In June 2011 I said yes when Bree cajoled me into coming to the Twin Cities Improv Fest afterparty, like we were the cool kids, not superfan creepers.
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Leaf Peepin
October saw us on aeroplanes herk-jerkin to Boston that chewed us up in traffic and spit us out on 93. It was dark and stormy when we reached our destination—a New Hampshire cabin owned by Arthur’s aunt and uncle.
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Horse of a Different Color
I pranced, galloped, sweat in troughs, high-hooved children and nuzzled howling teens, delighting looky-loos and certified queens and posed for dozens of selfies.
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weeding wonder
I’m doing grubby pulls, the grossest of the gross, a final sweep before we RFID everything. Get those torn, ragged, stained, worn smokers’ home monstrosities off the shelf.
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Big Bend and Marfa
We wanted to camp in Big Bend and return to the McDonald Observatory. See the heavens through giant telescopes, through our naked eyes, tiny orbs in the galaxy and the Marfa lights.
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snail chainmail
He shines at cutting to the chase. Upfront about openness and great at advice, our hearts have often been in the best worst place, and he never lets me get away with not knowing what I’m really saying.
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decembering
Into a false winter where the sun still feels a balmy 69 then sets when it damn please.
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birthday cave
Wednesday was Arthur’s birthday.
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Arkansas Adventure
For Memorial Day Weekend we went to Hot Springs, Arkansas, famed for its ancient, bubbling waters the one-time cure-all of baseball players, gangsters and the frail elite, the ailing down-and-out, too. While some original offerings are intact—spas in the historic buildings along Bathhouse Row—tourist trap attractions have taken hold in haunted street tours, the duck-bus-boat-things…
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new map
Where do I begin?
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Chapter Next: Austin, TX
Librarians, we’re the worst, we never rest, men in black will march to the reference desk, muzzle cries of access, freedom to read, information privacy, making inner worlds safe for democracy, enriched and courageous, one worth embracing.
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trophies
Time does things. Knots your bootstraps and puts you to sleep.
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lionsitting
We stirred magic capsules in a cauldron of water till they turned into foam bugs.
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observantory
This time we go west, wave at Fredericksburg as we pass, into the deep expanse of desert steppe and mesas.
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book club with grandpa
I was in a book club this summer with my grandpa. He picked Moby Dick.
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2012 llama pageant: the kids are all right
The Llama Costume Contest at the 2012 Minnesota State Fair returned with glorious, unbridled imagination and drama at every cloven step. Which clever sibling, competing side by side, will have the superior theme and costume execution? Will Annaliese and her Viking Ship Llama again reign supreme to recapture the Llama Crown? DEAR GOD is that…
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House on the Rock
A shaky truth inside rebuke: Desire this wild, this intense and detailed excises the requirement to answer for it.
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safety and love
I looked for proper dinosaurs to give my niece for her second birthday, but all I could find are battery-operated blinkenlight mech-warrior monstrosities, with guns.
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treevenge
A couple years ago, my dad bought some land up lake country so he can be the Minnesotan that he acts like.
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Costa Rica! Part 1: San José
This post covers the first leg, when I was working in the capital San José, with some exploring on my own but mostly touring with university folks.
Narratives
Longer posts of creative nonfiction.
