Woke up this morning after an amazing day yesterday! Had some seriously good time to be with family, reflect on my own, exercise, work on art, and meet some buds late later. What was cool about meeting my friends was the idea they put out about having a "Mendota stock."
Basically involving the local businesses and bands to come together in this sleepy suburban neighborhood and do something to bring the community out and to get together.
What's cool about talking ideas like these and others, then writing them down in this blog allows the idea to take a step further down the conceptualization line. My friend N was like, "We get bands to sell tickets, approach Theresa's, Tommy Chicago's, the Moose, and Lucky's, and we've got a great event cooking."
Seeing an opportunity, and taking action --- really empowering! I gotta write about the stars though!
As I walked home, they were so exceptionally bright! It was a reminder that life, and the world around us is such a miracle! I was struck that millions of light years away, these stars are shining brightly like our Sun. And that we, living our daily lives, are navigating the Universe on this rotating planet we call home; Mother (ship) Earth.
It was really humbling...and I know and continue to strive for what I believe in! Drawing tonight at the Minneapolis Atelier! Great place if ya don't know, now ya do! http://theatelier.org/
Until tmrrow STart SEEing GraFFIti!
Hey Hey, this from my big sis C,
ReplyDeleteI'm posting it here because this blog's creation was sparked at a moment in life of transition, a pivotal turning point. Enjoy!
Subject: Fellowship of the Ding-a-lings
or
*There and Back Again, a RPCV's Tale*
or
Surviving Through Russia with Leanne, Ramsey, Meg,
Steph, Josh, and Josh's Brother, Pic
or
"God Help Us...in God's Country"
***
BOOK 1:
Well shit, y'all. You *know* I ain't no poet, but
Godhelpme, even Dickensen or Frost couldn't avoid the
metaphor for the ice-cream truck situation as we left
Ulaanbaatar back two weeks ago on June the 22nd!! My
God...it was POURING rain that day...that day we left
Mongolia for good...our WORLD ENDED (as we knew it)
and after we hugged our remaining friends goodbye
there at the Chinggis Restaurant, the seven of us were
herded into the back of an ice cream truck and the
door sealed us in, without light, without proper
oxygen...like a coffin...our life in Mongolia ended.
Or was it like a womb...as our life in Russia together
was about to begin? My Lord, it was...surreal. I
felt torn apart that day, yet it was oddly appropriate
that the last moments I'd spend in Ulaanbaatar would
be in the back of a truck in the rain without being
able to catch one last glimpse of Ulaanbaatar...my
home for the past year. It was certainly over!
And today, it's almost two weeks after that...I'm
sitting at this posh little internet cafe in Moscow--a
city more exciting than I'd ever imagined it could
be--and trying to piece together the past two weeks of
our trip. This trip I imagined months and months
ago...and now here we are...experiencing it. And I'm
trying not to look back too much....
This is a perfect way to return back to America.
Let me go back...so that rainy Saturday in UB. We
celebrated our last supper with the folks at the
Chinggis...had my last 5500 tugrig steak and two tom
xap peeves. It was actually humid out! We hugged
goodbye to the folk, we stepped into the dark maw of
the ice-cream mashine, and headed off one last time
to...
...the Peace Corps Office...
We had things to pick up that we totally forgot to
pick up. Like Leanne and Steph's clothes...and my new
sunglasses. But we forgot them. I got out of the
truck and stepped into the Peace corps office for one
last time. It was Saturday so no one was really
there. I walked into the mail/TV room one last time
and it was like I'd already left. Tried to soak in
the fact that I had 3 years of memories in those now
empty rooms...as far back as my first year...coming
into town from Hovsgol and screaming in the hall when
I saw Annie again...and Mary and Sara and Ian and
Legler and all the folks...dear Lord. And then to
think of it in my third year as a regular there in the
office...coming down to chat with folks watching
TV...or to meet for lunch (if I wasn't taking too long
upstairs with this or that which I usually was...gotta
keep up that reputation....) Za za.
I looked around one last time and skipped out of the
office and back into the truck. We continued on to
the train station and then got seen off in the rainy
confusion by Bold, Carlee, her beau, and Leanne's
teachers...the moment had finally come. I was a
little choked up. Jesus, three years! Look around.
I've become really...comfortable here...Mongolia.
Bayartai!!
PS, this is only part, if you want more, post your e-mail addy here and I can give ya the rest!
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