Nica's Artsy Doilies

Farenheit 52

I went with some friends recently to the Cokato Corn Carnival in Cokato, MN (about an hour outside of the twin cities).

Nothing feels more like a summer in Minneapolis than eating free corn, watching the Corn Queen Cornation, and shivering under five layers of thick clothing.

When we walked past the First National Bank to get into the van to drive home we noticed that it was a mere 52º. I know that people who live in more temperate climates are thinking to themselves, "Hmm.… Isn't that normal for you Minnesotans?" And I know that what they mean by that is, "Well, you live by the North Pole, you fool, what do you expect?!"

I'm here to combat these divisive opinions and to bring some clarity to the situation.

Truth #1) People who live in Minneapolis live almost as near the south pole as they do near the north pole. Truth # 2) Minneapolis has perfect summers, that's why we can survive the winter months, because for three sweet months the weather is hot (but not humid) in the afternoons, and a lovely 75 or so in the evenings. Truth #3) Even though the Cokato Corn Carnival was plagued with such disastrously cold weather, the good folks of Cokato and surrounding communities still came out in impressive numbers to enjoy the fun.

Aside from this desperate attempt to explain the fleece hats we are all wearing, the rest of the story can best be told through pictures with small captions.

Ahem. Yes, here we are, just look at us all shiver-ey.

Here is a Jr. Princess of some other local festival all wrapped up in her Satin dress and winter coat.

This was my first attempt at taking a photo of myself with the carnival in the background... but it ended up just showcasing the fine folks I was with and the dumpster full of corn cobs.

Yes, it is a short story. There's only so much you can do with a camera phone as the light wanes.

clickity-click,
Nica.

A Super-Public Apology.

I saw a lot of nice folks when we were in Orlando at the LCMS National Gathering. I saw George Baum of Lost And Foundwho was working on his audition for The Fitz Family...

Way to go, George.

I also saw Jonathan Rundman and Beki Hemingway...

Jonathan Rundman has a song about wearing glasses. That is one of my favorite songs.

..and I saw Mrs. Jonathan Rundman and little Rundman Jr.

... or should I say Dr. Dawn Rundman. I think, Dr. Rundman is doing an ongoing study of HappyFunTime. It is called "The Language Patterns of Four 'Funny People' Who Ride in a Van Together."

Basically we HFT members end up spending a lot of quality time together: riding in a van, sitting at a desk, doing comedy improv, eating, finding free Wi-Fi coffee houses, using free Wi-Fi at the coffee houses, drinking free coffee at Wi-Fi houses.

So naturally our language patterns and favorite phrases become rather unified. I guess that is fairly natural and nice. Dawn, whom we hang out with long enough for her to notice the patterns, but not long enough for her to be sucked into the vortex of our word jail, has been kind enough to share with us our quirkiness.

Some of the words and phrases are as follows:

That's hilarious. (said with no emotion)
That's funny. (said with some emotion)
Hm. (have you seem our Mmm-milk video? It's a lot like that.)
Sure. (sure.)
and finally, Super-Cool. (Super-Cool?! What are we, eleven year old girls?)

I think that I probably will have to take responsibility for introducing "super-cool" into the HFT vernacular.

I am sorry about that. I thought it was funny, when I started. Why else would I say such a frilly thing? It just doesn't make any sense

Now I know that just being because something is funny, doesn't mean it isn't real.

In the words of one Jonathan Rundman, "There's something so sad about waking up blind."