DUDES TOMORROW IS MY BIRTHDAY!
…which also means this here journal will be five years old. Whoa. Last night, I hopped on the road at 3:45pm and despaired of ever getting to Clara City, Minnesota by 6:30, due to the fact that Hutchinson had declared Highway 7 a major inconvenience, and shut it down completely. After a massive detour, I made it back to the highway and proceeded to not exceed the speed limit by more than five miles the whole entire way, and I think I deserve some kind of medal for that. One must not tempt fate on the way to a class to get rid of a speeding ticket, after all. On the way, I stopped at Mel’s 7-71 for a very brief sojourn into surreality (the old guy there wanted to know everything about my car, as if I had instead piloted a rocketship into his parking lot). I made it to Clara City by 6:15, and met my fellow criminals in a large room crowded with fake flowers, three pianos, and Thomas Kincaide Painter of Light prints. There were at least 20 of us there, and the fact the Diversion Class happens twice a week is proof that either there are a lot of scofflaws in Chippewa County, or Something Is Up. At any rate, the class was pretty fun (apart from the woman who works within the prison system and wanted to argue every generality), and the guy teaching it was great (he works at the college in Granite City training police officers, and also works part-time with three county sheriff’s offices and as an ambulance driver). He was a fun cop; he didn’t smack us around for doing bad things, just warned us of the consequences if we did. Also, I heard the phrase “when you’re down in The Cities drivin’ on 494” at least ten times, and it never stopped being funny. We watched a bunch of cheesy videos, and two hours and 75 bucks later, I had a clean driving record again. It was worth it. I get to keep my citation, too! I think I should frame it. On the way back, I almost got run off the road for the second time in a week, by an oncoming car passing like a retard. That’s twice I’ve actually pulled onto the shoulder on Highway 7 to avoid, you know, dying. Bitches. I reached civilization shortly before 11pm, and promptly took up my spot dozing on Matt’s lap. Yay! Tonight we’re going to go do some work on the Greenie Millennium, and tomorrow I’ve taken the day off for sleeping-in, picnicking, being all romantic in public and making people gag, and going to see Brother Ali at First Ave. Obviously, it is going to rule. It occurred to me the other day that at my age, my mom had four kids, aged 4-12. Right at this moment in her life, she’d just moved from a giant house in Chicago to a slightly-more-modest house in Eagan. She had a husband in federal law enforcement, and would be a homemaker until her youngest started first grade. She had really high hopes and dreams for all of us, but not really for herself. I love my mom and appreciate everything she’s done for me and my family, but I am so damn happy that my life is absolutely different. I have the greatest friends in the world, an amazingly awesome boyfriend, and I get to do pretty much whatever the hell I want. I don’t think it gets much better than that. Happy birthday to me! Jenni