Dinah's Adventure in the Midwest 2002

Well, I finally visited the heartland. I just spent a week in Minneapolis, Minnesota with my boyfriend Chris and his family.

It wasn't as alarming a trip as I expected. For one thing, the weather was not uniformly awful. Several days were ideal - soft breezes, comfortable temperatures, scattered clouds over the lovely big green trees. For another, Minneapolis has freaks. I was very concerned about being away from freaks like me for a whole week, but fortunately I found the city populated by a diverse crowd which did include people in odd clothes, with strange haircolors, practicing unusual beliefs, and expressing alternative viewpoints. I was afraid it would be wall-to-wall white, middle-aged, conservative, Republican Lutherans wearing Eddie Bauer clothing and towing along their 7 children. To forestall any concerns on this point, Chris wisely took me straight from the airport to Pizza Luce where we had some rockin' pizza served to us by black-clad, tattooed, pierced punks. *whew* What a relief. He knows how to make a grrrl feel at ease.

His folks were nice. Easy-going, pleasant people, fond of reading and of good food. We stayed most of the time at his dad's place which has a guest room and only one cat - Simon the skittish kitty - instead of the two black silky devils living over at his mom's. Those cats, Miles and Basie, are absolute beauties, but shed like you wouldn't believe. Simon was much easier on my allergies and has the biggest, oddest-colored eyes I've ever seen in a cat. Turquoise. So eerie. He'd be quite alarming if he wasn't so jumpy as to make you laugh at him.

I had arrived in the evening and was slightly rubbery after my flight, so we ate our pizza, went to Chris's dad's house and had a brief introduction before retiring to bed. In the morning we had brunch and got better acquainted. I got to see the hawks and their fledglings in the backyard and to admire the delightful greenness which is so refreshing coming from brown California summer.

After brunch we went over to Chris's mom's house and she and I hit it off right away as I knew we would. She's a complete sweetheart. We also met his sister Leah, who reminds me in some ways - goofy sense of humor, beauty, physical grace and presence - of my sister Jennifer (well, step-sister, technically, but we keep getting closer over the years, so why get technical?). Leah's fiance Geoff was there and he's a good guy. You get the sense he's just very aware of what's going on around him; he's relaxed, but very present. Plus he can tie bows better than I can - we admired some of the wedding favors which he had assembled.

We all sat around the dining table and worked on finishing off the hand-made, boxed truffles for the wedding reception. Doing a project together was a nice was to get to know each other and I was happy to be able to contribute to the huge amount of work needed for the big wedding. The truffles had been quite the chore due to the high temperatures and Chris's mom's broken air conditioner, but we got them all done and they were a big hit at the reception, so worth the effort.

We had a little getaway together to the air-conditioned mall and to my pleasure the family gathering gravitated immediately towards the bookstore. My kinda folks. Chris went slightly mad with booklust and ended up over the course of our stay getting 12 new books. His bags were quite heavy on the way back even with me carrying his database book and the big fat Japanese novel Musashi which I stole from him and read all week.

Let's see, that was Sunday. I don't remember what happened in the evening. Dinner back at his dad's place, I think, and his wife Ruta made some gorgeous looking pork chops which I didn't eat because I don't like pork, but which were worthy of a gourmet magazine spread. I had delicious green beans, biscuits and salad and was well content. Then there was probably reading all around.

Sometime during the week we had lunch with a herd of old co-workers of Chris's, again at Pizza Luce (which is so good I'm really glad we went twice in one week). They're a bunch of tech geeks and I felt quite at ease with them given all my other engineer pals back here at home. After lunch we went to Sonny's ice cream parlor and had some sublime ice cream. Mmmm.

Chris and I walked around Uptown looking in shops and relaxing. We bumped into his pal Brian and sat with him while he had lunch. The conversation was good & silly, full of many jokes and I was really happy we had the good fortune to run into him. We went to Penzey's Spices after lunch and I bought lots of good stuff. That place is heaven. The quality is amazing.

Things are kind of blurry what with jet lag and having just completed the first day of my new job, but I remember some nice walks around campus and Dinkytown (yes, Dinkytown; no, I couldn't stop laughing about it either). I found a pair of red Chuck Taylor hightops for $11 - score! Chris wore his new utilikilt and made me weak in the knees with his style and sexiness. We went to a great eclectic evening of cabaret, dance & comedy at Bryant Lake Bowl and I particularly enjoyed the performances of dancer Miriam Colvin and comedian Jill Bernard. Watch for them both; they're very good. Bryant Lake Bowl is one of the hippest spots anywhere and should be at the top of your list of Minneapolis attractions.

I know I'm forgetting other fun things that happened, but it's been a busy couple weeks and I'll never get this entry posted if I don't wind it up. Suffice to say, Minneapolis is a decent place to visit, especially with a good guide like Chris, the wedding was very pretty and the reception was big fun, and I appear to have received the stamp of approval from Chris's friends and family. A very worthwhile trip indeed.

Comments

Dinah's Adventure in the Midwest

Well, I finally visited the heartland. I just spent a week in Minneapolis, Minnesota with my boyfriend Chris and his family.

It wasn't as alarming a trip as I expected. For one thing, the weather was not uniformly awful. Several days were ideal - soft breezes, comfortable temperatures, scattered clouds over the lovely big green trees. For another, Minneapolis has freaks. I was very concerned about being away from freaks like me for a whole week, but fortunately I found the city populated by a diverse crowd which did include people in odd clothes, with strange haircolors, practicing unusual beliefs, and expressing alternative viewpoints. I was afraid it would be wall-to-wall white, middle-aged, conservative, Republican Lutherans wearing Eddie Bauer clothing and towing along their 7 children. To forestall any concerns on this point, Chris wisely took me straight from the airport to Pizza Luce where we had some rockin' pizza served to us by black-clad, tattooed, pierced punks. *whew* What a relief. He knows how to make a grrrl feel at ease.

His folks were nice. Easy-going, pleasant people, fond of reading and of good food. We stayed most of the time at his dad's place which has a guest room and only one cat - Simon the skittish kitty - instead of the two black silky devils living over at his mom's. Those cats, Miles and Basie, are absolute beauties, but shed like you wouldn't believe. Simon was much easier on my allergies and has the biggest, oddest-colored eyes I've ever seen in a cat. Turquoise. So eerie. He'd be quite alarming if he wasn't so jumpy as to make you laugh at him.

I had arrived in the evening and was slightly rubbery after my flight, so we ate our pizza, went to Chris's dad's house and had a brief introduction before retiring to bed. In the morning we had brunch and got better acquainted. I got to see the hawks and their fledglings in the backyard and to admire the delightful greenness which is so refreshing coming from brown California summer.

After brunch we went over to Chris's mom's house and she and I hit it off right away as I knew we would. She's a complete sweetheart. We also met his sister Leah, who reminds me in some ways - goofy sense of humor, beauty, physical grace and presence - of my sister Jennifer (well, step-sister, technically, but we keep getting closer over the years, so why get technical?). Leah's fiance Geoff was there and he's a good guy. You get the sense he's just very aware of what's going on around him; he's relaxed, but very present. Plus he can tie bows better than I can - we admired some of the wedding favors which he had assembled.

We all sat around the dining table and worked on finishing off the hand-made, boxed truffles for the wedding reception. Doing a project together was a nice was to get to know each other and I was happy to be able to contribute to the huge amount of work needed for the big wedding. The truffles had been quite the chore due to the high temperatures and Chris's mom's broken air conditioner, but we got them all done and they were a big hit at the reception, so worth the effort.

We had a little getaway together to the air-conditioned mall and to my pleasure the family gathering gravitated immediately towards the bookstore. My kinda folks. Chris went slightly mad with booklust and ended up over the course of our stay getting 12 new books. His bags were quite heavy on the way back even with me carrying his database book and the big fat Japanese novel Musashi which I stole from him and read all week.

Let's see, that was Sunday. I don't remember what happened in the evening. Dinner back at his dad's place, I think, and his wife Ruta made some gorgeous looking pork chops which I didn't eat because I don't like pork, but which were worthy of a gourmet magazine spread. I had delicious green beans, biscuits and salad and was well content. Then there was probably reading all around.

Sometime during the week we had lunch with a herd of old co-workers of Chris's, again at Pizza Luce (which is so good I'm really glad we went twice in one week). They're a bunch of tech geeks and I felt quite at ease with them given all my other engineer pals back here at home. After lunch we went to Sonny's ice cream parlor and had some sublime ice cream. Mmmm.

Chris and I walked around Uptown looking in shops and relaxing. We bumped into his pal Brian and sat with him while he had lunch. The conversation was good & silly, full of many jokes and I was really happy we had the good fortune to run into him. We went to Penzey's Spices after lunch and I bought lots of good stuff. That place is heaven. The quality is amazing.

Things are kind of blurry what with jet lag and having just completed the first day of my new job, but I remember some nice walks around campus and Dinkytown (yes, Dinkytown; no, I couldn't stop laughing about it either). I found a pair of red Chuck Taylor hightops for $11 - score! Chris wore his new utilikilt and made me weak in the knees with his style and sexiness. We went to a great eclectic evening of cabaret, dance & comedy at Bryant Lake Bowl and I particularly enjoyed the performances of dancer Miriam Colvin and comedian Jill Bernard. Watch for them both; they're very good. Bryant Lake Bowl is one of the hippest spots anywhere and should be at the top of your list of Minneapolis attractions.

I know I'm forgetting other fun things that happened, but it's been a busy couple weeks and I'll never get this entry posted if I don't wind it up. Suffice to say, Minneapolis is a decent place to visit, especially with a good guide like Chris, the wedding was very pretty and the reception was big fun, and I appear to have received the stamp of approval from Chris's friends and family. A very worthwhile trip indeed.

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