A PACKAGE ARRIVED!
Its my mothers wedding dress from 1986.



And cleverly labeled "soon Roff :)"
(addresses smudged with photoshop because I don't trust the blog spammer)

A great fit! But not exceptionally flattering.
I can't remember the last time I looked like such a giant. And I've gotten multiple Beetlejuice references to prove it.

Consider this the "BEFORE" picture! Thanks mom!



SOON: Tory and I are heading to my cousin's wedding in British Columbia this week. I am excited to go, and to bring my future husband as my date! We'll be couchsurfing in Vancouver to see some local flavor and then meet up with my parents and see the rest of my dad's family shortly! It's been too long.

NEXT: We started our marriage counseling; we each filled out questionnaires about our personal lives, family, and expectations. This was fun it made me reminiscent of being in grade 9 and sending surveys about myself to all my friends via a few cleverly named hotmail addresses, but also exciting and meaningful because the questions weren't "would you ever kiss me?" but questions geared to help us understand areas in our growing relationship that might need more focus or discussion.

THEN: We spent all Saturday doing a great amount of yard work like cutting down huge weed trees and turning over the lawn, and then Sunday locked the keys in the car and had an adventure buying a "slim jim" which is available for anyone to buy apparently at the local auto place (Right in the self-help section. Handy!) and then met a few characters in the neighborhood who figured they had some expertise in the area of opening locked car doors, but in the end, Tory got it open.

SO! Wedding date! We are getting married September 11, 2010!
We do realize that this coincides with an anniversary of the infamous named-after-the-date 9/11 tragedy. I have been trying to ease the few raised eyebrows we've gotten, without disrespecting those who feel that yearly anniversary very deeply. I don't believe dates are cursed, or that we should avoid every day throughout history on which a tragedy occurred. All you can do is create new memories, or as Joke said, "they are reclaiming 9/11." We are very excited and feel thoroughly supported in our relationship by family and friends. Thanks everybody!

We decided to get married sooner rather than later so I wanted to blog to make sure we do remember to enjoy the planning process. I am so far! I do feel pressure to pick a reception venue soon, but our date is more available than most and we're trying to find a non-traditional venue anyway. Vines? Karate? Russian Art? I'm having a good time looking.

North Minneapolis is a really neat place to be. Even the news is loosening the stereotypes;
Two articles in two weeks!

Bringing back the mundane

Fighting the stigma

I am in Minneapolis. I am engaged to my wonderful fiance, Tory. We are very excited about this recent step in our lives and plan to be married by late summer. Instead of a wedding blog, I decided to pick up my old blog again and update it about whatever seems to be relevant to continuing our life together. Tory is living in our new home in North Minneapolis and I'm there often so we have been encountering all kinds of new adventures that come with home-owning and living in a diverse neighborhood that has traditionally been marginalized.
Wherever I go, or rather, wherever I am directly determines what people and experiences I will encounter. These in turn shape my understanding of the world, it's people, and it's needs.
If you put yourself in certain locations, life can be monotonous and uninteresting unless you make it otherwise. So far it seems as though if you put yourself in North Minneapolis, monotony isn't even an option.
Firstly, what I didn't realize was a problem in America: spring feral cat population explosion. Our neighbor feeds them all from a huge bucket and it's attracting and feeding and sustaining anywhere from 12-30 now teenage cats who I'm terrified are about to unleash a few litters each. Our plan is to catch them, take them to Animal Ark to get neutered and release them again to live happy, non-reproductive lives. We caught one, who is now living in our garage and set the live trap again before we left to get coffee in what is now being referred to as the North Loop. Since it was warm out, I suggested biking and we took our first bike ride two convenient miles down Broadway into downtown.
We discovered that Java J's has $1 pbr's on Friday nights and began wedding planning. VERY EXCITING. We stayed past 1am and got on our bikes only to discover that my slowness was (partially) due to a flat back tire. We stopped at the Beehive gas station for a spot of air, which cost a dollar and was probably not usually used for bikes so Tory, in his banana-yellow hoodie went to the line in front of the bulletproof window to ask for change. 3/4 customers ordered a pack of 'swisher sweets,' (the relevance of which had to be explained to me) and since no one would talk to him, much less agree to get him change for a dollar, he waited in line and returned to me laughing. When we continued on, Tory the speedy biker breezed through red lights when the roads were clear and to his impatience, I hesitantly waited them out. On one such light, as Tory biked on, I waited for a car in the distance to pass by and heard a deep voice over my shoulder say, "THAT WAS A GOOD DECISION YOUNG LADY." Then as the light turned green, I watched a cop car pull Tory over on his bicycle. Then an officer got out and made Tory put his hands on the hood and frisked him, for what, I don't know. Another cop got out of the car too and to my initial confusion, they let an older random guy help himself out of the back of the car. I now know what an undercover cop looks like. He is virtually indistinguishable from a layperson.

When I pulled up, this is the conversation I heard:

-Do you know where you are?
-Yeah, I'm on Broadway!
-Does that mean anything to you?
-It means I'm on my way home!
-You live around here?
-Yeah, I live a few blocks past here.
-Is there a reason you ran that light?
-Just trying to keep moving I guess...
-Okay, I believe you.
(To me)-You should teach him a few biking lessons!

Then they let us bike away and we laughed together.

When we got back to the house, we looked in the trap and laughed even harder. A fat possum gave us a look that said, "It's not my fault I'm the kind of animal that is not meant to be seen in the light of day!"

Meanwhile, the cats run free and the neighbor raises pitbulls in his basement.