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Peanut, "Wow, mom, now we can say we've been to all 50 states! What are we gonna do next?"

31 July 2008

Niece's MN Post



I’m amazed at the stark contrast going from Stanton, ND – the most rural place I’ve been, where I had to climb up a cliff just to get cell service. Now, 8 hours later, I’m in the middle of the most urban place I’ve ever been, nestled in the heart of Minneapolis. It’s so fascinating how connected the city is with all the skybridges (Peanut counted something like 75 skybridges!) so the winters must be pretty bad here.

I also noticed that the billboards really bug me. I like how CurlyTop explained it to her kids. “They’re just advertisements that we’re being forced to look at even if we aren’t interested in those things. They’re stuck in our minds anyway, and that’s what they want.”

The Sculpture Park was beautiful and massive! (I didn’t even know they had a Sculpture Park in Houston, where I live, and now I’m going to have to check it out.) One of my favorites was the Octopus by Alexander Calder and the Spoon. When the family was playing miniature golf (a really cool concept for educating the public on environmental issues), I wanted to go back to the sculptures, thinking I must have missed some. The art really impressed me and the flower gardens were so beautiful.

I saw a lot of diversity in Minneapolis, even more than in Houston. Like I saw this cross-dresser all done up in a beautiful long gown and heels, but with a long beard! There were a lot of interracial and same-sex couples around, too. And there were these cool dark squirrels in the park, today. I’ve never seen those before!

But this city is living in some sort of weird fear. Tomcat went into the new library and they wouldn’t let him take any pictures. He said, “You’re kidding me! This is a public place.” The cop said, “Sorry, due to terrorist concerns there can be no photography.” And there were signs like “We ban guns in our restaurant.” Lots of weird things like that.

At the Mall of America I somehow convinced Peanut to go on this scary Spongebob ride. I knew it was going to be a rough one when we got in the seats and she disappeared into the massive bar of protection. At the beginning of the ride it went straight up – completely vertical – and she looked up at me and said, “I don’t liiike this!” She had no idea what was coming her way. After we crested the top, we careened down one of the fastest and jerkiest rides I’ve ever been on. I liked it, but I could tell Peanut was very uneasy. I felt terrible because I knew exactly how she felt; I remember my dad doing the same thing to me at Astroworld. She was pretty brave though.

It’s been a really long time since I’ve had a song stuck in my head this long, too. “E Eats Everything….

1 comment:

  1. I had a cross country (running) friend go to school in Minnesota. St Olaf in Northfield. I remember she came home at Xmas with WIND burns on her ankles where her running tights and socks didn't meet. Looked just like a sunburn but caused but WIND. I was dumbfounded at how cold it must get in MN.
    Cheers!

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