Present Joys

The fourteen minni kids are back home! Let me tell you about our sunday together:

• This morning, I woke up early to pack and rendezvoused with the gang at 9am. We dithered around for a while then decided to go to breakfast. We ended up at the News Room, the same place we’d had dinner on wednesday night. (I made everybody sit in the exact same places as before for continuity’s sake.) I had a very delicious corned beef hash and a ton of different beverages (including a bloody mary, which John did not like the taste of at all.) Lutz picked up the tab for our meal, which was both totally uncalled for and extremely generous. We have been taken care of grandly.
• After brunch, a handful of us walked with Lutz and Burleigh to the sculpture garden where we saw the giant cherry + spoon and some other stuff. The walk itself, which took us through a lovely park in downtown Minneapolis, was lovely. There were churchbells ringing and ringing and ringing and it was an amazing experience. When we got to the sculptures, Haley and Burleigh climbed on them.
• Then we rode to the airport and did all the nonsense associated with air travel. I “opted out” of the naked body scanner machine and took a pat-down instead, which was completely hilarious to everyone involved. My friends gleefully took highly illegal photographs of the whole experience. As the wise John said, “Nigel finally got his neck massage!”
• Our flight was smooth and uneventful with a dull three-hour layover in St. Louis, during which most of us ate appalling food at Chili’s. The ride home was nice, surrounded by friends. And then we said goodbye. Back to school soon? What’s school?

Saturday was spectacular. But it’s already 2am and I need to be quick:

• We started out the morning with a general session followed by a breakout session with the creators of the University of California brand. It was delightfully awkward.
• Then we went to lunch together while our teacher chaperones were off doing their own thing (as usual). 13 of the 14 minni kids were there and we had a great time! (The restaurant put us in our own party room, which had a mirror perfect for taking a group photo.)
• After that, Graham, Adam, Anna, and I went on a little adventure around the city. While on the way to MartinPatrick3, a cool little menswear/home furnishings boutique, we walked past what seemed like a thousand different Minneapolis strip clubs. Of course, we took a few choice photos. (Get it?)
• Graham and I also found flowers for our boutonnières, though mine wilted quickly and Vicki Golden made fun of me about it.
• We finished off the conference with a long, final general session, culminating with a talk by Aaron Draplin, who was completely fantastic!
• Then, an amazing, beautiful afterparty at the Walker Art Center where there were five bizarre floors of fancy food, fancy drinks, and lots of conference-goers. CCAD students literally kicked off a fantastic dance party (thanks, Julia).
• Finally, after the AIGA/Walker afterparty had finished, I made the very questionable decision of “going dancing” with eight of the other minni kids. I should have known an event starting at 11pm could only end in disaster. We all ended up in a weird, creepy place called Sneaky Pete’s where the music was too loud. It turned out everybody was uncomfortable and wanted to leave. But what a beautiful bonding experience. And we got a great group photo outside the sign.
• Oh! This has been such a beautiful day.

What a day today was! Let me tell you about it:

• I got a lot of sleep: eight hours of sleep. Better sleep than I’ve gotten in ages.
• We met this super-cool dude Bryan Kahrs in the hotel lobby at 9am. He talked about his life and reviewed some of our portfolios.
• Then we all walked to Chipotle in search of a cheap lunch. After that, Anna, Julia, and I wandered around the city with Lutz, Burleigh, and Vicki Golden, where we found both a really cool street market and the Oscar-Meyer Weinermobile.
• Then we toured Target HQ, which is quaintly nested in downtown Minneapolis, and was great. While there, we took a peek in the Target-branded gift shop.
• After that, we headed over to the convention center to register, where we got a big bag of random things. We then proceeded to shop around the tradeshow floor for even more random things like free posters and paper samples and chapstick thingies.
• Went to the conference’s first general session, which was three hours long and featured a ton of different interesting things (including George Lois!)
• Ate hors d’oeuvres and stuff during a really busy opening reception, where I got to meet Michael Bierut! And do all kinds of other fun stuff, including: spending time with people I enjoy and drinking weird things and trying to coordinate 14 people jumping in unison at a photobooth.
• Rejected my friends’ requests to “go dancing” (whatever the heck that even means) and instead went to a late-night screening of the very nice documentary Sign Painters.
• More sleep, right now? This is so very nice.

Our hotel has a full-size basketball court (exciting)! AND an escalator (less exciting)! After sports were had, we rode the escalator. Then we had dinner at a place called “The News Room”. Pretty much all of us had hamburgers but I was the only person who ordered mine rare.

Today I flew to Minneapolis with these fabulous people. Tomorrow begins AIGA’s annual conference. Lots to do!