Someone asked if I planned on blogging while in Europe. Tentatively, yes. I should have Internet access in my hotel room (in Paris, at least) and I’m sure WiFi hotspots are plentiful in both cities. I think I’ll also create a Flickr account to post photos. But I probably won’t write anything detailed until I return. Dictating to someone else simply doesn’t feel natural to me. Before I could use the computer independently, I used to dictate all the time, even through college. I’m suddenly remembering all the term papers that I dictated, mostly to other friends in college who were looking for some easy money. How tedious that must have been for them. But in the last ten years or so, I’ve grown accustomed to doing all of my writing myself. To try and dictate now would be awkward for me, like having someone come into the bathroom while you’re singing in the shower.
A friend and I caught a bit of a concert in the courtyard of the Mill Ruins Plaza last night. The plaza is surrounded by the old stone walls of the flour mill that once stood there, which lend an echo-y, orchestra-hall quality to the acoustics of the place. We watched the concert from the upper balcony and to get there, my friend went ahead of me to clear a path through the crowd. As I followed, I’m pretty sure I struck her in the shins a couple times with my footrest. She didn’t complain, but someone really needs to invent an anti-collision system for wheelchairs. Better yet, it should be able to distinguish between people I don’t want to hit (friends, attractive women, small children, the elderly) and the expendable (drunken college kids, men in wife-beaters, tourists).

The DFL made another budget offer this afternoon. Its key items include adding more poker tables at Canterbury Park and a provision that would link teacher pay to job performance, an idea which Pawlenty has been promoting for some time. If an agreement is reached, the earliest we would be back at work is Friday (the Legislature is adjourned until tomorrow). The last time I was unemployed for any significant stretch was the summer of 1999, so this has been an unusual experience for me. Just between you and me, I have kind of enjoyed the aimless quality of the last few days. There’s a certain kind of pleasure in rolling out of bed and thinking, “Well, what should I do today?” But I’m sure that would quickly transform to anxiety if I had to start worrying about when my next paycheck would arrive.
I’m going to confirm my plane tickets for Europe as soon as I finish this blog entry. The trip is starting to cross that threshold between “Wouldn’t it be fun…” to “This is gonna happen.” There are still a few details to work out, but the plan is to spend six days in Paris and four in Berlin. I think I’ll be staying at the Marriott on the Champs-Elysees while in Paris. It’s a luxury, I suppose, but it’s also a guarantee of an accessible room.

I hope everyone is having a pleasant 4th. The celebration began a little early here in downtown Minneapolis. Last night, someone was settling off some heavy duty fireworks near my building. I couldn’t determine what their exact location was, but I could see the reflections of the fireworks’ ascents and explosions in the glass windows of the IDS Tower and other office buildings. Kind of pretty, in an urban sort of way.
To distract myself from my uncertain employment status, here’s a list of things i might get myself for a birthday present:
The Historian — This seems to be the hot book of the summer. It’s being described as a more literate, better-written version of The Da Vinci Code (which shouldn’t be that difficult, considering the latter has the literary value of a cereal box). And it’s got vampires. Vampires are cool.
Mysterious Skin — Michael over at Bookslut has been raving about this book for a while. The subject matter is pretty grim, but I’ve learned to trust Michael’s judgment in these things.
20 Years of the Best Science Fiction — Because I simply don’t have enough SF on my shelves.
Film Noir Classic Collection Vol. 2 — I have Volume 1 and love it. This set promises more tough guys and femmes fatales with shadowy pasts.
MST3K Volume 5 Collection — I can’t believe that I don’t have any collections of one of the funniest things I ever saw on television. I’m more partial to the Mike Nelson years and this has some of my favorites from that era.
The Outer Limits Season 1 — Man, there’s a lot of geeky stuff on this list. I’ve never seen this series and I’m curious to see how it compares to The Twilight Zone.
Of course, I’m not going to object if anyone out there decides to get me something, but I’d never use this blog as a way to hit people up for presents. Some things are simply beneath me.

The Legislature went home for the rest of the holiday weekend, meaning that I probably won’t be back to work on Tuesday. I can only imagine the anxiety that other state workers with no vacation time and families to support are feeling. The Governor mentioned that he might be willing to pay state workers for days of work missed because of the shutdown, a move which every state worker would welcome and which might also give Pawlenty a small political boost. I’m still not sure how this will play out in the long run. So many services have been determined essential that the scope of the shutdown may seem minimal to most Minnesotans. My nurses will still get paid, as will most health care providers. Road construction projects that began before the shutdown will continue. It’s axiomatic that voters have short memories and all the parties involved may be able to sufficiently rehabilitate their public images to survive the 2006 election. But I also wonder if conditions might be ripe for an energetic and organized third party (certainly not the Greens or the Independents in their current state) to make inroads in the next election. I think there’s a lot of hunger out there for a third way of doing things. Even I, a committed Democrat, am starting to feel like the current system is broken beyond repair. But for a third party to have any success, it would need a charismatic and visionary leader. And I don’t see anyone on the Minnesota scene who fits that description.

The Minnesota Senate adjourned tonight without passing a continuing funding resolution that was acceptable to the Republicans. The Senate did pass a bill that would have funded government at existing levels for an indefinite period. The Republicans wanted a ten-day “lights on” bill. 9,000 state workers will be locked out tomorrow.
Even a one-day shutdown carries political risks for both parties. It will be brought up time and again during the upcoming election cycle. The question is whether voters will remember the shutdown when they go into the voting booths 16 months from now.