the traveling plates

a year ago in june, the bookbinding goddess/funnier-than-hell jen drove all the way from minnesota to kansas so we could meet and make stuff. one evening she held a creative jam session in her hotel suite, and when you have a creative jam session, you need wine. with wine you need cheese and bread, and with cheese and bread you need plates, so i lent her a few of mine. when she got back to minnesota she realized she still had the plates and wanted to mail them back, but they were not worth the postage, so i told her to toss them. so she did, but not in the way that i meant. instead she tossed them in her suitcase.

then i started getting postcards.



the first was from the rose garden on lake harriet in minneapolis, and my eyes boggled when i got it - she didn't know it at the time, but this is where i was married, and so this is the family favorite of the bunch. very special to me.



a few months later, another one appeared - this time from new york...



then from seattle, where i spent nearly a year on assignment drawing process maps in visio, making copies, going for morning runs along the waterfront and getting caffeinated.



then from vegas, of which i only have bleary memories, mostly surfacing at the MGM grand buffet around 5 am. when i was a grad student in arizona it often seemed like a good idea around midnight to get in the car and zip up to vegas for breakfast. but i never walked three miles hung over to the vegas sign. and i definitely never took a picture this awesome.



then from minneapolis, the iconic pillsbury's best flour sign, near downtown. ...



and the last is from lake of the isles, just around the corner from our old house. that's downtown minneapolis in the background. this perspective is from the bridge that connects the isles to lake calhoun, where i could piddle away entire afternoons watching people paint, read, run, walk, bike, and canoe. i complained nonstop about the cold when we lived there, but all the same, i love minneapolis. and lucky for me, i'll be going back soon.



there's also a photo on jen's blog that i hadn't seen until now, one of the polka dotties sunning themselves on the shores of lake superior. not to be missed! how absolutely nifty it was to see two of my possessions running around the country through jen's eyes and camera, knowing that when we look at those pictures they bring back entirely different sets of memories for each of us.

the plates are now officially retired, and i'll treasure these postcards for my lifetime. thanks, jen.