Column: For Michelle, ‘trimphant’ return

Talk about it

Two weeks ago, I wrote about how I hadn’t been in Farmington for, oh, pretty much the entire month of August. Well, Farmington friends, I have good news – I’m back, and I’m back at it.

Although, I’ll have to admit, my first day back was a bit.… Well, it was a day, to be sure.

On Labor Day, the end of the Minnesota State Fair, my friends from the Minnesota Newspaper Museum and I sat around and shared a some laughs and a couple of beers after we locked the museum’s doors for the end of the year. And when we said goodbye, I was more than ready to get home and get to bed. After all, I had to work in the morning.

After 26 years of working at the Minnesota State Fair in several different capacities, I’ve kind of gotten used to “the day after.” I’m exhausted. I’m still on a high from 12 days of fun and memories. And yet, I’m headed back to work.

So there I was Tuesday morning, getting ready for work. I was dressed, but still rounding up everything I’d need to take back to Farmington. My phone rang. I got a tip about a pretty big house fire that had happened the night before (I really love all of my Farmington contacts, by the way). Vacation was over. I had to go.

So in a five-minute frenzy I managed to pour a cup of coffee, round up a few bucks for lunch money, put the dog in the kennel, brush my teeth, stuff a couple of bills I had to pay into my purse, and grab my camera bag, computer bag and purse.

Oh, and I needed shoes.

I headed over to the pile by the front door. I kicked the pile around, found the shoe I wanted to wear. Kicked around the pile some more, found the other one. Or so I thought.

It wasn’t until I was in Farmington, standing in the street in front of the house that had burned, talking to fire marshal John Powers and city administrator David McKnight, when I finally glanced down at my feet and discovered that I had the same shoes on … just in different colors.

On the left foot I had a black sandal. On the right, a brown one. Are you kidding me?

Feeling the urge to make fun of myself, I took a picture of my mismatched pair. I loaded it onto Facebook, then decided to dub it as “My Not-So-Trimphant Return to Farmington.” Posted it. It took me more than an hour to notice that I’d spelled “triumphant” wrong.

Getting back behind my desk felt good. My desk was still in the general state of disarray I’d left it Aug. 3, but it was there and it was familiar and it was comfortable.

All things considered, it was a minor hiccup to my day. I was able to get a few stories out, even ran over to Farmington Elementary School to take a picture (although I was not paying attention to the clock and almost missed the timeframe I had to get the picture I wanted). I remembered how to lay out our pages, and got through the day fairly well.

The rest of the week went smoothly, though. Most of my time since has been spent trying to catch up on things I missed over the past month, but getting back into the rhythm of it all hasn’t been too bad.

I mean, when I came to work this Monday, I had the same shoes on, so I’ve got to be making good progress, right?

Tags: opinion, farmington, commentaries