11.15.2004

The Weekend

I had a great time this past weekend. Friday after I got home from work, my girlfriend and I, along with my parents, went to the Twin Cities to visit my sister. She lived in a suburb of Saint Paul. I hadn't seen her condo before. She just bought it a few months ago, and I was quite impressed with it. It was better than my house, although it cost over twice as much.

The main reason for our visit was to see my sister play in a concert. She plays the violin with the Minnesota Philharmonic Orchestra, America's only GLBT orchestra. It is an orchestra made up predominantly of gay, lesbian, bisexual, and transgendered individuals, although my sister does not fit into any of those categories, not that there's anything wrong with that (to quote Seinfeld). The person welcoming us to the concert, their first of the season, was pleased at the turnout especially considering Cher was performing across town with the Village People opening for her. The concert was really good. It made me wish I had a group with which I could play my cello, although my dad would have to get around to finishing repairing it first.

Earlier in the day we went to the Science Museum of Minnesota in Minneapolis. They had an exhibit on Chinasaurs, dinosaurs from China. They really didn't look all that different from the other dinosaurs they had in their museum.



Another interesting exhibit was a collection of Questionable Medical Devices. One of the devices was an x-ray type of machine that was used in shoe stores to fit children's shoes. Also on display was the prostate gland warmer from 1925 shown below. According to its 1918 patent application, the 100-degree heat would stimulate the "abdominal brain!." You wouldn't catch be trying that out.



Prior to the concert, several relatives came over to my sister's place for dinner. My grandmother who lives in the Twin Cities came, as well as an aunt and uncle, two cousins and the husband of one of them, and my sister's boyfriend. It was nice seeing all of these people again, as well as meeting my sister's boyfriend.

On Sunday, we went shopping at the IKEA store by the Mall of America. There were a lot of interesting things available at IKEA, but we didn't get anything. Maybe we will on some future visit. We didn't make it to the mall because my sister had some things she needed to do later in the afternoon and we were running out of time. Before returning to Iowa, my parents, my girlfriend, and I visited my grandmother at her apartment.

Going out of town to some place more interesting than where I live always makes me wish I lived there instead of here. The Minneapolis/Saint Paul area may actually be a possible place for me to move to in the future. Before you decided to comment that I am always talking about moving and that I never seem happy about where I live, I am thinking about next spring when my girlfriend graduates with her master's degree. She hopes to find a job in an area related to her degree, youth and human services. It may be easier for her to find a job in a larger city than in a smaller one, and as the demand for math teachers is relatively high, I shouldn't have too difficult a job finding a math teaching position in a larger city either. The main negatives of moving to the Twin Cities as I see it is that housing would be a lot more expensive and it gets really cold!

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