Fun Holiday Moment

I wish I had caught this live but it's great to see my school doing something fun like this.



 

It starts getting really good around 2:15 when the security guard shows up.

Isn't it a gorgeous atrium? The globe in the middle is so shiny & glistening--after all, iridescence is a cousin to rainbow!

I've always wanted to participate in a flash mob...the concept is neat to me.

Happy Holidays!

I Need a Quarterstaff

People watching downtown Minneapolis never ceases to amaze & inspire me.

Sometimes the inspiration is to run fast & far away, but thankfully this particular instance did not send me fast-walking away in horror.

Just as I was walking in the doors, I noticed someone walking briskly down the sidewalk going pat, pat, TICK, pat, pat, TICK, pat, pat, TICK...

No, she wasn't drumming as she walked or hitting herself on her flank as if she was riding a pretend cowhorse or even impersonating an analog clock.

That's my approximation of what her walk sounded like as she approached.

The TICK was coming from the tall walking staff she was using to move down the sidewalk. Not just any walking stick, either, but a real God's-honest staff, complete with a funky-cool knob on top and possibly some runic designs carved into its length.

For all appearances, this staff was not needed to help her walk in any way. True, it is winter in Minnesota, but we've yet to have any snow stick *knock on wood* so using a staff isn't required, just yet, to navigate the snow-piles that tend to accumulate on the sidewalks as winter wears on and the MN dept of transportation is running out of places to put the damn stuff.

Immediately I started thinking....

Does she carry this staff to make an artsy-fartsy statement of some kind?
Is she carrying this staff to go to a class on staff-carving?
Does she carry the staff to get attention?
Is she carrying the staff to fend off unwanted men hitting on her?

Eventually I decide that this must not be a neat-o walking staff, but instead is an actual quarterstaff!

This seems much more fun than thinking she's just a bit odd.

Quarterstaffs were my favorite go-to weapon when I first started playing D&D. You have two ends to hit with and as it's a simple weapon almost any character can use one, plus having to obtain a new one is easy if you lose or break your old one. Just find any likely tree, cut it down, scrape off the bark & extra branches and do some smoothing and...VOILA! Brand new goblin-thumping weapon at your service.

My favorite old-school D&D character, a ranger by the name of Tail-Kinker, even got hers modified with blades on the end to deal extra damage when in combat. (I had a very tolerant DM at the time, who not only allowed me to play a made-up race of my own that was basically a humanoid kitty-cat, but also indulged me in letting her turn into any type or size feline if she took a full round action to "meow" and transform. Of course whenever she changed, her gear didn't change with her, so my adventuring PC friends were forced to grab my stuff frequently, seeing as how in feline form I had no opposable thumbs...and there was the tricky aspect that I would be naked when I transformed back....but I digress).

For some reason the thought that this lady was walking around with a deadly weapon hidden in plain sight as she strolled around downtown in the middle of the day tickled my funnybone. Would she get flack for having it on the bus? Would the police that regularly patrol certain areas of downtown tell her she has to peace-holster her stick?

And most of all, does she know how to use that thing properly?

I'll fully admit that while Tail-Kinker knew which end of the stick was what, I personally have no knowledge other than that you whap them with the hard end.

But I'm guessing that if I decided to start carrying a quarterstaff to protect my innocence on the mysterious and sometimes dangerous bus through the bad part of town, it would come in handy, no matter how little I know about actually wielding it effectively.

After all, can you see a random thug/drug dealer/miscreant on the 22 bus through N.Mpls being able to react quickly to a twirling staff? The delay as they pause to figure out what the heck I'm doing as I jump around and swing my quarterstaff should give me enough of a head start to get the hell away.

And if that doesn't work, I'll thump them with the stiff end. Either that, or use it to pole-vault myself ahead to get a lead on them.

Thankful for Good Deeds

It is here, the time of year when people are simultaneously at their most cheerful and most cranky.

The holidays can alternately inspire cheer, dread, anxiety, happiness, depression...and often all to the same person in the same day.

I love the gathering together of loved ones, the generousity the season inspires and all the good food.

I dread the crowds, the cranky people having to deal with those crowds & the worries of the season, and the inescapable financial concerns the holidays bring with them.

But I'm hopeful this year, because my first encounter with holiday crowds last night, albeit very brief, was a positive one.

If doing a good deed, even a minor one, makes you feel this good, why aren't we doing them all the time? Why do we do mean things at all, when doing the opposite has such great consequences? Why, oh why, is it easier to be naughty then nice in the spur of the moment? Why is it harder to reign in the negative things and harder to do positive stuff?

For me personally, I am a procrastinator, so I am queen at justifying why I won't be doing something good just yet. There's always the "I'll donate when I have more money" "I'll do that tomorrow when I'm not so busy with my life" etc etc ad nauseum.

But every once in awhile, I can trick my brain into doing something good before my evil half can rationalize my way out of it.

Last night I had to make a brief stop at the grocery store for pop (aka carbonated beverages for all you non-Minnesotans). God forbid the Big B should run out of Mountain Dew!

Okay, okay, or myself for that matter.

As I whip into a parking spot, I immediately notice the concern on the faces of the people surrounding the car parked opposite from me. It's apparent that something is wrong with their silver Grand Am. I see two ladies and some smaller heads in the backseat, indicating there are probably children in there somewhere.

Before my brain can get time to think about how much stuff I have to do at home and how I just want to run this errand & be done with it, my mouth opens as I open my car door and asks "Do you need a jump?"

They sure did. I open my hood and the trunk, take out the nice set of jumper cables my dad insisted I always keep in my car since I first began driving, and prepared to Do Good.

A young man, seeing a group of ladies around a pair of open engines, also offers to help, which I accept gratefully because I can never remember what order you're supposed to place the cables & whether the car should be running first or not.

In less than 5 minutes, their Pontiac is started and I'm on my way inside the store to complete my errand.

"Happy Thanksgiving!"
"Bless you, we didn't know how we were going to work this out if our friend's car couldn't get to us in the lot."
"Thank you!"

Their relief is palpable and the goodwill is almost visible. The surprise that a stranger, no, two strangers, would jump in & help without being asked has left their voices, and instead you can hear the warmth.

I can't keep the grin from my face the entire time I'm in the store, and when I run into the young man inside who helped out, I thank him for his help and we share a brief smile.

If all it takes is something this small, this simple, this easy, to feel so good, why aren't I doing this all the time?

Happy Thanksgiving everyone. May you find yourself Doing Good when the opportunity presents itself, whether by fortune or because you seek it out.

Variety is Good

Where I live is a study in contrasts this time of year.

The scene that greeted me yesterday morning on my way to the bus:

Stunningly beautiful, if a bit saddening since it's late April.



It's an ephemeral beauty, as evidenced by the same spot less than twelve hours later.

Spring is here, even if it is being stubborn about it's appearance.
The vibrantly green grass is proof!

I didn't get bent out of shape about it, despite my intense longing for spring. It was so lovely and I knew it wouldn't last.

The fun of being Minnesotan is getting to use your heat in the morning and the AC in the afternoon.