feeling Minnesota

I’m sitting in room 259 of the Minneapolis Airport Marriott in Bloomington, Minnesota. It’s cold outside. There is ice on everything. watching a man scrape ice off his windshield and I realize I haven’t seen that occurrence in a long time. There is a freeway a couple hundred yards outside the window and there is the airport a kilometer away. On the otherside of the hotel is the Mall of America and the biggest Ikea I have ever seen.

We finished the store today. It looks good. It feels good to look at the finished product and to feel the completion of this project which has been about three or four weeks long. The installation took 16 hours yesterday and another 11 today. There was our crew of 4: Ben, Chuck, Karl and me, and there was the contractors from here which added another four. the union electricians were four and the work space was about 400 square feet. It was crowded and frustrating trying to work. There was really not a lot I could do. I felt valuable during the unloading phase but the actual installation was a lot of standing around and watching.

Supposedly the Mall of America is a terrorist target, but I highly doubt anyone would waste explosives on this sack of shit place. There’s nothing here.

My lips are dry and chapped. My skin is dry and itchy. I am used to the rainforest, not the arid prairies.

After work today Ben and I napped in our room and then charged a pizza and a movie to our room. I charged internet to the room. The whole bill is picked up my Craig, owner of the store we built. I am wide awake now and it is 2:30 in the morning.

Tomorrow we are going to find a gun range and rent some guns. Never shot a gun before and I feel the need to change that.

Looking forward to the flight. I love flying and i have 7 hours of flying back to Vancouver.

Oh, i almost forgot. On the way here Ben and I went through Las Vegas. We had a few hours between flights so we took a cap to the strip. We walked through The Venetian and I marveled at the intricate interior design. All the moulding and murals that no one puts the time in to anymore in their houses. Back at the airport we played 3 bucks worth of slots and I won two pulls which totaled 8 bucks. I cashed out and commented to ben that that’s why I always win at gambling. I know when to pull my money. I think i picked that up from a lot of playing Dope Wars in grade 8.