WELCOME TO BIFOCAL FRIDAYS

I recently started a new job in a formal business setting after 20 years of working in a very independent environment. I absolutely love my new gig, but it does require a pretty unwavering commitment to a solid 9-5 schedule every day, with a generous but very structured vacation policy. I miss some of the flexibility I had before, to take a day or an afternoon or a few hours off at the drop of a hat.

So imagine my delight a few months into the job when I learned that we keep “Summer Hours” for the months of June, July and August. That means Friday afternoons entirely off. I felt like a kid in a candy store as I considered the unexpected gift of this special time suddenly available to me.

It reminded me of one of my favorite childhood books, The Saturdays, by Elizabeth Enright, which I have read countless times. In 1940s New York City, the four fictional Melendy children lament that their weekly allowance of 50 cents each isn’t enough to do anything really good with. So they decide to pool their money, and one child will have it all each week in turn, to do something special for a Saturday adventure.

Ten year-old Randy gets to go first, because it was her idea. As she luxuriates in considering her options, she thinks she mustn’t waste a minute or a penny of it. “It was like a door opening into an enchanted country which nobody had ever seen before; all her own to do with as she liked.” This is how I felt about the idea of my Summer Hours. While mine wasn’t an issue of limited spending money, the idea of not wasting a single minute of it was paramount. So I made the decision to approach my Friday afternoons very intentionally, committed to making each one count in a unique and meaningful way, all summer long.

As the Melendy’s father said when he granted approval to their scheme, “See that you do something you really want; something you’ll always remember. Don’t waste your Saturdays on unimportant things.” I wouldn’t waste my precious Friday afternoons. I would do something wonderful (or at least notable) every week, and write about it here so I’d be accountable to the commitment and fully mindful of the adventure.

Of course not every Friday will pan out as some big amazing thing. Maybe one afternoon I will simply clean my house and revel in the fact that I have this lovely home with a new love who has given me a new lease on life in my 50s. Maybe one day I will simply weed the garden and think about life. But there’s plenty to be gotten from that as well.

“We lead a humdrum life when I think about it. It’s funny how it doesn’t seem humdrum,” said Randy Melendy over tea with an old family friend. Mrs. Oliphant replied, “That’s because you have ‘eyes the better to see with, my dear’ and ‘ears the better to hear with.’ Nobody who has them and uses them is likely to find life humdrum very often. Even when they have to use bifocal lenses, like me.”

Join me on my “Summer Hours: Bifocal Fridays” adventures. Maybe you’ll find something new to do with your special time, or just a new way of looking at things.

Friday #3: June 14, 2016

The NiceRide Way to Start the Day

Sunny and beautiful today, as clear a start to a Bifocal Friday as could be dreamed. I grabbed a NiceRide bike from my Highland neighborhood rack and rode to work, which is about the best way to start any summer weekday. It's an absolutely lovely 30-minute commute, running along the Mississippi River gorge up through the Oak Street gateway to the University. And there’s a NiceRide rack right outside my office, so I can easily turn the bike in and be done with it for the day.



Speaking of Racks…

It was going to be a beautiful afternoon for golf with Diane and Alan and Drew. But we couldn’t start until a little later in the day, because first I had an appointment for a mammogram at 12:15. Maybe not the most exciting way to start my afternoon off, but certainly the most important. And Diane definitely concurs. After having beaten back breast cancer several years ago, she’s a strong advocate for early detection. With her permission, I’m sharing this old photo of her famous celebratory boob cupcakes, which she enjoys bringing out every year as a reminder of the importance of regular breast exams. I don't have any history of breast cancer in my family, but we certainly have no shortage of breasts, so I get my exam regularly and encourage everyone to do the same.

Golfing with a Star

Diane and I became acquainted many years ago when she was a professional parachute packer and my then-husband was a serious skydiver. We only really became good friends because of Facebook, though. We began playing online Scrabble together and chatting occasionally, and built a real-life friendship out of the ether. She’s a freelance writer, avid reader, science lover, foodie, and golfer, so we have a lot in common. She curates a sweet online book-recommendation group that I enjoy participating in, and I’ve been excited to see her develop her successful food blog. This week she even appeared on television with a cooking segment on the Twin Cities Live talk show, where she demonstrated a recipe for Somali Rice that could be prepared with the contents of a food box from the non-profit organization Matter. While we golfed, we couldn’t help but give her a little good-natured ribbing about her rise to local stardom.

The course we played today, Inverwood, is especially beautiful,
and I didn't have any TOTAL meltdown holes,
so I consider that a successful day of golf.
The Art of Beer Labels

Diane always has an eye out for interesting events in the community, and tonight she had cooked up the plan for us to attend a lecture on The Art of Beer Labels. It was part of the “MMAA After Hours Series” hosted by the Minnesota Museum of American Art, a tiny but tenacious presence in downtown St. Paul, currently housed in the Cass Gilbert-designed Pioneer-Endicott Building that dates back to 1890.



While Drew and I aren’t big beer drinkers, the event was right up our alley from a history and art perspective – especially given Drew’s professional niche in designing wine labels. Beer expert, author and high-school history teacher Doug Hoverson gave a downright entertaining talk and slide show (You’ll pardon the archaic reference, but this guy was fairly brimming with old slide show vibe) about the history of beer label art throughout the 20th century, with a focus on the brewing industry in Minnesota and a nod to his most recent book, Land of Amber Waters.


Two of the current crop of local microbreweries, Tin Whiskers and Bad Weather, chimed in and talked about how their label art has helped to build their growing brands. I was also happy to see Hoverson’s presentation pay homage to the role of my own Kalamazoo hometown hero Bell’s Beer, which pretty much skyrocketed the modern-day microbrewery concept back in the early 1980s. The label history at Bell’s is a thing of beauty, featuring the artwork of much beloved Kalamazoo artist Ladislav Hanka. Check out his many, many years of great work here.

No O’x and X’s for OXCART

I’ll spare you too many details on the end of our day, which involved a bad dinner at Oxcart in Lowertown St. Paul. Suffice it to say, don’t get the risotto. Or the mussels. Or the chicken. Better yet, just go somewhere else. Or try some interesting new recipe at home from Diane’s Food Blog.
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1 comment:

  1. andrew@handeyecreative.comJune 21, 2016 at 7:53 PM

    Hello! It's fun that you're chronicling these days, and having a lot of fun livin' them too.

    Not sure why that Somali rice hasn't graced our table yet...dayam.

    Hoverson was pretty entertaining and funny, definitely unexpectedly so. His high school lecture sonorous delivery, punctuated with some dry/wry wit worked.

    We all golfed pretty good, love Alan's no wasted time delivery, just grabs a club, lines up and whammo, usually with a good result. Retiree. Hmph.

    Yes, Oxcart, no no no... such a shame.

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