It's On: $38/day in 38 Days

The recent failed (for now) battle for transit may have distracted me, but never fail, even though I'm disheartened, I can't eschew my fundraising committment to the Miller Lite Ride for the Arts. While transit is a passion, so is biking and the arts, and funding for them is important to this community as well.

Time has flown though, and today I realized that there's just 38 days left until the big ride and I need to ramp up both my fundraising and my physical training.

In case you forgot, you can donate online here.

I'm still a huge believer in quantity over quality for fundraising because I think that everyone should feel good about donating, even if it's just $5. Of course, I'll be creatively adding incentives to entice those larger donations over the next 38 days.

So here's what's on the horizon:

FUN-draising Events & Challenges

Friday, May 7, 2010 • 5:30 PM to 9 PM
Guest Bartending for the Arts @ AJ Bombers
Belly up to the bar during happy hour and get served by yours truly. Make me earn my tips toward the United Performing Arts Fund. The universe has actually conspired to make this a truly awesome night. Here's three reasons why the night will rock:

1.  AJ Bombers will be visited by the film crew of Food Wars on the Travel Channel next week. They probably won't be there while I am, but the aura of basic cable fame will still be lingering.
2. My dear old dad will be flying in from Portland for the occasion (well actually he was just going to be in the neighborhood for work, so he'll be stopping by).
3. The Milwaukee County Transit System kicks off its 150th Anniversary Celebration that day with free rides on the Route 15...which...you guessed it...goes right by AJ Bombers!

Week of May 16
Kisses for the Arts - More info coming soon, but the plan is for every $1 I get this week I will either eat a Hershey's Kiss (will be working them off in training) or kiss the donor. This could get interesting. Mark your calendars kiddos.

Week of May 23
To Be Announced - I'm "cooking" up a pretty cool idea on Twitter. I'll keep you posted as to what develops.

Week of May 30
Rocking for the Arts - Need to flesh this out, but Verge Music Festival is that weekend, so there will be some sort of challenge!

Training Plans:
I'm going to ramp up some intensive cross-training so my body will be ready to take on these 75 miles. I'm also doing both the Rock N' Run (Proceeds going to UPAF) and the Block Melanoma 5k before the ride as well. I am going to start the Bridge to 10k running program and get a lengthy bike training ride in every weekend between now and the ride.

Care to join me on a training ride? Mark your calendars for May 2 (25 miles), May 9 (35 miles), May 15 (45 miles), May 22 (55 miles) or (possibly) May 29 (65 miles).

Sound like fun? Keep watching the blog for more updates. And don't forget, you can donate online here.

video: why i ride

I had the opportunity to meet with the folks at the United Performing Arts Fund the other day and they created this little clip to tell the world "Why I Ride" in the Miller Lite Ride for the Arts.




Want to get a headstart on supporting me? You can do so by donating online here.

Want to join my team? Click register at the Miller Lite Ride for the Arts homepage and select "FUEL Milwaukee" from the menu. Password is "fuel2010".

it's that time of year...

You may notice the "new look" of the Accidental Wisconsinite. You may also notice that I have a new blog up. :)

I actually intend to do quite a bit of blogging over the next couple of months, because it's that time of year again...time for me to launch my annual fundraising campaign for the Miller Lite Ride for the Arts.

This year I'm going ALL OUT. Because of my recent fitness success, I'm pushing myself to the max and taking on the 75 mile route. Keeping with my $20/mile tactic, that raises my fundraising goal to $1500.

I am committing to blogging about my ride training and my ride motivation (performing arts) at least three times a week between now and June 6. Attending two fantastic performances at the Milwaukee Rep and the Milwaukee Ballet in the past week reaffirmed my dedication to this important cause.

Also, please mark your calendars for the evening of Friday, May 7. I've arranged with the fine folks over at AJ Bombers to guest bartend that night to support the ride. Come enjoy a delicious burger and let me serve ya up something to wash it down with!

Want to get a headstart on supporting me? You can do so by donating online here.

Want to join my team? Click register at the Miller Lite Ride for the Arts homepage and select "FUEL Milwaukee" from the menu. Password is "fuel2010".

Thanks in advance for your support in my efforts this year!

weekend preview

While I have to work tomorrow, the weekend started tonight somewhat.

Weather was super killer, so I got in a 3.29 mile run prior to beginning the night's festivities.

I attended the Milwaukee Symphony Orchestra's Classical Connections series, a nice behind-the-scenes look at Vivaldi's "The Four Seasons." After the performance I rushed over to the Bradley Center to watch Marquette's heartbreaking loss to Pitt. I have little hope left for the Big Dance this year, but miracles can happen.

Tomorrow I plan to do lots of laundry after work, then hopefully swoop by MAM After Dark at the Milwaukee Art Museum. It'll be an early night though.

Saturday I'm planning on yoga at the WAC in the morning and then blocking off the ENTIRE AFTERNOON and early evening to clean. Wish me luck.

Saturday night you'll find me in Bay View celebrating a friend's birthday at the Palm Tavern and then heading to Cactus Club for the MuzzleOfBees.com 5th Anniversary Show. I need to blog about it in further detail, but I've started a challenge to attend one local music show a month. If you are doing so, please log your show attendance here.

I have meeting late Sunday afternoon, but hopefully I can use the day to rest up. Or, if it continues to be nice out, log some more miles!

Non-Fitness Year & Decade Goals

Early in December I posted my fitness goals for 2010 and the 2010s themselves. Being me I have a boatload of goals, but I won't bore you with all of them. Here are the highlights from my non-fitness list:

Academic:
2010: Take the GRE
2010s: Get my Masters degree in Public Policy/Public Administration

Financial:
2010: Pay off one of my credit cards
2010s: Get completely out of credit card debt (this *should* be obtainable by early-2013)

Domestic Travel:
2010: Visit a new state
2010s: Complete my 50 state quest (5 to go)

International Travel:
2010: Return to Europe
2010s: Visit all inhabitable continents

Cultural/Milwaukee:
2010: See a performance by each of UPAF's Member groups
2010s: See a performance by all of Milwaukee's performing arts groups

What are your goals?

milwaukee props: santa cycle rampage 2009

There are some events in my life that I've been afraid to recreate, worried that the magic will have worn off the second time. I am terrified of going back to Rome, weary of partying until dawn in Chicago, and until yesterday, a little nervous about riding in Milwaukee's own Santa Cycle Rampage again.

I admittedly had a different experience this year. I talked the ride up to several of my friends, including relatively novice bikers, Ben and Becky, who I spent most of my day with. Last year, I'd lost Monica and Joe on the ride and met and partied with lots of randoms. I seem to get more trouble when I'm unleashed on my own, so maybe it was a good thing the Bs kept me in line. :)

Ben and I met up at U.S. Bank early so we could get some cash for the day. It turned out we didn't need much of it, as Santas get some sweet drink deals. This first stop was handy in realizing that somewhere on my ride up to North Ave. I'd lost my flimsy Santa hat. I think it was karma from blowing off the two guys on Farwell who asked me to take a picture with them. I'd been running late, so I said no. Santas who say "no" lose hats. A stop at CVS on Downer became necessary, so I as not to be shamed by the other Santas. I picked up the number above in part because the dangling snowballs notified me that the hat would be staying on. They also provided much amusement throughout the day...because there's never too many "dangling snowballs" jokes.

While waiting for Becky to arrive at Cafe Hollander, we filled out a raffle ticket for the Bike Federation of Wisconsin and grabbed a Fat Tire from the keg--ah, the first beer at 10 a.m.

We also scoped out some of the decorated bikes, like the one above. I think that this is a goal for 2010 for sure.

Maribeth decided not to do the ride with us, but stopped over to check out the excitement. Hopefully we can convince her to come along next year.

Becky made it in the "Saint Nick" of time before we headed out on the road. I had the bright idea to put a refill of Fat Tire in my water bottle holder, and we were off.

The magic for me this year came in the form of seeing the absolute joy on my friends' faces as we began riding through the Eastside spreading cheer.

Down Farwell to Brady and then over the Marsupial Bridge, we traveled to the next stop at Lakefront Brewery, where a contingent of Santas who had ridden in from Wauwatosa awaited us. The numbers were now 200-250 strong, and the Santa population dwarfed the civilians there for an early tour.

My friend Virginia (in elf-green) had met us at Hollander, but we got to sit for a bit (and warm up) with her at Lakefront. Massive props again to Lakefront for providing one free beer for each of the Santas. I was hoping they'd have their new brew, Local Acre, on tap, but in a pinch, I went with the delicious Pumpkin Lager.

We headed out around noon for the downtown part of the ride. 250 Santas strong, we went up Water Street, passed the Red Arrow Ice Rink (we stopped the skaters), up Wisconsin Avenue (some folks threw candy canes at pedestrians), and over the 6th Street Viaduct. This truly is the best part of the ride, as people just love seeing that many Santas .... on bikes!

Things definitely started getting a wee bit fuzzy after the next stop at Great Lakes Distillery. Again, a super awesome local business supporting this fun event. Wisconsin recently passed a law allowing them to have samples, and they are rocking that like nobody's business. They had free Santa punch or Candy Cane Vodka Coffee, as well as sample tastings of their liquor. I tried the punch, which I believe had their artisan grappa in it as well as a whole lotta deliciousness. Ben and I also sampled their two types of Absinthe - vert and rouge. I have to say the green fairy did it for me more. I also got to try their Pumpkin Seasonal at long last.

I ended up with a rogue group of Santas heading from the distillery over to the next stop at Kochanski's Concertina Beer Hall. While we had a fun little side street detour, we did miss the highlight of many Santas' day...

... a police ESCORT! Definitely in contrast to last year's traffic stop, these cops were awesome and treated the Santas with respect. My friend Tim has more about this over at his Beer Runner blog.

The house polka band greeted us as we packed into this tiny Southside tavern. I grabbed a $2 pint of Point and stood in the food line, forgetting that there was nothing I could eat.

I made due with my four saltines, and made a note to pack a lunch for next year. Those saltines didn't really prepare me for the next great idea.

Do the people in the photo above LOOK like they need to take a shot of Rumpleminze off of a ski? Well, this is Wisconsin, my friends. And since when I blogged about it last year, I neglected to provide photo evidence, I enlisted Virginia to capture the beauty of the SHOTSKI on camera.

We still had one more stop after this too! After polkaing and another point, we grabbed our bikes to head to the last stop at Cafe Centraal. Somehow I lost the Bs, who ended up halfway to Tosa following some westside Santas. Whoops. In the interim, I filled my stomach with some vegetarian chili and some WATER (brilliant), before grabbing another Fat Tire off the Santa keg.

Despite grand plans to bike with an illicit pack of middle-aged Santas down forbidden routes (for which we'd risk $250 tickets), I ended up riding good old reliable KK home. I somehow lost the Bs again, keeping up with my friend Jeff's well-lit bike, as my front guppy headlight got snatched in Bay View. Totally bummed about that. It's gotta be bad karma to steal from Santa! This put me in a salty mood, and I passed out at 6, hoping to make it to a Christmas party later that evening.

I woke up at 3:30 a.m., bummed I missed the party, but glad I spent another year Santa cycling-- even if the "magic" shone through in different ways.

meghan & julie & julia

Welcome everyone who has popped over from the Milwaukee Journal-Sentinel. I hope you've taken the time to skim a bit of my blog. If you like what you see, please come on back. If you don't, please don't leave a nasty comment. In the immortal words of Thumper, "If you can't say anything nice, don't say anything at all." On that note, constructive criticism and healthy debate is always appreciated!

I also encourage you to check out the other fabulous bloggers involved in the project. I signed up for all their RSS feeds, especially if any of them continue to take on this challenge.

While many of you probably read my whole tale over at the JS, I'm including my unedited version below (with links to the vendors I used in the process).

The True Adventures of Meghan and 4 Lobsters

It all started with twittering about radishes.

I’d been on a radish kick earlier this summer and when the Journal-Sentinel’s PostCollegeCook was looking for radish recipes via social media I was happy to oblige.

Little did I know an insignificant spicy root vegetable would lead me to taking on the master—Ms. Julia Child.

After some tweets back and forth, sharing a radish slaw and radish tart recipe I noticed a call out from the JS looking for twentysomething bloggers to try a “food challenge.” Intrigued, and always hunting for recipes and experiences to fill my “Monday Munchies” blog column, I followed up.

This wasn’t any old challenge. This was a tie-in with the forthcoming Julie/Julia biopic profiling the original food superstar and an NYC blogger trying to learn her cooking methods. I was to roleplay the blogger role, and well, Julia was to manifest through her classic tome Mastering the Art of French Cooking. Always up for a good test, and looking for an excuse to finally clean my apartment and have a few friends over for food and wine, I took the assignment.

I don’t consider myself a great chef, but like Julia Child, who learned midlife how to tackle the gourmet, I don’t shy away from throwing myself wholly and fearlessly into the kitchen. Unlike Julia, I’m a little bit more free-form of a cook. She’s more classical musician, I’m a bit more jazz. I usually throw in “whatever.” But, I acquiesced, it would probably behoove me to follow directions and see what turns out.

Where to start in emulating a pop cultural touchstone of my childhood (just weeks after another had so publicly been mourned)? How to begin following in the footsteps of my farmshare partner, Becky’s, distant relative? Each week we divvy up our vegetables, but isn’t she genetically predisposed to make them gourmet?

I didn’t want to cop out and try something that would be easy for me. I had the added challenge of avoiding any recipe that involved red meat or pork, since I don’t eat them. Let me tell you, this is extremely difficult considering even most veggie dishes require bacon fat or beef bullion.

After seriously reflecting on duck, I flipped to the seafood section. Page 221 called out to me. Homard Thermidor – Lobster Thermador, Gratinéed in its Shell.

Hmm…sounds delicious.

But a lot of work! But Julia promises “it is not a particularly difficult dish to execute.” Well, then okay, I’ll give it a go.

I read and reread the recipe for a week. Unfortunately lobster is not quite something you can give a dry run. Like studying for an exam, I plan my strategy. I invite my guinea pigs, providing full disclosure as to what this all about. The dish is built for six, but only three can make it.

“Good, I’ll keep the death toll to a minimum,” I joke.

I invite only my most foodie-freak friends. The ones who will tell me if it totally sucks. They decide to take on the challenge themselves. Aimee offers to bring an escargot appetizer. Jason pledges to make Julia’s chocolate mousse for dessert.

Suddenly this is becoming very real.

I make one side dish the night before (potato salad with radicchio and cilantro pesto), otherwise there’s not much advance prep I can do. The big day arrives.

I drag myself out of bed and hop on my bike over to Blatz Liquor to pick up the vermouth and cognac Julia calls for, as well as some wine to accompany dinner. They’re closed. I take this as a bad omen.

Running a bit behind schedule (according to the strategy in my head), I turn the bike down Broadway to the Milwaukee Public Market. First stop, Good Harvest Market. Committed to natural and organic ingredients, it’s great to have this store close to home. I pick up the required vegetables, European style butter (what better for French cooking?), and organic cream. Being a slow food proponent, I was a bit disappointed to find out that even the loose vegetables, according to the cashier, “were probably from California,” but justified as an homage to SoCal native JC.

Next, to the Spice House – one of those places that would be on my “top five first stops if I ever won the lottery.” I am excited to see that they now have “certified organic” spices and grabbed cayenne pepper and thyme. I also stock up on tarragon and dry mustard, as called for in the three-page recipe. The helpful clerk tells me other uses for the dry mustard, which was a new herb for me. Apparently I can mix it in with tuna salad or mayo for a “nice kick.”

I swing by the West Allis Cheese Shoppe to grab some shredded Sartori Parmesan, then finally, show time. I walk slowly but intently to St. Paul Fish Market and look down at my shopping list one last time.

“Three two pound lobsters please, “ I ask.

The kid behind the counter politely explains that they don’t carry any lobsters that large. Just about a pound and a quarter.

Crap. Bad omen number two.

Doing some quick math (as well as thinking about the limited cooking supplies I have at home), I opt for “four of the fattest lobsters you have.”

My four petite homards, get loaded into a long styrofoam cooler. I request they wrap it with packing tape so I can flip it vertically in my bike basket.

“I don’t want lobsters running loose on Wisconsin Avenue.”

After a precarious ride home, avoiding any spills or attacks by PETA activists privy to the massacre I will soon commit, I drop my crustacean pals off at the apartment, then head back to Blatz Liquor.

Thanks to twitter, they’re ready for me. There’s a nice small bottle of dry vermouth and I opt for brandy over the more expensive cognac. Being an “accidental Wisconsinite,” I still haven’t embraced the brandy/cognac thing and know the bottle will go unused unless I cook with it again.

After purchasing my cooking liquor, I realize I need wine pairings. The clerk assists me in selecting a Pine Ridge Chenin Blanc-Viognier blend, as well as Charles Smith’s Kung Fu Girl Reisling. I’m taken with the idea that I should have a cold beer to sip while cooking, so he directs me to a new beer, Southern Tier Brewery’s Crème Brulee Stout.

Shopping is complete. Time to really attack the task at hand.

Not ready to face reality, I call my parents as I walk into my apartment. I don’t want to tell them what’s going on, so I get 10 more minutes of avoiding reality until the fighter jets for the airshow start up and I am forced to get off the phone.

I change into my best ‘50s housewife dress and take a deep breath. It’s go time.

I start slicing and dicing my veggies. I learn from Julia the proper way to clean mushrooms (soak in a basin of cold water and rub dirt off with your fingers, drain and wash again). I cheat a little with some of my Pampered Chef gadgetry. No thin slicing when I have a food plane. I don’t want a trip to the ER and this is a good way to avoid that.

While in the prep phase I hear my friends clawing at the Styrofoam. It’s a little off-putting but I concentrate on the task at hand.

Everything is ready and I read and reread the recipe about 50 times in a minute. It just doesn’t seem right that there’s only about 4 cups of liquid in my huge canning kettle (which conveniently doubles as a lobster pot). Don’t you boil lobster?

Apparently you steam them in this case, after simmering herbs and vegetables in the water for 15 minutes prior. Things are starting to smell good in the kitchen. And I am ready to escort the little guys to Lobster Death Camp.

I successfully make it through step one. Having spent the first year of my life in Maine, I’m unfazed by the slaughter. The lobster steams to a pleasing bright red and the mushrooms I simultaneously stewed in butter look perfect as well.

All is right in the world.

Unbeknownst to me, that was the easy part.

I’m instructed to split the lobsters in two, but leave the shells intact. What sort of laser beam eye, magic powers did Julia Child have to divide lobsters? I use my biggest, sharpest knife, but there’s shell flying everywhere. I manage to salvage the tails pretty much intact. The heads/torsos are a different story. I need to remove the “sand sacks” and intestines, but I have no idea how to identify those. I end up tossing a lot of creature and am left with a shell of the shell.

I figure I’m blessed by the fact the cookbook doesn’t include photos.

At this point I can set the lobsters aside, after scraping that green oozy stuff into a “sieve” and adding to my sauce. Not quite sure what qualifies as a sieve, I use the sifter I got at IKEA. Seems to work.

Sauce time is hard. I’m supposed to reduce the mushroom juice mixed in with the lobster juice to 2 1/4 cups. How are you supposed to measure that when it’s boiling hot and in a ginormous container? I eyeball it, but only get about 1 1/4 cups. I justify this with that fact that I have skinnier lobsters. Lacking the energy or latent fraction skills to substitute other ingredients, I sally forth. The sauce gets a little chunky, but I just keep beating and adding in more cream. I feel a sense of pride using egg yolks from my CSA farm, Rare Earth, since I’ve had to neglect the local in a lot of this process. I’m happy this part includes the instructions “taste carefully for seasoning.” Although the sauce looks a little wonky, it tastes great. I’m sold on the dry mustard.

I am not sure if when Julia Child ended the sauce section with “set aside,” she meant for over an hour while you meticulously pick out lobster meat, but that’s what happens next.

I further massacre the lobster by picking the meat out of the tails and claws. I don’t have any of the lobster tools, so I use a fork, knife and my lemon hand juicer to crack the shells. After what seems like forever, I have a heaping bowl of meat, which I then cut into the arbitrary 3/8” size cubes. Seeing as most of the meat is somewhat stringy, I wing it, knowing I’m almost to the end of the tunnel.

Although by this point I’d cracked open the beer, I’d realize it would be better suited to go with dessert than to cool me off in the kitchen. Thus, I have no glass to raise when I get to the magical words “Final assembly.”

All the steps suddenly make sense. I sauté the meat in the cognac (and more butter!), fold in the mushrooms, and some of the sauce (which I reheat and add more cream to, as I’m still not sure about the consistency), and prep it to “heap into shells.” The shells seem purely decorative at this point, and although it doesn’t call for it, I clean off the pieces I have left before I put anything “into” them. Mostly it’s just “on top of,” but it looks like it’ll do. At this point I reach the magical asterisk in Julia’s recipe, which means I can put the pan in the fridge and wait to bake.

I decide to make a pitcher of lemon cucumber water before starting on my sides. I toss my potholders on the stove and go out on the balcony to pick mint and get some fresh air. I come back in and rinse the mint, a faint burning smell wafting up my nose. I turn around and see open flame. My potholders are smoldering. Apparently I was so excited to get to the asterisk, I forgot to turn off the burner.

Bad omen number three.

My friends arrive shortly. Yesh with fresh flowers, Jason with mousse and Aimee with snails. We visit and I chop the green and purple beans for a side and prep an easy summer salad and vinaigrette. While we eat our escargot, I toss the lobster in the oven and pray. I’ve already braved fire today, I just want this to turn out okay.

The timer beeps and the moment of truth arrives. The appetizer course was out of this world and I hope I’m not a disappointment. I arrange the dish on a serving platter with lemon and parsley. I feel I’d make up for the half-assed shell job. My friends are impressed when I walk into the dining room with the platter. They all dish up, while I try and finish my first course.

Then I hear it.

The mmmms. At first I think they’re being polite. But then Aimee declares:

“If I’m ever on death row, this is the last meal that I’ll request.”

The serving dish makes its way around again. I’d planned to repurpose this for lunch tomorrow, but I look over and see Jason greedily scooping seconds off the platter and Yesh sopping up every last morsel on her plate.

The omens had stopped at three. My friends were happy and my dish definitely blew my own expectations. I didn’t know that I had it in me. I’d love to challenge myself again, but I think I’d need to sleep for days before attempting another five hour kitchen marathon.

Reflecting on this project, I realized that in the past year I’ve really ramped up both my cooking and my blogging. Much of the cause has been becoming single and needing to find an outlet. Ironically, Julia Child learned to cook to please her husband. I learned to cook to please myself.

At any rate, that's the whole tale, in a nutshell.

What other culinary adventures would you like to know about? Please leave in the comments.

sunday catch up: because my mom told me too

I'm completely exhausted but I got an email from my mom giving me crap about not blogging lately. Excuse me for having a life.

There are actually a TON of issues I want to write about, but I haven't had a freaking ounce of time.

This weekend was packed from start to finish. Began it at 5:15 p.m. on Friday meeting Becky and Maribeth at Lakefront Brewery for the tour and FINALLY a proper fish fry. Had to cut out to bike over to Turner Hall Ballroom to catch the Los Campesinos! show. SO worth the two years I've been waiting to see this band. I was a bit disappointed there weren't more folks there, but the band seemed to still brink the energy to their infectious, joyous indie rock. The encore involved the lead singer and two guitarists jumping into the crowd. Total awesomeness. Flying solo at the show, I indulged in a couple Fatty Boombalatty bottles. I somehow thought it was a good idea to stop at Buckley's for one more afterward. Gotta love the neighborhood bar.

On Saturday I somehow managed to wake up, head spinning, and head out to State Fair Park by 9 a.m. for the Wheel & Sprocket Bike Expo. Luckily I was "car-sitting" for Larissa this weekend, and cheated a bit and drove--instead of biking or busing out there with the oncoming hangover. Why so early? I'd signed up to volunteer with the Bicycle Federation of Wisconsin. I was really impressed that as a member I got this cool opportunity to volunteer, get a free t-shirt, and a coupon for the expo (which I totally just realized I forgot to use -- d'oh!). But the volunteer opportunity did make me more familiar with the organization I just joined and even more excited about the bike community in this state. [Shameless plug: Don't forget about my upcoming 50 mile ride...please sponsor me here!]

After 3 hours of greeting people at the entrance and handing out Bike Fed flyers, it was time to shop. I've been contemplating getting a road bike for awhile, and well, just looking, okay well testing, wouldn't hurt....
Meet the new member of my family!! Isn't she a beaut?

We took an 11-mile spin yesterday, despite my desperate need for a nap. Rode to Whitefish Bay on the Oak Leaf Trail and back. All in about 50 minutes, with commercial interruptions (phone calls, passing up running friends). My sexy new bike is FREAKING FAST!

Following the bike ride, I had to head out to Waukesha to celebrate my friend Maggie's birthday retro-style at Skateland. Skateland may be as retro looking as can be (grainy cell phone pics may or may not be posted soon), but unfortunately they play modern pop music (I guess in the '80s they were playing modern pop music too, weird realization). One of my friends brought some "liquid enhancement" with her, so we invented the "Slushibu," which consists of Blue Slushie and, well, guess. The highlight of the adventure was requesting a shoutout to Maggie, complete with Tiffany's "I Think We're Alone Now." A full recap will hopefully come this week. Trust me, after initial apprehension, it was an amazing experience.

I got back downtown in time to meet the March Madness gang at Hooligan's to not watch the rest of UNC's annihilation of Villanova.

Was in bed before midnight and it was nice to wake up refreshed and unhungover, although terribly sore from my ride and skating. Copped out on the stalled Milwaukee Challenge: Church Edition and just hopped over to the Cathedral for Palm Sunday Mass. I mean, what's the point of having a church across the street if you can't roll out of bed and into your Holy Day of Obligation?

After Mass, I packed up my laundry and headed to the 'mat. Sheets, towels and comforters succesfully cleaned. Grabbed cheese for the evening at Beans & Barley and a bagel and Minty Green tea for sustenance at Alterra on Prospect (didn't realize they didn't have a full menu).

Laundry complete I jotted down to Brooke & Craig's to join Becky for a music geeking/dinner party/rock band awesomeness get-together. I have a cold/allergy thing going on, so I rocked R.E.M., Oasis and Nirvana fairly well.

Hope mom and any other fans of The Accidental Wisconsinite are now satiated. Good night!

milwaukee challenges: a trip to the martin luther king library

On the last day of February, I squeaked in part two of one of my self-issued challenges for the year.

To refresh: I'm talking about Milwaukee Challenge #1: Read my way through Milwaukee's Public Libraries, in which I pledged to obtain my 12 books--for an online "Support Your Local Library" challenge--each from a different branch of the city's libraries. Even though the official challenge doesn't have a "one-per-month" limit, that's how I've elected to pace myself.

You may recall last month I visited the East Library. Although I'd originally selected Rabbit, Run by John Updike as my book of the month, I gave up. I'm sorry but it's incredibly rare that I just don't get into a book, but this was one. And you always feel bad when it's supposed to be "important" literature. But crap, man, I really, really, really dreaded having to pick this sucker back up every time I closed it for the day. I got about halfway through and after conversing with a friend about it, who had pretty much the exact same opinion as I, I realized it was okay to let go. Maybe I'm not fully embracing my English major, but I need books with plot or at least where the external internal dialogue doesn't make me want to punch the main character. Yeah, yeah, I understand the anti-hero, but this was too the extreme. Sorry if anybody thinks I'm less intelligent now.

Conversely, I sped through another book I grabbed from the "new fiction" shelf--A Map of Home by Randa Jarrar. This was a funny and poignant story of both the Islamic female and American immigrant experience. I loved it. Couldn't put it down, in fact. I'm anxious to check out Jarrar's other works.

Though I'm still working on It Still Moves: Lost Songs, Lost Highways and the Search for the Next American Music by Amanda Petrusich, I made myself get to the Martin Luther King branch yesterday before the close of the month.

Located at Martin Luther King and Locust Street, the King library looks a lot like the East library from the outside--squat, post-modern architecture.

The inside, however, couldn't be more different. Although the building opened in 1971, the inside is fully modernized. It's bright and sunny and has many modern computer terminals. It's got a cute little children's area and a nice area for young adults. There were actually a few kids there studying on a Saturday. Great to see in this part of the city!

I didn't see a "Librarian's Choice" display, but I did notice their "African-American Collection which includes both current and historical works of fiction and non-fiction reflecting African-American life and culture." From this I selected my "book of the month": Tell My Horse: Voodoo and Life in Haiti and Jamaica by Zora Neale Hurston. I also found a book called The History of Black Catholics in the United States by Cyprian Davis. I'm not sure if I'll get through it, but I figured it may help with my other challenge. And in the "one of these things is not like the other" category, I happened to pass by Anthony Bourdain's The Nasty Bits while walking through the shelves, so I picked that up too.

Learning my lesson again to read up before I visit places, I missed a couple features of note at this library:

…an African American Archives collection that focuses on local African American history and persons.

… a sizable collection of permanent art, some pertaining to Dr. King, and a unique accordion book by Amos Paul Kennedy, Jr. which contains Dr. King’s most noted quotations and adinkra symbols associated with the Ashanti people.

...Recently reinstalled photo exhibit titled: Milwaukee Leaders. Originally introduced in 1989 as “Black Role Models in Milwaukee,” the Milwaukee Leaders collection honors those chosen by members of the community as exemplifying strong role models for their own generation and for those that follow.

There were no newsletters for me to pick up this time, but I did take the time to walk through the neighborhood up Locust on my way to bid adieu to Atomic Records. I will post on that adventure in the coming week.

At the recommendation of my friend Angie, next month's library will be the Villard Avenue Branch. It's Women's History Month, so I'll try to fit with that theme.

lenting it up: first sunday of lent at st. ben's

Woke up early on this freezing cold Sunday morning to head over to St. Benedict the Moor parish for 10 AM mass to keep up with the momentum on the Milwaukee Challenge: Church Edition. Caught a Route 12 soon after arriving at Wisconsin Avenue and hopped off at 12th and State to walk the couple blocks down to 9th.

When I was a Marquette student I vaguely recall folks encouraging us to go check out St. Ben's. I never did. I know it was a "hot spot" for the Midnight Run program, but I never had time to volunteer there (believe it or not, I did Midnight Run at St. James at 7 in the morning freshman year). The church has an extremely interesting history and plays a very important role in administering peace and justice in the Milwaukee community. Here's a little from their website:

For 100 years, St Benedict the Moor has affirmed and welcomed a rich variety of persons, especially the disenfranchised of our society. This welcoming of the unwelcomed permeates our diversity of ministries.

In 1908 St Benedict' s primary purpose was establishing a mission to serve the growing number of African Americans living in Milwaukee. Through the years a variety of services have been offered at St Benedict's. These included a parish committed to serving the spiritual needs of African American Catholics; a boarding elementary and high school, providing education and academic excellence to young African Americans; a community meal, supplying food on a daily basis to the homeless and hungry of Milwaukee; a clinic, furnishing quality health care to the homeless and uninsured population; and jail chaplaincy, meeting the physical, spiritual and psychological needs of Milwaukee County inmates.

The one constant over the years that permeates these ministries has been the affirmation given to all gathering at what is affectionately called St Ben's. People outside the mainstream of society are welcomed daily to some rest and a little bit of home.

I can definitely attest to the "rich variety of persons" there. The parishioners ranged from the NPR-crowd to students to African-American families to homeless or mentally ill folks that I recognized from volunteering at Open Door Café. The amazing thing about St. Ben's, and what I now understand to be why some of the more hippie-dippy campus ministry folks at MU loved it so, is that it truly does embrace all walks of life into its community.

I don't think I've ever been to a Catholic church like it. It reminded me of some of the evangelical churches I've been to with friends or relatives on occasion. They introduced/welcomed new members and visitors before mass started (I hid in the back), the Sign of the Peace lasted about 10 minutes (and you really couldn't hide, there were people with nametags that came around and wished peace to EVERYONE--one gentleman added "have a great week" onto the traditional "peace," why thank you I will!), they passed a mike around for the Prayers of the Faithful to anyone who raised their hand and it was mandatory to hold hands during the Our Father. If you are lost and trying to seek IMMEDIATE connection with a community I would very much encourage you to go to St. Ben's. You kinda can't walk out of their feeling unloved by your fellow "brothers and sisters"--yup, that's what they referred to their fellow parishioners as. I swear, this was a Catholic service!


And then there was "Captain." He got up (to use the restroom?) early into mass, returned to his seat, responded back during the homily and offered a lenghty and somewhat indecipherable prayer during the POTF (my hearing was shoddy during the service as I was next to a toddler and a very loud radiator). I believe I've seen this gentleman around town, perhaps even ranting and raving. He seems to be a fixture in the Church, but the way the pastor and other parishioners responded to his outbursts really showed me what a tolerant and welcoming place this was. During the SOP one of the nametag people genuinely hugged him and audibly said "I love you so much!" As a one-service observer, I couldn't help but wonder what would happen if we all hugged and loved the marginalized members of our society -- I mean isn't that Christ's message at the very base? Shoot, even on a global level -- don't you think Mahmoud Ahmadinejad might just need a hug?

Granted "Captain" made himself part of the service, but the church's diversity shone in the servers and readers participating in the service. Instead of the white, community-theatre dropouts who typically read at most parishes, both of the readers were Latino immigrants (and we blessed them before the service!) who delivered the readings in accents. One of the servers during the Eucharist I recognized as someone I've served volunteering -- today she proudly held the plate of the Body of Christ (which at St. Ben's is a full pita-bread that the priest breaks apart -- literally breaking bread! -- versus the typical wafer, unfortunately a big chunk of Jesus fell off into my cowl neck sweater and I had to subtly fish Him out before taking the Blood of Christ) for the pastor. Anyone want to explain to me if there is a difference? I could theorize that the pita bread is more filling, and perhaps an extension of their social ministry? I mean that not to sound ignorant or blasphemous, just thinking out loud.

As if the community acceptance hadn't hit home yet, during the POTF, a gentleman (very NPR-looking) who volunteers for the Jail Ministry read a prayer offered from an inmate incarcerated across the street (St. Ben's is situated between the county jail and another correctional facility). The prayer was simple, elegant, unselfish and moving and actually stirred up an involuntarily reflex to pray for this person behind the proxy. One final thing that struck me about the POTF, was the response. Generally I have always heard "Lord, hear our prayer." At St. Ben's it was very noticeably "God, hear our prayer." Any scholars out there want to explain this to me as well?


The interior of the church was extremely simple. It had clearly been renovated/gutted recently, as there were no fixed pews, but instead modern chairs and benches were situated to face the center of the church, so it was more like a town hall meeting than mass (surprise! more community!). Unlike the ornate decorations at Old Saint Mary Parish, the decoration was quite simple. The walls were all white, but that made the mural and statue at the altar stand out quite prominently, which of course was St. Benedict the Moor and his black followers. There were several simple stained glass windows (I ended up under St. Theresa of Avila and Bl. Kateri Tekakwitha (who is a very interesting pre-saint -- I encourage you to read the Wikipedia link), which were lovely on a sunny day like today -- letting in lots of natural light. The tile floor (much nicer than OSM's blue carpet) also helped keep it bright and cheerful.

The readings for today were Genesis 9:8-15 (establishing the covenant with Noah) and 1 Peter 3:18-22 (prefigured baptism of those who died in Noah's flood -- I didn't even know this passage existed!). The Gospel was Mark 1:12-15 (wherein Jesus heads to the desert for 40 days -- hmmm, sounds familiar). Brother Jerry's homily compared the flood to today's troubled economic times (he did not hesitate in saying this is the Great Depression Part II) and focused on the importance of bonding together as a community to help those less fortunate keep hope through the flood. The Lenten takeaway was to use these 40 days to come to peace with one's self through self-reflection so that we will be strong enough to help others.

Although I expect to eventually run into parishes where I disagree with the homily, I can't say I've disagreed with anything I've heard so far in this experiment.


One thing that had been missing at Old St. Mary's (although it could've been due to the midweek, quickie mass) was music. St. Ben's obviously has a group of dedicated musicians (they even post for a Folk Music Sing-A-Long in the bulletin), including a pianist and a cellist. They have a huge organ in the back, but that was unused (at least today), but the cello was definitley unique.

I also observed that A LOT of self-reflection time was built into the service. There was time during the prayers at the beginning of the service and then a good chunk of time after communion. It was kind of nice and I felt I got a lot of quality one-on-one time in with the big guy. Boy, am I really grateful for all that I have! Honestly! Also, because of the modern design there were no kneelers, so I could really get lost in my prayer and not worry about stabbing pain in my knees.

The most impressive thing about this parish is it's dedication to community activism. The weekly bulletin is chock full of vigils and protests. The church is a member of MICAH (Milwaukee Inner City Congregations Allied for Help) and is also apparently the base for the Pax Christi movement in Milwaukee. I didn't even know we had one (I read a bunch about this group in Fr. Dear's book). If I wasn't doing the church hop, St. Ben's is definitely a parish I'd consider going to regularly.


Again, I only got some pictures of the outside of the church. I really need a "church buddy" so I don't feel like a weirdo taking photos after mass. Has anyone ever done a project like this before? Any suggestions?

I also skipped out on going to coffee after church (another reason the "buddy system" would be great). As I'm sure you can surmise, I would've been welcomed, but I'm not sure I'm at the point yet to publicly talk about this sociotheological experiment yet with strangers. Your thoughts?

NEXT SUNDAY: St. Casimir at 9:30 AM prior to heading to the Rockabilly Chili event.

lenting it up: ash wednesday reflection

In the center of downtown, right across from the municipal building attached to City Hall, sits Old Saint Mary Parish, apparently one of the oldest buildings downtown. Built in 1846, it's as old as the city itself.

Conveniently they had a 7 AM Ash Wednesday mass that I could hit before work. As an added bonus, one of the auxiliary bishops, Bishop Richard Sklba, was presiding over the service. Nothing like adding an extra dash of holy to one's Lent. (And as an extra added bonus he was quite dynamic and humorous).

The readings for Ash Wednesday '09 were Joel 2:12-18 and 2 Corinthians 5:20-6:2. The Gospel was Matthew 6:1-6, 16-18, which is one of my fave passages about not flaunting your spiritual devotion. Bishop Sklba did note the irony of the fact that this reading asks us to not be blatant about our worship, yet the first thing Catholics do for Lent is plaster a huge smudge of ashes on their forehead. He emphasized though the community-aspect of this practice and also, of course, the self-reflection (in addition to the fasting) that Lent includes. He referred to Lent as "Christianity for Dummies," sort of a back-to-basics course. Since the basics are what I like about faith, I guess that's why I like Lent. He had two really good suggestions that I'm going to try and incorporate into my 40 days -- use this time to get organized (he mentioned ordering one drawer each day) and rebuild relationships with friends and family (letter-writing, emails, etc.).

As you can see from the photos, the church building itself is quite beautiful on the outside. Unfortunately I had to rush out after Communion and did not have time to linger and photograph the inside. I can assure you, it's gorgeous. Stained glass, gold inlays on the ceiling, somewhat imposing but still small enough to be much more intimate than the Cathedral. The only thing I'd change is the Robin's Egg Blue carpeting that looks like someone's grandmother's house in the '50s. I am curious as to who the regular parishoners are, as the Ash Wednesday crowd was quite the mix of downtown professionals of all ages and backgrounds.

Keeping downtown, tomorrow I'm going to hit up St. Benedict the Moor at 10 AM for the first Sunday of Lent. Hopefully I can post updates right away, as I have several Milwaukee adventures from today to write about (with pictures) as well.

For further reading, my friend Larissa wrote some pretty excellent reflections on the season over at her blog. Check it out!

lenting it up: ash weds.

Successfully got up and went to Mass at Old Saint Mary Parish this morning. Reflections and photos coming tomorrow. Going to bed though a little bummed. Apparently my alma mater gave up winning basketball games for Lent.

lenting it up: getting serious

Last year I skipped Lent. I missed Ash Wednesday mass due to our 22" blizzard and Good Friday for a 13 incher. I don't remember what I gave up.

This year, being in spiritual purification mode, I'm really going to make an effort to reflect and do things the right way.

As you may know, Lent is, in sum, "the 40-day season of prayer, fasting and almsgiving." I figure I should focus on those in my Meghan way.

Prayer: What better time to revisit the yet visited Milwaukee Challenge? I'm going to start with Ash Wednesday Mass at Old Saint Mary Parish tomorrow morning at 7 a.m. Hopefully I can keep up the momentum.

Fasting: I am pretty sure the "fasting" part is where "giving stuff up" comes in, in addition to the whole no meat on Fridays or Ash Wednesday thing. So what am I giving up? I feel like I should always give up something physical and something a little more abstract. That said, I'm giving up soda (loaded up on Coca-Cola at dinner tonight) and Facebook-stalking (only 40 days, only 40 days). Guess what is going to be more difficult?

Almsgiving: This may be tricky, as I just dropped a ridiculous amount of money on my little incident last weekend and am getting hit with a $60 bill for a Q-Tip from when I got a strep swab a few weeks back. However, I think I'm going to pool at least some leftover cash for a good cause this Lent. Any suggestions? I'd like to keep it local.

What are you giving up for Lent? Even if you're not Catholic, it's a good season for self-reflection.

sunday catch up: i owe posts

Still terribly behind on posts. Here's what I owe:

• Review of the crappy movie from LAST weekend
• Review of Antony & The Johnsons concert on Friday
• Update on my 30 by 30 challenge
• Review of my Singles Awareness Night
• Reflections on Carfree Lovefest and my completion of one bus route for my Milwaukee Challenges
• Review of my dining experience at Brocach last week

One thing of note I can tell you though is what my February resolution has been. You may recall January's: Don't go to bed with dishes on the sink. February's is: use the stairs at work, unless carrying something heavy.

Any suggestions for March?

milwaukee challenges: trip to the east library

The month is almost out, but I finally got a start to one of my self-issued challenges for the year.

You may recall Milwaukee Challenge #1: Read my way through Milwaukee's Public Libraries, in which I pledged to obtain my 12 books--for an online "Support Your Local Library" challenge--each from a different branch of the city's libraries.

Even though the official challenge doesn't have a "one-per-month" limit, that's how I've elected to pace myself. I knew I had to get cracking. So after work today, I swung by the East Library to begin.

Remember the library at your elementary school? That fairly accurately describes the layout and decor of the East Library. It's one big cozy room with a community reading area running down the middle between the shelves. The walls are red brick and I think there's purple or some other retro-color carpet, that likely has been there since the place was built in the late '60s. There are some very swingin' looking chairs and I regretted that I did not have time to hang. The place WAS packed though, not surprising given the increase in library use due to the recession.

A more accurate description of the layout from the branch page:

East Library, located at 1910 E. North Ave., opened in 1968 and features a special art collection, Works of Wisconsin Artists, donated by William and Virginia Vogel. A striking feature of the building is the ceiling-height, multi-colored glass panels, designed by Conrad Schmitt Studios.

I wish I'd looked up!

There's definitely a sense of community in this library that doesn't exist at the grandiose Central branch. When you enter the building it's via a long hallway scattered with bulletin boards and fliers, some for events I never heard of outside of that realm.

I picked up two newsletters while I was there as well to learn a bit more about my surroundings. I grabbed a copy of the Milwaukee Public Library Reader, as well as the Murray Hill Neighborhood Association newsletter, Murray Hill News.

Still have to peruse the latter, but the former has some tips on what's going on in February at the libraries. It looks like I will be hitting up the Martin Luther King branch as that seems to be the hot spot for Black History Month.

Obviously the destination is only part of the challenge, I still have to pick out a book. The layout of the place was a little confusing, so I was first drawn to the "New Releases" shelf. I selected a fiction book called A Map of Home by Randa Jarrar about a girl immigrating to Texas from the Middle East. One of the last fiction books I read in 2008 was about an American girl of Middle Eastern descent living in Texas, and I am curious to compare the two. That book, Towelhead by Alicia Erian was extremely gritty, but a solid read. A Map of Home also had an intriguing book jacket blurb:

"Funny, charming, and heartbreaking, A Map of Home is the kind of book Tristram Shandy or Huck Finn would have narrated had they been born Egyptian-Palestinian and female in the 1970s"

I then slid over to the New Non-Fiction and spotted a book that's been highly promoted on Pitchfork -- It Still Moves: Lost Songs, Lost Highways and the Search for the Next American Music by Amanda Petrusich. The Amazon review is a little disheartening, but I'll give the book a whirl.

Since it's extremely difficult for me to walk out of a library without my hands full, I noticed a small "librarian's choice" table as I headed to the desk. I was ridiculously impressed that they'd pulled together a selection of John Updike works, complete with a framed obituary, since the man died TODAY. I'm actually not sure if I've ever read any Updike (maybe a short story along the way of my storied career in English Lit?) so I picked up Rabbit, Run to be my first official book of the challenge. I suspected the copy may have been procured when the East Library was built, but upon further inspection it looks like it was printed in 1991. Also, not to be crass, but it seems perversely appropriate that a copy of a book by a man who died of lung cancer would reek so badly of cigarette smoke.

If you're the mood for multimedia, or you speak Russian, apparently the East Library would have a lot to offer you:

In addition to providing an especially strong fiction and videocassette collection reflecting the diverse and eclectic interests of the East Side community, the library also maintains a small collection of materials in the Russian language. Patrons also have access to bestsellers, classics, picture books, magazines, newspapers, books on tape and a compact disc collection which includes many jazz and classical titles.

I'm glad I stopped by and took a little more time to learn about this asset nestled on the Upper East Side.

weekending: despite settler FAIL edition

Okay, I know I bitched about it before, but SERIOUSLY, why did people settle in the Upper Midwest? Was it a trick? Were they all masochists?

I should not have been "pleased" with the "balmy" hovering around freezing temps this week. Zero degrees Celsius seemed just peachy.

Why?

Because once again we're in for ZERO DEGREES FARENHEIT or less.
Luckily (or unluckily because it takes me outside), I'm keeping busy to help combat the winter doldrums.

Last night I joined my pals Becky and Maribeth for dinner at Beans & Barley (I can never get enough of the Chicken Salad Plate with Creamy Garlic Parmesan Dressing). Afterward, we joined our friend Marcella at the Milwaukee Film screening of American Movie celebrating the 10 Year Anniversary of the documentary. I hadn't watched the movie in probably about seven years, so it was a nice refresher to see it again. Still effin hilarious. And now that I know Milwaukee a little bit better, I watched it through the eyes of resident, not just a transient college student.

After the screening there was a Q&A with the two stars, Mark Borchardt and Mike Schank, and the latter's new wife. That part was definitely pretty surreal. I mean, everyone sees those guys around town as "guest celebrities," but it was awkward to have them pop up after just watching a documentary on their life 12 years ago. Marcella described it as "sort of like performance art." Especially because there was this whole tangent on translating stories from Albanian and using that as a dieting technique. Uh, yeah, I guess you really had to be there.

Marcella and I swung through the post-party at Landmark Lanes, as she had never been there. It was kind of hard to tell what was really what with the whole "party" thing, so the two of us just grabbed a booth and caught up. Always good to do that!

Tonight I'm off to a "Summer in Winter" party in Cudahy with Becky, Brooke and Craig. The Bennett-Frizzells are cooking up some mango chicken and I am providing sherbert for dessert. It was supposed to be tropical lime bars, but I kind of didn't have time to make those.

We're also drinking some yummy "rumaritas."

Tomorrow I hope to brave the cold and get to yoga at The WAC. I really need to get back to my 30 By 30 focus. Of course, after that I'm going to add on some calories by taking my friend Margaret to the Lakefront Brewery Tour (since I realized it's been awhile).

The evening is reserved for my friend Jane. If I decide to make it a later night, my movie buddies are all going to Mad Planet for a Love Sounds dance party.

Sunday morning I hope to make it to this new "Try It Hip Hop Yoga" at the WAC. Don't ask, I don't know. Then for lunch I have a date at Izumi's (I have a gift certificate) with my friend Monica.

Of course in the meantime, I hope to clean, do more laundry, and get to some of those unfinished challenges from last week.

I do have to say that it's a myth that Milwaukee is only fun in the summer. Although it's ass-cold, I'm obviously not lacking in stuff to do.

What's on your plate this weekend?

Resoluting: January

I'm ready to announce my first resolution for 2009.

Yes, I realize it's January 16th, but give me a slight break -- I was out of the country for the first 12 days of the year.

Instead of making a long list of things I will break at the beginning of the year, I'm taking a baby steps approach and adding on one resolution each month. By the end of the year I should have 12 resolutions that I'm keeping.

January's resolution may sound simple, but it's harder than you think. I was spoiled with a dishwasher for a couple of years and about 18 months ago went back to the good ol' sink'n'scrubber. While I don't mind doing by hand, I also don't mind letting them pile up in the sink.

Thus, January's resolution is: Don't go to bed with dishes in the sink.

I'll be adding February's resolution in a more timely manner, promise.

Also, as you may recall I issued myself three Milwaukee Challenges toward the end of last year.

I realize to stay on track I need to start tackling some of those this weekend.

There's nothing better than killing two birds with one stone, right? For the library challenge, I am going to start with the East Side location and then head to Ss. Peter and Paul for their 5 p.m. mass to meet my "tour Milwaukee's churches" challenge.

As for the transit portion of the challenge, I think on Sunday I will tackle one of the routes out of the Downtown Transit Center to simplify the round-trip.

I will keep you posted.