I like to read before I go to bed.
Well, in theory. Every night, I crawl beneath the sheets intending to plow through a few chapters of digital pages. But inevitably, after 30 minutes — (okay, some nights I barely make it to 10 minutes) —I’ll nod off mid-sentence, awakening when my Kindle bonks me on the head. Depending how it lands, I often lose my spot…especially if I doze off with my finger on the screen. Last night, I somehow skipped ahead six pages, highlighted a random passage, and changed my font size to 2-point type.
Geez Louise.
This is why I’m so thrilled to be able to read on my lunch break now. Turns out I’m pretty bright-eyed and bushy-tailed at noon.
That won’t stop me from trying (and most likely failing) to read at least a few pages again tonight. I chalk it up to my can-do attitude, even when it behaves more like a can’t-do.
Saturday was my birthday. And no, I didn’t tell anyone in advance. I hate all the hullabaloo surrounding birthdays (though I do love the word hullabaloo). When Marcie, my supervisor, learned that this morning, she said, “You should have told me! We like to make a big fuss over birthdays around here!”
Precisely the reason I didn’t tell her.
I’m the same way when we go out to dinner on my birthday. Should our server ask if we’re celebrating anything special, I will shoot daggers at Tara if she lets the birthday cat out of the bag. I don’t care if that means forfeiting a free slice of cake or scoop of ice cream with a single candle in the middle. God forbid the staff should gather ’round and sing to me. You might find it hard to believe, but I am not an attention whore.
Anyway, I may not enjoy being in the spotlight, but I do like having fun. We’d originally planned to go into Madison to hit up a record store, hang out at a rooftop bar, and grab lunch. But there was a big race that day, with throngs of people and street closures. Plus, UW students were holding their annual we’re-about-to-graduate block party. In other words, not a great day to go downtown. I suggested a day trip to Sheboygan instead.
Why Sheboygan? Aside from the obvious answer — why not Sheboygan? — the Art Preserve of the John Michael Kohler Arts Center was on our Wisco bucket list. (Yes, we have one. We save interesting WI-themed Instagram posts for places we’d like to explore someday to a shared folder.) The Art Preserve piqued our interest over a year ago, which is a testament to the fact that we are rarely stumped when it comes to finding fun things to do.
The Art Preserve is an experimental space designed to house the Arts Center’s collection of artist-built environments and sculptural works. Even the building itself is a work of art, nestled against a hillside and constructed of local rock and timber beams that act as a shade to protect the exhibits.
Artist-built environments are spaces transformed by an artist to express their personal identity, culture, or history. These spaces can include homes, gardens, parks, or built structures covered with art. The exhibits we saw were fashioned from chicken bones, driftwood, aluminum foil, papier-mâché — all kinds of unique materials.
And like House on the Rock, the bathrooms are unique artistic expressions unto themselves.
After two hours wandering through the Art Preserve, we were hungry, so we stopped at a very divey bar in downtown Sheboygan for a bite to eat and a cocktail. Our next stop? Kohler-Andrae State Park. Yes, another attraction named after John Kohler, who was a former mayor of Sheboygan and founder of Kohler, the plumbing/kitchen and bath company. Which explains those fancy bathrooms at the Arts Preserve, come to think of it.
We set out on the Dune Cordwalk Trail, a 1.3-mile footpath through the Kohler Dunes State Natural Area. It’s named for the string of cord wood planks that are pinned into the sand dunes. Kinda like a boardwalk, but instead of a flat and level surface, this one dips and twists and turns. Best of all? It parallels Lake Michigan. Saturday was surprisingly warm, so we took off our shoes and socks (I didn’t pay attention to the order Tara did this in) and walked along the sand, at one point dipping our feet into the lake. Which was icy cold, but also refreshing.
Eventually we headed home, where we played cribbage, drank booze, listened to records, and ate pizza. Tara made me a carrot cake and we had thunderstorms roll through all evening, dumping over two inches of rain. All in all, I had a pretty bitchin’ birthday.
Even if nobody knew about it.
Mark My Words 
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