MINNESOTA

Today, suddenly, out of the blue, my eyes welled up. I was being given a tour of Minneapolis (gorgeous) and then the U of Minnesota, where Peg went to school. We drove down the streets where she would have walked, Dinky Town it's called, passed some buildings which would have been there when she attended in 1936-37, and her sorority house. Gamma Phi.  Today must have been pledge day or whatever it's called, the lawns in front were filled with young hopefuls, both male and female, outside fraternities and sororities, hoping to make the cut. All in white T shirts and shorts, which I'm sure is not what Peg wore. 

But I got all teary. She wanted so desperately to come back to Minnesota last year, wanted me to bring here here, to take the train. I humored her. I was wrong. I should have brought her.

My hosts are divine. On top of which James has organized the "Peg" folders on my laptop. Taken off All Things Peg, mostly all her scripts, and freed up 20 (?) gigabytes by compressing all the scans of her scripts and then putting onto DVD so if this thing blows up between now and when I get back to England and my new external hard drive--I have a copy. And he has kept one too. I get the feeling he looks at my desktop here the way I look at Alex's room, thinking I have never seen a greater shambles in my entire life.

Tomorrow is the State Fair. I am going to eat everything on offer.

I am so so glad I came. This all feels right. My last trip with my parents, I thought, as I flew here. Can't believe I'll be putting them in the ground here forever. She hated Minnesota winters. Maybe will put an extra sweater in the box.