The Good Life

This was the Nebraska slogan for years and I like it.

My hotel room number was 1313 on the 13th floor and since I was going to die anyway I decided to watch The Nun and It (2017) back to back one night.

Hurts Donut has everything including an ambulance that delivers donuts in times of emergency. Did you know donut holes are illegal in Nebraska?

We had the most wonderful Uber driver on our grocery trip. Her license plate said Abuela. She asked the usual questions: where are you from, what brings you to (city), what show is it? And when we told her we were with Paw Patrol her day was made. She called her daughter and granddaughter and put them on speaker so we could all say hi. "It's a good thing I have a pace maker!" We took a selfie and gave hugs when she dropped us off at Walmart. 

The equinox led us to our first orchard adventure of the season. Vala's has up to 18,000 visitors per day during the fall. We drove through rain and a double rainbow to the expansive autumnal extravaganza.

Our harvest romp began with fresh apple cider and apple cider donuts. We blasted apples out of cannons in the corn fields. and then took shelter from the second bout of rain in the vacant ticket booths on the other side of the pumpkin patch. This led to more rainbows. The corn maze was closed because of the rain, but Vala's offers a number of alternative (and indoor) maze and haunted house attractions. 

That part in Over the Garden Wall

I'd never seen a pig race until my trip to Vala's. Matt shared his birthday cake fudge with us as we watched different kinds of pigs and also ducks race around the track. The evening concluded with a sunset tractor ride through the orchard, my first paintballing adventure by blacklight, and a campfire. 

This is Halloween

Also good to know: you can purchase chocolate chip cookies by the bucketful and the stores are filled with delicious candles and famous pie (which you can preorder for Thanksgiving now.)

Dianne and I wandered around the University of Nebraska for a little bit. I spent my all my life climbing trees, but this is the first time I hugged one. It's really nice to hug a tree. When I hug people I tend to think, "Who is going to end the hug? How long is this supposed to be? Am I hugging too long?" In middle school I started to notice that everyone was hugging each other, and I thought this was odd because we all saw each other every day. Hugs to me were for family or people you haven't seen in a couple months. My best friend and I didn't really hug until recently. I'm still navigating all of this. There is no way to feel awkward when you hug a tree. This is unless you are worried about people judging you, which I am not because I was in Nebraska for only four days and also 2018 is a good time to not listen to the haters. The tree itself wont feel awkward about the hug because it is a tree and it's just doing its thing. I got to decide when the hug was over and I don't know I think this is a good exercise for me to get over my hug anxiety.

It's home of Arbor Day so.

We then went to the museum on campus, which had some of the most compelling art I've seen on this tour. One series by John Divola was made up of timed photos (titled As Far As I Could Get) where the artist set a timer on his camera, ran into the frame as far as he could, and then the photo was snapped. The pieces spoke to me about the environment (specifically in the Earth Art Movement) and equality and this is why we need to pay attention to what's going on in universities.

The Cotton Bowl by Hank Willis Thomas

Soundsuit by Nick Cave

Wishing for the Farm by Elizabeth Murray

Number 175T by Leonardo Drew

After looking at the giant sculptures, photos, and paintings Dianne and I snuck into the architecture building to step into the tiny furniture exhibit in the Kruger Gallery. We were greeted by students assembling their installations that would make an appearance in the center of town later that day as a part of Lincoln Calling.

We stepped into the Nebraska History Museum to see the exhibits on racing, quilting, and the Sioux tribe. The Sioux exhibit featured clothing through the centuries (like coats and converse), the quilting section gave me a sneak peek at the underside of 19th century quilts (made from bleached flour sacks), and the racing floor was adorned with a small race track (throwback to the Cub Scout soapbox race finals in 2002) and photos from the 1950s. Of the three exhibits, the information on racing was the most unfamiliar to me. Apparently a muddy racetrack was desirable in the mid century racing culture. It was preferable to a dry track because the dust from the dirt would get in the spectators' eyes. The problem was that the mud would cake onto the windshield of the cars, so mesh screens replaced the traditional glass shield. Fascinating.

The Nebraska Capitol Building is one of the taller capitols I've seen. The inside looks like a cathedral, except instead of mosaics of saints the walls are decorated with citizens from the nineteenth century and instead of statues of Jesus it's busts of previous politicians.

Just down the street is A Novel Idea Bookstore. It looks like this and I'd live there if a cat didn't live there already.

I wasn't familiar with the Old Chicago chain until visiting the location across the street from my hotel. They served up traditional deep dish in addition to this fifteen inch cracker pizza that I accidentally ate in one sitting.

I welcomed Fall with a butterbeer latte at The Coffee House. In addition to serving up a selection of flavored coffees, lattes, and pastries, the café is decorated with art and custom post cards available for purchase. This is frequented by University of Nebraska students mostly.

For a tipsy coffee and tea, the Rabbit Hole just around the corner offers a selection of cocktails, in addition to festive tarts, and a collection of books, teapots, and clocks.

I was also introduced to the The Mill Coffee & Tea chain, which features a different favored coffee daily, wraps, quiches, protein bars, notebooks, and bougie drip coffee filters.

Our hotel had a camera in the lobby.

While I was in Lincoln my cast and I visited Big Top for a private silks class. This was my elementary school swing set fantasy come true. The spins, flips, and climbs were all things I attempted on my backyard and elementary school swings. I went back a few days later and took a lyra class!

Cleo Wade, author of Heart Talk, led a seminar in the basement of our hotel as a part of her workshop tour. The main topic of her Courageous Love Tour is the difference between self-care and self-maintenance. I didn't know there was a difference between the two, but I'm beginning to realize many of my habits are more maintenance related. I spend a lot of time making lists that need to be checked off, (like lists of songs I need to learn, daily workout/language/skill practices) and this includes my lists of festive activities. It's not a secret that I like being festive, but I've recently discovered that even in my leisurely activities I'm looking to check things off of a list to make sure I do every seasonal activity possible. For example, Vala's Pumpkin Patch was huge, so it was impossible to see every attraction in the time we had, and that stressed me out. As I was in one part of the orchard I was thinking about all of the other things I needed to see and the best course of action to take to fit everything in. I still enjoyed my time at the pumpkin patch, but I want to work on fully immersing myself in an activity instead of trying to check everything off of a list. I believe I will feel much more festive if I am fully invested in a few things instead of halfway committed to a full checklist of activities. That's how I'll live the good life.

Destination for Connections

The show was originally scheduled to play Columbia, SC this past week, but the performances were cancelled because of Hurricane Florence. We rerouted our tour to spend a weekend off in Atlanta! We stayed by Centennial Park in downtown Atlanta, which named itself "Your Destination for Connections." While this phrase probably has something to do with the Summer Olympics of 1996 when the park was created, it certainly holds true for our weekend thanks to the number of Bird scooters in and around the park. A few posts ago I wrote about the sudden appearance of motor scooters all over OKC. The Bird scooters were also all over ATL. This provided a perfect, and cheap, opportunity for our company to explore the city. Part of the game is hunting down the scooters themselves. It's an adventure. Here are some places I got to see thanks to Bird, Uber, and a hurricane:
Sarah and I found Pittypat’s Porch for Southern dining on our first night. We sat on the porch and lived our Scarlett O'Hara dreams by eating cornbread, biscuits, and muffins while drinking Watermelon punch and the appropriately named Hurricane down Peachtree.

Our second afternoon in Atlanta began with a sea lion show in the Georgia Aquarium. They're so similar to dogs, it's fascinating. We also saw the dolphin show and the aquarium's four whale sharks, which were rescued from being eaten in Thailand and shipped via UPS for free. 

Tin Lizzy’s is open late and makes a great veggie quesadilla.

Our third day started with an accidental Uber ride to Bread and Butterfly. This was fortunate for me, because I heard about their wonderful pistachio macaroons, I even dreamed about them the night before, but I didn't think I would go because they were kind of far away, too far to scooter, so I thought I wouldn't get to explore their flavors. But, due to a communication error, my cast and I ended up there and I purchased one macaroon, received two, and then ate them both before getting into another Uber to find the actual place we were supposed to go for brunch.

The High Museum usually offers a student ticket rate, but since a majority of the exhibits are closed for renovation tickets were sold half the price of adult admission. We walked through their collection of paintings and sculptures titled The Outlier and views the works of Gertrude Koch, Mina Lowry, and Janet Sobel.  Koch and Lowry sketched with graphite, colored pencils, and ink and painted with watercolor, and the combination of these tools gave their pictures a photographic quality. I've included a photo of one of Sobel's works because it reminded me of the black lit 3D highlighter/sharpie drawings I saw at Meow Wolf a month ago.

Sonic Playground by Yuri Suzuki. noot noot.

Enamel on glass with oil and sand on canvas gives a similar effect as sharpie on highlighter under blacklight with special glasses.

Music Midtown was happening by the Atlanta Botanical Garden. We walked by both and entered neither but I'm sure they're magic.

I took a Bird to explore the other side of the city. I stopped a the MLK Memorial, the Krog Tunnel and Market (where I ate Fred’s & Yalla falafel pita), walked The Loop (which is lined with with historical photographs and articles about the Civil Rights Movement), and Ponce City Market (where I looked at bougie things and drank free water.)

For eating I recommend Ted’s Montana Grill. You are greeted with pickled cucumbers, which I learned are not the same as pickles. They have their own taste and now I only want those and never plain cucumbers or pickly pickles. Each table includes a map of the western prairie, and you are encouraged to try their freshly squeezed lemonade. Don't be surprised if it just shows up on your table for free. The veggie burger with pepper jack is delicious and so are the garlic mashed potatoes.
After you eat the garlic, ride the Skyview Ferris Wheel in Centennial Park and kiss your love. 

On our final morning, Marco and I climbed Stone Mountain. Our plan was spontaneous. I had heard of the mountain and wanted to climb it, but it's a half hour drive from the city, so I thought I would have to put that plan on hold, but luckily Marco told me he was planning on going and was open to letting me join. After a half hour of a smooth jazz Uber we hiked the giant granite boulder into the sunrise. The mountain is covered in small yellow flowers, pine needles, and not a lot of people at 6:30AM.

Here it is again