Julie R. Neidlinger: Lone Prairie Art Works (via Mowser)

Things I did on blog vacation.

written by Julie R. Neidlinger 15 comments link this post

Oh, it was a very busy time.

I fed over-ripe blueberries to a gopher by dumping them down the hole and wondering if it was an annoyance or manna from heaven. Either way, it made me laugh, and I felt very Alice-in-Wonderland.
I made a shirt out of a pair of pants. No kidding. It's hilarious. I shall wear it with pride. I tested two competing brands of "fine" chocolates in a carefully controlled taste test, the results of which will be forthcoming. I made a cake for Sunday school mocking Michael "Joel Osteen" Rohrer's Chiclet over-religious smile using my art skills to create a confectionery delight. I mowed lawn. Twice.
My left hand went numb and gave out in the middle of my Rachmaninoff attempt during the offertory on Sunday morning, forcing me to make up about four measures until feeling came back, thereby killing Rachmaninoff, though he be dead previously.
I did some freelance design work, one for one a university I attended. During the design process, I had several funny email conversations with my design contact involving tapeworms, my inability to answer direct questions, and my dislike for social networking sites. I did some other random work. I developed Julie's Theory of Everything which explains how I explain things to myself and how I got out, yet again, of a dark place on my own. I also developed a theory on the Island of Man, and Habits vs. Needs.

But then I took a real vacation during my blog vacation.

Some things I did on my real vacation:

Told dad he was driving down I35 with his blinker on. Went to a Bong museum (yep, a Bong museum). Saw a small sailboat named Chewbacca in Duluth. Went to the IMAX and saw "Hurricane on the Bayou", a film about the bayou and Katrina, watching nervously as my mother covered her eyes and expressed dizziness from the introductory IMAX sequence before the film began.
Had to translate my mother's mumbles into louder versions for my father. Faced an almost amazing amount of indecision in a gas station, watching my parents try to decide what they were going to get to eat. Listened to Gordon Lightfoot's famed take on the Edmund Fitzgerald and finally found it fitting.
Had a nice time sketching and shooting photos and video along the pier in St. Ignace. Had several nice meals with the parents, including two chocolate malts so far. Dipped my feet in Lake Superior. Saw Lake Michigan and Lake Huron and have decided I need to now see the other two Great Lakes in order to complete my collection. Took the Starline Ferry to Mackinac Island, and then had a carriage tour. And then toured the fort. And then ate lunch in the tea room. And then split off from the parents and did a little shopping and wandering on my own while trying to avoid all seemingly three million tourists there. Noticed the Mackinac Island Public Library was much, much smaller than the houses next to it. Which I think says a lot about priorities on the island. I sketched some of the horses on the island until annoying people started hovering and talking (as if I couldn't hear) "I think she's drawing those horses -- I guess she's an artist or something."
Hit only one of 17 fudge shops (Murdick's Fudge) on Mackinac Island. I think that shows self control. Avoided stepping on countless piles of gum, garbage, manure, food scraps, and melted chocolate candy on the sidewalk, this feat only accomplished by the fact that I tend to walk around with my head down at all times. People think I'm dejected, but I'm really just watching out for gum. Watched the Grand Hotel carriage go by and wondered what it was like to be rich and not wearing a hooded sweatshirt with holes and tears in the cuffs. But that passed. Because I remembered that I am rich, just not over-wasteful rich.
Was the only one to swim in the pool here in our hotel, which was a nice change from all the people earlier in the day. Drove home, stopping for a...chocolate malt. Finished reading a book.

My purchases:

Some unusual spices at a cooking store, spices which I will use to change the world for the better. Postcards, though I didn't send them. Notecards, because I liked the art and imagery. A book on the Great Lakes which I am enjoying reading: The Living Great Lakes, by Jerry Dennis. Purchased at the Island Bookstore on Mackinac Island. Um...fudge. Lots of it. A T-shirt. And, being a T-shirt designer some of the time, I also made note of the new design ideas currently appearing on tourist T-shirts so that I might copy them in the great tradition of bad designers who are burned out on T-shirt designing of their own. Some more postcards. Which I didn't send, either. A book about werewolves and other strange tales from the Great Lakes region. Tiny glass chickens. Tiny tiny. Really tiny. Fine hot chocolate mix. A series of "Medal of Honor" comic books that featured Major Richard Bong as one of the story lines. Obviously, I purchased them at the Bong museum.
I think that's it.

Notes noted in my notebook:

The road construction guy with the stop sign (near Ishpeming, MI) gave me a wink as we drove past and I decided that was OK. He was cute. The bathroom fan in the Super 8 Motel will not drown out two people snoring. Staying at Super 8 Motels for an entire trip means all rooms are the same and so each morning I wake up in the same place, a kind of time warp in maroon and beige. With a complimentary bar of soap. The moment I put my MP3 player earbuds in, mom starts talking to me. Standing on the soft, sandy beach of Lake Superior was an unusual experience. It felt like the ocean, sounded like the ocean...but the water was clear and seemed slicker, without the salt, sand and bits of seashell abrading my skin. Ideal. Cold. In fact, the only thing that marred the Lake Superior moment was a mother with a fat, bratty son and a whiny, crying daughter. And herself, a woman prone to yelling out empty threats and not carrying them out, choosing to stay seated on her chair and read her paperback book while her son threw rocks at his sister and made her cry. A bummer to be riding around Mackinac Island in a horse carriage, all immersed in the 19th century, and see a police SUV drive by. Pasties were commonly advertised in Michigan. I'm hoping it was food. If it wasn't, I a) think the entire state is pervy and b) laughed a few too many times over the incongruity of a place advertising Grandma's Pasties. Note to European tourists: we don't use dollars in Europe, so quit trying to use Euros over here. They're called "euros" not "worldos." Our carriage tour guide -- Al -- had a voice like Red Green. He also made me chortle with laughter over a comment on Gerald Ford having spent time on the Island as a boy scout and then pointed out a flight of stairs and wondered if that was the first stairway Ford ever took a header down. No one else laughed. I thought of Chevy Chase. In Michigan, 87.6 percent of what you see on the highway is for sale. That's a little rough math, but seriously, there were innumerable cars, businesses, houses, lawnmowers...you name it ... all for sale. Does anyone use a realtor or used car lot?

Sketches from my trip notebook:

Kinds of tourists: The graffiti artist (based on actual graffiti in the men's bathroom on the dock at St. Ignace, according to my father.) Kinds of tourists: The Asian mob. Kinds of tourists: The moron mother. Kinds of tourists: The German tourist. Sketch: Lighthouse at St. Ignace. Sketch: Horses on Mackinac Island.

Thanks for all of you who have emailed wondering if I was: dead, quitting blogging, dead, gone for good, or dead. I am alive, very much well, and obviously, am not quitting blogging.

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Labels: blogging, family, my life, travel

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15 Comments:

Hello again. By the way, on one of your comments, a "numbskull" sighting. OK, Moe.

By Henry (Rick) Frueh, at 9/8/07 06:06

Am I strange because I'm actually looking forward to reading your theories?

Welcome back. I kinda thought from your 'goodbye' post that your definition of "a short while" might be a couple of months or something.

By Jim, at 9/8/07 06:23

Sounds like a good time!

By robbie, at 9/8/07 08:26

I can hardly wait for what might say about the Island of Man and Habits vs. Needs. Drink a chocolate malt for me, and thanks for the fix . . . I was beginning to get withdarwal symptoms.

By Will, at 9/8/07 09:38

Welcome back? Michigan was where I first canoed fifty miles with the boy scouts for a merit badge and where I swam for one mile under the northern lights. Very cool.

By Mark, at 9/8/07 09:54

Hi. Glad you're back and I hope you've worked out what you needed to. Rey.

By Rey, at 9/8/07 12:16

I look forward to Julie's Theory of Everything

By deniro, at 9/8/07 15:43

Welcome back?

I had wondered why the LonePrairie had been so quiet lately...

By Todd Ramsey, at 9/8/07 16:07

Well look what we have here, a fabulous welcome back from my regular six readers. Fantastic!

The weird thing about blog vacations is they are a little weird at first since blogging is a kind of habit...but not a need. Which becomes clear the more days I put between it and me. Which...is part of my habit vs. needs theory.

I am going to so blast my silly theories out there. You wait.

This vacation was a great mind-clearer. Both the blog and the real vacation. Lots of ideas. Travel throws you into different situations with people and ideas and sort of shakes you to your senses and inspires you to try new things and take new angles in life. Vacations. I recommend them.

Thanks for the welcome back. Still in Michigan...but blogging on free hotel WiFi.

By Julie, at 9/8/07 20:02

Julie:
Welcome back. I have been having an inane debate with the 9/11 conspiracy blogger since you left. I look forward to your insight and your "Frequent Grumpiness but in a Good Way" style again.

By Brett Benson, at 10/8/07 16:49

Julie - you are the queen of mundane observations. I love reading your stuff because you can come up with the funniest things that no one else even notices. I still laugh over numbskull, because I myself use knucklehead.

If the three stooges accepted women I would nominate you - in a good way!

By Henry (Rick) Frueh, at 11/8/07 19:34

I love your tourist cartoons. And, nice sketches from your trip, too. Will there be any more updates, or is this it?

By Anonymous, at 12/8/07 00:40

The post is now finished. No more updates. Glad you liked the drawings.

By Julie, at 12/8/07 08:18

Your cartoons kill me. Even (maybe especially) the one with the naughty words. I think the graffiti artists probably look exactly like that.

By ThirstyDavid, at 16/8/07 11:52

Thanks, ThirstyDavid.

I kind of got attached to my "How to Quit Your Job" characters and find myself using them in a lot of my journal doodles.

(They may soon appear on the header of this blog, too.)

By Julie, at 16/8/07 12:00

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