mpls

Spring break is a beautiful thing. Stepped out of my favorite Minneapolis apartment this morning into fresh dusty snow and walked to the corner coffee shop. 29 degrees feels just right.
I don't know if this city beams out some sort of weird code to people's computers, but I swear the shuffle mode on this thing is tossing out Minneapolis bands left and right. Seriously, over the last half hour my itunes has offered up The Magnolias, The Replacements, and The Gear Daddies playing a Prince song, which is a magical thing in itself. That's freaking weird. And beautiful. I love this city.
The picture is plenty old, maybe 6 or 7 years ago. I love the contrast between the buildings and his teeth... stalagmites and stalactites.
The sun is starting to light up the stained glass windows now.
Happy Vernal Equinox.
Oh come on, honestly... here comes Soul Asylum right on cue...
"Fifteen years later caught in time's incinerator
Yesterday's worries are today's
But the good times are so near just sitting back and drinking beer
You know I'm halfway down the road but I know that I still ain't there."

Wish I could bottle this moment.

passion

Lots of talk about passion this week. Not the making out on a humid summer day sort of passion (theoretically that could be included I suppose), but the passions that drive us and bind us to our closest people. I think I'm trying to figure out how to define mine and how they fit in the bigger puzzle. Last night I saw my parents, soon to enter their 50th year of marriage, go outside into the Minnesota night to sit in their car and listen to an Iowa high school basketball game. Granted, it gave my mother a chance escape the watchful eye of my kid and sneak a smoke, but that strikes me as a beautiful example of passion. They love that sport and they love it together. I'm afraid I'm a little stingy with my passions, like if I share I'll somehow lose them. Probably why I take thousands of pictures and have empty walls. Probably why I actively avoid opening myself up to other people's passions. It makes me very unsettled.
I took this picture outside a hockey arena in Duluth at 6:00 am, shortly before my kid scored a hat trick and a Canadian dad from the opposing team wanted to beat me up for the passion in my cheering. Safe to say our passions did not mesh.
This picture would have been much better in a blog about loneliness. Nothing lonelier than a basketball hoop outside a hockey arena in northern Minnesota. Fortunately I'm not even close to lonely, but I like the shot.
This passion idea makes me ramble.
Oh, and Grandma, the kid has knows you smoke. Has for a couple years now.

spring

As spring creeps in and we bad mouth winter for its length and brutality, let's not forget to give thanks for the opportunities it afforded us.