apple juice

about a week ago, we had one of those late-season snows that leaves minnesotans wondering… is this ever going to end?

we sat down for lunch, and co-worker betsy said, mournfully, when will the grass be green again? (there was an inch of slush on the ground)

we all chuckled, and I said, in roughly the same tone, daddy, tell me what it was like when the birds sang…

anyway, i really like taking photos… i think i’m getting better at it. but it’s very obvious that to get better, you need to practice. and at some point every spring, the minnesotan in me starts thinking… what can i take pictures of? everything is grey.

well, i tried to shake it off and go out to snap a few pics. here are a few of my favorites:

luckily, all things pass.

I’ve been to North Memorial Hospital a couple times recently. It’s a fine hospital, but they have one major customer service flaw.

The ATM only dispenses $20s.

Ok, that’s not actually the flaw. The flaw is that the parking garage doesn’t accept cards.

Ok, actually, that’s not the flaw either. The flaw is the fact that the parking attendant is invariably crabby and pissed because people hand him $20s all day long. He has hand-written signs all over his booth to let everyone know in advance that the crisp new andrew jackson they hold in their sweaty hands will make him angry.

Normally, I’d apologize for the fact that I only have a twenty, and dig through my coin tray to see if I can make $3.00 from sticky pennies and nickels. I never can, but I think he appreciates the effort.

This time, after making a quick trip that fell into the 0-30 Minutes – $1.00 range, I handed him my fresh-from-wells-fargo twenty dollar bell.

“Got anything smaller?” he barked

“The ATM doesn’t dispense singles” I retorted.

I never retort. It felt kind good.

He proceeded to count out 8 quarters, 2 singles, a five and a ten.

“Have a nice day…” I said sheepishly as I drove away.

So North Memorial…. seriously. Either accept credit cards in your parking garage like every other hospital in the city does, or offer free parking. Or get a new parking attendant that doesn’t get angry at something that I can’t control.

My new thing is alphabetizing stuff.

So far I have completed:

1. Take out menus.
2. House files
3. CDs (this was done long ago)

I’m not sure what else to do around here? Books?

Nah.

Just found this website (SoulPancake) and this artist, Anis Mojgani.

Anis is one of those rare people who can talk about life in a real, accessible way. No fuss. No frills. No airy-fairy embellishments. Just BOOM! Your humanity, on stage, speaking to you. Even people who think poetry is well, lame, become transfixed by what they witness. So it’s no wonder he has been the World Poetry Slam Champion as well as National Poetry Slam Champion (twice).

via SoulPancake | Decodifying God and manhood (uh … yes, please).

do you know what is funny? my blog software has this fancy “draft” feature. yeah, it allows you, the writer, to save a piece in progress for further reflection and revision. perhaps, after thinking about it, you’ll return to that piece you’ve been working on with new insight. or, you may return to it and find it to be not all that great after all.

I should try it out sometime.

take a gander at 20 of the most popular Top 10’s that have published in 2008 so far.

via Best Of 2008: Most Popular Top 10’s of 2008.

I love Top 10 lists for some reason… here’s a meta-top 20

The first snow of the year is always a bit magical, even if it is only a little dusting.

Waking up and looking outside to see snow makes my heart skip a little bit. Think of all the fun things we’ll be doing in the snow!