A Love Letter to the City of Minneapolis

A Way to Find Some Inspiration

So today, after work, I had to run to the tobacco shop to get some Camel Blue cigarettes (I know, smoking is bad - I should quit and I know it's bad for me and all that jazz). 

My office is in Loring Park right down the road from the Orpheum. 

For those of you unfamiliar, here is a quick key:

Loring Park = Place in Minneapolis

Orpheum = Big Theatre Place

Anyways, I had to walk several blocks down Hennepin Ave to get to the tobacco shop. The weather was perfect: Mid-70s, sunny, slightly breezy, and the tall, steel Minneapolis buildings cast shadows all around me as I strolled casually through the busy streets. 

It was only about a 30 minute walk in total, but it was perfect. The Atmosphere lyric came to mind: "And it hit me, Minnesota is dope..."

But the thing is - I've always loved Minneapolis, I've always loved my hometown city. But this was different -- IT WAS DAYTIME. And I realized, I hadn't really ambled around this wonderful city in the daylight like this before.

I promise I'm not a vampire. I've just mainly experienced Minneapolis during the evening/late night. And it was different during the day. There were men in suits walking next to homeless people; there was punks and joggers, bicyclists, cabs, busses. There were women in heels, young professionals, people laughing with their friends, shirtless, eating from a shared Davannis box. There were yells and sirens, horns honking, brakes of busses screeching. 

It was beautiful. It made me look at Minneapolis in a different light (literally). It made me even happier to live here.

And also (I had it planned all along for this to come full circle back to writing-related stuff, I promise!) it inspired me; not only to write this blog, but also to write stories and poems. 

I realized--and this is one of the reasons I wanted to blog this--that this is an incredible way to get out of the writer's block that I was talking about a few days ago. Go explore a place that you only go during the day or during the night; go explore it during the opposite time, see what it's like, note your changes, and maybe, just maybe, this will turn into something.