July 24th, 1994. The last of my belongings were packed, and I was finally leaving. Leaving this dreadful place and this dreadful man. As I walked out, he punched the stucco wall in sadness and anger. It was the last time I would ever see him again. A short cab ride later I boarded a plane from Phoenix, AZ bound for Minneapolis. One way. I also had my best friend in tow -- a cat named Sid.
I had never been to Minneapolis before, or even seen pictures of it. I grew up in Los Angeles and had traveled quite a bit, but had never been anywhere near where I was going. It was a spur of the moment decision to move here, thanks to the help of my friend Rick whom I'd known since junior high. When I told him about the awful situation I was in, he offered to share an apartment with me in Minneapolis since he had just recently moved there and needed a place. I had nothing, really, just a few things, $150 in my pocket, and my cat. That was literally it. Rick kindly paid for my plane ticket.
As soon as I walked off the plane through the jetway towards the airport the humidity hit me like a brick wall. It was the middle of summer after all, and I was coming from the 115 degree desert. The humidity was really and truly shocking. Rick picked me (and Sid) up in his blue 1970's muscle car, and that's when it sunk in. This was really happening.
Aside from the humidity, the most mesmerizing thing for me was seeing all of the trees everywhere. This place was the greenest, lushest place I had ever laid eyes on. I remember being in awe when we drove down streets where the trees grew enough to touch each other and form tunnels above. The houses were so beautiful, too. Los Angeles has a lot of history, but it looked absolutely nothing like this place, and of course Phoenix is a giant brown suburb of cookie cutter Spanish-style tract houses with red tiled roofs, swimming pools, and yards full of rocks. The shock of green was so, so beautiful.
The first place Rick took me was downtown to the Hennepin Avenue bridge. We parked down the way, walked up onto the bridge, and stopped to look over the Mississippi River. I slipped the gold band that the dreadful man had given me off my finger, and I threw it into the rushing water below. I can say with complete honesty that that moment was hands-down the most exhilarating moment of my entire life. It still is, more than 20 years later.
On the way to our apartment the thunderstorms escaped the clouds, releasing all of that unbearable humidity. I'd been through monsoon season in the desert many times, but this was an incredible rain like I had never seen. It just poured buckets and buckets and buckets. It was the perfect baptism for my new life in this new place.
Sadly, that perfection and excitement was permeated with expectations from Rick that I'd never anticipated. In his mind, I was moving here to be with him, which explains why he'd been so generous paying for me to get here to share an apartment with him. Once I started dating someone new, his jealousy was completely out of control. It didn't take long before I felt just as controlled and afraid of him as I did with the man I'd just escaped from. I knew I had to get away from him as soon as I possibly could, and I vowed after that to never let a man try to possess me like that ever, ever, ever again.
There were good memories from that apartment though, in spite of Rick. I made a new best friend, Jim, who would hang out with me there a lot. We would lay on the floor together with headphones on, blasting Smashing Pumpkins into our eardrums. We also spent many nights out on the communal balcony, watching people coming and going on the street. Oak Grove Street was full of characters and there was rarely a dull moment.
I also turned 21 when I was living in that apartment. I started going to First Avenue and made even more good friends. I experienced my very first real winter, too. I remember staying at my boyfriend Jay's house one night, and waking up in the morning to at least a foot of snow. It was positively magical. Everything and everyone was new, and I was the happiest I have ever been. I have often wished that I could bottle that feeling of that time of my life. I sincerely wish that I could recreate it somehow, and hang onto it forever...
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Rick and I in the fall of 1994.