Hi there!
Do you ever get that thing where you see something and you know you have to do it? Like it’s right there for you, and it’s perfect, and you might never get the opportunity again? I just realized this is a) going to make less and less sense the more I talk about it, and b) make me seem like a total freak, c) (AGAIN!), because it involves things like construction vehicles and broken elevators and a scrap of paper with my phone number on it. Allow me to wrap up this non-anecdote like this: very often, things are put there specifically for you, and you’re smart to take the opportunity, however nonsensical it may seem at the time. You’ll be happy you did. I’m absolutely certain of it. OK, I’m going to try to hurry, like always. Friday night, I was a deeeee-jay (best-ever!), a bunch of drunk guys apologized to us for being a bunch of drunk guys, and I got high-fived for falling on my ass in the most graceful manner; I was not at all amongst the drunk folks, either. Also, I have this problem with dancing. I can’t stop. Even though I dance like a white chick from, well, Minnesota. [Note: Myth has dance nights now, but their website doesn’t say what kind of music they’re playing. I have to research, and then I’m corralling the homies and we’re going. Consider yourselves warned.] Saturday morning was perfect squared, weatherwise, plus a very long walk and then the infamous speeding-ticket incident which I hope Mr L considered worthwhile; I know I did! Later on, Stephanie came over and helped me change my earrings to larger ones, using a makeshift spreading tool (a needle-nosed pliers wrapped in electrical tape). I had some fear over the procedure, but it went well. Kaye came over and we went to Gameworks during the post-kid hours. We DDRed, shot zombies (that game is a little too realistic, because I find myself screaming at the monsters: OH MY GOD, WHAT IS THAT???), cosmic-bowled (with a mute guy named Levi), boxed, skateboarded, were brave firefighters, and DDRed some more. Since I’m smart, every time I’ve played Dance Dance Revolution I’m wearing flipflops, so I end up having to play barefoot. That kinda hurts, man. My feet still feel bruised. [Note: I have this problem with placing people. I recognize them well enough, but if they’re not in the place I usually see them, I have no idea who they are. I just know that I know them. This occasionally means I’m really friendly to people I don’t like at all.] Sunday was brunch, duh, even though it’s only like 60% brunch when it’s crappy and rainy outside. I can feel fall looming, and I’m not happy about it. Afterwards, I went to Robotlove to see Shepard Fairey. I’ve met mildly-famous people before, and I was most awed by him. He talked to me a lot longer than I’d have expected. We discussed the fact that his work was being sold at the Mall of America, which is a trip and a half. He said as long as they preserve the original intent, it doesn’t bother him. [Note: check here for a photo of one of the new posters he put up while in town, and also pics of various items I’m just about to discuss with you.] I headed to Bertine’s for the demolition party. She just bought the adjoining condo, so she was knocking down the wall between them, as well as destroying various other things. It was totally my scene. I got to pound plaster off the wall with a hammer and crowbar, break through lathe with a monster sledgehammer (the guys there knew how much I wanted to wield the sledgehammer, so they all stood back and let me at it), and destroy a ceramic tile floor by beating on it. Also, this guy Dave introduced himself as ‘that one guy you’re afraid of’, which I thought was kind of amusing. I was really smart and wore flipflops (this is a theme, yes), so I ended up wearing a pair of Eric’s army boots instead, which were doubleplus hot. I left there covered in plaster dust, bruises, and little tiny cuts from ceramic splinters. It ruled. I was tired. After dinner, we decided to forego the usual lake-walk and did that circle route between Hennepin Avenue and the Stone Arch Bridge. The waterfront is getting to be really awesome, now that they’ve done more work behind the Mill City Museum. I can’t really figure out the deal with St Anthony Main, though. I mean, it’s all fixed up nice in that area now. It’s between downtown and hipsterville up Northeast. Why the hell is that place dying? I don’t get it. [Note: We stopped at Whole Foods for hiking food for the next day. I bought a sunflower. Did you know you could grow a sunflower as a houseplant? Me neither. I can’t stop looking at my sunflower. I’m absolutely charmed by it. It’s my new little sunflower! I should maybe take a picture.] Monday morning, I got up way early and we headed off to the northern-Minnesota region known as close-to-Duluth to go hiking at Jay Cooke State Park. We picked the trail that went up one side of the river and down the other, which was marked ‘difficult’ and supposed to take 4 hours. ‘Difficult’ clearly means something different in Minnesota than, say, in Hawaii, where the trails marked ‘difficult’ mean a 50% survival rate or lower. But regardless, it was a good long hike, and we only encountered 4 other people the whole time. We climbed down below the train trestle and had lunch on some picnic rocks, although we left most of the food for the ants, who were probably experiencing falafel for the first time in their tiny lives. [Note: OMG, MORE PHOTOS! the St Louis River, the trail, mushrooms, the earliest trees changing, and me meditating in the river.] I’m having some trouble with the tendon in my left foot now that I’ve been walking a ton again. Stupid sprain. It burns pretty bad, but it’s not swelling, so I guess that’s a good thing. It’s unlikely that I’m going to rest it much. I was beat when I got home last night. It felt like I’d been moving all weekend long. I went to bed by 10 and was awakened by the loudest thunderstorm I’d ever heard. I couldn’t believe it. Stuff like that never bothers me, but I was plugging my ears and trying to calm the cats down. Since I was half asleep, I managed to convince myself that the lightning was going to come in my window somehow and zap me. I had even come up with a really smart solution to this threat, but then I fell asleep and forgot it. I’m sure it was totally genius, though. Today I was so crabby about some problems I dug up at work that I wanted to throw things, but that abated as soon as I got home and found my DDR CD had arrived. Now I await the floor pads, and then I’m never leaving my house again. This seems OK, since a bunch of people have said they want to come over and play. At least I can continue to be somewhat social in my reclusivity. Tonight at Iaido, there were SEVEN SAMURAI. I could not believe it. Where did they all come from?? It’s three girls and three boys and me (I’m a girl, fyi). I was the most senior samurai, and I was all proud. Next week I’m going to the Wednesday night advanced class so Kore Sensei can judge my kata (ack!!!), and then the first weekend in October is the intensive training with Michelle Sensei. Which also happens to be the weekend that everything is happening, but that’s OK. While the new students learned how to hold the sword and do the basic cuts, I did my kata over and over and over and OVER for an hour straight. I can barely lift my arms now. My right arm was so weak I couldn’t hold a glass of water at the end, so of course that’s enough to drive me crazy. It’s because of that fucking bulging disk in my neck that made my arm useless for a few weeks at a time, then all weak. Therefore, I came home and registered for Bodyshaping class on Saturday mornings. I know it’s a lot of classes, but that’s guaranteed to build my strength back; another huge plus is it’s the class that got me so into lifting in the first place, and had me doing 200 crunches at a time. HardCORE, dudes. ….Aaaand I’ve been writing for an hour again, for god’s sake! I need to go shower the sword-stankiness off me now. Night, you. Jenni