Settling In

Slowly but surely, I am starting to settle in here.  My internship begins tomorrow, classes will follow on Thursday and Friday, providing more routine and structure to my days.  As I prepare for the coming week, here are a few snippets of life in Minneapolis that are making me feel grounded in the midst of all these changes...

* Dilly beans.  A gift from my dad - along with two jars of strawberry jam, a jar of blackberry jam, and a jar of pickled quail eggs, all of which he canned over the summer. AND I can't believe I forgot to include this in the first version of this post - salmon fillets from a fish my brother caught out of Lake Michigan last week.

* Morning walks in Loring Park.  Spotting the great white heron that hangs out at the lake.  Discovering that the park's community center allows you to borrow free horseshoes to use at the horseshoe pit. 

* Lost treasures.  I am finally able to display accumulated treasures that date back to high school when I worked at a neighbor's antique store.  I never had the space to show off things like my elephant mantle clock or vintage croquet set (perfect for Loring Park outings) in NYC.

* Art for art's sake.  As with my elephant clock and other assorted oddities, I now have enough wall space to hang some of the special pieces we have amassed.  This wall shows the first arrangement we hung, and each piece has a special story.   From the top left is a baobab batik from when I lived in Senegal.   My grandmother painted the trillium watercolor and the blueberries were painted by my elementary school art teacher.  I bought the multicolor abstract for $8 at my college's art department silent art auction (bidding started at $5!).  The last piece is an architectural sketch my friend's mom did of my parent's home (which they recently sold).  The painting intended for the blank space has been chosen for another area, so I get to reshift once again.  It is fun to think about finding special places for different items.

* Bells, bells, bells.  With three historic churches in the area, church bells always seem to be ringing and echoing in the distance.  An old fashioned bring-a-ling school bell rings across the street every morning at 7:30, the source being a Spanish Immersion school for students from kindergarten through 8th grade.  Today is the first day of school for them, I've listened to their shrieks and squeals from my front stoop as they are let out for lunch and recess.

* I have a stoop!  How ironic that I should come into this architectural feature only by leaving NYC.  I love watching the city pass by as I watch from my perch. 

* Mystery piano solos.  Often in the evenings, when the sun is fading from the window in my reading nook (I have a reading nook!), I hear the sounds of a piano drifting from a neighboring apartment.  There is no pattern to when he/she decides to play, so I love the surprise element of these spontaneous concerts and feel lucky that I can hear the muted melodies through my window.

* Minnesota Public Radio.  Three stations (contemporary, classical, and news), one fierce commitment to broadcasting.  A couple mindboggling stats from Wikipedia indicate that MPR is the second largest public radio organization in the US, behind NPR, and that %15 of Minnesotans over the age of 12 listen on a weekly basis. 

Comments

[Michelle]

Holy crap, I love that elephant clock! So glad you're settling in, though man, you are making me homesick!

[melissa]

I don't know nothin' about dilly beans, but it sure has been a long time since I've had home-made blackberry jam. It's so nice to have something of home in a new place. I hope you had a great first day at school!