Deja View - I had

Deja View - I had an "interview" of sorts in downtown Minneapolis yesterday - basically to sign a contract for another of the little short-term jobs that's kept me out of foreclosure this last six months. Posh deal, really - three and a half days onsite, probably a week working at home. If only I could get one of those jobs every, say, two weeks or so. Life'd be pretty good right now.

I moved here in '85. I lived in various parts of South Minneapolis for a couple of years, then moved to Saint Paul, where i've pretty much stayed since '88. Now, I love Saint Paul. People from Minneapolis see our sleepy downtown, and completely miss the point - Saint Paul is a city of neighborhoods. Downtown rolls up the sidewalks at six, but the action is all happening out on Uni or Grand or North Rice or Payne. The neighborhoods are where life takes place in Saint Paul - each with its own personality. Highland is snooty and aloof in its Lexuses (Lexi?). Mac/Groveland fairly shudders with earnestness - its population of college kids exudes the stuff, before they move to Saint Anthony Park, which has the elegant but nebbishy style of the college professors and non-profit execs that swarm the place. And the Midway, where I live, is a great place to raise kids; the neighbors watch out for each other like they used to do in genuine small towns.

Now, compared to Saint Paul, Minneapolis has neighborhoods in the same way that Applebees has Mexican Food; same ingredients, but they just don't go together the same way. Oh, there are identifiable neighborhoods in Minneapolis, but purely for transient, social reasons; Uptown was Uptown because of its mass of musicians and artists and slackers (who've mostly moved to Northeast). And it's not really a neighborhood if it's recognized as such for all the wrong reasons; would you think of Camden or Phillips if it weren't for crack, gangs and tragedy? Because while Saint Paul's Frogtown and Swede Hollow have their problems, the neighborhoods have histories that predate the troubles, and will probably survive them. Most of Minneapolis' neighborhoods are places where people sleep when they're not working or at the lake.

Yep. I love Saint Paul. It's warm, it's friendly (most of it), it's home. It's Yin.

Sometimes I need Yang.

I used to practically live in Downtown Minneapolis. Its thriving throb was what I left North Dakota for. I played in a bunch of bands at all the bars you know (First Avenue/Seventh Street Entry) and a few you don't (McCreedy's). I loved it.

Then I got married, and life coagulated into two big blots around my house and job (wherever that was at the time). I went years without going downtown. I missed it, badly.

My big second interview last week (won't hear about thirds until next week, I'm told) was downtown, deep in the marble canyon of the older quarter of the core, Second Avenue and Seventh Street. I had a meeting there yesterday, and another (for yet another short-term job) today.

So much has changed downtown since I last actually knew the place, it's like learning a new city. Buildings have different names. Merchants have changed names, disappeared (where did Slice of New York go? Dammit!), even entire blocks have morphed.

And it's fun!

So while I'd be hoping to land the third interview (and hopefully the offer) at the company from last week even if it were in Maple Grove or Eden Prairie or Minnetonka (like my last three jobs), I'm also rooting for it because part of me really, really needs that buzzing of downtown energy.

So - let's all join me in crossing my fingers. Or yours, if that's easier.