flatland

my hotel window this morning. it's about 15 degrees warmer now than it was 12 hours ago. 

more stadium angles. 

the Midwest is slightly less boring than you might suspect. 

home of the two-martini lunch, old sport. 

Fort Snelling National Cemetery. 208,000 stark white gravestones as far as the train-bound eye can see.  

the tantalizing Lego wall at the fucking Mall of What's Wrong With America warrants a repeat, although it's not nearly as impressive as one might think. only the rows you can actually reach on this 25' wall are available, and many of the bins are repeats, and the largest pieces are 2x4. and no flat pieces! and only

one type of foliage! how rapidly such marvelous scenes bring out the hypercritical spoiled brat in me. 

there was also a station where you could build your own Lego humans, 3/$9.99. there were a lot of doctor torsos, helmets, and blue legs, and not much else. 

within the 4 story amusement park atrium thing. it was actually kinda neat, on a fucking cold and bleak day, to wander through this warm planty place. I sat on a bench like a creepy spinster and ate overpriced yogurt left over from the hotel, using a plastic fork I swiped from the Orange Julius. 

grainy things along Hiawatha Ave. 

and back downtown.

alleyway icicles. 

1st N. 

there are so many evocative and moldering properties for sale here. 

...requiring of the Yes filter. 

I love old advertising murals on brick walls. doesn't everyone? 

some salt-detritus on a bus stop bench.

and yet another random moment in the reality according to Minneapolis. 

I'm on the plane, still sitting at the gate. beside me is the grandmother, across the aisle is the mom, and in front are the two squirrely children with their unmuted godawful iPads. it's such a different world now. the grandmother is staring at the ceiling of the cabin, looking grim, clutching her reading glasses in one hand and her word find book in the other. 

when everyone was still in the terminal, the woman at the gate got on the intercom to welcome everyone to the flight and introduce the two main flight attendants, "Sherry and Mary." the guy next to me snickered at the the same time I did. 

the best part of traveling is going home and reappreciating everything you've got.