These are two of my most favorite things I have read this week.

This is from an article in a magazine about the twin cities that made me want to get in the car and drive to Minneapolis....immediately. They really talk like that. I know. And they don’t even realize they’re doing it which even makes it quainter. They really do radiate nice.

“That warm, oh-gosh-you-betcha Minnesota nice radiates through the entire area – the bustling city centers, the gleaming lakes, the tree-lined residential streets and beckons to visitors of all ages.”

How could you not want to go there? I was talking to someone last spring as they were driving between two small towns in Minnesota. They had grown up in one and were visiting their grandfather who lived in the other. I pictured the grandpa sitting on the front steps drinking lemonade, just taking it all in, waiting for the grandson to come home who had made it big in the city. He sent a few cell phone photos, but what was really impressive is that you could hear the shear love of the beauty that he was seeing in the simple description he was giving me. Later that trip I bet on horses at Cantebury Park via text messages. Somehow I lost $20 and I wasn’t even in the same state!

It’s not that far...right? I pick the summer of $4 a gallon gas to decide I need to go there on a road trip. It’s closer than Rhode Island, which I really want to visit...it’s so tiny! I actually met a girl from Rhode Island recently and that’s why I told her I wanted to visit her home state....it’s so tiny! I’m sure she feels they may have a little more than that to offer than size...or lack thereof.



The following came in an email that made me almost fall off my chair. I had to read it several times. Quite possibly the nicest most poetic thing anyone has every said about my birthday.

“The longest day of the year fast approaches. The Celts & Slavs celebrated with dancing & bonfires to help increase the sun's energy. The Chinese marked the day by honoring Li, The Chinese Goddess of Light. Amazing to think ancient cultures could have predicted the day a girl from Washington, MO would be born. A greater mystery than Stonehenge I think. Accordingly, the Summer Solstice arrives every year to bless us with the longest day of the year to provide ample time for celebration.”

Remember in the last thing I wrote and I was railing on my nephew for giving his girlfriend a ring for high school graduation? Then I remembered that incredibly dramatic young love...my first love? Well, that’s him. Haven’t spoken to him in over 5 years I’d guess. Hadn’t thought about him in I couldn’t tell you how long until I was on a trip recently to Chicago and my old roommate asked about him. Which I thought was totally out of the blue. But he asked about her in his email too. Apparently I’m blocking out a huge chunk of time that we all were a part of. I think it was just so chaotic how could she not forget him? I moved in just a short time after the period where the “happily ever after the college years” of the first love of my life was interrupted by the arrival of the second love of my life. A psychic, actually I believe it was two, told me I would have two great loves in my life. Upon my questioning they couldn’t confirm if I’d already had them or not. They just didn’t want to upset me, but I know, I’ve had them. It’s ok.

He has adorable twin boys (he sent pictures)...and one divorce, which seems to be pretty recent as far as I can gather, but I’m not sure. One friend immediately has us a part of the world’s sweetest love story, however, a recently divorced guy at work thinks it’s a lot less romantic than that. I think it’s somewhere in the middle. He was, for a long time, my best friend on the planet. It was a blessing and a curse, somewhere we landed in a very friendshipy almost platonic place. College was hard. One night I was asking him about a test and I finally said....are you still in school? To which he replied no. He worked full time at this crummy job which took all the fun out of him and completely drained him. I saw him a few years after we graduated and he was much more fun – he was rollerblading and all the stuff I tried to get him to do when he was too busy trying to be responsible and make money. I was the pseudo spoiled girl who only worked when I was home on college breaks. Didn’t really compute until later what he was actually going through.

I was not a very good girlfriend. I would say – you know, I think we should see other people. Which meant that my French tutor was really hot and I was going to date him for a while. And then we’d get back together after that went south. When I was waffling and trying to figure out if I was going to continue my life with first love or take a chance on the second, I remember Fred telling me – one you decide if you leave, you leave. He knew my stupid school girl history. And I liked him saying that. I didn’t want to be the girl that treated someone like that. It wasn’t right, but I was young and stupid and that guy was young and lazy.

So I starting thinking about things I hadn’t in years. But it was so long ago it was like watching someone else. I’d just get random memories throughout the day. On my 21st birthday I have a memory of him coming in with a picnic basket. I’m not even sure where we are in the picture in my head. He didn’t always like kids and I distinctly remember when my nephew was little and his guy picked him up and held up out with straight arms, like he was a bomb or something. His grandfather was in the merchant marines – and a mason –he had amazing tattoos to go along with his amazing stories. He made some comment about how he was a hopeless romantic. And I said I knew it was true love when I got really sick at his house and he took care of me. To which he commented that was his OCD. I had forgotten he was funny. Of course he was. I would never be with someone who wasn’t. So we’ll go to drinks at some point and try not to get drunk on stories of the “way we were.”