Kaysey and I had been waiting for this weekend for what felt like ages.
It promised to be everything our friendship stood for: sick jams, sweet ice cream, and stellar books.
We met in Minneapolis to attend the Demi Lovato, DJ Khaled, and Kehlani concert, and words can’t describe how great it was.
First, Kehlani is a badass and her voice is so unique – and she’s twenty-two and totally killing it at life. DJ Khaled is all-around the best. He said “Anotha one” so many times my heart was lifted to the ceiling of the Target Center in pure joy. He talked non-stop about his son (like usual), but it was charming.
And Demi.
All I can say is that her voice is pure magic.
Not going to lie, straight up snagged this picture from Instagram – we were not this close to the stage, but we were close enough to hear her angelic voice, which is all that matters!
She is an amazing live performer – she is such a strong and powerful singer, and a strong and powerful individual.
After the concert, we went to old faithful – Sal’s on Fifth, where we enjoyed tator tot hot dish pizza. Classic.
On our way into Sal’s, we saw an extremely intoxicated and very alone young woman struggle to balance two cell phones and a personal pizza-sized box in her very drunk hands. She was being ushered back inside by one of the Sal’s employees, who seemed to be trying to help her.
When we were paying for our pizza, we saw that she was still seated at one of the tables, so we brought her a glass of water. Pretty soon, a very sketchy guy sat down next to her. He had a vacant look in his eyes, and pulled his chair way too close to her. I’m talking inches away. He was clearly very gone – either from alcohol or drugs, I don’t know, but something about the situation made my stomach twist. He said nothing, but sat inches away from her, and it was clear she didn’t know him – I’ve seen the look in her eyes before, and I know I’ve had that same look in my own eyes. She knew something wasn’t right, and so did Kaysey and I. She gave him a weird look, and then started typing on her phone.
“Do you need me to help you call you a ride?” I asked. There wasn’t any other seating at our table for us to invite her over to, and it was clear that she was trying and failing to contact someone. She didn’t say anything, but began dialing someone on her phone. Kaysey and I kept an eye on her, while she tried to tell someone on the phone where she was.
“Get someone to text you my location?” She slurred into her phone, looking up at me.
I stood up and texted the location of Sal’s to the person she’d called. A few minutes later, two people who are probably the worst friends ever arrived on the scene.
Now, I’ve been in situations with friends where they have made stupid or reckless decisions whilst intoxicated that have made me upset – but if I saw my friend in a weird situation, I would immediately pull her out of it. No questions asked. However, this girl’s friend proceeded to yell at her before walking away while some stranger wordlessly lurked way too close with a dead look in his eyes.
The friend got in line with someone who I assume was her boyfriend, ordered pizza, and then sat down at a separate table next to some strangers instead of attempting to maneuver her friend away from a creep.
The place began to clear out, and the guy began talking in a low voice to the girl. I couldn’t hear what he was saying, but Kaysey and I decided that if she left to meet whoever was picking her up, we would follow her to make sure she got to her car alright. There was another guy who had been sitting next to the creepy guy earlier, and after they nodded weirdly to each other, the second guy stood waiting outside of the pizza shop, looking into the windows.
We had no idea what was going on, but Kaysey and I waited until the girl’s friend and her boyfriend finally brought her over to sit with them, and began talking about how they were all getting a ride home together. The creep got up from the table and left Sal’s. We waited a few more minutes to make sure the trio was sticking together, and that the guy didn’t return. Altogether, we’d been waiting to make sure she was ok for about an hour, and after hearing them say that they’d be getting a ride together, Kaysey and I felt that she would be safe with the two of them.
As we left, snow began to drift quietly from the sky. It was a little chilly out, so we pulled up our hotel’s address on our phone, and hustled in the right direction.
At least, at first. At some point along our trip, our GPS started getting messed up, switching directions and seemingly unable to find where we were.
We were struggling to discern which direction we needed to go in, and thought we’d finally found it.
At a stoplight, we came across a man driving a pedicab.
“How’s it going?” he said, as the pedestrian sign lit up, and we began walking across the street.
“Good,” I said, at the same time Kaysey said “Our hotel.”
“Did he ask how it’s going, or where we’re going?” I asked.
“I’m not sure!” Kaysey laughed.
The guy pulled the pedicab over and asked where we were headed.
“Our hotel, we hope!” I said.
“Well, I’m going this way, anyway,” he said. “What hotel are you going to?”
“The Hilton Minneapolis,” Kaysey said.
“Well, I’ll tell you what,” he said. “I’ll give you a free ride to your hotel and also tell you that you’re walking in the opposite direction.”
“Are we really?” Kaysey asked.
“Yeah,” he said. “Hop in. It’s cold out here, I’ll give you a free ride.”
“Are you sure?” I asked. I’ve secretly always wanted to ride in a pedicab for reasons that are unknown even to myself, and it was cold, and Kaysey and I were very directionless, and I spotted some very warm looking blankets on the back of the pedicab, so the concept wasn’t altogether unappealing to me.
“Yeah,” he said. “Just paying it forward, you know?”
So we got in the pedicab, had a nice chat with a very nice man, and he biked us to our hotel. We shook hands and thanked him for his kindness, and he waited to make sure we got into our hotel alright.
Kaysey and I were overwhelmed with his gesture of kindness on a cold evening, and decided we needed to find a way to pay it forward, like he’d said.
“Maybe we already have, in a way,” I said, thinking back to the girl at Sal’s. We debated on whether or not it was some kind of karmic circle, but ultimately decided we would continue to pay his act of kindness forward.
So, my way of paying it forward is by donating to Bikes Without Borders, a charity that seeks to improve marginalized communities by providing bikes, repairs, and maintenance training to help support residents and provide transportation options. I’ve also made a donation to the Polaris Project, which is an organization that fights human trafficking. If you would like to join me, click here to donate to Bikes Without Borders, or click here to donate to the Polaris Project. Let’s keep the cycle of kindness going! Pun entirely intended.
Book-binding
After a good night’s rest and some chai-tea fuel, Kaysey and I embarked on part two of our adventure.
As you may know, hand-binding a copy of The Great Gatsby is on my 25 Things list. I had decided to type the entire novel myself instead of trying to copy and paste it from any kind of electronic source, and I’m excited to say that I have finally finished typing up the text. All 180 pages of it!
Now, I need to design the pages and cover of the book. I’ve compiled a list of ideas, and generally know what I’ll be going for, but before really diving in to the design of the book, I decided to visit the Minneapolis Center for Book Arts (MCBA) for some inspiration and supplies.
I’d never visited the MCBA before, but it has easily become one of my favorite places in Minneapolis. They offer a variety of book-binding and paper-making classes, which are pretty spendy, but I might have to invest in one of them in the near future. They also had an exhibit with some beautiful examples of bound book cover designs.
The books on display weren’t exactly the Art Deco style of design I’ll be going for with my copy of Gatsby, but it was cool to see different examples of what you could do.
There was a small display that illustrated the process the artist had made to embellish the books with gold, which was interesting to see. I am definitely looking to embellish my copy of Gatsby with gold, so it was nice to see some of the tools they had used for their books. It looked like they had stamped quite a few pieces of leather that they considered “rejects,” before using the best stamped pieces, which was a little disconcerting, as I’m hoping to have a pretty elaborate cover, and am hoping to not have to stamp the design in leather multiple times.
Next, we moved on to the store at the MCBA.
They had a plethora of quirky hand-bound books and journals. It was fun to peruse their aisles, and I even picked up a whimsical little guide to foraging, because it was tiny and adorable and I loved it.
I’ll be putting it in my adventure pack, just in case I need to do some light foraging, ya know?
The store also had a ton of book-binding supplies. I was a little overwhelmed at first – all of my book-binding experiences have been pretty limited as far as supplies go. I’ve made do with what I’ve had, and the most extensive I’ve gotten with any of my projects is actually investing in some solid book board.
But the MCBA took it to a whole new level.
Look at all the supplies! I picked up quite a few items, and waited on some others that I may have to return for.
They had a nice variety of paper, as well, but none if it was quite what I had imagined for my book, so I decided to wait and perhaps order some paper online. They had a lot of book cloth for covering books, but as I want my cover to be in leather, I may also have to find an online store to purchase that from.
After stocking up on supplies, I found the mass-produced book portion of the store. Kaysey and I planted ourselves by the base of the bookshelves and perused the various titles.
I found approximately one million books on book-binding that I wanted to buy, but I controlled myself and only purchased one.
It has a lot of nice illustrations on how you should tackle certain aspects of book-binding, and it also has information on binding with leather, which I definitely need to read up on.
After dwelling in the store for quite some time, we happily made our purchases, and explored the rest of the building – visiting the infamous Loft on the second floor, and peering wistfully into the dimly lit windows of Milkweed Editions.
So what supplies did I get from MCBA?
First, a dope reusable bag. I left my reusable bags in my car (we had taken Kaysey’s car to MCBA, so I couldn’t just run out and grab them), so I opted to purchase this cute little bag that aptly describes me as a book nerd instead of getting a plastic bag.
The first thing that caught my eye were the bone folding tools, which are used, as you may imagine, to fold paper to make the most perfect, pristine folds in the signatures (which are several pieces of paper folded together and then sewn into a book block to create the pages of the book).
Elephants are my favorite animal, and I’m a tiny bit obsessed with them, so I was pretty stoked to find this bone folder with an elephant carved into it. Into my reusable bag it promptly went. You can also use these handy little guys to smooth down the book fabric, and presumably the leather, that you use to cover your book, so it’s a little multi-purpose.
Next, glue, to keep it all together.
I have normal pH neutral PVA glue that I’ve used to bind in the past, and will likely use for the paper on this project, as well. However, this wheat paste caught my eye because it specifically calls out leather as something you can use it to adhere to book board, which is exactly what I need.
And of course, I needed a glue brush to apply the adhesive.
I have ruined many a brush during the book-binding process in the past, which is a sorrowful event for a painter. I figured this brush might hold up a little better, and if not, at least I wasn’t damaging any of my nice painting brushes.
I also picked up some white linen thread, which I will use to sew together the signatures of the book.
This stuff is sturdy, and is going to keep my book locked in.
What else did I purchase? None of your beeswax.
Ok. Enough with the Dad jokes.
I purchased some actual beeswax.
The beeswax will be used on my thread, to keep it from tangling and to ensure that each loop and knot is sewn smoothly.
I also picked up a book-binder’s needle. In the past, I’ve just used regular sewing needles, which work perfectly fine. These needles are a little larger and a little less fine than your standard sewing needle, so I decided to invest in one for the whopping $1.25.
That’s right. One dollar and twenty-five cents. Everything in the store was really reasonably priced, which I found mildly surprising, as book-binding is a bit of a niche, and as such, I’d expect its supplies to be a little more costly.
I also purchased this adorable tiny wooden awl, which I will use to punch holes through the signatures in my book, so I can easily sew them together, and so I will know that each of the holes will line up with one another perfectly.
It’s so teeny and adorable.
Finally, my last item was super boring: a metal ruler. Gotta keep those lines straight when you’re folding and measuring and cutting and being Type-A, ya know?
Overall, the MCBA expedition was a success! Now, I plan to carefully design the cover and interior of my book, and shop around for the perfect paper and leather for the cover.
Let the book-binding begin!
Let’s Connect:
Thank you so much for the great article, it was fluent and to the point. Cheers.
Thank you, Dana! 🙂