Swinging from trees on a Thursday night: Cycropia!

Summer is the season of festivals in Madison, Wisconsin. The Orton Park Festival started on Thursday, and my friend Mackenzie invited me to watch the Cycropia aerial dance performance. What is aerial dance? Think Cirque du Soleil meets modern dance, adorned with costumes that would earn Lady GaGa's seal of approval. Win.

The Cycropia show included aerial performances on silks, chains, trapeze bars, steel hoops, and ladders (all of which were hanging from a very large tree in Orton Park). Because of the constant movement, it was nearly impossible to photograph the event, so I took some videos and made a YouTube playlist. Enjoy, but please don't try this at home:

A taste of Cycropia:

For my playlist of 6 Cycropia videos, click here!

By the way: this event, like many other fabulous things in Madison, was totally free. Also, now I've been living here long enough that I actually had friends to sit with at this awesome event:

Mackenzie, Rebecca, Kat, & me enjoying the Cycropia show.

Holy cow: escape to Green Lake, Wisconsin.

Yesterday, I took a mini road trip to Green Lake, Wisconsin to have brunch with my good friend Francie, who was spending the weekend at the Heidel House for a wedding. Green Lake is a little town about an hour and a half away from Madison. As far as I could tell, they have one gas station, one doctor's office, and an abundance of cows: country living at its finest.

On the drive back to Madison, I decided to document the highlights from my trip:

The town is called Green Lake for a reason: the huge, beautiful lake. A few people were boating and fishing, enjoying the nice weather.

I found some happy cows hanging out in a corral, grazing and enjoying a lazy weekend. They were happy to smile for a photo.

Cows enjoy sunbathing. Who would have thought?

I ate M&M pancakes with a good friend, plus I got my daily dose of cow. Perfect Saturday.

Together at last: Woodman's Foods.

I like my grocery stores like I like my manicures: cheap, sanitary, and thorough. With that said, I have been less than thrilled with the selection of affordable supermarkets in Madison. Yesterday, I was sad to discover that Target doesn't carry fat free Philadelphia cream cheese. In search of said cream cheese, I ventured over to Woodman's Foods on Milwaukee Street after work today, remembering that my coworkers had recommended this store based on selection and prices.

I was pleased to discover that Woodman's offers a wide variety of groceries at affordable prices: exactly what I need. Alas, I have found my grocery store. My cart had a cup holder for my water and a nice little caddy for my new iPhone, which was equipped a shopping list app (because I'm just THAT cool). I proceeded into the store, where I was happy to discover that the Woodman's playlist consisted of a lovely mix of En Vogue and Madonna (did they steal my iPod?). While I had been jamming to Madonna at work today in honor of her 53rd birthday, I was happy to continue the celebration while grocery shopping.

Woodman's has everything. Fat free Philadephia cream cheese: check. Multigrain tortilla chips: check. Trash bags: check. Picture frames: check. Not only does Woodman's have everything, but they have an abundance of everything. I was particularly impressed by the cheese selection, which is comparable to that of Jungle Jim's International Market in Fairfield, OH (that's saying a lot, because Jungle Jim's is a 1.5 acre store). And the prices were fantastic. 

Excited by how much I saved on groceries, I picked up some rainbow feather mice for the kids for 99 cents!

On my way to the checkout line, I ran into Cesca (my skating coach), who told me that this is the best Woodman's in town. Trust me, I will be returning.

Special thanks to Erika and Tonya for the recommendation!

Results from the July poll!

18 votes are in... here are the results from the July poll:

What is your favorite barnyard animal?

Goat - 5 votes

Pig - 5 votes

Horse - 3 votes

Duck - 2 votes

Sheep - 2 votes

Cow - 1 vote

Chickens and turkeys both received zero votes. I gather that my readers aren't poultry fans.

Check out the August poll on the right!

Wisconsin pride.

After living in Wisconsin for two and a half months, I have made this observation: Wisconsinites have a lot of pride in their state. Wisconsin pride is everywhere.

I find this quite fascinating in comparison to growing up in North Carolina, where every notion of local pride is focused on at least one of the following:
1. General Southern pride
2. Confederate pride
3. Wolfpack (NC State) pride
4. Tar Heel (Chapel Hill) pride*
5. Blue Devil (Duke) pride*

*It is noteworthy that while numbers 4 and 5 are quite proud of their teams, they truly despise each other.

North Carolinians have plenty of pride, but it's not focused on the state itself. As far as I can tell, Wisconsinites love their state. They hate their governor, but they love their state. If any non-Wisconsinites don't know what I'm talking about, Google "Scott Walker recall."

I find it amusing that national chains have made some products in Wisconsin and marketed them accordingly for the proud Wisconsinites:

Even California-based Trader Joe's has Wisconsin pride (note the seal at the bottom right).

I believe my official Wisconsinite initiation happened when my three future coworkers (all native Wisconsinites) fed me my first ever serving of fried cheese curds. At the time I didn't know that I had been hired, but I did know that I enjoyed what I was eating and could definitely see myself living in Madison.

Now that I live here, I suppose I'll know when I've truly become a Wisconsinite: when I start feeling the pride.

The closest I'll ever get to biking in Madison.

As I have mentioned previously, Madison is extremely biker-friendly. This can be quite terrifying when I'm driving at night and a darkly clothed biker with no lights or reflectors skims by the side of my car. I suppose I will get used to this some day.

After work today, I went to Capital Fitness to do some cardio. While reading Tina Fey's Bossypants and pedaling on a standard recumbent bike, I was distracted by the bike next to me. It was an Expresso interactive bike, which combines exercise, video games, and, oh yeah, dragon slaying.


After doing 20 minutes of cardio, I decided that I wanted to learn more about the mysterious Expresso, so I asked an employee at the front desk to give me a brief tutorial. She explained that while riding the bike, I could participate in a video game by shifting gears and steering with the hand controls. I figured I should try it out, so I hopped onto the bike.

This is the bike I rode. Expresso also makes upright bikes with similar functions.

Then, I learned that not only does the Expresso bike simulate outdoor biking scenarios and races, it also has a video game where I could collect coins and chase dragons in a sandy mythical pagoda land while biking. Burning calories while chasing dragons in an air conditioned environment on a Tuesday evening? Yes please.

All the dragons are creepy and eel-like, so catching them is quite fulfilling.

An interesting feature on this exercise bike is that it provides random background music. I was so glad I plugged by headphones in, because "Angel of the Morning" was the perfect soundtrack for dragon chasing. Really.

After chasing some dragons, I opted to try out one of the bike's more traditional features and try pedaling around a track. I played around with the steering and gear shifting functions and I found myself pedaling much faster than usual so that I could get a good time. I discovered that gears 9, 10, and 11 were the most useful for my trek.

Here is a sample of what the user sees while biking on the Expresso.

I slayed a few dragons and then biked a mile with back support in a faux outdoor setting while surrounded by air conditioning. And I didn't even get helmet hair. That's my kind of biking!

Maxwell Street Days: sidewalk sale extravaganza.

After a hot tip from Tonya at work, I opted to spend the afternoon on State Street at the annual Maxwell Street Days sidewalk sale. All weekend, the State Street stores have major sales: it's total fun, but total chaos.

I was joined by my friend/coworker, Rebecca, who had already visited part of the sale yesterday. While we enjoyed browsing the sales, we both found ourselves particularly overwhelmed by the large crowd and noisy DJ at Urban Outfitters, so we sought refuge in a quiet used bookstore and then people-watched on the curb while enjoying some refreshing treats at Red Mango.

In the words of my design professor from freshman year, I "showed good use of restraint" and actually didn't buy anything at this enormous sale. I truthfully don't need any clothes right now, and I'd rather save up for home decor.

This was yet another day when I was grateful to live downtown and be walking distance from all the excitement.