Alright, alright. I realize this is overdue because it's actually February today but this post is not supposed to be a sarcastic reference to the dark recess within which I live. I am actually enjoying the early months in Minneapolis which is easy and nearly effortless to do. All you need are some warm cloths and shoes with traction on the bottom because the first thing that you can do to emphasize the dreariness of this state is to stay inside your house, car or skyways for 8 months out of the year. I have been avoiding all three. Walt has needed the car to commute to work so I've been taking the bus which has always been one of my favorite things to do. First, it's a social event for me because I get to smile at the bus driver, give directions, listen to crazy people talking and do other things that help me feel like I'm not a hermit. Also you get to see your city through a completely different lense when you're being chauffeured around and lastly it keeps me organized because the bus isn't going to wait around for me. Walt and I have been going out to cool stuff too. I was just telling my aunt Mary about how we went ice skating on the flooded field next to our house. The community center there has free skates that you can use as much as you want on the honor system which is insanely wonderful and unbelievable to me. The friendliness and openness of that system reifies why I like to live here. We also have been snowshoeing by moonlight at the golf course across the Mississippi from us. Downtown Minneapolis is gorgeous at night in the winter glowing in light while being enveloped by hot steam coming out of generators. I would have never seen this if I hadn't left my house, and during the last two winters there was little that made me want to head out after the sun had set at 5:15, so I'm glad we've been doing that. We've also been going to the Rollerdome which is two levels of the Metrodome that are opened up for rollerblading in the winter time. This bi-weekly event is completely silly and fun and makes me and Walt's sister Nora realize that we are much more clumsy on wheels that we are on our feet so we should be thankful for what we have.
I've also begun cooking school to get a 2-year certificate. Don't feel badly if I didn't tell you about this because it was a surprise to me too. I've been taking Nutrition, Sanitation and a Lab on basics from 1-7 on Friday and Saturday. It's a very full schedule but it has been such a new vain of education for me that I am really engaged. The lab is much more creative in a hands-on way than my Women's Studies work was but the other two classes are really scientific and about information that effects everyone's daily life so their consequences on my world are more tangible than Postcolonial Feminisms was. This is not to say that I value one over the other but it is exciting to use this new part of my brain and my abilities.
I would love to someday combine the two degrees and start a restaurant that serves good food and is run by LGBT youth or young moms. I really am passionate about helping people create skills that will let them make a living or give them the organizational know-how to succeed in the future. Giving at-risk youth the chance to make money in a safe space while also learning how to cook seems like a really cool thing to me but there are tons of kinks that I can work out in the next while and maybe refine so that it's a dream that has the potential the be realized.
It is snowing and I'm sick but I'm still happy and that's good.
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