the ocean

I was in Wisconsin for work for a couple of days this week. My key takeaways were that I was cold, that trees are pretty, and that not being able to drink is definitely a drawback in certain professional settings. All of this is unlikely to be the basis for a TED talk any time soon, but it is what it is.

My dad was from Chippewa Falls, Wisconsin (home of the world's purest water), so we used to go up there for a bit every summer when I was a kid. I remember there being a really great playground with a huge slide. Also, I committed sacrilege by saying butter tasted weird when I tried it for the first time. (We were a margarine family.) Looking back now I can admit I was way off base on that one.

I did have some butter this time around, along with seared octopus two nights in a row because somehow that was what was ordered and I did not want to be rude. Also, Jersey Mike's for lunch two days in a row, which I had previously assumed would be fatal. A lot of my job is eating on cue, it turns out.

The trip back was a bit treacherous since for some reason it has been snowing for four days straight now. It wasn't much, but the Prius is not really built for any weather beyond sunny and mild. Luckily I'm basically a skilled stunt driver. I-94 didn't even know what hit it.