Spring in Minneapolis

This is March 31st, 2008 looking out of my office window in Tate. The Spring equnox was March 20th, at 5:48pm....

A Shoulder to Cry On...

This girl had just broken up with her boyfriend, or was at least very unhappy about him. This guy? he was her shoulder to cry on... She talked about how the ex didn't quite get her or understand her and how he hung out with other girls and how she didn't want to be his 'go-girl' (is that a real phrase? or did I just mis-hear something?) And this guy just mostly listened, every now and then offering her a suggestion; 'did you tell him that?' he'd ask.

I first thought was he her brother? I sort of missed mine... No but I think I concluded he was just a very good friend, or he had perfected the art of hitting on girls. If it was the former, I thought of how lucky she was and I missed such a guy in my life whenever the boyfriends didn't quite work... He did sound like he had a girlfriend though.

So he was being all supportive and listening and all that, and then he told an abortion joke! 'That's not funny, that's gross' she said, I just think people should not tell abortion jokes'...
Still, they got off the light rail and walked towards the bars in downtown....

Oh and btw, she looked much prettier than this picture suggests... :)

Downtown Minneapolis

Pretty downtown... Gaviidae Common

Minnesota nice

I doubt this wouldn't happen in another part of the country or the world; but hey Minnesotans claim they are really nice...

Every human being, without an exception strives to set themselves apart from the rest of the crowd. You know when you are applying for jobs, you are thinking, 'how can I set myself apart from the other candidates?', but in reality this is what we do all the time... Sometimes it is something good, sometimes it is something bad. Yes some people will go as far as to use bad traits to distinguish themselves from the other... Regardless, we all remain eerily similar!

Rapper in Minneapolis

Got this "bad dude rocking some tunes" quite by accident; that clever phrase, courtesy of Jeremy, about the time he got a text request to keep his music low at his office...

Annie

Annie: I associate her with my first year here in Minneapolis. I think my neighbors got her during my first year here. I was so thrilled; finally a dog. I asked to walk her, the man said yes, but must have gotten a nice scolding from his wife, that he followed me in his jeep as I walked Annie. I never walked her again. And often felt sad that she didn't get quite the love and care she deserved. Oh, she came with her sister, a black lab, whose name now escapes my mind, but they gave her away because two were too much.

Every time I looked at Annie, she looked sad and quite not as big as she should have been as she grew up. She must be now 7 years. But in this picture she looks big and just like any other happy dog, curious. But her eyes look sad and I feel she never regained the spark that was when her sister was with her. Of course this could be my personal bias against the people who didn't let me walk her... :)

For all these 7 years, she still runs up to the fence whenever I walk past their house, and I stop and pet her through the fence...

in the background...

Soon, there won't be anyone I know in that building... and yet, life will go on, like it has before... :) - weary smiley!

Happiness...

Happiness... is a warm puppy... No that's not what I wanted to say...

I have learnt that happiness is not what you own, but what you want... (I'm sure someone else said that before me, but if not I cal dibbs on that!)

The #16 bus in our fair city is a poor bus. Apart from the people at the U shuffling back and forth from class, almost all other riders are poor and kind of smelly and looks like this woman here... Notice her dirty jacket, and bags full of stuff that looked like from a food shelf. But she had this broad smile flashed across her face...

And I thought of most people that I know, who own so much more, but so less happiness...

Cardinals in our fair city

Cardinals are more common in this city than thought initially... they are such a wonder to see during the grey winter...

Allowed only if Physicist

mud-green jeans, stained white sox, black suede shoes - allowed only if you are a Physics professor; this, one of my committee members...