how i spent my summer vacation on the east coast





















on porches and rooftops, in classrooms and forests, with crazy little kids and some even crazier old ladies- i return to chicago exhausted, but i have greatly cherished these weeks in this place that will never fail to feel like home.

ryan rose a tiny city of ruins up from the ashes of my bonfire pit the other day.








i always feel so privileged to watch my talented friends create, to see through their eyes and hands what mine might never know to look for...

artist everett raymond kinstler lives a town over from me, but no one sees his house tucked back in the forest. buried behind the trees he's got a private studio too, where he creates masterful portraits- that is, of course, when he's not painting the president in the oval office, or katherine hepburn from her barn.
i tease my stepdad for never leaving town, but i was quite astounded with his knowledge of local treasures when he brought me along to visit his old friend ev last week.









incidentally, ev is so charming! and when i asked him if dali had posed for him live, he laughed and told me that a portrait copied from another portrait isn't a portrait at all- that he always painted his subjects in person. dali? drew him in art school when he was 23.

check out this awesome video that some kids from my old high school made to support the american cancer society and the purple glove project! it's worth it, if for nothing more than seeing the band director booty drop and my baby brother get low!

i love those chicago beaches, but it's great to be home on the sound with my sisters!











so where would YOU rather be? basking on lake michigan or long island sound?

does anyone read this?



the photo has nothing to do with anything, but my sister took it yesterday and i just wanted to share it- new england cemeteries have a cool kind of magic

last november my home community lost a legend. ginny lathrop and was the founder of the lathrop school of dance here in connecticut, a company that has taught thousands of students (including myself) the arts of ballet, tap and jazz.
during the 1930s vaudeville days of new york, ginny and her husband mack danced alongside showbiz classics such as fred astaire and were featured on the national programs like the ed sullivan show and the zigfield follies. they opened up the school in 1951, and back then kids came to the town hall and paid a dollar (a whole dollar!) for a dance class with the stars.
when i started dancing, mrs. lathrop was already 83. i know it was years ago, but as a child it seemed to me like she had hit an eternal stride, and would forever be seated in front of the stage in a huge rhinestone belt, shouting every opinion she had ("you stiiink!!!") at students of all ages; it seemed obvious that every year for the next hundred years the stardust review would reach the end of the finale and that cheesy announcer would say "and mrs. lathrop!" she would come out crying each time, every year would be the best recital she'd ever seen.

this weekend they held an estate sale at her home. i was in buenos aires last november during her memorial services, but wandering through her home, sifting through her outlandish costume jewelry, and seeing old familiar faces from the dance company was a really special way for me to remember mrs. lathrop.