She Wins by a Nose - Gabrielle is wearing a clown nose. One of those bright red spongy numbers. As a matter of fact, everyone within striking distance of Gabbie is similarly adorned. It’s a bobbing sea of smiling faces, every new passer-by feeling the soft “pop” on their nose as Gabbie plops another comic proboscis on another unsuspecting victim. It’s ridiculous and I’m quite certain that if I were there, in the thick of the clown-nose festooning festivities, I would find a half-dozen completely plausible reasons why I do not need to participate. Read On>

A Day in the Life... 31 December, 2005, Minneapolis, MN - The New Year has snuck up on me.   Well, actually, I've been expecting it.   This is a big year for me... the year that I am 40.   I remember as a ten-year-old calculating the distance and the decades and the unimaginable differences that would be when I had crossed into a new millennium and entered what seemed a very grown-up time.   What would I be?   Who would I be?   Where would I be? Read On>

Urban Pioneer - In its heyday, the South Minneapolis intersection of 48th and Chicago was a bustling area full of shops, services, and restaurants. People from the surrounding neighborhood congregated there to buy groceries, converse over a cup of coffee, have their suits pressed, go to the movies. 48th and Chicago was a cornerstone of the community. Years had passed by the time I first drove into the area. Frankly, it was only the lure of “really great Mexican food,” a promise made to me by my friend Mari, that inspired me to park the car when presented with nearly abandoned buildings and barred windows. However, as a transplanted Arizonan, there’s not much I wouldn’t brave for a truly superb tamale. Read On>

The Grove - Here at The Grove, a retail snack company, we definitely understand a “fast-paced” business environment. We work in over 60 stores, at 17 locations nationwide, primarily in airports. So, when we stand across the counter from a customer, there is usually either a sense of urgency or a look of exhaustion in their eyes. Since our mission focuses on providing our customers with a healthy, delicious snack and exceptional care, and because travel has changed so dramatically in the past several years, we’d been ardently working on our connection with our clients, but had forgotten about ourselves. Read On>