Minneapolis Part 2

"Where is my mind? Where is my mind?" The song on the radio as I wrote this entry. 

Woke up today really early – figured I’d get an early start on working on the Montana research project. However, I realized that there wasn’t any way to access the internet or the garage, so I had to come up with my own projects that morning. I started by shaving – that felt really good and I look really sexy now. Then, I went ahead and took a shower. Very refreshing, met my need for self care. Later, I went on Lee’s computer to check email. A nice way to pass the time. I also had the bravery to cook up some oatmeal that morning. Glad to have the opportunity to offer that to Lenny and Lee as they woke up blurry eyed from their slumber.

I sat in meditation for 15 minutes – I’ve done that two mornings in a row now. This journal writing is exhausting. It is almost five in the morning. It’s like I just want to be done so I can go to sleep. I can feel that, that need for rest. There’s also this need for reflection and growth, which the journal offers me. There’s something else – a need for trust. How can I trust myself that all this hard work is really going to pay off? I guess I just gotta have faith. I must trust this channel.

After meditation, I noticed that Joel had awakened. I immediately asked about the password to access the internet, which he offered graciously. We then went into the garage together where he gave me the spare set of keys to use with the guys in order to come in and out of the house. He also showed me the spare crank and the spare derailleur we could use to adjust Lee’s bicycle for the big hills. While we were out there, I was able to grab my notebook and my flash drive.

I came back inside and while eating some breakfast, immediately went to work on compiling the data. The other guys were still in bed mostly, and when they awoke, they took their sweet time getting out of bed and out into the world. They wrote letters to people and Lee, as usual, spent a lot of time on facebook.

I worked until about 4:00, taking some nap breaks in between. My companion was MPR, the current, which played all the songs and tracks I loved, from Bon Iver to Mumford and Sons to Iron and Wine. It was fantastic, except that I was doing work for the paper that Nic was going to write. Luckily, I stuck through it and compiled the data sheets as best as I could given the circumstances.

I felt accomplished – like I was finally making progress on something I had put off for too long. I felt competent – like I was doing a job only I could do. Later, when I finally sent my final email to Nic, I felt an overwhelming sense of relief and ease. I took a half hour nap just out of the sure sense of freedom I felt finally being done with what had taken me a full year to do.

I read a chapter in Zen Mind and received a call from Lenny. We would meet down at Loring Park near by Hennepin Avenue. When I arrived, I marveled at the quaint little park in the middle of downtown, a park I had sped through the day before on my way back to the house. There was this fountain that looked like one of those electric balls.

I found the guys seated near the playground. Lenny was pretending to smoke a cigar with a fallen pine comb. I shared my sense of relief and new found love with the gang as we continued to hang out a bitin the park. Lee called his friend, Lenny went god knows where, and I played on the seesaw, climbed trees, and rode around the park.

We left the park to check out the main drag, which happened to be Hennepin Avenue. We parked our bikes outside an expresso royale and got some monsoon Darjeeling tea as well as a chicken curry sandwich for me. The guys had already eaten after the farmer’s market they had gone to earlier in the day after going to the Minneapolis Institute of Art. All I had had was a little bit of pasta and pesto along with the oatmeal from earlier that morning. We sat and talked – Lee and I got into a conversation about living places during our stint in college and I learned about the flooding disaster in science four. Very sad, kind of dwelled in it, stared at it. I tend to do that.

As we walked, we noticed a lot of theatres that we weren’t interested in. The big thing happening was the Big Block Party, which none of us were really interested in going to sea. We did find a nice gay bar, called the Brass Rail, which I totally wanted to party at, but the guys said no due to the cover  charge.

I got a call from my mother regarding an unpaid ticket and became a bit sullen. I talked it out with Lenny and Lee. Lee was really good this time – he was like “Ok Michael, what is it?” From there, I just mentioned how I was worried about the dmv stuff. Then, they said together, “Hey, you can’t do anything about it now. Just put it on the calendar “worry later.” “ I think they made a great point. I still had one last thing I needed – a hug. When you’re battling new York state and your mother at the same time in your head, you really need some loving, caring support else you might drown underneath all the destructive voices. Trying to keep it together and maintain my sense of loving kindness. Trying to maintain my center.

At this point, we were nearby the orchestra center. We asked about different places to eat with the locals and learned about Namaste in uptown as well as Pancho Villa. We were pretty set on eating there until we saw that there was an string orchestra performance that had just started. We had to sort through some other options before deciding that we’d maybe eat real quick at one of the stands and go in for a nice meal. We ended up just going in and waiting until the intermission to eat.

We entered in the middle of Petrushka. The piece that tells a story. There was a projector that guided us through the piece. It was quite entertaining. As I usual do in a music hall with an orchestra playing, my mind began to wander big time, but with such resonance. Like my senses had been enhanced and I could hear all my thoughts with such increased clarity.

Lenny and I ate a burger at one of the stands at intermission while Lee read the program. There was a soloist who was very good after intermission – apparently, he had completed a film and was quite renown. Watching him play his violin, I started to believe the violin was indeed an appendage on his body, the way he moved and used it. The last piece was the firebird suite – an epic piece that made the whole performance worthwhile.

After the performance, we shared our impressions. Lee was really impressed, talked about how he had done the firebird suite himself in school at one point. Lenny was quiet. Lee really has a strong taste for music and I resonanted and connected strongly with him after the performance.

“That ending is just the most epic,” said Lee.

“BAH BAH BOHM BAH BOHM,” I shouted as we walked down Nicolette avenue.

“Seems to tell the story of a phoenix, or a hero making it’s journey,” I said.

“ I remember learning about the story in music history class, something about a bird’s feather and an evil man turning to stone,” said Lee.

We returned to our bikes – it was 10:30 and we were still ready to see more of Minneapolis night life. We rode to uptown. We took Hennepin, which turned out to be a real shit show, compared to the suggested bike route I put forth. Another case of me getting really upset and wanting to curse my teammates, but I kept it inside and tried to put some trust in the guys. Once we arrived in uptown, I just mentioned that I knew the way on the bike path and maybe we could take it.

When we got to uptown, we found out that Namaste was not serving food anymore. We decided to stop at a pizza place across the street instead to get some late night za. We got the white pizza, much to my pleasure, and Lenny and Lee got some duvals. We talked some more, this time about women and religion, two very important topics for me in my life. I think I got to the bottom of it with Lenny.

“I guess I just feel lonely because there’s not a lot of people who believe in god anymore.”

“Well, you’re a bioengineering, though you can’t separate the parts, the emergence has a strictly biological basis. You can’t call it supernatural.”

“Science answers what. God answers why.”

“I guess you’re right,” I said.

We rode our bikes on the greenway with me leading the way and then we took 3^rd avenue past the MIA over the stone bridge to see the falls. It was nice that the guys were leading me around after I led them through the greenway. We saw some cool night time lighting effects along the way.

We rode on into NE Minneapolis. We were looking for the 331. We met some other bicyclists and asked them the way. Turned out they were going in the same direction. The guy, I can’t remember his name, was from Sioux Falls, which was to be our next destination. He was way cool.

“If you can’t tell, I am an astronaut,” pointing to his white and blue suit.

We arrived at the 331 with only about an hour and half before closing. There was a band playing, but I wasn’t really into them. I just wanted to get to know some locals, and most of these hipsters were just giving me the cold shoulder. I almost lost it and began the spiral of self doubt when I went outside and checked my intentions. I want to meet people, especially girls. I don’t want to leave tonight without talking to girls. So, I got up and walked behind the bar where people were standing and had my first warm up conversation with a woman who was married to a music recorder. It was sort of small and uninspired, but it really loosened me up and got me out of my head.

I went inside just as the band was finishing up and got a beer for last calls. The guys were already ready to go and I told them to wait a while and talk to some people. I talked to a few and some more cold shoulders until I met Amelia. She was the coolest! From watertown, she talked about her small town and all that good stuff. She had a very fun and expressive way of being that I cherished from the moment I met her. Her boyfriend Zach was awesome as well – he came up and started chatting with me and he was just a load of fun. I also got to meet Allison, Amelia’s good friend, who I had tried talking to earlier while I was still in freak out mode.

Before I knew it, I was walking with these people over to a house party. Amelia and I tried to climb the brick wall outside the 331. As we walked, Eric and Allison sang a song about going to the party and as they did, they must have convinced like 6 other random people to come. It was a riot. Once we got there, everyone was really friendly and asking me about my life and history. Eric offered me a magic hat which I gladly accepted. There were three girls there on a bachelorette party – one of them was from NY, which was pretty cool. I wish I had continued talking to them – they seemed really down to earth. But soon, I was up and dancing around with Zach, making an ass of myself.

Then, the most beautiful three women from South Dakota entered. I started talking to one of them and I felt so so connected. She kept looking me in the eyes and talked about these crazy bicyclists she had met and she talked about baking and we both talked about Judaism. I thought I was going to get with this girl, when her girlfriends decided they wanted to leave. I gave her my information and made a lame request for a kiss before she left. She declined.

I felt really embarrassed and awkward after that. The girl told her friend “He just asked me to kiss him. Let’s go.” I felt the same way. I waited in the kitchen for a little bit before heading out onto the porch, realizing I had no reason to feel embarrassed.

I think the porch was the best part of the evening. I told my little embarrassing story and got a few laughs from the community. And they really were a community – known each other for 8 years. Such a special connection and a free flow of energy and love. I only hope I can have the same someday.

“So, I was sitting outside and just really enjoying the stars when laura was like “honey, there’s only like two people in the house, we should get to sleep” so I got up and felt in in my stomach and barfed”

“OH hey, here’s the local paper. What does it say? Local man barfs in his own backyard.”

“I hate snakes.”

The most hilarious nonsense. When I told them about the kiss, Amelia was very helpful in making me understand. If one girl gets kissed, they all have to get kissed. Curse my friends for leaving me that night.

I left even though Dan had offered me to stay and crash. I didn’t want to be away from the gang that night, so I declined and walked with the rest of the people heading home. We talked about how we would look each other up on facebook and I headed back to the 331 for my bike. Got a little turned around along the way, but eventually found my way to my bike and on my bike to Monroe. Listened to a little bit of This Town Needs Guns Along the way.

It was five am. What a night..