This morning I watched big big snowflakes fall down outside my office window, then float up when they came close to the building, then fall down again. I walked the skyways to the bank and stood over South 8th Street, watching the same thing, transfixed. I wasn’t fixated on avoiding any thoughts or solving any problems. I had no breakthroughs about my life. But I thought I wouldn’t mind sharing peace like this with my daughter.
This picture was taken at Hen House Eatery a few blocks from where I work in downtown Minneapolis. This is where we ate breakfast after our first night ever sleeping without Essie. Mykala booked a comfy room at the Marriott Renaissance at the Milwaukee Road Depot and the night before, we marveled at how little we had to pack while we slowly walked the Stone Arch Bridge. Since there were no tiny voices in the night and we didn’t need to worry about our little Ess, we both expected to sleep straight through and longer than normal, but both our brains were on overdrive thinking and wondering about our baby daughter, and we slept in fits and starts. But, it was nice to watch cable TV, take a good shower, and then pick up Ess. Plus, a little time alone was really good for our relationship, and marked a turning point where we were finally able to overcome the crazy schedule and lack of sleep and look one another in the eyes again and say nice things. I love my wife, and a mini vacation (I think Mykala called it a staycation.)
Mykala and I took a 10+ mile bike ride from Prospect Park, down University, across the River on Hennepin and over part of the Cedar Lake trail through the north part of Minneapolis. It was in the mid 70s outside and the sun wasn’t yet setting but was low enough in the sky to turn things nice colors. Target Field was hosting a Twins game. It wasn’t too humid or windy or hilly or buggy. We just sailed along on our wheels.
I recently found out that the famous Finnish architect Eliel Saarinen designed the sanctuary for Christ Church Lutheran, right here in my backyard of Minneapolis. Turns out Saarinen’s son, the world-famous Eero Saarinen (of St. Louis Gateway Arch fame, designed a lovely addition to the original building. Here’s a picture, by the local Pete Sieger:
Availability of Wi-Fi, transportation solutions, medical
trials, university research and development expenditures,
advanced degrees held by the work force, and energy
conservation are so far above the national average that
in 2005, Popular Science named Minneapolis the “Top Tech
City” in the U.S. The Twin Cities ranked the
country’s second best city in a 2006 Kiplinger’s poll of
Smart Places to Live and Minneapolis was one of the Seven
Cool Cities for young professionals.
Kathie Jenkins wrote an article entitled “10 cheap eats under $10” in the Thursday, September 27, 2007 edition of the Saint Paul Pioneer Press. Naturally, the Pioneer Press doesn’t have a version of the article online, and Jenkin’s Pioneer Press-hosted blog only has a teaser for the article, probably due to editorial restrictions. That said, some of the comments at her blog about cheap eats are rather helpful. So, I’ve decided to reproduce her list here, since I’ve been to exactly one of these places and would like to keep them in mind for the future. So, to be clear, what follows is Jenkin’s work, abbreviated here because the Pioneer Press apparently doesn’t want the advertising revenue that could result from carrying old articles. Finally, I’ve eliminated IKEA from the list of places to eat, because my experience there was atrocious. A list of 9, then!
If you place your chin on a windowsill and contemplate the land stretching out from you and the sky curving down to meet it, you’ll notice things you never noticed before. This slow down in your frenetic pace illustrates planes making white pencils in the sky and the clouds drifting past. It’s during times such as these that I realize my ability to occupy my time with the most simple of activities is simultaneously a blessing and a curse. I find myself running away from my perfectionism into a purgatory of still meditation. My problem is that a job half-started is a job not completed to my standards. While this means I never stop a project in the middle, it prevents me from taking breaks along the way or even starting. It’s all or nothing for my mind, a tendency I would desperately like to overcome. I’d like to study for an hour and break for 15 minutes early in the day, rather than study for three hours straight at the end.
