huh? But then, to celebrate, he invites the king and queen to stay with him for a weekend. Now I don't see how he could possibly thought he could get away with this. This is not swiping a buck off someones dresser to buy a soda. Anyway the queen is furious, but the king tells her to chill out and have a good time for a few days, and the next week when they return home, Fouquet is immediately arrested, tried, and eventually exhiled.
This place also has some association with the legend of the Man in the Iron Mask, and much of the LeoD movie was filmed here.
Thursday, June 21, 2007
Day 4
One more church here, this one had a couple roman pillars. Pretty cool.
If you have seen the movie Amelie, this is the neighborhood where she lived.
Tuesday, June 19, 2007
Day 3
and onward! We saw another church called La Trinite, and either choir practice or a mass was happening and the acoustics were unreal. These spaces just fill with energy.
Then we ran around and tried to see the Opera house but it was closed. But not the box office!!! Wooo hoooo we're going to see a ballet on monday! I'm so excited! Then we had lunch, more sandwiches, and we sat in a little park area and fed pigeons. Some of them got brave and would take the bread out of our hands and I played tug of war with a big one. Then we continued to la Place Vendome which is a square with a pillar of melted down canons from the battle of Austerlitz. Also the Ritz- where Lady Di dined for the last time.
Just a skip away from the sqare is the strip with The Louvre at one end, the Tuilerie Garden between, la Place de la concorde, the Seine, the Champs Elysee and the Arc de Triomphe to cap it all off. The gardens were lame! Trees and mud. A few flowers and a fountain with a seagull floating around thinking he was a swan. I was on the brink of allergic reaction at this point and was poppin benedryl so that might have contributed to my lack of impressed. I hope that doesn't happen again. Anyway, the place de la concorde has a real egyptian obelisk in the place where the guillotine (rasoir national - national razor!! haha!) sat during the Terror.
Oh I forgot! We strolled through the Lafayette Gallery- There are a couple around Paris and they are a global fashion and shopping hub. We went fast though, which made most of us pretty nuts.
Now I'm fighting with being sick and I'm going to bed!