college, coffee, poetry & connecting

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This week my husband and I took our son to college in Milwaukee. He’s a freshman attending the Milwaukee Institute of Art & Design or MIAD. Milwaukee is a great city and the local coffee shop is Colectivo Coffee. My son, Ellis has been a big coffee drinker since the age of 9—thanks to friends who own Mirabelles in Burlington, Vermont.

I just loved the aesthetic and color story of Colectivo and now have a good sense of where he’ll be hanging out with new friends. On Thursday morning, my husband Jeff and I were having breakfast at the one located on Lake Michigan. I started talking to a Timothy Kloss who was sketching and reading something very amusing at the next table. Turns out his Dad (Gerald Kloss) was a humor columnist for the Milwaukee Journal. Timothy proceeded to recite a beautiful piece his Dad had written about him when he was two about a robin being just out of his reach. Anyway, it was an interesting morning at the coffee shop and I am sure that Ellis will create many memories hanging out there too. Maybe one day he will even get to the weekly poetry/painting night Timothy hosts. Here’s all the links. Have a great Saturday!

http://do414.com/artists/poets-monday-w-host-timothy-kloss
http://slightlyhoffbeat.wordpress.com/tag/gerald-kloss/
http://www.miad.edu/
http://colectivocoffee.com/cafes/third-ward/<img

Abandoned Farmhouse Hunting in South Dakota

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I was in South Dakota for my 30 year high school reunion this summer. My Mom and I took an afternoon and went old farmhouse hunting. I did this years ago when my twins were taking a nap in the pickup and found some extraordinary places. To me there is a certain beauty in the textures and decay, but to my mother who was a farm girl there is a real sadness in seeing these places. She could see what I could see and since I grew up kicking around the farmhouses of her youth I could see the sadness as well. My Dad assured me that with a few phones calls before I come home next time that friends of his could arrange some other tours. I hope you can see both the beauty and sorrow in these photos.