Just A Peck 0060 // Birthdays, Sasquatch, Shakespeare

Just A Peck

Welcome to the latest issue of Just A Peck. I’m glad you’re here!

JOURNAL

Last Sunday was our final day at APT. We attended the Sunday Salon for the first time — a casual community conversation with APT leadership — and got to ask one of our favorite APT actors, David Daniel, questions about season selection, company mentorship, and more. Then we got to see him as Jacques in As You Like It later in the day, giving the “All the world’s a stage” monologue. It was a perfect way to wrap up our trip.

A group selfie in the Hill Theatre seats, the amphitheater filling up behind us
An APT program held up in front of the green ramp and branching orange set of As You Like It

Jody’s birthday was this week! After so much travelling, the thing she wanted most was to stay home. So we got carryout pizza in a torrential downpour and played board games. (Two new ones: Wingspan Pocket and A Gentle Rain.) In my opinion, a world-wide celebration with ticker-tape parades in every city would have been warranted, but a quiet night at home celebrating the most awesome person I know was pretty great too.

Jody smiling behind two small birthday cakes lit with candles in a dark kitchen
A row of Wingspan Pocket bird cards and egg tokens laid out on the table mid-game
The A Gentle Rain board mid-game, colorful blossoms scattered across the dark puzzle tiles

Jody got us tickets to see the magician-slash-comedian Justin Willman at the DECC on Thursday. Neither of us were familiar with him beforehand, but we had a great time!

Justin and Jody grinning for a selfie in front of the red Justin Willman: The Ages Tour banner
The blue-lit DECC stage with the gilt-framed Justin Willman: One For The Ages title card

On Friday, we joined our friends Tom and Brandy for the Suppertime for Sasquatch escape room at the Zoo. The challenge, which took us all over the zoo looking for ingredients to make supper for the zoo’s visiting cryptid, was designed by our mega-talented friends Luke and Matthew, who have created some of our all-time favorite escape room experiences. Kaylee was proctoring the hardest location, so we got to see her too! It was awesome, and I hope they do something similar again in the future. (I also managed to get a blurry snapshot of a sasquatch in the distance!)

A group selfie at the zoo with Tom pointing at Archimedes the owl
A Sasquatch striding across the grass beside the zoo path

On Saturday, Robert and I did our annual hike at Gooseberry — up to Fifth Falls and then back down to the lake. Our friend John joined us this year. The water was the lowest I ever remember seeing it, so we were able to climb down to spots that are normally inaccessible. The weather was great, and it was a lovely day, like always. (Except for the inexcusably terrible kerning on a sign near the lake. Also, why Papyrus?)

Robert and John down on the exposed riverbed rock that is normally under water
Justin, Robert, and John sitting on a bench along the trail
A close-up of the park sign set in Papyrus with dreadful kerning

Instead of driving back to Duluth after our hike, we grabbed take-out “Bob-B-Que” in Two Harbors and headed to the Castle Danger brewery to see our friends in an outdoor production of Twelfth Night. We already knew how talented they were, so we weren’t surprised at all to see them knock it out of the park. (That’s a baseball reference for John, who is shocked that I know almost nothing about baseball but has somehow never seen Idiocracy. So…“glass houses”, etc.)

Malvolio in yellow stockings sprawled on a bench while Maria hauls a chair away, on the outdoor stage at Castle Danger Brewery

On Sunday, Jody and I drove down to Spooner for my aunt’s 70th birthday party. It was a long day, and there were more taxidermied animal heads than I’m accustomed to, but it was nice to visit with family.

Family members assembling trays of appetizers in the hall kitchen
Justin taking a deadpan selfie in front of a wall of mounted bison, elk, and deer heads
The extended family lined up together for a group photo at the birthday party

WHAT I READ THIS WEEK

In Progress:

BOOKS I PURCHASED

MEMORIES

Ten Years Ago:

Alex was headed to grad school in California, and I was in rehearsals for It Runs In The Family at the old Depot stage.

Alex at the airport security checkpoint with his duffel bag, headed to grad school in California
The old Depot stage during work on the set for It Runs In The Family

Fifteen Years Ago:

Alex was working with cousin Josh the summer before he headed to UWEC to start his undergrad.

Alex in paint-spattered work clothes, grinning in the middle of a job with cousin Josh

Twenty Years Ago:

I snapped one of my favorite pictures of Kaylee and Corey snuggled up together napping.

Corey asleep on the couch with his arm around Kaylee, both of them napping

MY FAVORITE QUOTE OF THE WEEK

"Friendship, however, has always depended on a certain irrational generosity. A willingness to waste time together magnificently. To listen to the same anxiety for the fifth time. To sit through silence. To remain available without agenda.

And perhaps this is why adult friendship feels increasingly radical. It resists the transactional logic modern life rewards everywhere else. Because a real friend offers something profoundly rare: unoptimised presence. Family is structured by blood. Marriage by institution. Work relationships by utility. Friendship survives purely through mutual choosing. Nobody has to stay. And yet some people do."

— Pranav Jain

That’s it for this week. Stay safe, friends. Thanks for reading!

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