Summer 2014 - Day 0

I slept in because I COULD, then I got ready and put Bruno in his carrier to take to be boarded at the vet. He hardly ate any food that I gave him, and in the car, he cried. I looked back at him a couple of times and saw him with his little mouth open :(

Bruno was scared.

I got to the vet, filled out the paperwork, and left my little baby to be cared for while I was gone. On my way back to the apartment, I did get a pic of a pretty cool little bit of the Heights.

Arriving home to a Brunoless apartment was very sad, but I quickly got to packing and cleaning. Around 2, I went to get some lunch and coffee at Tacos, then I did more cleaning and called for a cab. I took out the garbage and when I got back, the cab was ready, so I pulled my things together and left for my Great Minnesota Getaway (aka Wisconsin Sandwich with Minnesota Bread).

Oh, there was some traffic on the way to the airport, but we got there. I tried to guess if my cabbie was from Somalia, but he said Ethiopia, and I talked a little about what I knew about Ethiopia from my studies of African History in college - like how it was the only African country to defeat a European power.

I arrived at the airport at about quarter after 4 for my 5:30 flight, checked in, and got in line for security. The security line was good, and I ended up in a TSA experimental line where we didn't have to remove shoes or jackets and our laptops and liquid bags could stay in our luggage. It was quite nice. I was then off to my gate, and after some slight confusion about whether or not I was at the right gate, I settled in my seat. The vet called and told me that Bruno was not eating, nor had he done the thing on the other end, but he seemed otherwise okay. If he had not done the other thing by Friday, they would do a lateral x-ray.

Then it was a waiting game, and finally, it was time to board. I got up to my appropriate place in line and said to a guy,"I'm 48, what are you?" and he looked stunned and said "you don't look it." It turned out that he was A 49, and I smiled - I'd been recently told that I look 25, but I'm not, I'm 33, though I didn't say either of those things.

So we got on the plane and I picked my seat near the back, on the right side of the plane, if you face toward the front. Some guy sat in the aisle, and then toddlers arrived. An army of toddlers, all of them agitated - well, sort of. It must have been at least 3, maybe 5, and I think parents are advised to sit in the rear of the plane. I do it so I can be guaranteed a window seat and because I don't like being rushed off the plane, but the toddlers are a risk I face. A woman with really cool hair - more or less natural African hair that was pinned up to the front of her head, with some curls over her forehead - sat in the middle seat.

The flight began and I read my queued up blog pages from my favorite blog, then got to my book. I then did my hair up in "bantu knots" to be curly and continued to read. The toddlers screamed, then they yelled, and then they did the chain scream. Over and over and over again until we got to our stop in Kansas City. My book happened to help me be a little meta about the screaming toddlers, and I was able to keep perspective. I told my neighbor that I really liked her hair and we had some small talk about Minnesota, where she was visiting too after 1 year in Houston. She had lived in Minnesota for about 5 of 6 years. Later, she left to go sit in a window seat in the front for our flight to Minneapolis.

The flight crew announced that our trip to MSP would only have 95 people, while the plane held 137 people (I think), but that there would be 14 wheelchairs, so space up front needed to be made. I hoped that this meant that there would be fewer toddlers, and there were, but some did appear. No one sat in the middle seat this time, so I put the tray table down and requested a club soda. We eventually landed at MSP and I deplaned with a smile - I do love Minnesota.

My dad would protest this, saying that we have more lakes in Wisconsin,
that they're better, and we probably have loons too. Oh, and then he would
remind me that there are Viking fans in Minnesota too, which is a downside.

Then I was on my way to Ground Transportation and the Rental Car lobby. After a slight mishap at the elevators - I went up instead of down - I was there, and the woman that sat next to me was also at the counter. I thought of saying hello, but then didn't. After a while, I overheard that she mentioned "trying SuperShuttle" and I thought - to late perhaps - that I should have offered to give her a ride to her destination, pending it not being too far away, but she was walking away. Oh well.

I chatted with the rental car guys and told them about the Internet Cat Video Film Festival at the Walker Arts Center. The guy at the counter was disappointed that it ended at 10, which meant that he could not go, but perhaps he could go next year. I got my car - a white Ford Focus (after turning down a VW Beetle - I told them that my ideal car was "non-descript", which prompted them to tease me about "what I was up to while here") and was on my way to la casa de K & J. I had directions on my phone and did not have to turn around once until I got to their street. It was so dark that I had a hard time finding their house number, but after two turns, I did find it, and drove in the driveway.

K & J were very gracious hosts and showed me the amazing room that I would be staying in, complete with hella owls, which are so in right now. Apparently, K has been ahead of this trend and has loved owls for a very long time. I also met their furballs, Bunny and Cricket.  We chatted for a good long while, and then I was off to bed.