Food, Glorious Food!

It's so great to be home!

I would have blogged sooner, but this is the first night I haven't attended a concert or performance since I got back home on Sunday afternoon: a violin recital on Sunday, a cello recital on Monday, a voice recital on Tuesday, and a musical last night! (And they were all free!) Definitely the most musically fulfilling break I've had.

Strangely enough, my two favorite days of last week revolved primarily around food. (Or maybe that's not very strange?)

The notable part of our 8-hour drive day from outside Milwaukee to outside Dayton was not the fact that the drive seemed never-ending, but more that we had coffee in Milwaukee, lunch in downtown Chicago, and dinner in downtown Indianapolis. How crazy is that?! (Okay, so all these stops admittedly made the day longer, but if it's already going to be long, why not stop to eat good food?)

Eating at Gino's East, one of Lindy's favorite deep dish restaurants, right in the heart of downtown Chicago.

Part of my first ever Chicago deep dish pizza!  I can now officially choose sides in the deep dish v. thin crust debate: thin crust all the way. (Sorry, Chicago...no human should ever feel that full.)

This Gino's location prides itself on letting customers write on the walls, chairs, tables, etc.

I was less glad to have chosen this seat after I read what was written on it.

Standing in the middle of the park in downtown Indianapolis during sunset. (Click on the photo to see it larger.)

I didn't take any pictures inside the Moroccan restaurant at which we ate dinner, but it was absolutely incredible. Should your travels ever take you through Indianapolis, you must stop at the Saffron Cafe! (Make sure you get the tea.)

When we were outside Columbus, OH, one of my great friends from ASU, Ashley, came to the show. Ashley was my first friend to see me in Barrage back in 2008. It seems like it was just last week that I was in her living room, so enjoying seeing into a friend on the road; three years later, it was just as exciting to sit down in her living room!

When she and I had been deciding what to do on Friday (a day off for me), I apprehensively threw out the idea of cooking dinner at her place instead of going to eat at a restaurant, not knowing whether she would be receptive. It took a bit of convincing to get her to realize how much fun it would be, and the next day we found ourselves going to Trader Joe's and picking up ingredients for dinner!

It was, without a doubt, one of the coolest things to happen on a day off in recent memory. 

It's tough for me to describe just how nice it is to cook on the road. I'd say about 85% of our food is restaurant food (the other 15% would be home-cooked food from parents at our school shows). And while eating at restaurants all the time can be exciting (eating with these people, as I've discussed before, really opened my horizons), it also gets really old. 

Sometimes it's just nice to make your own food and share it with friends.

Adventures in cooking: this is what your stove top should not look like when you're done. (Doubling the recipe provided some problems when it came time to mix all the pasta together...whoops.)

Spaghetti carbonara, one of my favorites!

In Ashley's cozy dining space.

Thanks Ashley!

Now, if I could just figure out a way to have all of my friends and favorite people in one place, to eat at great restaurants (or stay in and cook, should we choose!), and attend free concerts every night, then I'd truly have it made.

Lost and Found

When Charlie counted in "Old Joe Clark" to start off the show, I was in the dressing room...in my underwear.

Or, rather, that's the starting point of many Barrage-related nightmares I have. We all have them, and often have fun recounting them at breakfast. 

This morning, I woke up from a particularly troubling Barrage-related nightmare which involved, primarily, the hunt for my lost phone. Fortunately, I ended up finding it right before I woke up. [It was, obviously, in the glove compartment of our van...]

Perhaps even more disturbing was that before I found my phone--while dreaming--I thought about how I would tell the story of my lost phone in my blog. And, in a departure from how I normally compose entries, I settled on a title first:

Lost and Found.

After all of the effort my subconscious spent thinking about that fictional title, I consciously feel bad just disregarding it...and yet, it also seems strangely apropos for this entry.

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We've been in Wisconsin for the last few days. I don't remember ever having seen this many farms in my life. 

I also don't know if I've ever seen this sign before in my life...

Click on this photo to see it larger.

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Last week in Dubuque, IA, we went to the opera. Well, not exactly...we went to the Metropolitan Opera's re-aired, live, high definition broadcast of Donizetti's Lucia di Lammermoor. 

It was stunning. 

Sure, the broadcast was 4 hours and 20 minutes...but there were two 30-minute intermissions, and it was only $13! Not a bad way to spend the night. 

If you're not sure whether or not you like opera, this is a great way to learn if you do, and it's a lot cheaper than actually going to an opera.

[For the record, this is the second time I've seen an opera. The first time was actually at the Met, and I was incredibly underwhelmed...but I think I just didn't like the opera I saw.]

Before

1st Intermission

2nd Intermission

After

[Also for the record, the absurd faces do not accurately portray our thoughts...we're just a ridiculous group of people. In all honesty, all four of us really did like it.]

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Mississippi River. L to R: Charlie, Dave, Hidayat.

I'm gonna go ahead and assume the river level is high right now...

Click on this panoramic photo to see it larger.

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This afternoon I had some tendon pain. Unfortunate? Yes. Unexpected? Not really; I probably took overeager advantage of the extra bits of practice time I found in the past few days. 

...whoops...

Regardless, I didn't play too much during our sound check and rehearsal. So, I went out into the house and listened to the band play through some tunes.

It was a thrilling experience, as I haven't listened to Barrage live and through a sound system since my training nearly three years ago.

It's practically impossible to describe the kick I get out of listening to Barrage. I was giddy with excitement. Amusingly, I actually found myself thinking, "...I want to be in this band!"  [Rules of conventional writing aside, it was more like: AGHHHHHSFKSJD!!!!!! I WANT TO BE IN THIS BAAAAAAAANNNNDDDDD!!!!!!!]

Half-way through Devil's Nightmare, I was overcome with emotion. For the second time I can ever remember, I was in hysterics, simultaneously laughing and crying.

This probably seems just as crazy to you as it does to me. 

But, to me, it almost seems even crazier that what I once called my "dream job" has become, literally, just that: a job about which I get to dream.

A Day in the Life: Monday, April 4, 2011 - Boston, MA to Dubuque, IA

The second installment of my "A Day in the Life" photo blogs. (You can find the first one here.)

For a whole day, I took a picture every time I did something which I found to be notable, time-consuming, or even mundanely necessary to my daily existence.

I've opted to use as few words as possible, but have included captions for pictures which I felt might need more clarification.

Here's a glimpse into a day of travel on the road.

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Saying goodbye to Annette at the train station in Boston.

Rental car shuttle.

Boston to Milwaukee.

Hidayat.

Charlie.

Coffee break in Madison, WI.

Hidayat.

Protests at the capitol in Madison.

Crossing the Mississippi River into Dubuque, IA.

Tim.

Kung Fu Panda.