My sleep has been okay but a little on the rough side, kind of to be expected in a hotel. I still have a nasty sore on my head which tends to wake me up at night and my back isn't exactly doing the greatest either. For whatever reason, my right "bad" eye has been having a very hard time focusing which is a bit of a drag. I swear that I'm falling apart. Nevertheless, I've been getting more sleep in the hotel than I'm used to getting at home, mainly since I don't have two furry critters jockeying for positions on me at 3am.
Sunday was time to visit with family, a rather long overdue visit. We had a nice lunch at French Meadow and then later on had Carbone's pizza, another old favorite of mine from when I lived here. The pizza was fantastic, in fact I'd dare say that it was better than what I occasionally get at Rosati's in Encinitas which is a direct from Chicago brand whereas Carbone's is the MN version. It's pretty rare that I prefer something MN over Chicago itself.
After the visit, I ventured back to the hotel and watched the end of "Bohemian Rhapsody" and "Massacre at Central High". The latter film was an odd one for sure, something that I found on the Criterion Channel. I thought it was going to be a teen slasher film...hah! Yeah, a bit far from it but certainly an interesting film.
The next morning, it was time to start packing up and thinking about heading home. One more Caribou run! Geesh... It's just like old times since I used to basically live at Caribou. I would normally venture out to other coffee places, just to try them and such, but there's really nothing else over in the area of the hotel so I figured I'd just enjoy Caribou while it was within reach. Next, it was off to Zantigo, a fast food Mexican place and the only of its sort in MN that I ever found that was worthwhile. I guess you could call it the MN Del Taco.
After doing a bit of clean up and packing my things, I headed out to my old cat clinic, to see if the doctor was working today and say hello to any staff members that I might know. I spent an incredible amount of time at this cat clinic over the years since I had three adult cats that were constantly having various issues and such.
Lastly, I drove around my old neighborhood, just to see how things look, etc. It's always a strange feeling seeing your old house and area, etc., and it tends to fill you with a weird mix of feelings. For me, the house I owned in MN will always remind me of my cat trio, all of which have sadly passed now, and it's probably the most pleasant memories I have of living in MN since the cats were really the light of my life. I honestly can't imagine my life over that 25 year span without them.
I was a bit shocked to see that my old house was completely changed on the outside. The new owners redid all the siding, windows, tore down one of the annoying trees in the front yard, installed new snazzy garage doors, etc. I almost drove right past the house...that's how different it looked. All in all, I think they did a fabulous job and I couldn't help but ask myself why it never occurred to me to make any such changes. In looking back on it, I made an incredibly low number of changes in that house for living there for over a decade. In comparison to the house I live in now, it's kind of shocking since almost everything in this house is or will be changed.
I dropped the rental car off at the airport and grabbed yet another coffee in the terminal. This may be the worst Starbucks location ever, AND it had an increase of over $2 attached to it. I guess it was some sort of "convenience" fee. Um, yeah.
The flight home was status quo with nothing major to report. I watched "Goldfinger" and found it to be pretty amusing and enjoyable. I'll admit I did fall asleep briefly at one point but I wouldn't mind watching the film again, in fact I might just watch all the old ones in succession.
All in all, it was a great trip, especially after not going anywhere for years. It was also nice to finally make peace with MN. As for Zorn, fingers crossed that I get another opportunity to see him either for his 80th birthday or maybe in the LA area.
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