Dark City

Well, I'm gonna give this thing a go. When my mom asked me to guestblog, I thought, "Why not? Can't be that hard." But now I've spent the last two days trying to figure out how to even start -- school? band? book trailer stuff? someone side-swiping the mirror off my car and not leaving a note? I guess I almost deserve it, it is my choice to live in Minnesota in the winter afterall. Like I deserve to never see the sun, or how every winter I forget what the color green looks like. It all sort of meshes into one big brown blur -- ugly, leafless trees juxtaposed against piles of brown muck that used to be snow. Get up, trudge through it then trudge home again. It gets a tad bit monotonous and makes even the simplest tasks seem ridicuously hard. Swedes do a good job combatting the darkness and depression that sets in -- cute little lamps in every window, cozy cafes every three blocks, light, light, and more light. I was half-expecting a similar approach when I moved to Minnesota considering the heavy Scandinavian heritage, but found the common combatant here seems to be excessive drinking and way too much time at the bar. It certainly doesn't help that the band I'm in plays the bar circuit -- it's starts to feel like that's all there is and suddenly I imagine myself white-haired and toothless, spouting off about the glory days between hacking my lungs up and pounding my fifth beer of the night. No. I definitely need to find some other way to fight the SAD that descends every year about this time. It's funny, every time I turn on the tv, I see that Alan Thicke ad where he's knee deep in some giant pool of water saying, "What happens in Las Vegas...should be happening to you." It's lush, green, and warm -- everything I seem to be missing. But funny enough, it makes me glad to be where I am.

Almost.

martha