MY BOGGY BLOG: find your way through the murk

Take a Ride on the Reading, If You Pass Go Collect $200

Yesterday was the opening of Light Rail for Minneapolis. This is something that we have been waiting for for a long time, and with all the critics and nay-sayers, it sure seemed like it would never happen. But now we have a line along Hiawatha Avenue, traveling from downtown Minneapolis out to Fort Snelling, with stops at the airport and the Mall of America to be added at the end of the year. Minneapolis is one of the last "bigger" metropolitan areas to have some kind of a train/subway system, with only Detroit and Phoenix still waiting. So, it's about time for Minneapolis!

Yesterday was a day of celebration, with festivals, music, food at every stop along the Light Rail system. Also, free rides for all, on train or bus. So enormous crowds of Minnesotans came and stood in very long lines to get our first ride on the train. It ended up being kind of exhausting, but I'm glad we did it anyway. Looking around at the long lines of people waiting to ride the trains, friend Tim said (mocking the critics of LR): "No one will ride Light Rail."

Yesterday was a special day for us as well because our wonderful DD, on the verge of 13, put on two performances with her puppet camp-out group. The first was at the Light Rail festival at Midtown station, and the second was later on at the Gay Pride Festival. Gennie has been working with this group since March, meeting once a week on Saturday afternoons, and then this summer for 2 weeks of daily sessions. This is a group that works with GLBT teens and their allies (DD was an ally) to do creative work (puppets, masks, stories, etc.) around GLBT supportive issues, and then put on performances with what they have learned. DD got involved because she loves this creative kind of stuff, is very supportive of other kids, AND the program promised stipends paid to kids who committed to the program-- $100 for attending all spring Saturday workshops, and $200 for attending all the 10 6-hour summer weekday workshops and the performances. It may sound strange to pay kids to attend a program (geesh, usually we parents have to fork out the big bucks), but it really got kids to commit to showing up and feel valued for what they were doing, whereas attendance might have been more spotty otherwise. Anyway, DD loved the program and the kids she met and it was a great experience for her.

The performance ended up being about 20 minutes long, with actors in costume and mask acting out the story that the narrator was reading. There was live music wonderfully done, the story was allegorical, a tale of a queer youth who is the victim of a hate crime, visited by those who have come before (healing faeries, Sappho, Zeus and Ganymede, Walt Whitman); there was a dragon of homophobia, a big faerie on stilts who granted and listened to wishes... oh, there was so much beautiful meaning packed into the performance! I have seen it performed 3 times in the last two days and it is truly magical. There are two more performances-- July 9th and 10th at Patrick's Cabaret in Minneapolis at 8:00 pm. It is a part of a show with many different acts, $6 admission. Come one, come all!

To top off the day, DH, friend Tim and I all went to see "Farenheit 9/11" last night. First we tried the Lagoon theatre for the 9:30 pm show-- it had two theatres showing the movie and it was still sold out until after midnight. So we ended up at HarMar, where there was an amazingly block-and-a-half long line, but we did get in. The theatre was packed (looking at the lines, Tim mocked the critics of this movie: "No one will want to see Farenheit 9/11"). It was great to be in such a thick crowd, a packed theatre full of people who are anti-Bush. I loved the movie, learned even more from it, and I highly recommend it to everyone, especially those who want to vote for Bush again. See this movie before you make your decision-- yes, I hope it will change your mind, but even more so, because I hope you will be able to make an informed decision in the voting booth.

And now for a hopefully less-busy Sunday!

Henna Princess (I Wish)

First, just let me say that I haven't been able to update my website for awhile. I can still blog, but something has screwed up with our computer and I need Computer Whiz DH to look into it... and of course, he's been busy. So someday I'll update... hopefully soon.

Today, DD and I got out our henna kit (my gift to us at Christmas) and we did all the prep to be able to draw nifty exotic designs on each other. Now, DD is very artistic and a great one at drawing and painting, but she complained from the beginning how the video we watched made it look so easy to get these fabulous designs on your skin... and the reality was that it was much more difficult than we thought to make a design look good at all. I liken it to trying to decorate a cake with a frosting tube-- it's gloppy and the lines are hard to control. We did manage to get something half-way decent on our arms and legs... and then we learned another lesson about henna: it is easy to smear it by accident afterwards, waiting for it to dry-- you pretty much need to be a princess and lie around being waited on for a few hours to get the henna to perfectly darken your skin. Sigh!

You are supposed to leave the henna on your skin for 6 hours. Fortunately it dries completely after about 2 hours, which doesn't work out so hot when you've decided to have your daughter henna-paint on your belly, or your upper chest. I had a clothespin clipping up my tank top so that I could let the henna dry.

DD was pretty discouraged by the process, but I am still wanting to play with the stuff and see if I can put designs in more convenient spots, and see how that works.

It's a lot less painful than a tattoo!