The pragmatic St.Paul Amtrak Station
Minneapolis! Our gateway to the midwest stop. Our generously booked stop. One of our favorite cities. The train was right on time and Eric was there to pick us up, promptly at 7:20 A.M. Now that is a good friend. We were all a little delirious after another strange night on the train, but happy to be in the twin cities. We were staying in Robbinsdale, with my good friend Betsy, who was the lead choreographer at my summer in Glacier National Park. We have stayed in touch, and now find ourselves at similar stations in life, her with two kids almost exactly the same ages as mine, and same genders!
Betsy greeted us with good coffee, and good fresh fruit, and the kids were immediately swept up in the madness of kid world, and the great joy that comes with showing up to a house with toys for your exact age and gender. Betsy is a yoga teacher among many other things, and she was teaching a class at noon. Eureka agreed that she would like to go to yoga with her, so off the girls went, leaving Zac and I to watch the boys. When they came back, we wandered out into the town of Robbinsdale, and found a thrift store, a park, and a post office. That night was lasagna for dinner, and Betsy and Eric were left with the kids while we went out to play our gig.
This night the gig was at Acadia Cafe in Minneapolis. We were to be the set break for “The Second Hand Opera”. When we arrived, we were (of course) early, and hung out for a little while, then decided to go on a walk. We went through this vast outdoors store, where I chatted to the shoe lady about shoes, and about sandals, and about combing outdoorsy shoes with fashion, and about people buying ridiculous shoes to be updated. Then we returned to the cafe, and the 2nd Hand Opera had begun. They were musical as all get out, and had some very thoughtful music happening. Even though the bar was mostly empty, the sound guy, who was really a sound guy, kept a tight reign on things, and gave them limitations that seemed amazingly tight under the circumstances. Like, “one more”. Who cares?! It is 9:30!! But rules are rules, and then we were up. We were slated for a 45 minute set, and we played it. We played it good. These people were listening to every word we said, every note we played, it was so sweet. And by the end, a few people had wandered in off the street and it seemed busy in there, we even got an encore. The Second Hand Opera’s second set was completely different than the first, but lovely nonetheless. When we finally packed up and went back out to the car, we were welcomed to Minneapolis by getting two parking tickets! Well, one was for parking ($42, our fault) and one was for expired tags ($102, their fault), but either way, it is no fun to accrue parking tickets when you have borrowed someones car. And it is no fun to pay $42 for being a parking nimrod when you just made $51 at your gig. But it is all about the story, right? Isn’t that a brilliant story? I mean LAUGH OUT LOUD in the aisle! Did you just fall off your chair at our misfortune? Great, then it was all worth it. Then as we were getting on the interstate, the most impotent fight ever was happening as three really large people were having this loud fight with this mid 90’s sedan parking in the on ramp, one person was trying to hike up the hill and the other two were yelling, and even though it seemed like some really degenerate people having a really stupid time, Zac approached the situation like we were on an episode of cops and yelled, “SHUT YOUR DOOR, WE ARE COMING THROUGH” out the window, and we went around them, taking the curb a little (don’t tell Betsy and Eric) and that seemed to fluster them further. I wonder if they are still there.
Crystal Rainbow Flower!
The next day was the day that Eureka had announced that she was ready to get her ears pierced. We headed out to the Minnetonka Mall and found our way to the classic Claire’s Boutique. Nothing has changed since I was eight, and that wasn’t exactly yesterday. Zac was all excited and had the video camera running, which excited the security guards, which excited the nicely dressed people, which excited the manager of Claire’s, which made her give Zac a yelling demand that he turn the video camera off. Naturally, he got all that on tape. That didn’t exactly set the right tone for Eureka’s big day, of puncturing her little lobes with metal rods. But Eureka wasn’t there for the ambiance, she was a child with a mission. She picked her studs with a stoicism that impressed even me (and you know I am hard to impress), and the lady made me sign all sorts of paperwork. Even at this point, she hadn’t cheered up a darn bit. I never even got her name. What a mall wench. I understood the new, kinder generation gets their ears pierced both at the same time, to avoid the kids who change their minds and have to be held down and forced to finish the job. But Miss Grouchy Mall Wart decided to do them one at a time, I think she was hoping it would interfere with our success, but not our Eureka. She was serious about this, and after the first ear, she just slightly flinched, and sat there still as a tree for ear #2. Her earring choice? Not the old golden stud. Not this child, she picked “Rainbow Crystal Flower”. I guess any kid with the name Eureka is naturally going to pick Rainbow Crystal Flower. If only they had put Unicorn in the name. Why not go all the way? After she pierced her ears, and we cheered her on, and congratulated her, and patted her on the back, the morning adventure made the awkward transition to four kids and three adults wandering around Claire’s like idiots fresh out of the looney bin, trying not to buy stuff for the kids, trying to keep everyone from freaking out, and just generally making Miss Mean Manager Pants uncomfortable and wishing we would leave. My dream of jolly Claire’s employees throwing in “bonus gifts” for Eureka for being so brave was dashed against the rocks. It is a cold, cold world out there, and they really just want your mailing address and your credit card. We cleared the mall as soon as possible, but not after hyperventilating outside of Abercrombie and Itch. What a stinky store! Do they all do that? Jeez!
We were so proud of Eureka that we decided to all go jump in the pool, which was minutes away. Eric’s parents were OUT OF TOWN, so it was POOOOOL PARTY!!!! Eric went over to Target and got frozen pizzas for the hungry pierced tribe of youth, and we lounged around the pool listening to classic rock just like the summer of ’69. Amy showed up with her two kids, Finley and Andrew, and we swam and chatted and soaked up our daily dose of Vitamin D.
That night we had our gig at the Bedlam Theatre. We got there around 8ish, and got to hang out with Erin and Jeremy. Jeremy just went to grad school in New York City! (said like a Pace Picante commercial) and they had literally only been back in the twin cities a few days, and were still reeling from the move. That is always a great time to catch up with people because they are just so gosh darn excited. The Bedlam Theater is this beautiful space in Minneapolis, this two story building with an awesome roof deck. You can sit outside on the roof, and watch the light rail trains go by, and see the twinkling lights of the city. It was so beautiful. We headed downstairs to set up in the black box theatre where we would be playing. This place was kind of big for a two top without amps, but we prevailed. We played about 45 minutes to a dancing crowd of people and got off the stage. At this point in the evening, I would have gladly left, but we had to wait till all the bands were done in order to get a cut of the door. The second band, The Dirt Brothers, actually are friends of Joe Power, our favorite art hermit here in Hot Springs. The third band was so full of people and noise and lead singers that I actually had to video a little of it, so I could tell people not to worry about missing out on a lot of night life, and that it is OK to stay home. At the beginning of the evening, I had called Betsy and said, Git on up here! You’d love this place! But when the third band cranked up and I knew we were there till the end, I was glad we were there alone. Erin and Jeremy checked out after we played. This was one friendly place, most of the people there were up for talking, so we had that. And for all you Minnesotans up there, the Bedlam Theater is losing their lease in 2 months, so if you want to check out that deck, better move fast. Editorial note: that night we did not get a parking ticket.
Rocking the Neighborhood
Friday: Big hour party. Up till this point, Betsy had been playing it super cool, like she wasn’t about to have 60 people over to her house, but Friday morning, it came into sharp focus that maybe a few things needed to happen before the first partygoer arrives. I helped by sleeping till noon. Downtown Robbinsdale was having their famous “Wiz Bang Days” and that means ICE CREAM SOCIAL!!!!! At the bank! From the guy trying to get you to open a checking account! But I find saying “We are from Arkansas” usually works pretty well on the average bank sales pitch. We went in and enjoyed the ice-cream sandwich, yes we did. Then we went back to the house, and did our preliminary packing/laundry because after the party, it is pretty much sleep and go to train. (7:20 A.M.)
The party was great, it was well attended, we played too long, people bought CD’s, and we felt well supported. It was a nice mix of extremely nice people and small children everywhere, a dog here and there, lots of burgers, and the kids singing into the microphone that was set up on the amp that we didn’t use. The house stayed in tact, and Betsy’s brother Dan brought a big bouncy thing to put on the front lawn, and no one punched anyone in the face. And the best thing about a party full of breeders? 9 O’clock, everyone is GONE! That house was cleaned up and kids in bed by 10 (ish) and we were free to all express our own tiredness and go on to bed.
Proof that kids still think we are cool
Early the next morning, we hauled all of our junk out of the basement, loaded up the car, and headed back to the station. Ah, the rambling life of the itinerant musician. We were pretty darn tired, and hadn’t even fed the kids, just forced them up and in the car. Reyna and Boden couldn’t even budge to say goodbye, so we all hugged and Eric whisked us away to the station. Best news ever: Train was late. We had time to fetch breakfast. We ended up at this great old diner right by the train station in St.Paul that had all this great food. The waitress even took our picture! We got to reset the kids, feed them soundly, and experience the wonders of a avocado green diner. Onward Milwaukee!!!
Wish I was still there
**You might not think about this, but the train from Minneapolis to Milwaukee follows the Mississippi River for quite a while.