Madison, WI trip report -- Part Four -- Hockey

Our last night in Madison, Husband and I went to see the UW Men's hockey play. It was only the second time ever that I've been to a hockey game.

By contrast, Sister's first date with her boyfriend was to a hockey game. Her boyfriend was trying to tell her what was going on, but she snapped that she knew what was going on, after all, she plays hockey. With men probably twice her size.

Anyway, here's a picture of the Kohl center, which we had to slog through slush to get to. The sidewalks weren't cleared, despite the city or university knowing that there would be many people trying to walk from the parking ramps to the Kohl center. My patience with the snow was wearing thin.

Once inside, it was nice and toasty warm. Look, they have art by Dale Chihuly, a former UW student and world renown glass artist. Love his stuff. First time I saw his art was in Taiwan years ago. Didn't know Chihuly was a UW alum until just now when I looked up the Kohl Center. Gotta love the internet.

Brother-in-Law had mentioned that the concessions sold beer, but we didn't see it. Surprisingly, we didn't go looking too hard.

I like this picture because you see 2 very Wisconsin Zambonis:

I came prepared with knitting. It's a strip of the sashing from Brother Two's afghan. Basically 20 rows of stockingnette, 20 rows of reverse stockingnette. Practically mindless.
My favorite part was watching the UW band and the students dancing in the student section. I'm not a sports fan and so didn't realize that there were dances for specific songs, like the arms moves for "YMCA." It was fun to watch an entire seating section moving en masse. Some songs I knew, like "Tequila" "On Wisconsin" and "When You've Said Wisconsin, You've Said it All" which Budweiser stole for a jingle (replace Wisconsin with Budweiser, and you might remember this).

I also heard one I didn't know -- "If You Want to be a Badger" which Husband said he learned in elementary school. The Wisconsin mascot is the badger. It was fun to see an entire student section doing these dances in unison. Again, gotta love the internet. You can find almost anything on YouTube. These videos were not taken by me, just to be clear.

During one of the breaks in between periods, some pee wee hockey was played. So very cute. Kids falling, running into and over each other. I could tell at least one was a girl. The long hair gave it away.

Yes, there was some actual hockey being played. There was a tie, and then overtime with no scoring and then double overtime with a shoot out. Wisconsin lost in the end. It was a fun time anyway.

Madison, WI trip report -- Part Three -- Why We Go

Madison is Husband's hometown. It's also where we met, during junior year of college.

It's been 14 years since I've lived there. When I did live there, I had friends and could walk down State Street and meet people I knew on almost every block.

However, they, like I, were not Madison natives, living there just for college and then leaving afterwards. Now, when we go, I don't know anyone in Madison. Everyone we interact with are Husband's family and friends.

It's interesting to compare and contrast Husband's background with my own. His mother has lived in her neighborhood for 40 years, and lived her entire life in Wisconsin. Certainly she's traveled around the US and to Europe and Taiwan (with Husband and me, but that's another story). And so Husband and his brother have known their neighbors for 30+ years. The only people I have known that long are my own parents and siblings.

During Christmas week, for about 20 years now, Husband's family and three other neighbor families do a progressive dinner. Cocktails at one home, dinner at another home, everyone contributing. It's a lovely tradition that I really enjoy. And now there are three generations, as the kids from Husband's generation have gotten married and had kids.

Of the 4 families involved in the progressive dinner, 3 have only 2 offspring, for example, Husband and his brother, and one has 4 offspring. Of the families that have only 2 kids, in each family, one kid has moved away (Atlanta, Boulder, Chicago) and one has stayed in Madison. The family with 4 kids have only one kid at home and the rest have moved away.

I find this interesting because I grew up living a rather peripatetic life. That is, we moved around a lot. I was born in Missouri, moved to Baltimore while still an infant. Lived in Baltimore for 10 years, but in at least 2 different neighborhoods. Then moved to Houston for 5 years where I finished elementary school, went through junior high, and started high school. Then sophomore year we moved to Taiwan where I finished high school in a bilingual school. Went to college in Wisconsin, and now I live in Georgia where I've lived in at least 3 different neighborhoods.

That's six states (okay Taiwan isn't a state, but it's smaller than Massachusetts) in 37 years.
Contrast that with Husband living in 2 states in 37 years.

I like the thought of providing my future hypothetical children with that kind of stability. But I also appreciate the experience of living in different places, regions and different cultures (each region of the US definitely has it's own culture). This relative rootlessness has made me focus on the present and the future, because you can't go home again. And even if you do go back, that place isn't the same as when you left it. It's continued to change and grow without you because it's a living entity shaped by the people who are there now.

This is an issue for some of the refugees and immigrants I work with. Their image of their home country and original culture is frozen in time, at the moment of when they left. In an effort to "preserve their culture" in a new country and new culture, some immigrants become more conservative and old fashioned that they would have been in their home country.

But that country and culture continues to evolve, shaped by the people, politics, and economy that are still there. And so when the immigrants to back to visit, they are sometimes dismayed to find that their home country is different and that they themselves are viewed as old fashioned and out of step in some ways and Americanized in other ways. Because even as they try to resist changing, they have been living the in the US and have had to adapt their behaviors and thinking in response to their American home.

Complaining Employee was a great example. She used to disdain Iranian-Americans for their habits of drinking bottled water. But last time she went to visit, she found herself being cautious only had Iranian clothes from 5 years ago when she left. And her cellphone was hopelessly out of date because it didn't have this or that feature that everyone in Iran now takes for granted.

It's rather ironic that Iran, supposedly a backward and oppressive Muslim theocracy, was looking at this Americanized Iranian as being the one who was conservative in some
ways.

So the saying that you can never go home again is certainly true. And it's something everyone has to learn on their own through their own experience.

Madison is where I lived one phase of my life and my home now is Atlanta. Because this is where I live my daily life. And have my house, where I keep my yarn and pottery :).

Husband and I visit Madison. Husband and I live in Atlanta.

Madison, WI trip report -- Knitting Interlude

For the holidays, I got a gift certificate from Mother-in-Law for Lakeside Fibers.

The day after Xmas, MIL and Sister-in-Law (Husband's Brother's Wife) had a girls' day out, having lunch and shopping on State Street and finishing with a trip to Lakeside Fibers. Neither MIL nor SIL knit so I appreciated their patience.

I could easily spend at least an hour looking at everything, touching things. They have Manos del Uruguay in silk! I didn't know MdU came in silk. I was quite tempted by the silk, including a skein of lace weight silk in Chocolate Covered Cherry, over 1000 yards, in exactly the amount of the gift certificate.

In the end, I bought 3 skeins of Sheep Shop Yarns' Sheep Number Two (chunky weight, 90 yds) in color number EO43. On the Sheep Shop website, it looks more like color number G123. (Correction -- it's G043)

I wanted to knit it up right then and there. When I got back to Atlanta, I did play around with it last night and knitted up this little swatch on US 11 needles. Just a few rows of garter stitch in black, then 4 rows or so of stockingnette stitch of the Sheep Shop yarn, and then another few rows of garter stitch.

Here's the front. I really like the little dashes where the yarns change rows.

And here's the back: Both sides look pretty good.

Don't know what I'm going to do with it, but having swatched it, played with it, I can go back to knitting my current projects.

Giving into temptation isn't always bad!

Madison, WI trip report -- Part Two -- Why we don't live there anymore

There are many reasons we no longer live in Madison. First of all, Madison's the home of the state capitol and the flagship university, the University of Wisconsin-Madison. The town is overflowing with well-educated liberal arts majors, lawyers, and liberal social activists. It certainly doesn't need 2 more.

Secondly, it's Husband's hometown and he went to the UW for undergraduate. After 20+ years, he was ready to try living somewhere else.

But most of all, this is why we no longer live in Wisconsin:

That's Husband struggling through the snow on State Street, a pedestrian only street that links the University of Wisconsin campus to the state capitol. You'd think the city would keep it well plowed.

When we go to Madison, we stay with Husband's Mother. Her house, which she bought about 20 years ago, before Husband's accident, has steps to the front door, like most houses in this country. Therefore, to get into the house, Husband has to use this ramp in the back yard:

Notice the 6 inches of snow on the railing. Mother-in-Law (MIL) has to shovel the snow twice a day. People slipping and falling on the ice underneath the snow is pretty common. It's certainly happened to me many times.

Snow falling hard, reducing visibility. This is the approach on John Nolan Drive, about to go under the overpass connecting the Monona Terrace on the left with the rest of the city on the right. The Monona Terrace was designed by Frank Lloyd Wright, Wisconsin native.

It certainly helps to have one of these snowblowers

Here's Husband getting into the car. This parking lot, near Wonders Bar, was not plowed. All the snow in the space between the handrims and the wheels soak through Husband's gloves, making his hands cold, numb, and stiff. That makes it harder for him to grip the rims, and getting through snow and slush gets progressively harder, not easier.

Also, to get the casters (the small front wheels) clear of the snow and slush, Husband has to pop a wheelie and balance on the big rear tires. As you can imagine, slipping and falling over backwards is not uncommon. Our last night there, we were walking back to the car after the hockey game and that's what happened. Husband's head knocked into my knees and I nearly went down too. Fortunately passers-by helped him back into his chair while I held it steady.

But that was the last freaking straw. We had been in Madison 5 days by then. The cold and slush and difficult going was getting on my nerves already and I was so freaking ready to go home to Atlanta where getting around doesn't require 5 layers of clothes, doesn't require half an hour of snow shoveling to get to the car and then get the car out of the snow, and doesn't leave a trail of melting dirty snow everywhere you go.

But, life in the great white North isn't all bad. You can go sledding, like these people.

Or you can go ice fishing like these people on Lake Monona. Here's a close up

And a view from the shore:

When we got back to Atlanta, it was in the 50s, a full 30 degrees warmer than what we left in Wisconsin.

And, that's why we no longer live in Madison.

Madison, WI trip report -- Part One -- Eating, Drinking, and Knitting

I love food and love eating. So I took a picture of the restaurants we visited on this trip.

Madison is both the state capital and the home of the flagship university, the University of Wisconsin. The two are connected by State Street, a pedestrian only street lined with shops, restaurants, and bars.

First up: Maza, a great new Afghan restaurant, on State Street. It's run by the kids of the people who run Kabul restaurant across the street. As you can see, it snows in Wisconsin. Before Maza, this space was The Saz, which also served Mediteranean food.

Here's Espresso Royale Cafe, where Husband and I had our first date 16 years ago. Good to know it's still there.

This is Samba, Madison's first Brazilian steakhouse. It's housed in the old Women's Club building, back when universities were just begining to accept women, I guess. Before Samba, it housed Avol's Bookstore.For lunch one day, we went to Chautara, which serves "Food from the top of the world: Nepal, India, Tibet."

Wonders Pub, in Schenck's Corners, where we had Friday night fish fry, a Wisconsin tradition, courtesy of the Catholics, and probably all the fishing available in the state. Picture taken the next day, not the night of the actual dinner.

Our last day in Madison, we had lunch with Husband's parents at Ella's Deli on East Washington Avenue. It is an extremely kid-friendly place, with a working carousel, which you can kind of see behind the balloon saying "Ella's Deli." Inside, it looks like a toy store and carnival exploded in there. Everywhere you look are kid-friendly toys and sights, including this flying Harry Potter, complete with snitch:

Ella's is pretty close to the freeway to Milwaukee, and when we got there, we had our last Wisconsin meal at

The only restaurant I didn't get a picture of was Wah Kee's which was voted Madison's best Chinese restaurant. It's a great place to get a big bowl of noodles in soup and to fuel up after a long night of drinking.

Our days of staying out all night drinking are over, but one night we did manage to close out the Crystal Corner Pub. It is located, conveniently, 2 blocks from Husband's mother's house.

At the Crystal, I saw a group of knitters (one was knitting a yellow and black sock. Hufflepuff?) One of them was wearing this sweatshirt. The front says "Drinkers with a Knitting Problem." And she certainly was.

I had my knitting too. Brother Two's afghan is great portable knitting.