all that's past is prologue...

So why did we go to Africa? It had long been on the bucket list for a long time, and with upcoming trips needing to be focused on college visits and the like, it seemed like the right timing. And why Tanzania? Well, for one, it offered the opportunity to go to Zanzibar, which had long been a bucket list inside a bucket list. When my friend Sarah, who went to Tanzania last year, said she wished they had tacked on a couple of days there, I was sold. The more whimsical of us might also say it was because of Bill Harley's Zanzibar song or Billy Joel's Zanzibar , but I digress... More to the point, the only majority Muslim country I had previously visited was Indonesia, which at least at that time was not overly religious. Ramadan may not be the perfect time to visit, but that was time we had to go, so there we were. First of all, I will unapologetically say that Zanzibar is the most beautiful tropical country I have visited (Norway might still win the overall "most beautiful&q

Patrick was off at a rigger meeting this afternoon, so I worked on housecleaning (we have guests over tonight). (this was after I was cleaning up the back yard and somehow started scraping the garage...more on that later) The front red velvet curtains were incredibly dusty, and seemed kind of dark for spring. So I grabbed a single curtain panel I had received from the free board and cut it down to size (much to the interest of the dogs and cats). It comes off as more brown than I thought, but see the top picture — the colors are perfect with our walls! Now we just have to replace the front storm window (that literally fell out of the window frame last fall)...and I should work out how to re-upholster those chairs, too.

At the opening for Pangea World Theater 's amazing HECUBA last night (mind blown, go see it). Feeling despondent because Euripides pointedly called out that violence was not the answer in 424 BC, and we have not progressed much. Feeling like this was "preaching to the choir" to the audience. But then Patrick pointed out that a really important thing. You go, and you see the play, and you feel less alone. You feel validated, like you are not the only one who thinks the way you do. You gain courage in your convictions. You go out and do more. You build community. And isn't that what theater is all about? (back to Africa posts soon — this was just on my mind)

It's an 8 hours and 15 minute overnight flight from MSP to Amsterdam. We stumbled off the flight, ran into our friend Gar, and spent a 4 hour layover wandering around the airport (which, after our trip last year felt like home). It's almost 9 hours from Schipol to Kilimanjaro International Airport. We were toast, but somehow walking down the stairs into the tropical night, watching people run through to the visa cashier (and feeling glad we had done ours in advance). It felt very much like arriving in any SE Asian country late at night, backpack on, and for a second I thought "I've got this." But then I realized I was at a different point of my life, in an entirely different continent, and started to also realize the differences, a set of comparisons that would stay with me the entire trip. Our driver found us and we took off into the night on the hour drive to Arusha. On the way we passed numerous small Maasai villages along the road, lights on, people gathering

  "Okay," you say. "I'm glad you had fun in Africa, but how is this a *Build* post?" You see, that goes back awhile. In 2004, I had left Jeune Lune. My mom, my ex-husband and I were to go on an African safari. Then it all came raining down — as I have often quipped "I got divorced, my mom was diagnosed with terminal cancer, and the cat got diabetes." Clearly, that trip did not happen. It has remained in the "dream vacation" category since then. We didn't think we would be able to take the vacation this year, and then suddenly it all came together so we could. My friend Sarah recommended Tanzania Specialists , and all of a sudden we were going to Africa! I have a lot of posts in mind, so for awhile, my feed will be full of Africa. It was just that sort of life-changing trip. But to start this out, I wanted to just state that this was the most transformational trip I've ever taken — and to encourage you to put it on your bucket list as

This post is brought to you by a few thoughts from yesterday: First and foremost, Patrick's new book that he wrote for Beatrix for her sixteenth birthday. Available for a hot second before we leave for spring break tomorrow. The response of someone he knows on the internet, who wrote yesterday that he had decided years ago that he would never be happy (and reading his posts, he seems to be right.). It was one of the saddest things I've encountered in a long time. A friend's social media post, in which she discusses another person's comment of " I really think a sizable proportion of the population has become addicted to being angry" with the sage response of " I think a lot of them are doing it because it's more enjoyable to be angry than to be depressed." A nd we finally finished watching this season's Fargo last night. I won't give any spoilers, but it's extremely on theme with this post. So this is the deal. There's a lot on