Downtown @ MindSay

How do I know I live in Minnesota?

Because the morning started with a chilly, borderline-freezing rain, but by the time my shift ended and I got to my car, I had to clear five inches of snow off of it.

Mixed with leaves that had fallen off the trees. That's Fall for you here.

Sometimes. Sometimes we don't get serious snow until right around Christmas, or rarely, after Christmas.

And sometimes it shows up as an absolute shock to the crops, and you drive home past tawny-gold fields of still-standing corn holding little white bundles of snow in their leaves.

At least it's not hail. Or sudden flooding. Seeing the crops laid waste like that is disheartening to everyone. And flooding wrecks a lot more lives than October blizzards.

Knocked out our power grid at work, though. And if it knocked out ours, it may have hit parts of Mayo, too. It was cool in the bookstore, because our backup power keeps the cafe and the constellations in the castle-sky lit, so it's pretty and deeply atmospheric, but it could be a great nuisance in a lot of other places.

Made me very grateful for the connections around downtown. I park next to the main stage theater in town (shameless plug - they're doing Wizard of Oz this December, and Santas is the W.W.o.t.W - y'all should go see her, she's going to be fabulous), which connects to the Civic Center. Civic Center connects to the skyways, which connect to a number of the hotels downtown, several blocks of the hospitals, a number of banks and other random places of business and foodings, and the downtown mall, which houses both the bookstore where I work and the chocolate shop where I work.

Er, and also the coffeeshop where one of my girlfriends works, and the bank where Swedewolf works when he's in town. And a bunch of my friends work at Mayo. Also, said skyway is a block from the newspaper where my mom works. All of this means that there's a good chance of running into someone you know if you take your lunch in the food court.

And the library. Mustn't forget the library. And the pianos in two of the hospital buildings.

Suffice it to say, between the hours of 0800 and 1730, I can be set loose downtown and keep myself amused and taking care of random errands for hours without ever having to once poke my nose into the raining slush that seeks a safe haven inside my shirt collar.

We're talking about quarter-sized flakes today. One of the baristas came in the afternoon, and said it took her a half hour to drive three miles. Desperately slippy.

I was in a nasty accident last December. Car was absolutely wrecked. Should have gotten pictures. Now very nervous about driving anytime there's junk between my tires and the pavement. This is not a helpful attitude when you live in Minnesota.

Could be worse. Sport's from Michigan.

It's not that I hate snow at all. I love snow. I get so excited about the first serious snowfall. Walking downtown in a busy snowfall with an armful of books and happy thoughts to yourself, it's like a hundred tiny kisses over your cheeks every minute. Driving in the snow I can do without, but I love playing in it, building forts and tunnels, and walking in it, and sledding, hillsliding, falling down in a big drift and watching it fall on you from the sky. Shoveling snow is kind of a quirky bonding thing with a friend, skiing is a big adventure (especially if you're like me and not very good at stopping), and ice skating is splendid. Winter's great - you have to love it.

I just really hope my car survives it.

I dreamed that I had taken a day off from work (not a dream today, woo hoo!)  In my dream, I was telling people about our house.  I had driven to Safeway where Candie, Sarah, and Micah were doing their shopping.  I was very excited and said to Candie 'ask me what I bought, ask me what I bought!'  When I told her she scoffed 'there is nothing nice on the west side.' 

Feelings hurt, I left the store and went back to my car.  I was very upset to find my driver said window had been shattered.  I started looking for a place to get it fixed, knowing that since it was Sunday, my time was very limited.

I was then downtown at a 7-11, eating a 'bbq beef' sandwich I had purchased there.  The sandwich was filled with large chunks of onion rings.  I see Gregory's mother and point out to her the gas sign at the convenience store.  It was very high - $6 for a gallon of unleaded.  She nods knowingly and tells me 'that's because they stopped putting meat in their sandwiches.'

I start walking around downtown and I'm suddenly with Chrissie and Amanda from work, and Drea.  We are walking, and I'm still keeping my eye out for a car repair shop.  We come across a street magician who cajoles us to take part in his trick.  He keeps me and Amanda in the back (of the street) while telling the audience he'll make two girls (something strange which has slipped my mind.)  Amanda and I are talking quietly about how the audience will never fall for this, he never showed us to them in the first place.

After the magician calls us out to the stage, I realize there's something in my pocket now.  I reach in and pull out a tiny piece of original art.  The drawing is that of a peneagle, and I start to chat up the magician about how amazing this is, all the while thinking of the show Magic's Biggest Secrets Revealed.  He gives me a wink and a smile and we go on our way, with me saying to Drea "I'm gonna make out with a magician!"

It's now me and Drea in her house, and I peer into her tiny kitchen to see the time reads 5:47, and I know it's too late to get my car repaired.  So I settle into her spare bedroom for some reading.  After finishing the book, I go into her bedroom, thinking she's asleep, and I'll just make my goodbyes. 

She is awake, but lying in her bed and asks me how I'm doing.  I reply that I'm fine, but I know that if I sit down, all my energy will drain and I'll be done. 

Corwyn then comes into her room and he is assembling some sort of model action figure.  "Is it done Mom," he keeps asking her and she tells him it's lots before it's done.  She takes the figure from him and starts messing with the legs, revealing bullets in our good guy.

Drea and I start talking about how Gregory doesn't hang out with us.  She then likens him to Usher, saying "now we've answered his (Usher's) questions!!"

I start to go, but then Drea swings her leg up to me, and I can see it's clad in her shiny knee high boots.  "Dominate my flesh!!" she demands of me and then I woke up.

According to Dreammoods, a shattered window means the following: To see shattered and broken windows, represents your distorted view and outlook on life. It is also indicates a state of vulnerability.

And magic in a dream means: To perform or dream of magic, suggests that you need to look at things from a different view or approach problems from a new angle in order to successfully move forward.  Alternatively, magic symbolizes creativity and wonder. Perhaps someone or something has caused you to be in awe. The dream may also be a metaphor that you are "up to some trick".

Both are kinda saying the same thing - that my outlook is a little skewed right now.

I wonder what the frak this all means.

So, my search for a tea ball continued today.

I stopped by Montague's, certain they would have what I was looking for.  Alas, they did not.  But the gentlemen ahead of me in line recommended another store, that was 'somewhere downtown.  On Tejon.  Between Colorado and Boulder.'  Which is an area of about five or six blocks.

So I gamely drove up Tejon.  And down Tejon.  And nothing.

After several phone calls, I found that what I was looking for was on Tejon, just a bit north of Pike's Peak.  So I park just a bit north of Pike's Peak and put a dime in the parking meter.  My thought being, sure it's only six minutes, but what I'm looking for is right across the street.  Wrong - it was another block up.  As I continued up Tejon, searching (vainly, it felt like) for address numbers in store windows, I finally found the shop I was looking for and purchased a container for my loose tea.  It wasn't exactly what I was looking for, but it'll do.

Make nice talk with clerk, pay, and leave.  I cross the street and see, in the distance, a man near my car.  I'm wearing a skirt and it's a bit windy, so this girl ain't runnin' for nothin'.  I get a bit closer and realize I just received a parking ticket. 

So the tea ball that shoulda cost me three bucks and ten minutes of time has ended up costing me fifteen bucks and two days.

One day, I will learn to stop tempting fate.  Maybe before I'm 40.

I don't often have anything great to blog about anymore, my thoughts are empty. But here's the recent news:

Yesterday:
Watched the new Fall Out Boy video, once again this band has somewhat of a spellbinding effect on me. The music and esp. the new video in particular are like a guilty pleasure, I can't let anyone find out about this! Also downloaded a mega-load of music, including Megadeth Metallica and Buckethead. It's super hard to find Buckethead music on Limewire but I did manage to collect a grand total of 14 songs. Fun times.

Today:
I'll be going downtown to see a concert, Dragonforce and Killswitch Engage will be there. I was going to go with sister, but she had work I understand, of course she had work I mean...I'm like the only guy I know without a job. I hate having my care-free plans impede on everyone else's structured lifestyle. I'm sure the concert will be fun. Hopefully Dragonforce won't totally suck the dick live, like my thoughts tell me. I don't care if they do though it's still fun music.

Tomorrow:
Will probably end up having to clean the whole house and then some for mother again, so demanding. Yesterday I got so tired out I fell asleep for two hours? Jesus. Today I have to wash like three loads of clothes, I should get going on that before time gets away from me. There will definitely be more laundry to do. God this whole Spring Cleaning deal is ruining my Spring BREAK.

Friday:
I will most DEFINITELY be seeing the GRINDHOUSE which opens in theatres. This, I have been looking forward to for months. Can't wait, gonna be awesome. OMG OMG excitement.

Just the way I wanted it.