My thoughts are not entirely coalesced. I am tired. Spacey. I’ve been walking around in a daze since Thursday when I took the red-eye into Minneapolis from SFO.

This all for the Attitude City yacht party  (Held July 24th, 2009) – a yearly event put on by Minneapolis based DJs Jeff Dubois and Karl Frankowski.

Mara met me at the airport at 6am. The flight went quickly but at the expense of my shoulders, neck and back. We were squished in like sardines. I also had the aisle and periodically got jostled by carts and people. The flight was uncomfortable and the sleep something more akin to a lucid dream in which I seemed to find myself on the yacht talking to Jeff about life.

I’ve never been to Minneapolis – although certain dreams I’ve had prior to arriving coupled with some psychic readings I’ve had suggested there may be a past life connection here for me.

Mara took me around the Twin Cities showing me various sites and local flavors. The famous Mall of America – the gigantic mall with an amusement part in the middle. Mara said that if you spent three minutes in each store it would take you 16 hours to go through the entire mall. Insanity.

She drove me into Minneapolis and back out again into St. Paul – they are a further distance than one would guess considering the “Twin Cities” moniker.

Somewhere in the seething metropolis of Minneapolis-St. Paul was Jeff. No, actually he was on a business trip, and according to his Facebook getting up to no good at the same time.  Was he even going to make it back for this yacht party?

Thursday night was spent at The Bootlegger drinking “Drifter” and some unidentifiable shot that someone bought. I was invited (I suppose) by a group to hop on the dance floor and before I knew it, I was walking back to the hotel at 2am. I ran into several groups of happy drunks along the way.

Early Friday afternoon, after a leisurely morning spent waking up, I walked to St. Mary’s Basilica – it’s massive. It’s also, as I find out, the church I have dreamt about at least three times in the last few months.

I light a candle for Matthew Hansen’s grandfather (Matt is a local SF musician & friend) and sit in the awesome energy of the cathedral ceiling drinking in spiritual energy. The word that came to my mind as I walked around was marriage – and I felt like I had either been married in this church in the past life or somehow officiated them there.

Mara had said that Minneapolis has two seasons – it is either winter or in construction. The Google maps were useless because roads were torn up or sidewalks dismantled. I find, however, that I have a natural sense of direction around town. I feel at home here. It’s strange and uncanny all at the same time.

Friday night came quickly. I got dolled up in yacht attire – although as it turned out people dress in a range from the sublime to the ridiculous at Jeff & Karl’s parties – all manner of artistic and fashionista. Attitude City has a somewhat cult like following of authentic discophiles who speak lovingly of Jeff and Karl’s beats. They are eccentric in all ways. Not run of the mill, not like anything I encounter at home in our clubs.  Something unique and I can’t quite put my finger on it.

I head over to the North East Yacht Club around 7pm via taxi, only to discover that the yacht club is a misnomer applied to a rather seedy dive bar. The local brethren are as salty and humorous as they come. I end up playing up my obvious distinction as being the most overly dressed person in the place (shorts and t-shirts are the dress of choice) by cuddling up with one of the locals and getting a kiss on the cheek.

Much later, I see other yacht folks showing up – I can tell because they don’t quite fit in the place – read: over dressed. The one thing I have learned about Midwesterners is that they really don’t like it when they think you are:

1. 1.  Alone
   2. A stranger.

Both together are even more unnerving and they work up the nerve to strike up a conversation so they can end all of those problems in one swoop. Before you know it you have new friends – most likely for life.

By 8:30, we amble the two blocks back to the Boom Island boat launch. There is a certain amount of nervous anticipation about this event. After all I’d not actually told my friend Jeff I was coming.  My plans sort of pulled together at the last minute.  In addition, through some crazy set of circumstances I won’t go into here, I had a ticket under someone else’s name.

In the end, however, the right set of circumstances prevailed over the almost comical series of events I had gone through to get here.

All the characters collected onto the boat, drinks were purchased and we set out to navigate the murky waters of the Mississippi during our night of revelry — jostling for space at the bar, enjoying the scenery, making new friends, waving at groups of bonfire party-goers on the riverside and most importantly – dancing — A LOT