Here & There : Here from There

Fall here is unlike Fall there. The palms have yet to yellow. I wear my freckles outside. Southern California is worlds apart from North Dakota. Except it's not. Or at least it's not entirely.

Both places have parking lots, soccer moms and artists. They are both American in their sensibilities and city structure. And neither thinks much about the other.

We left the Midwest before the sun rose on a July morning. We drove through Mankato Minnesota, Winterest Iowa, Dallas Texas and Dewey Arizona.

I sobbed during a 4 am thunderstorm somewhere outside of St. Louis.  We downed twelve 4-hour energy bottles, each. I had my first ever "Whataburger" with my long-lost cousins.

We took pictures but they came blurry. We promised to never-ever drive across country again.

We are miles away from Downtown's Christmas Parade and snowy road conditions. And that is both nice and not-nice.

Mid-West Points

Leaving North Dakota = - 4,958,008.249 Midwest Points

Life Points

Moving to North Dakota = 24 Life Points 

Making a Life in Fargo = 651 Life Points

Surviving the Polar Vortex = 85 Life Points

Saying Goodbye = 17 Life Points

Returning Home from an Strange Land = 10,000 Life Points

Winnipeg: A photographic Journey

A Lookie-Loo View

Canadia, or North of the Wall

Mini Break Holiday Strikes Back

Neatly printed on a folded up sheet of lined paper are the words, Visit Canada. The paper is dated 2006 and labeled "Life Goals".  Learn how to make coffee and Own an Irish Wolf Hound (which is an odd breed, seeing as how I have never even had a chihuahua, I guess live big, right?) are other aspirations that my sixteen year old self wished to achieve. Memorial Day weekend's trip to Winnipeg earned a check mark on the list.

Yes & of course, we totally ate Smoke 'N Bob's

Overseas Plans

Our rendezvous to Winnipeg has been in the works for over a year. During a rainy night in Laos' capitol city Vientiane Preston and I cruised our favorite travel agent, Google. We dreamed up a vacation so very different from our sweaty South East Asian reality. And a year later we made it to the land of the North.

Clearly enjoying the Buddha Park

An Obsession

As conditions of the Mini-Break Holiday we made sure to find plenty of items banned from Whole Foods to snack on. There were street vendor hot dogs, beer for breakfast and most importantly donuts.

Anyone who has read three posts from this blog may have found that a large portion of my midwest musings are about the lack of donuts here. I never even realized how much I loved donuts. I am really more of a pizza person, or a waffle girl. And yet the absence of the glazed morning glories has been deeply felt in my heart. Lucky for us Canada freakin' loves donuts! Seriously there was a donut place every fifty yards.

Preston likes donuts too. 

Our Kind of Travelin'

I really have no idea what other people do when they visit cities.We always end up doing the same thing. We walk. I think this hobby stems from our time as Dickens-poor backpackers living in Sydney. Too impoverished for nightlife or haunted ghost tours, our idea of cross cultural fun was touring around on our own two feet. 

In Sydney's Hyde Park

After wandering uptown, downtown, in Chinatown and across the river Preston described our day as urban hiking. In the evening we loosened up to Bluegrass at the Texas-themed bar just around the corner. And then we may or may not have stayed up way too late watching HGTV in our air conditioned hotel room. But that's okay, because on a Mini-Break Holiday you can do whatever you want.

In conclusion Canada is pretty awesome. 

This post is sponsored by my Padres, who generously paid for our accommodations.

Midwest Points

Going to Canada = 17 MIDWEST POINTS

Not getting in a fight with any Canadians = -13 MIDWEST POINTS

Midwest Specifics

North Dakota has entirely bypassed spring in favor of chug-a-luggin' right into summer.

Just last week the city pool was filled. And every child in sight was on his or her way to the park. 

Fargo is now the welcome host of pollen swarms and picnic dinners (served with icy beer). 

Hallelujah.

Weird

I have encountered an outrageous number of North Dakotans and Minnesotans who dread the coming of summer. Warm weather and lawing mowing seem to be their undoing. I think they may have actual freezer burn on their person. One of my cafe regulars whined to me, "I mean what do you even wear when it's... 80 degrees out?!"

Sir, you can wear whatever you want without the fear of losing an extremity to the air temp.

An Almost Picnic

The Plan

The forecast was predicted sunny, bright and 65. We bought our very own woven cotton picnic blanket. Smoothies were purchased and granola bars stored in a hip reusable canvas tote. The agenda was to catch up on the final chapters of Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets while drowsily basking in cozy cat-nap inducing sunlight.

The Reality 

Determined to be difficult the prairie land's dense cumulus clouds stole away our Saturday's hope and dreams. We lasted for twenty chilly minutes, before returning to our hobbit hole. At least we broke fast at Denny's, (side-note, Denny's has some stellarly-awesome social media out there) so the day wasn't a total bummer. 

  Back to hibernation...

Oh Happy Day

Joy, Joy

It's 60 degrees in Fargo. The sun is out. Last night, my man took me on a downtown date. There was the hippest of  German Bier Halls, several battalions of 5K runners and old time jamz. We slurped on smoothies* for breakfast. I just returned by foot (yes, I walked because you can do that when its 60 degrees) from a deep tissue massage. There is an ice coffee six inches from my keyboard. And I even got to dust off my beloved and sacred Rainbows.

about to head to Downtown, baby...

After a week of grey, today is very very good day. L'chaim!

*a green monster smoothie at that!

Midwest Specifics

Found in Fargo Magazine

Only in the Midwest.

Confession:

I didn't even know what a rhubarb was until college; I still don't quite get it, but I do know that they are delicious.

Midwest Specifics

Highway Patriotism

Personhood

Feelin' Feelin'

Today I felt like a person. A recurrent sentiment in my life. Such a sensation is achieved by an assortment of odd, ordinary and rare stimuli. Driving beneath the 101 junction sign with all my windows down makes me feel like a person. And the longer the absence of such a drive, the more intense my person feeling becomes.

Long phone calls make me feel like a person, despite my relucatance to make them. "Dancing in the Moonlight", preferably Toploader's cover, makes me feel like a person. Waking up very very early to raft waterfalls and board airplanes conjures my person-feeling. Crickets beatboxing beyond my window make me feel a rush of person-ness. And today, drinking a mango boba tea rekindled my ownership of personhood.

Personal

My instantaneous flashes of person-ness take me out of the moment. They are a roadblock to the immediate, the here & now. While the causes may strongly differ, each flash moment reminds me of all my layers of living. They are mementos of the people I have loved and the days I have lived. And my afternoon treat was such a memento. 

The sunken bobas reminded me of my first mango drink on an impossibly bright sophomore afternoon, almost ten years back. My wide straw brought to mind Sydney's omnipresent drink chain, Chatime. Every sip poured easy happiness into my veins. 

Sydney, near George St., NSW

And the thing is, drinking a silly, sugar-saturated, over-priced beverage made me feel happy and whole. It reaffirmed all that living before and behind me.  

Home Sweet

I have taken to counting the days left on our lease. This year has been a long lesson in patience, the importance of gloves and home. My home is layered within me. It exists in friendships and mountain ranges. It mozies down cobblestones streets. It hides between book pages. It nestles into Preston's arms. It eats dinner at my family's oak table. And it loves California best. 

 

I traveled far, to find my home exactly where I left it. A thousand miles south. 

TBT: Easter

70 degrees with a slight breeze was Minnesota's most thoughtful Easter gift. Legos, Bordeaux eggs and a copy of Frozen was California's.