Hotter Than a Pepper Sprout

and I miss my mom, due to the fact that, she is dead. That may sound a little harsh, but that sentence actually makes me laugh. It combines two of my mom's favorite sayings. Whenever she made a "business" call, mom always started it with "Say, This is Colleen Luedtke." My older sister, Jenn, and I used to love to listen in on these calls and giggle away while we imagined the person on the other end repeating, "This is Colleen Luedtke." We don't know how or why mom picked up this verbal quirk, but just thinking about it still makes me smile. "Due to the fact that" was a favorite of Colleen's for written communication. Whenever I had missed school because I was sick (or pretending to be sick) the note my mom would write was a variation of "Amy missed school yesterday due to the fact that, she was ill." Again, thinking of that one little (yet mysterious and completely unnecessary phrase) captures so much of my mom's spi...

After the librarian conference wrapped up today, I had a chance to do a little exploring in Indianapolis and wandered into the Rhythm Discover Center . I was a little dubious about going: would it just be a million kids banging wildly away? Not that I'm opposed to wild banging (um, interpret that as you will) but I don't need those cute little munchkins stealing my thunder. But I overcame my doubts and stopped in, and am so glad I did. It was a small but lovingly-crafted museum with only a few loud young drummers. The main exhibit was about the history of the drum set and included information on Ludwig drum sets, and the label copy posed this question: "What stories or memories do you have when you see Ludwig kits like these?"  My senior picture with my Ludwig drum set. Really.  Stories?! Do I have stories! My drum set is in fact a Ludwig that I have had since the summer of 1987. I think my mom wanted to get me a drum set from the first day I started playing, b...

I have a well deserved reputation for making a big deal out of my birthday. The natural excitement most children feel about their birthday just never went away for me. Plus, it's no secret that I like attention. A holiday that is just for me, all about me? I'm definitely in. And, even more so as I get older, I love the opportunity to be able to gather friends together. If birthdays are the excuse we need to make the time to have dinner/drinks/karaoke and spend time with friends that we are usually too busy to hang with, then again, I'm in. As much as I am a fan of birthdays, birthdays are scary. Let's take a moment to stop and say "Hi" to the elephant in the room: birthdays are signifiers of our mortality. Every birthday brings us closer to our last birthday. Intertwined with my fear of life's final closing time (yes, I will use a bar metaphor) is a deep gratitude for all the blessing I've received so far. Most notably you (yes YOU, I assume no one i...

I wrote this exactly a week ago:  "I just got home from an audition, and I feel quite accomplished and mighty, for the moment, at least. But if past experience is any predictor, and it usually is, then crushing self doubt is on its way." ...and I didn't get cast in the show I auditioned for. I was (am) disappointed, but since I really, really, didn't expect, or even hope, to get cast in this particular show, I did not get hit with the crushing self doubt I often do. The self doubt and disappointment were only mildly draining.  Ah, auditioning. Auditioning is exciting and scary and a pain in the ass. Waiting to hear about the result is agonizing. (Ooh, our Tom Petty cover band should be doing "The Waiting!")  I can't stop thinking about it. I'm consumed with waiting, waiting, waiting for the phone to ring (or email to be sent.) I'm ansty and can't concentrate. Usually, I recognize after a day or two that if I haven't heard back, I...

Most couples probably have "their song" (or songs) and Chad and I are no exception. But we also have a song for our fictional alter-egos Matt and Sally, the couple we portrayed (multiple times) last year in the play " Talley's Folly ." So it was particularly romantic when we got to see Jason Isbell and his wife Amanda Shires perform Matt and Sally's song "Traveling Alone" live on Valentine's Day. (We caught their performance at the taping for the MPR radio show  Wits  at the Fitzgerald Theater. The whole show was most awesome and also featured comedian Marc Maron and an ongoing sketch about "Murder Cat." I haven't stopped calling Sprout "Murder Kitty" since...there is probably a song in there.) I don't think I can accurately describe the affinity Chad and I feel for these fictional characters. It's powerful, strange, perhaps even a little creepy, but something special I'm glad I got, and get, to experience....

My sister recently reminded me (via The Almighty Facebook, of course!) of an awesome story about our mom. So here is my version of it. When I was in my mid-twenties (post-college) my mom told me she had run into Mike, a guy I had known (vaguely) from junior high. Reportedly, Mike  had asked my mom what I was doing and if I was still writing, and mom said she told him, yes, I was a writer. I replied, "WHAT? Mom, what in the hell do I write?" (I was working retail at a now deceased mall bookstore at the time). And mom said, "Well, you write all the time. You write checks." As often happened when my mom made (at least to me) nonsensical comments in her completely confident Colleen way, I was speechless. I love this story, because it totally captures so much of my mom's personality and her unabashed insistence of seeing the world her way. It also reminds me that I did w ant to be a writer from a very early age. (Although I'm still very perplexed about how Mi...

Chad made homemade habenero fettucine tonight. He made the dough and rolled it and cut it (using our new pasta maker that we just bought today at Williams Sonoma...when did we start shopping there?) and made the pasta sauce. I really, truly just stayed out of his way and helped some with kitty management detail. (These are the most aggressive food obsessed felines I have ever encountered, much more on that to come.) It was delicious and spicy. There is something wonderfully satisfying about the texture of homemade pasta. Chad's homemade pasta Chad learned this new skill last weekend when we took a cooking class at the Midtown Global Market. The class was awesome, although I was completely intimidated at first. We were paired up in teams with other students and given the freedom/responsibility to decide what we were going to make. Not only did I feel lost and overwhelmed, but as this was not a vegetarian cooking class, I didn't know how to negotiate the waters. I didn'...