all that's past is prologue...

Is a big birthday, if not a milestone one. Especially when your kid is leaving for college in two weeks and everything is changing. So you work all day as usual, but your husband makes you a bagel for breakfast and you use your birthday coupon from Vina for lunch. You pick Animales for dinner, even though you are a vegetarian, because you have heard great things and because the always-amazing Adam Witherspoon is the beverage director. And he is happy to see you and takes you on an amazing culinary journey, as he is wont to do. I will meet you at Animales ANY DAMN TIME, it is that good. You get some awesome presents, including the book your kid picked out at Black Garnet and that you are super-excited to read. You take the dogs for a walk, and get lemonade from the sand run by the little girl across the street, where the price is "do something kind for someone." You make some coffee in your new espresso machine because you're headed to a late night Fringe show. And the co...

Patrick often clips my posts, so I think it's only fair that I do the same for him. https://www.patrickrhone.net/finishing-our-routine/ (photo credit: Heather O'Connell Erickson)

On Sunday, Beatrix will walk out of the arena at Circus Juventas for the last time, and that thought has me up early this morning. It's not like I did not know it before, but it's hitting especially hard. I started working with Circus Juventas in 2005, before Patrick and I were even married, before Beatrix was even a concept. I was brought in on a special project to reconcile a backlog of credit cards, quickly solved some other issues (including getting a retroactive sales tax refund of several thousand dollars), was brought in regularly, went on staff, increased my hours, and stayed for 17 years as staff until 2022. Beatrix first came in to work with me at less than a week old. She attended her first spring show just ten weeks after she was born — she loved the lights. She started the preschool program (the called "toddlers," that was one of the changes I made) when she was two, and has not looked back since. Patrick started rigging when she was still in Side by Side...

Tonight, we were headed over to a dinner party at our friends' place after hanging at a circus pool party. But they had to reschedule at the last minute, so we pulled a place off our "to check out" list and headed to Milly's Wine Bar . It could not have been better! We both got the tastings where you get two half-glasses of wine and need to tell which was which. I got the "Dirty Dancing" (likely inspired by all the watermelon kids brought to the pool party), and guessed correctly which was French and which was Italian. Patrick had two rosés that went head to head — a Tavel, and one from, of all places — Barret Minnesota, which held up very well. He guessed correctly too. The bill even came in a cute book where you could write a note. I'm totally smitten with the place and will meet you there anytime!

I seem to find myself with something in my eye a lot lately. But then, so does Patrick. https://www.patrickrhone.net/living-a-lifetime/

This afternoon we all went to see the Hadestown pro-shot.  Those of you who know me well know that it might be my absolute favorite musical. I was an original stan for the concept album back in the early 2000s. In 2019, based on listing to the concept album one night, we decided to got to New York for spring break so we could see the show as it opened on Broadway; seeing Eva Noblezada, Reeves Carney, Amber Gray, Patrick Page, and Andre de Shields in that show was absolutely transcendent, and Beatrix still has her carnations from stage door.  Last year, Saint Paul Academy did it as the spring musical and so we clearly saw it several times. I was unsure how I felt about seeing the pro-shot, but I am really glad we did. It does not stand in for seeing it live, but it enhances the experience. I'll confess I was in tears. It was originally supposed to run through July 29, but I think it's been extended a little. See it if you can! --- It was a weekend of circus, with Circus Juvent...