Getting My Brain Rubbed in a Different Way

It’s finally really and truly summer here in Minnesota. The temp zoomed to the upper 90s on the first of July and now has settled into the high 80s and some humidity as July moves along.

The jackets have come off and shorts, flip flops, and tank tops are now in vogue, even if your belly bounces like a bowl full of jelly.

The flowers are blooming, the tomatoes are growing, and everything seems like it should be.

Except that I’m unemployed for the moment, a victim of the Minnesota government shutdown. The DFL and the GOP are battling it out and trying really hard not to be the one who blinks first.

Even when we were kids, we learned to find the middle ground, but I guess when we grow up and become politicians, it becomes a little trickier.

I applied for unemployment today, but I’m hoping I won’t have to claim it. The company I contract for is waiting to see how the wind is blowing before calling me back to work on a different project.

We’re about halfway through the project and I know my boss doesn’t want to lose me and to start up with another person. So my company drew up a statement of work contract so I can be moved onto a different project if the shutdown goes on for a long time.

I imagine I’ll be out for at least a week. So I’m getting an unpaid week of vacation right after the 4th of July, at the height of a Minnesota summer, and I guess that’s not too bad.

If Joe wasn’t suffering with the effects of the shingles (pain and burning), I’d suggest going on a road trip. But the boyfriend is confining himself to his apartment with rare trips to the store or over to my house for dinner, so I guess getting him to drive to California to go to Yosemite National Park might be a bit much. Plus, his eye is still swollen a bit, which makes it difficult for him to see.

So I went on an adventure myself yesterday. I drove over to the big city of Minneapolis and went to the Walker Art Center.

I haven’t been to the Walker in years. It’s in a new building, but the art is just as edgy and interesting as it always was. You’re not going to see the Mona Lisa at the Walker, but you will see all kinds of art, including media, and some of it is very dark, and very sexy, too.

There was a slide show called “The Ballad of Sexual Dependency” by Nan Goldin. It’s awesome, especially the music. The photos are interesting and some are very explicit. While we were watching the show, a couple with two small children came in. I said, “You probably don’t want to bring your children in here.” They kind of looked at me like, “Yeah, like you really know what you’re talking about.”

They stayed for a couple of slides and then realized it wasn’t a good idea to have their children watch and left.

There were signs stating this was explicit material for adults. I guess some people can’t read.

I had a nice lunch on the patio outside the Walker. A turkey breast sandwich and yogurt filled my tummy.

I glanced over to the sidewalk on which Ray and I walked countless times to get to the Guthrie Theater when it was still next to the Walker. I remember some of those warm summer evenings, walking with Ray, hand in hand, as we made our way to the theater. What a special couple we were.

After lunch, I wondered over to the Sculpture Garden.

I never have been to the Sculpture Garden. Ray and I skipped around it on our walks to the Guthrie. We wondered around in the greenhouses once in a while to kill some time when we were a bit early for a play, but the Sculpture Garden was always on our “to do” list and never checked off.

Well, I checked it off. It was so fun to meander around the sculptures and try to think of interesting ways to photograph them.

My brain was getting rubbed in a different way than it was used to. It’s not used to being asked to explore its creative powers and it was tickled to do so.

Today I decided to visit the Minnesota Landscape Arboretum. It was a gorgeous summer day. Warm temps, no wind, and very little humidity.

I’ve been to the Arboretum exactly once and that was about 5,000 years ago, and all it had was a small visitors center and a couple of rose bushes. Well, it wasn’t that bad, but there wasn’t much there back in the dinosaur era.

Now it’s a place of magical gardens, almost like Chinese boxes, as I moved out of one garden, I moved into another.

I did the Three Mile Drive, but I couldn’t stop walking into all those gardens, and almost forgot where I parked my car a few times.

Again, the Arboretum was on our “to do” list, and was waiting to be checked off, and it was checked today.

But these are penciled check marks, because both the Walker and the Arboretum demand return visits. And my poor, regimented brain demands return visits, too. It enjoyed being let loose for a while.