We ventured into Minneapolis a few nights ago to celebrate our 19th wedding anniversary a day early with dinner at Esther’s Table and the Beck concert at the Orpheum theatre.
The dinner was decent, we ordered the walleye croquettes and bison meatballs for an appetizer. I ordered the Seared Salmon with a Sweet Corn Risotto Cake, Tomato Agrodolce, Grilled Zucchini, Basil for my main. My wife had the caesar salad with a salmon filet. We shared the lava cake for dessert.
The atmosphere at Esther’s Table was refreshing—it wasn’t loud or pretentious. We were able to take our time, enjoy each others’ company, and reminisce a bit about our life and experiences together across the last couple of decades. The meal was delicious and a very enjoyable treat because we just don’t make it out to these kinds of restaurants much anymore.
There was just a single hiccup. As we paid the bill and attempted to get our parking validated the waiter told us the front desk would validate our parking ticket, the front desk referred us to an automated machine in the lobby. When we discovered the machine didn't have a validation option we found ourselves back at the front desk only to be given an apology and told nothing could be done. A $16 parking tab isn't a huge deal in a city like Minneapolis but if a business adverstises parking validation they should find a way to honor it. I supposed this kind of customer-service fumble is just part of life now. We still very much enjoyed the experience.
When it comes to the show there were no such fumbles—Beck delivered on all accounts.
He's touring to promote his new album, Ride Lonesome, but he performed quite a bit of his older music. Honestly, prior to his 2014 release of Morning Phase Beck really wasn't even on my radar but, since discovering that excellent album I've worked my way back through his catalogue. I listened to quite a bit of Morning Phase in the background as I worked on my novel, Alarm Clock Dawn. I found it inpirational.
Wednesday night's performance was stripped down by modern day standards but, despite this, it was one of the most impressive shows I've seen in a very long time. Minimalistic, creatively adept and musical genious are phrases that pop into my head as I think back about the experience. The show was as interesting, visually, as it was to listen to. Beck and his band played for over two hours and I walked away a much bigger fan of his work.
One thing struck me as I scanned the crowd. We're all definitely getting older. A majority of the crowd were our age or older. We saw quite a few of them exhibiting obvious signs that they were out way past their bedtimes on a weeknight. You could probably count us among them but what a fun evening!
Ending with a Poem
I leave you with a poem I wrote for our 19th wedding anniversary. As I was looking at pictures of us on my phone's camera roll I was almost overwhelmed by the sheer volume of experiences we've had in those years. I thought to myself, Hmm, this might make a decent poem.
Camera Roll
The camera roll
doesn't keep time.
It keeps light,
the bright,
accidental record
of the thousands
of moments that make our life.
So many adventures.
Places we never
dreamed we’d reach.
Crowded airport lounges
well before dawn,
hands curled around our mugs,
barely able to contain
our excitement, reflections
staring back from
the windows, still black.
Road trips.
A maze of unbroken highways
the motion stayed in us
even after we stopped for the night.
Countless Airbnbs and
hotels we've called home,
Amstel asleep across your feet.
Scroll back. Our hair is still dark,
our faces lit with the remnants of youth.
Homes we kept, parties we hosted,
family and friends we've cherished.
Gardens we’ve tended,
struggles we’ve overcome,
solutions we’ve found,
moving forward, together
through the mist of these years.
Frames spark the best memories,
a restaurant menu,
some special celebration,
ordinary moments we didn’t
realize were extraordinary,
squirrels in the park
holding hands on the wooded trail,
cooking dinner to music, streaming
joking, singing, wringing
as much as we could
from the handful of hours
between work and sleep.
Scroll forward.
The grayer we become.
We are in the frame together
more often than we knew.
We built a life we never
could have imagined.
We tried our luck,
we made our plan,
were, at times, graced
by the hidden hand.
The world, it has
changed so completely
around us but our love,
it has remained the same.
EVW
The years certainly roll by quickly, it's so important to do what we can to make the most of them.
All for now. Make this a wonderful day.