Dear MN government shutdown,

Back in April when we avoided a federal government shutdown, I was lead to believe that these issues are often solved last minute in the last possible split second.  That is not true.  Things really can shut down.  This will get interesting.  Here's hoping the buses still work tomorrow. 

Also, here's to a non-Millston Fourth of July. 


love,
hannah

Dear The Ground Beneath Her Feet,

Every time I pass you on to a friend or another reader, I get really jealous that they still get to have the experience of reading you for the first time.  There is nothing quite like reading something for the first time and still being able to be surprised by the changes, turns and surprises.  I want that again, with The Ground Beneath Her Feet.  I passed it on to a third/fourth person today and I was just jealous.  They can still read it. 

And then when they appeared to affirm that in fact reading that book is as amazing as I remember, I'm just happy that I'm able to pass it on. 

Reading other things for the first time is also an incredible experience, I just wish sometimes that I could read something for the first time a second time. 


love,
hannah

Dear Sports Night,

You are comfort food.  You're excellent background noise.  At this point, I cannot tell you how many times I've watched the entire series.  It's probably only like five, but it feels like more.  When I need something to distract me and to soothe me, you're what I turn to.  You're just familiar enough, but still exciting.  It doesn't take long to tear through the series. 

Yesterday when I got out of the shower someone was mowing the lawn right next to our house and so I pulled my shade down, which meant that I slept until noon today because I never knew when the world woke up.  It's the kind of day where I woke up and I could hear the sound of tires on the road after rain.  I had thought I might do things today, like go somewhere, but that sound cut those plans down fast.  I read a lot.  I finished Sports Night (again.) I've finally gotten the last little strange things out of my room.  I'm going to decorate my walls.  And I might go see a play tonight, just to make sure that I get outside. 

A week from Tuesday I start the next phase of my summer working with Summer Institute.  I'm nervous, but it's going to be good.  I need to get something going during this season, I've been a bum.  A pleased bum, but a bum nonetheless.  I have to get ready to wake up at 6 in the morning.  That's going to take some preparation...

We'll see how that goes.


love,
hannah

Dear tours in storms,

You are not a good kind of tour.  Akin to tours where the parents ask ridiculously specific questions and the eyes of the children glaze over, you are a special kind of tour hell.  Another kind of tour hell includes one where the tornado siren goes off - and not because it is the first Wednesday of the month.  Also when you wear a white shirt and it's raining.  The rain was a surprise. 


love,
hannah

Dear spanakopita,

I love you.  That is all. 


love,
hannah

Dear most productive day in the new house,

With just two minutes to spare, I think I have done more today than I've done in the last two weeks in the house.  There are little projects I find every day, or things I think we need to do, but today I did many of them.  It was a good day. 

I re-organized the shelves.  Now they make sense and they are less of a mess.  Hooray. 

Tomorrow: The Wizard of Oz!


love,
hannah

Dear Wendy Wasserstein,

I have spent this afternoon reading three of your plays.  I get it.  I hear you.  I get what you're saying. 

It's not bad, it's just that I come from a generation that doesn't tolerate things that aren't subtle.  We like things to slowly be revealed to us so that they collect themselves just before the ending, and in doing so it becomes obvious. 

Can't win either way. 


love,
hannah

Dear Midnight's Children,

In reading you I had hoped to re-create the experience of reading The Ground Beneath Her Feet. That book changed my life. Both of you are by Salman Rushdie, but you are not the same. I'll read something I actually want to read now.

It's not that you were that bad, you just weren't The Ground Beneath Her Feet.

love,
hannah

Dear bromance,

(Here I mean the idea and the evidence of a bromance, nothing related to any similarly titled shows on MTV.) 

Why is it that bromances are so fulfilling? And surprising? How is bromance different than friendship? Can a bromance only exist between two men? What makes a bromance special?

Because really, a friendship between two men shouldn't be all that surprising, but it is.  Friendship between two women can never be as alluring, partially because it seems so normal.  Is it that men are not supposed to have friends?

I have a friend who says that since she can never have a bromance herself, she will write them.  And then she went and decided to have a bromance with her friend (another woman) any way.  It is at the suggestion of both of these women that I started to watch Sherlock this evening.  Suffice to say, that is one hell of a bromance. 

I have things to do tomorrow, this is good, because I have spent most of the past two days in bed thinking about all the things that need to be done or could be done.  Time to do things. 


love,
hannah

Dear hills,

I have only ever lived in pretty flat places, so my experience with hills mostly comes from driving.  I don't particularly like walking or biking up hills.  I spent the last two days driving through hills in southeastern Minnesota.  I love driving through hilly places.  I'm not used to seeing how the land stretches out in every direction, flat land just drops off at the horizon line, but hills change the horizon line.  I'm not used to that...


love,
hannah

Dear sniffles,

I know that you're just allergies, but why must you follow the super hot day? It's making me confused. 


love,
hannah

Dear hottest day in 26 years,

Seriously? I come back to the Twin Cities and you produce the hottest day you've had in twenty-six years? You know that I am not even twenty-six years old? Making this the hottest day in the Twin Cities in my lifetime.  It should be noted. 

We're just trying to distract ourselves from the fact of the heat.  I'm tearing through Season 5 of Friday Night Lights and alternating with clips of River Song.  (I adore River Song, the new revelation doesn't change that, cause I still love her.)  Friday Night Lights is so incredibly good, it's unreal.  And it deals with issues, without ever having to call them issues and make them issues.  It's fantastic. 

Seems I'm back to writing about television again.  At least it takes my mind off the heat. 


love,
hannah

Dear airport security,

You are a bore. The problem is that when you know what you're doing, it's worse because you know exactly what you have to take off, and where to put it and you have to stand silently and watch other people not know what they're doing. I always want to just show them everything they should take off, where to put it rather than wait for a TSA employee to correct them. But that feels rude.

You'll notice I haven't written in what, two weeks? The first week I got lazy, and the most recent week has just been crazy. Back and forth across the state borders multiple times. But now I settle down and stop traveling for a while. Oy, what a week.

Can't wait until we get Internet in our house, then I can re-watch all the Doctor Who episodes with River Song, cause really, what is happening?


love,
Hannah