Seasonal EFFECTIVE Disorder

February 5, 2019

I believe winter has truly come. Temperatures have dipped well below zero in Chicago and the Twin Cities, and even my parents are burning logs in the fire place down in Louisiana. However, that hasn’t kept me from training up and getting ready for the long slow distance I will face this summer and fall on the Mississippi River Trail. A House Unbuilt company members Zack Bailey, Angela Gronroos, Carla Gruby, Lisa Leszczewicz, and myself participated in a rather chilly F3 Half Marathon in Chicago a couple of weekends ago. I figure if I can run in the coldest cold, …

Rehearsing Relay

October 31, 2018

Over the past six months, I’ve traveled down the river and met not only hundreds of amazing river people, but perhaps most importantly, I met the one man who I believe I’ll spend the rest of my life with. Right on the river in Minneapolis! This river, and this project, are already—and swiftly—changing and uprooting in ways very welcome! The fortunate thing of this new union is that my new partner is not only a great person connected to the river, but he is a runner! And we have become quite the relay team. Since August, we have run in …

We are moving. We are dancing.

October 8, 2018

Today’s performance at #TEDxQuincy was awesome! So many thanks to my #relayteam for making this come together so seamlessly and my support system at home in LA and MN. Love to you all at both ends of our Great #mississippiriver #relayofvoices #thegreatriverrun #ahouseunbuilt #tedx #tedxtalks

Notes from Clarksdale

September 28, 2018

LISA: fullness; brimming; island time; teal building; barrier; influx; disperse; 45 miles; whirling; sunsets…

CARLA: wandering around town / picnic in the gazebo…

Long Overdue: Last Long Run

May 25, 2018

It’s official. The Advance Tour for #relayofvoices #thegreatriverrun is in it’s last 24 hours. A storm has been making it’s way inland from just off the coast, thwarting our plans to take a boat to the Mouth of the River today… the “3 passes” that is—that’s right, it’s a Delta, it fans out, and there is not just one way out, there are many.

How the Back Porch Sits

April 15, 2018

This past Wednesday, around 3:30pm, I headed out from Chicago toward a downstate gem—Quincy, IL. I had been invited to attend the Mississippi River Parkway Commission (MRPC) Conference being hosted there as well as present Relay to the 40+ commissioners gathering there from the 10 states touched by the Great River.

The journey starts now.

April 10, 2018

This blog is so overdue. I’ve been meaning to write something, even the start of something since last Wednesday when I was driving from work down Ashland Avenue, heading to Mana for rehearsal. Traffic was stop and go and I found myself zoning out in that way where suddenly I am thinking about something I didn’t expect at all to be in my mind! But wham! there it is and there’s a clarity to whatever it is… Like I got on the highway despite being in the very clogged rush hour city street.

Relay of Voices: The Great River Run