Studio Ruthe

Busy week

Finally listed my apartment for sublet on Craig's List. I spent all week getting it ready: making each room tidy so I could photograph it. Of course, this meant moving stuff from one room to another to get it out of the way. Now I have to make it all neat so my prospects can come and see it.

This is going to require a huge feat of organizing. Everything I will need or want in the next six months has to go to my daughter or to my storage room in the basement. It will be an interesting challenge to see how sparsely I can live for the better part of the next year while I travel.

When I wasn't working on the apartment I was exercising--still working on those leg exercises in addition to walking and going to the health club. I went back to the mobility clinic. They think I've done well in strengthening my hip and butt muscles but still need work on my knees. When I go down stairs I lose control of the last two or three inches of my descent. I am sure they are correct and this is why I had  problems in Japan.

On Wednesday night we went to a concert by Mike Seeger. My family always listened to folk music or classical music: no rock and roll. Chicago has a great folk music scene, thanks to the Old Town School of Folk Music. Even the Beatles didn't make much impression on us until one of my husband's cousins, an Oscar-winning musician, told us the Beatles made wonderful music. Then we listened and loved them. Going to the Mike Seeger concert was pretty nostalgic. He's 75, in great shape and gave a great concert.Today we are going to Rootz: the Green City Music Festival. I plan to go early but don't know how long I'll stay--too hot today.

Water Power

As a child, Wisconsin Dells was a magical place for me, wrapped in mystery, because I never got there. Friends and neighbors told me about it, but for many reasons, my parents never went anywhere if they had to stay overnight. After I was married, I traveled a lot--far away--the Midwest had little appeal for me. Finally, in the 1980's, we drove to Wisconsin Dells. The original attraction of the dells was rock formations and caves carved out of sandstone (?) by the Wisconsin River. Now the area is so filled with water parks and other "attractions" the river and the dells are hardly noticeable. I've been thinking about this today because of the pictures on the news of Lake Delton breaching the dam that formed it and rushing to the Wisconsin River taking several houses and part of a highway along with it.

One of the attractions for us was the studio of H. H. Bennett, a photographer who arrived at the Dells after the Civil War. Although ostensibly a portrait studio, Bennett's real interest was photographing the Dells. We bought several wonderful photos printed from his original negatives. One of the photos shows the river flowing right next to the buildings in the city, as if it was a street. Evidently the river flowed right through the town before they built a dam further upstream, not the one that failed today. It was hard to watch those houses being destroyed by the water, but there is also something satisfying watching nature reclaim its own.

Thinking about it inspired me to do more research. I found the photo here, which turns out to be Milwaukee, not Wisconsin Dells, as I had been told.

Another trip

San Francisco wasn't enough for me. I stayed home long enough to do my laundry, look at the mail and get a haircut. Yesterday morning I boarded the train for New York. It's a long trip, longer than driving, much longer than flying, assuming the flight is uneventful. The great part is that you leave and arrive in the middle of the city. I had a good book, some of the scenery is interesting and I could get up and walk around.

Renee is leaving for Spain on Saturday, so I get to stay here and watch the apartment until May 27. I've contacted most of my friends and made arrangements to see them, and I never get enough of the museums. Also, just found out there will be a show of Henry Moore sculpture at the botanic garden beginning on my birthday--a great present.

I've already been out for a walk and some shopping. One of the interesting things about New York is that things leave and new things take their place. There is now an eyebrow threading store on Second Ave. Look for that to be the next big thing--after you have your nails decorated you can go down the street and have your eyebrows threaded. In my mind, needle always goes with thread so I find the idea of threading my eyebrows disturbing, to say the least.

Baltimore

Saturday morning, Robin, Steve and I drove four and a half hours to Baltimore, a trip with several objectives. Our primary incentive was Charna who was singing in a choral concert on Sunday afternoon. First we checked into our hotel. After all those very spare Japanese hotels, and my monk's cell in Chicago, this was a stunner. The lobby wasn't anything special but the room was amazing. You walked into a kind of sitting room with a small basin, coffee maker and refrigerator opposite a large sofa. Just beyond a sort of divider was the bedroom. I had two double beds, in case  we had to stay over Sunday night; Charna could room with me. Opposite the beds was a bathroom with tub and toilet, and next to it, the basin, lots of counter space, and a real closet, also mirrored. If that wasn't enough, there was a flat screen, HD TV, 42 inches. You could watch from either the bed or the sitting room. Over the years I've had the good fortune to stay at some very fancy hotels, but I don't think I've ever had so much space in one room.

Robin's best friend, from kindergarten through high school, lives in Baltimore. I haven't seen her since then so I was very pleased she came to the hotel with her children. We all walked around the Inner Harbor and it was lovely to catch up with her again. But it was hard to get used to seeing her as an adult. I had only known her when I was an adult and she was a child. I found it different than the few occasions I've met my own friends after not seeing them since childhood. We were children together, and now we are elders together.

Sunday, before the concert, we went to the American Visionary Art Museum. After the Met, in New York, this is my favorite place. Renee and I happened upon it several years ago. We made a special trip to Washington DC to see the, then new, Museum of the American Indian. I had heard so much about it; it seemed like everyone wanted to see it. I joined the museum and made sure we had tickets for the day we wanted to be there. I wanted to be sure of getting in. We were very disappointed: too much to read; not enough artifacts; too hard to see the ones that were on display. We stopped at the Visionary Art Museum on our way back and it was worth the whole trip. We've been raving about it so much, Robin felt she had to see it, also. We all loved it.

Finally, the concert. HaZamir is the International Jewish High School Choir. Each local chapter meets weekly in its own city to rehearse Jewish choral music. Once each year the groups meet, rehearse together for two days and present a concert. There were 250 kids from 17 or 18 groups around the US and from Israel. It was awesome to hear them sing; those 250 voices have a lot of power. You can listen to them here; there are four selections at the bottom of the list.

So many books, so little time

Two books on China, by Peter Hessler, have kept me fascinated for some time. I love his point of view, giving both sides of every issue, with a large dose of irony. I have lots of reading from my Japanese Art class: History of Japanese Art by Penelope Mason, journal articles, chapters from other books.

Thursday I went to a new Osher class: Travel writing from the margins. Unusually for an Osher class, a textbook was assigned--Meeting Faith, by Faith Adiele, now a professor at Pitt, about her experience being ordained as a Buddhist nun in Thailand. The focus of the class is on travel writing done by unusual people, or with unusual points of view. Unfortunately, I missed the first class when I was in Chicago, because I'm really enjoying it. We have an assignment to make a presentation at the last class.

My presentation will be about Emily Carr, a Canadian artist/writer/traveler. I discovered her paintings four years ago in the Vancouver Art Gallery, and fell in love. She's right up there with Georgia O'Keefe, but doesn't get the same recognition, at least not in this country. I came back with two books, one of her writing and one with pictures. I'm ashamed to admit I haven't read much of either book, but I'm enjoying them now for the presentation.

Change of plans

I planned to drive to Chicago yesterday or Saturday. I don't know why I thought this would be a good thing; after all, I spent 61 years in Chicago and should have known better. I watched weather reports all week on WGN, the Chicago cable channel. By Thursday, I was having second thoughts, Early Friday morning, when Betty called with more weather information, I gave up the idea of driving. I was fairly certain I could get from here to there without much trouble. The problem was what to do with the car once I got there. Street parking in Chicago is almost impossible in winter, and I didn't want to pay to garage the car. So, tomorrow morning I will fly to Chicago, take a cab to the University of Chicago campus where I will be staying, and use public transportation for everything else.

The worst part of this is figuring out how to pack lightly. I was planning to take my laptop, some food, snowboots and an extra coat in the car. It's supposed to be warm here tomorrow, 65F; I'll be carrying one coat only, no boots, no food, which I almost never carry, and I haven't decided about the laptop. I hate to think I can't live for a week without my computer, but I think I can't live for a week without my computer.

Oh, and why am I going? Because I still love Chicago and want to show Eli's Chilean friend the things Eli hasn't shown her. And next weekend is the University of Chicago Folk Festival, where we'll be joined by the rest of the family for a folkie weekend. If I don't take the laptop, I'll be gone until next Tuesday.

Let's build a new train service

After wonderful experiences taking trains all over Japan, I thought about all the benefits we would derive from a good rail system and wondered why no one was talking about it. Each time I mentioned it the responses were something about being in love with our automobiles, or how awful Amtrak was. I took the train, once, from Pittsburgh to New York. The trip was so nasty I returned by bus--cleaner and faster. A high-speed rail system, like they have in Japan, would get me to New York in two and a half hours; Chicago in three hours. One of my recent flights from New York took seven hours. I could have driven in that time.

David Bear, of the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette, had an article, last Sunday, about the situation; first time I've seen anything about it. He goes into all the statistics and concludes with some hope for improvement, but not much. I followed the link in the article and found there is some interest in US rail travel. With some Googling I found articles that had been broadcast on NPR and also found that the Japanese rail system is both private and publicly owned and makes a PROFIT. So, now I have this fantasy that Bill Gates will look at the situation, decide he could make money this way, and build high-speed rail service throughout the country, or at least from Pittsburgh to New York and Chicago.

Home Again

We came back from New York very late last night. Although I was anxious to plan more travel when I returned from Japan, after last night's flight I don't think I want to get on another one of those torture chambers they call airplanes. First, of course, was the wait at the airport. Everything was easy, even getting out of New York and going through security. But after sitting at the gate for about a half hour we heard the first ominous message: we had a plane, but no crew. The crew was flying in from Albany and hadn't taken off yet. Next message: the plane took off. Then we heard the plane landed; then nothing for about an hour or more. The crew took longer getting from Terminal A to Terminal C than it took them to get from Albany to Newark. I think I was in bed by 1am. My legs were so unhappy from being scrunched in the sardine can airplane I could barely walk up the three steps to my apartment.

Home Again

I'm back from Japan; got in late last night after a 36 hour day. After more than six months of planning, my one month trip went very quickly. I'm feeling a little deflated; I can't believe it's over. I have a lot more to say and lots of pictures to post, as soon as I finish going through the mail to make sure my electricity won't be shut off.

One of the things I missed in Japan was the beautiful fall color in the trees. Because of our changing climate most of the colors were late this year. But I woke up this morning to this scene in my back yard,
and just down the street I found more wonderful color.

This is it!

I'll be picked up in about half an hour. Everything is finished and ready, or as ready as I ever get. I was able to close my suitcase. I think I packed everything I will need. I'm flying to Chicago today. I'll have dinner with Betty and Carol, and spend the night with Carol. Tomorrow I'll have breakfast with Al and Phyllis, then on to Tokyo. For the next month I'll be posting at Japan on my Mind. Come and visit me there.