Mirinda Miricle at Midtown Global Market

I doubt there are words to describe just how excited I am, but...being the dedicated writer that I am, I will try.

Yesterday I headed to the Midtown Global Market in South Minneapolis. The market is inside an old, renovated Sears complex. It was set up to have a "mercado" atmosphere. Small business owners, many of them immigrants, lease booth space in the market and set up shop.

The thinking behind this was that a market stall would be cheaper to rent than a brick and mortar store thus giving more first-time business owners a crack at the American Dream.

Plus, since the market is located in a large immigrant-based community, would also be a more familiar business model for potential vendors.

It's a place I've been to before. It's fun to poke around in the stalls and soak up the international vibe. Yesterday I was there on a story assignment. I was to interview a group of women business owners stationed in the market.

Interviews securely done, a free afternoon stretched before me and I decided to stick around and shop. I wandered into a Mexican grocery and that's when it happened. I found Mirinda!

My eyeballs nearly popped out of my head! I couldn't believe it! MIRINDA!

This sweet orange pop is made by Pepsi Co. and the first time I ever had it was in Mexico City. It was October 2005, the second day of a six-month around-the-world trip that I took with my newly-wed husband, and from the moment it touched our lips, both of us were in heaven.

We became fast fans, always preferring it over Fanta. We drank our way through Mexico, Uruguay and Argentina on Mirinda. The brand disappeared in Chile, only to reappear in Thailand. It was also abundant in Vietnam, where a Mirinda root beer line was unveiled as well.

Mirinda was one of the things Hubby and I both missed upon our return home. We'd developed quite a Mirinda addiction and none of the other orange pops on the market compared. We knew. We tried them all.

But now I'd found it! I'd found Mirinda! I bought a bottle (I restrained myself to just one) and it was all I could do to stop myself from running to my car, starting it up and driving right home. I was so excited. I didn't even waste my breath on a cell phone call. Hubby would just have to see this to believe it!

Unfortunately, we had plans last night, otherwise we would have cracked that 2-liter bottle and downed it all. Luckily, there is nothing on our agenda tonight...nothing except a Mirinda taste test.


Photos -
Mexican-imported Mirinda in Minneapolis! Joy!
Mirinda in Bangkok.
Mirinda in Vietnam.

Out From Under Twilight

Help! I'm stuck under Twilight and I can't get out!

Well, actually, I just unstuck myself. I finally turned the last page of Breaking Dawn, the last book in the Twilight series.

And thank God! I don't think I could take another installment.

The books annoyed me. And not just because they were clocking in at like 700 pages each.

I deeply disliked the main character, Bella Swan. She lacked independence, confidence and thought her entire self worth depended on whether or not the right boy loved her.

And when she wasn't obsessing over boys and whether or not she should get married at the age of 18, she was obsessing over doing the laundry and cooking for her single dad.

Puke! Gag! Gross! Especially when you consider the target audience for these books is high school girls! Come on! Positive female role models please?

So why did I read them all? Because despite all the plot line pitfalls they were strangely compelling. I just had to find out whatever became of Bella Swan.

That, and a friend wanted to read them and discuss them together. Turns out, neither one of us was a Bella Swan fan.

One of the ways I managed to pull myself through the Twilight haze was to look back over all the books I read in 2008.

I have finally finished compiling my year-end list, choosing my favorites and posting it to my web site.

Four of my top five 08 picks were travel books and the fifth was a novel that had me crying by page 3.

Check out my complete 2008 reading list.

Smart Talking Jane Pauley

Last night I attended an event where Jane Pauley was speaking.

It was the first night in the Smart Talk series, which will bring yet four more high-profile women willing to share their personal stories to Minneapolis by May.

I love this lecture series and have had season tickets to it for a number of years. I started attending it with my mom. Now that she's a snowbird, I've taken to going with one of my friends.

It's always a great excuse to get out of the house, get downtown for dinner and chill for some girl time.

Ms. Pauley was a very engaging speaker. She was funny and light, yet almost everything she said carried a deeper meaning.

In the course of the night, she said several things that really jumped out at me. One was this:

The point is not to get your ducks in a row. The point is to get your ducks in the water.

When she said it, the audience chuckled and clapped. But it is so true. So many of us tend to place such an emphasis on planning and organizing.

Perhaps, what we should be doing instead, is just start making leaps and trusting we'll figure it out once we're wet.

More Than Sweet Young Things

Today I had a couple of articles released. Both are about these cool, hip, smart, young chicks that live in the Twin Cities metro area.

The first is about an area seventh grader named Shruthi Rajasekar who just won a song-writing competition.

Plus, she also just won her first starring role in a big production at the Children's Theater. Here's that piece:

Bittersweet Movement

Next, this article is about an all-girl, teen rock band called Half Demon Doll.

They recently won a rock and roll contest in New York City. Soon, they will be featured in Teen Vogue promoting their upcoming album. Here is that article:

Grrrls Who Rock

Year of the Ox at Mystic Lake

Last night I went to a Vietnamese concert celebrating Chinese New Year at an Indian casino.

Yes. That's right. Read that sentence again if you must.

Only in Minnesota, perhaps, could such a conglomeration of cultures exist.

Let me explain. The concert was most definitely a Vietnamese affair. The line up was comprised of comedians and singers who performed almost exclusively in Vietnamese.

Hubby acted as my translator for some of the gigs, but mostly, I just watched. I was surprised that I was actually familiar with several of the songs performed. I guess all those Vietnamese CDs Hubby plays around the house had sunk in at some point.

Vietnamese culture celebrates Chinese New Year. I've never read up on exactly why this is. I'm assuming it has something to do with geographic proximity, the cultural dominance of the Chinese throughout Asia and the fact that a long time ago China ruled Vietnam. In Vietnamese, the holiday is called "tet."

Now, flash forward to present-day Minnesota and the Twin Cities, a metropolitan area with one of the largest Vietnamese communities in the U.S. Of course, tet is celebrated here.

And what better place to hold a concert than at a casino where there are dining and entertainment options galore?

The Mystic Lake Casino is owned and operated by a tribe of the Dakota people. It's located about 25 miles outside of downtown Minneapolis on reservation land. That said, though, the casino -- and the reservation for that matter -- are well within the bounds of suburbia.

The tribe has capitalized on this suburban location and is one of the wealthiest tribes in the country. Besides the casino, there is also a hotel, a golf course, an RV park, restaurants, event spaces and an auditorium that hosts people like Jay Leno, Jewel and Vince Gill.

It was in this auditorium that Hubby and I sat last night ... and so it was that we rang in Chinese New Year at an Indian casino with a Vietnamese concert.

Last Stop for Paul

The other night Hubby and I settled in to watch a movie we'd recorded on the DVR. It was called Last Stop for Paul and we hadn't any idea what to expect.

The two-line summary said something about two friends traveling around the world. That was enough to peak our interest.

Well, Last Stop for Paul did more than hold our interest. It had us giggling the whole way through, and when the final credits rolled, I turned to Hubby and said, "Let's watch it again."

The basic premise of the film is this:

A guy named Paul dies and is cremated. Two buddies decide to take his ashes on a trip around the world, sprinkling spoonfuls of Paul as they go. They land in several countries like Jamaica, Chile, Egypt, Vietnam and more, finally finishing their trip in Thailand for a Full Moon Party.

It's a documentary, independent, low-budget sort of film, but it's funny and real and it made me want to chuck some clothes in a backpack and hit the road again.

Seek it out and you won't be disappointed. And until then, here's a trailer to whet your appetite.

Che - The Movie takes Minneapolis

He finally arrived!

Che!, the movie with Benicio del Toro playing the part of Che Guevarra, finally opened at Minneapolis' Uptown Theater on Friday night.

In the past year, this movie has been getting a lot of press, which as a total Che junkie, I've been paying attention to.

But I should have been paying better attention. Once I had paid my $15 entrance (gulp) and had settled in my seat, I realized I really had no idea what to expect from this film. The only words I'd let pass my filter were "Che" and "Benicio del Toro." I'd never read a review.

Here's my review: Unless you already know the story of Che Guevarra's life and death, and unless you have a nice FIVE hour chunk of time to kill, perhaps you should skip this one.

The first part was fine. The second part was L-O-N-G and choppy. With an hour yet to play out in the show, my fellow Che-loving movie-going companion leaned over and whispered, "I've never been more ready for Che to die."

I, too, was very ready for Che to die. I was getting hungry, and weary of wondering how long it was going to take the big screen to finally get to the end.

Instead, I started counting heads. The theater was full. After counting 94 people on the main floor, I guessed another 20 or so were in the balcony over head, for a rough estimate of 115 people who showed up on a Saturday afternoon to spend five hours watching a movie glorifying Che.

Who were all these people? My family and friends find my Che obsession bizarre, and I was almost starting to believe them. My mom doesn't like it because, she told me once, "it's too Communist." My husband's standard response, whenever I mention Che, is "Che is gay."

But clearly, with 115 people sitting through this show, I was not alone. And in the end, knowing that, I figured was worth my five hours and my $15.

Help for Teens Alone

In Minnesota, when the temperature drops below zero and the wind chill kicks in, the local news channels start airing segments about overcrowding in area homeless shelters.

Last week, when I was working on a story about homeless teens, I didn't know my story would be competing with every news show in town once it was published.

Hopefully, though, the article's message can cut through all the others:

Shedding light on teen struggles

Parrot Cove Lodge Coincidence

A few days ago, I wrote a post about the synchronicity that can be found through online networking.

Now, I'm thinking about the synchronicity that can grow from face-to-face conversations.

Just the other day, Hubby and I were at the airport. We'd just landed in Minneapolis after a quick weekend jaunt to Kansas City to visit family.

Back on our home turf, we jumped into a shuttle bus heading for the off-site parking and found ourselves in conversation with the one other passenger on board. He was coming home from Belize.

Belize! We cheered. We honeymooned there!

Turns out, the man actually owns a resort in Belize. The Parrot's Cove Lodge is on the mainland, just south of a small town named Hopkins.

Hubby quickly let it slip that I am a writer, tossing in some bits about my travel writing. Soon, business cards were being swapped.

Continuing our talk, we learned that while he owns a resort in Belize, he still calls Minnesota home. More specifically, it is a small town west of the Twin Cities where he lives.

Again, Hubby and I cheered. Both our families own cabins in that small town.

Will anything ever come of this ten-minute conversation on an airport shuttle bus?

Maybe. Maybe not.

It's still a lesson in the power of reaching out. I know you're not supposed to talk to strangers. But if you do, you just might learn you have more in common than you think.

Haiku By Two

I'm so excited!

Everyone simply must, must, must
go and check out my new web site,

Haiku By Two.

My friend Alison and I worked all autumn long to
brainstorm, write and craft the whole thing.

Every single day, for the entire year,
one of us will post a new haiku on the site.

We are alternating turns. Alison. Kelly. Alison.

The project is a way for the two of us,
who met in Buenos Aires teaching English,
to stay in touch.

Strange Ways of the Web

The World Wide Web works in mysterious ways. Consider this string of events:

In August 2008 I received an email from a woman named Laura Bookser. She is a writer in San Diego whose books give teen moms motivation and skills to continue pursing high school diplomas and higher degrees.

Her email contained an tone of astonishment. After researching two different trips online, one to Ensenada, Mexico and another to Uruguay, she realized that two of the articles she'd referenced the most were written by the same person ... me!

She found my web site, learned that I was a freelance writer, discovered that I lived in Minnesota and became convinced she needed to contact me because she was planning a trip to Minnesota.

She was going to be speaking at a Twin Cities school about teen parenting and wondered if I could help drum up some press coverage for the event.

While I never did get anything published about her event, the information she gave me eventually lead to an article assignment.

That article, a profile of a Minnesota teacher who is passionate about educating teen moms, was published this week.

It can be seen here:

Safe haven for young moms

And of course, none of this would have ever happened if not for GoNomad.

GoNomad posted both of the travel articles that the San Diego author had found.

Curious about them? Here they are:

Visiting Ensenada: A Bus Trip To Mexico's Wine Country

Cabo Polonio, Uruguay: In Search of the Fabled Ombu Tree

Photo:
A cathedral in Ensenada, Mexico.

Fair Trade Rice from Thailand

Back before Thanksgiving, I interviewed a man named Mathieu Senard.

Senard, who is French, now lives in San Francisco and is the CEO of a company called Alter Eco, which imports fair trade foods from all around the world to the U.S.

Our conversation focused specifically on the varieties of rice his company sells, which is grown in Thailand.

Alter Eco works with two different cooperatives in Thailand to produce one variety of white jasmine rice, two different red rices and a purple rice.

Long before I spoke with Senard, I'd always wondered why jasmine rice was called "jasmine." I'd never asked anyone, though, thinking it was just a name.

However, Senard cleared that all up for me. He told me that jasmine rice is actually native to Thailand and that the original grain, the heirloom grain, smells like jasmine when cooked. It is this heirloom grain that his cooperatives produce.

The fact that most of the jasmine rice sold today smells nothing like jasmine is, as far as I'm concerned, proof of just how far-removed from its roots and how mass-produced it has become.

I haven't tried the box of Alter Eco white jasmine rice sitting in my kitchen cupboard yet, so I don't know just how much like jasmine it smells.

But now that my article with Senard has been published, I'm reminded it is there waiting for me to cook it up and give it a sniff.

If you're interested in reading all about Alter Eco rice, you can go here:

Alter Eco rice builds healthy communities one bag of rice at a time.

Forcasting 2009?

A year ago, at the start of January 2008, I wondered about the coming year on this very blog.

I wrote: Can you shape your year-long destiny by choosing your January one activities wisely?

I had spent that day -- January 1, 2008 -- taking a very hassle-free flight from Minneapolis to San Diego and was hoping that the easy day of travel was indicative of a year of easy traveling to come.

Turns out, it was. I took several amazing trips in 2008, including a jaunt through Louisiana, southern Quebec, the Big Island of Hawaii, and more.

Maybe I really could predict my coming year based on my first-day doings.

As 2008 came to a close, therefore, I started to get a little anxious about what 2009 might hold.

I didn't have any travel plans for this most recent January 1. I didn't have any plans at all and I was really hoping something grand would come along because I wanted another great start to another great year.

Unfortunately, I got the stomach flu. Or food poisoning. Or both. And as a result ushered in the new year alternating between the bathroom floor and the bed.

Ugh.

Pessimism doesn't really suit me, though, and so, in an effort to cast some kind of positive 2009 forecast, I'm trying to salvage anything other than sickness from my past week. This morning, I finally hit upon an idea.

Throughout my bed rest furlough, I did a lot of reading, so perhaps that is my 2009 destiny.

Perhaps this will be a year of reading. I do have a few shelves full of unread books, and if I keep up the pace I've already started, I just might make it through an impressive stack.

Since the start of 2009, I've already finished two books. Twilight and New Moon, both by Stephanie Meyer, and both a part of the uber popular Romeo and Juliet Vampire love story.

Photo:
Self portrait in a rear view mirror captured on the Big Island.