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minneapolis, MN: this is where the road stops, where they're building a bridge to replace the one that fell down last summer. i'm still intensely grateful my mother wasn't on it when it went down - if she'd left work on time, that's where she would have been at 6:05 pm. minnesota: yay for sleeping in. car goes to shop; experience separation anxiety. get dropped off at one of few remaining old coffeehouse haunts, get my internet on. ride around with my mom in my dad's convertible, spot local ABC news billboard: "sex offender meeting tonight, NE minneapolis" - really? eat fried green beans with parents and rant about politics, the farm bill, etc; the lot of us go home to drink more wine and watch PSA-style segments at end of Hoppalong Cassidy episodes - "'don't play with guns; they kill people!' so be careful with your guns, won't you children?" intipsicatedly gleeful rambling at my mother, albeit on topics of which she'd prefer to remain ignorant. :P ----------------------- minneapolis, MN: graffiti on the reverse side of a big sign for grain belt beer near downtown minneapolis. MN was the only state other than MA to vote for dukakis in 1988; why anyone thought it'd be a good idea to have the republican national convention in the twin cities this year is beyond me. minnesota: have lunch with friend from first elementary school, whom i hadn't seen in 17 years. discover a new coffeehouse; am pleased about cold-brewed iced coffee, but disconcerted about paying 175% of what *1369* charges for it. laundry, thai food with the parents...was this the night my mom fed me valium ("it's a muscle relaxant!") for the spasming in my shoulder? maybe that's why i'm foggy on this one. ----------------------- stillwater, MN: the "liftbridge" in action. river shown is the st. croix, which dumps into the mississippi and is, at this point in its length, the border between MN and WI. minnesota: begin to notice maybe half of all the billboards around here are preachy or political - "oil is the alternative to ethanol," "clean coal means american families spend less on energy" (showing a very blond, very white, 1-boy-1-girl family of 4 standing in a field, of course); anti-smoking, anti-abortion, jesus stuff in general...no wonder my parents sometimes seem as though they've gone off the paranoid political deep end. lovely lunch with my mom and a friend of hers from work; get my car back! dinner in stillwater with my parents, aunt, and uncle, minus my grandmother (who left because she spontaneously started vomiting. no good). had thoughts about going out and catching a show, but i'm so tired....