all that's past is prologue...

Usually, I'm mostly about the dramatic arts. But yesterday, I got to attend the Macphail fundraiser, a lovely lunchtime event. They get you in and out within an hour, you see the amazing work they are doing all over the state (including an 8-year old piano prodigy and their EMRA program, among others), and it leaves you generally gobstruck with how fortunate we are to have their great music education programs. Highly worth of support. Then, in the afternoon, I got to attend my colleague Reilly's film Laurel Massé: How Can I Keep From Singing? Reilly has devoted years to this project and his care shows in every frame. It was one of the "Best of the Fest" features at MSPIFF and I felt so lucky to get a chance to see it. It's currently in post-production and still looking for some funds. As I said, I don't get out to see as much music as I should (though we're going to see Call Me Spinster with Little Fevers later this month!) But events like this remind me...

It's been All Circus All The Time this weekend around here (plus raining all weekend), so most projects — especially outdoor projects — have been on hold. But I did stop at Summit today to put canna bulbs in the planters there. The house was rented in the fall and I had not made it over to clean out the pots so I removed the old mushy bulbs and put a new one in each pot that I had gotten from the Buy Nothing group. Inspired by Africa, I would really like to out a line of them along the fence, but I don't know if I'll be able to find any more bulbs. I was also given a fern that I planted by the air conditioner surround; I would love to have a whole bunch of shade loving plants in there! The magnolia is almost done blooming, but the rhododendron (the part not previously girdled by rabbits) looks great. And the serviceberry, the pear, and the redbud in back are all blooming too!

I think our neighbor Dave thinks I'm nuts (I *know* our neighbor John does). The other day, Dave saw me out in the early evening scraping the garage siding. "What are you doing?" he asked.  "Needs painting" I responded. "And the best paint job is in the prep." "Who's going to paint it?" "I am. It's only the garage." Which remains my response. I admit that doing the whole house is probably too much for me anymore (and besides, watching our neighbors Dick and Martha get their whole place scraped, primed, and painted in the course of 3 days was pretty incredible.) But the garage I can handle, especially the siding, which is where I am starting. But even that takes a lot. I have spent much of the past week scraping down the siding, and I'm pleased to say I'm done with 3 sides of it, with only part of the south side to go. That's the area that takes the most work, like removing ornamentation and cleaning out the flowe...

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...

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 ...