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Caleb and I met in 2017 at UW-Milwaukee. We were part of the Film, Video, Animation & New Genres undergrad program, and he worked in the Visual Arts & Film Equipment Room. During one long wait to return an audio recorder, I heard the whimsical instrumentation and soft-voiced poetic singing of Sufjan Stevens’ album Illinois through the open door. I had recently become obsessed with Sufjan’s music and was excited to talk to someone about it. We chatted about the album, and when I walked away, I mused, “If I date someone, they should definitely like Sufjan Stevens.” 

When we ran into each other again a few months later at the Kenilworth building for a film class, we had a longer conversation about shoulder mounts for cameras, bands we like, and family members’ embarrassing posts on Facebook. Afterward, I emailed him to follow up on some of our conversation topics, and I included Minions memes. 

A little over six years later, I proposed to him on my birthday in the alley near the Kenilworth building. We planned our wedding for the summer at the Humboldt Park Pavilion. I hosted trivia centered around facts about Caleb and me, awarding the winner the honor of signing our marriage certificate.

Many decorations were informed by my Mexican-American heritage, and love of bold colors and patterns: Mexican blanket-patterned table runners and an ofrenda-style table as a memorial to my mother. Almost all of our decorations were secondhand, sourced from Facebook Marketplace or eBay.

We asked guests to bring snacks and drinks to share instead of gifts, and we hired Pedro’s South American Food as our caterer. Caleb’s ex-boss from the Visual Arts & Film Equipment Room baked a delicious chai cake with vanilla buttercream in the shape of a sea turtle dotted with sunflowers. Over five years of sharing a duplex with our landlords, we had become friends, so their daughters were our flower girls. Of course, I had to walk down the aisle to a Sufjan Stevens song.

The Magic Moment

MILWAUKEE – The Milwaukee Public Museum is about to enter a pivotal stage in its transition to a new home, with crews preparing to relocate millions of artifacts – including its only mounted dinosaur.

What we know:

Starting Monday, Feb. 9, the museum begins shutting down its Torosaurus display as leaders prepare the collection for the future Nature and Culture Museum of Wisconsin, expected to open in the second quarter of next year.

For curator of paleontology Jon Hendricks, it marks a first in his career and the see-you-later moment for a 65-million-year-old fossil that has greeted generations of visitors.

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“It’s being packed up by a partner company called Research Casting International, they’re located close to Toronto,” Hendricks said. “They’re coming down, they’re going to help us disassemble the torosaurus skeleton and what they’re going to do is take it back to Toronto and clean every bone and make repairs when necessary.” 

The dinosaur is only a fraction of the scale. The geology department alone houses roughly 500,000 specimens, all bound for the museum’s new location just down the street.

“We’ve got to take care to make sure everything is carefully packed up and tracked to make sure every single specimen that we have makes its way to the new museum safely,” Hendricks said.

The careful work is emotional for many in a community that has grown up with the institution’s familiar halls and exhibits.

What they’re saying:

“i hope that whatever is new keeps that sense of the old history and the way we used to look at things and keeping track of things,” said Tish Hicks, museum visitor.

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“The building itself isn’t particularly warm, it’s the people who built the exhibits and that’s where the humanity is,” said Angela Zar, museum visitor.

The Torosaurus is one of several exhibits scheduled to close in the coming weeks as the countdown to the move continues. For more information on exhibit closures, visit the Milwaukee Public Museum’s website.

What’s next:

The museum’s final day at its current site is Jan. 3 of next year.

Every week on Reporter’s Notebook, WTMJ’s Adam Roberts talks with members of the WTMJ newsroom, as well as reporters from newsrooms from around the state, to get the full picture when it comes to the stories they choose to tell.

On this week’s episode, WTMJ’s Neil Doyle talks with Adam about the lapse of a Milwaukee County healthcare contract that led to subsequent political issues for County Executive David Crowley last week.

Also, Milwaukee Bucks beat writer for the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel Jim Owczarski joins to break down his exclusive interview with Giannis Antetokounmpo published under 24 hours before the NBA trade deadline. Adam provides another update on the situation involving public affairs network WisconsinEye. And in our first Black History Month Highlight, we tell the story of investigative journalist Ida B. Wells.

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