More to love in Minnesota

We moved to Jacksonville, North Carolina, when my then-husband was in the Marines. We arrived the week of Thanksgiving. Oh, what a memory of a Cracker Barrel Thanksgiving that is; we were both sad to be away from home, we knew no one, and we didn't even have a place to live yet. We felt transient and unsure of how to help each other, where to go, how to celebrate.

That feeling didn't last long, though. On December 31, 2006, we were invited to a local NYE party in Sneads Ferry, North Carolina, but little did I know that this night would impact the rest of my life. That night, I met a woman (a mere

20 years old) who quickly became my best friend.

Since then, my then-husband and I came home to Texas, and not long after, she moved to Massachusetts. I went to visit her in Boston (who could resist?), and had a blast of a whirlwind tour of the city.

But recently, she called to give me big news. She was moving TO MINNESOTA. Who the hell moves to Minnesota on purpose? It seems like a place people are born, not a place people choose to move. Alas, she did.

This past NYE, she invited me up to play in the snow and celebrate the 13th anniversary of our friendship, so I obliged with little hope of doing anything except building snowmen and drinking wine, which I was completely okay with.

When I arrived, it was late and dark, but the roads were clear and we started the trip out strong with laughter and tequila. The next day, however, it never stopped snowing. It snowed and snowed and snowed, but that was just fine with us; we sipped a glass of wine and visited with the family and friends in town for the holiday.

And then, the sun came up. It was NYE. The snow plows began working their way through the snowy roads, which made a trail good enough for us to adventure out for tubing at Trollhaugen, Wisconsin. The fresh powder sprayed in our faces. We linked up with a family of friends and laughed and squealed the whole way down before escaping for a bloody mary to warm back up. Next was a hibachi dinner, followed by a live band to watch the ball drop.

The more people I met, the more I began to think, "Man, the people here are really nice." When I mentioned it out loud, I learned the phrase "Minnesota Nice", as in there are nice people, and then there are "Minnesota Nice" people. It's like they've never met a stranger. They were genuinely interested in others in a way that kind of restores hope in humanity. Now, being said, I don't mean to say that I went to visit my best friend and she was nice and the friends she had already established were nice because of course she would also attract people who would be nice, right? No, I mean total strangers are genuinely nice.

On Jan. 1, we went into "the cities" and stayed at the Foshay Tower; it was swanky and looks like it could have doubled for a swingers club, but it was unique and definitely not your average Holiday Inn. We had incredible service from the bar and staff at Capital Grill. It was genuine service, not the dry "can I offer you wine?" service, but genuine "I want you to have the best dinner of your life" service. And we did.

Following dinner and dessert, we went to a local bar and I found more of the same kind-hearted people. At one point, a couple of men struck up a conversation with me, asking me where I'm from and before you know it, we were having an honest, non-discriminatory conversation about our lives and views on real-life issues like police work and prejudices.

We couldn't have had much in common - me, a single white female from Central Texas, and them, two black gays from Minneapolis, but that didn't stop them from genuinely befriending me, and one even sang for me a song he wrote.

By the end of the night, this little bar felt like Cheers; drinks were swapped and purchased for each other; we danced all together without competition or judgment. I can honestly say it's one of the nights I won't soon forget, not because anything extraordinary happened, but because humanity happened.

Maybe the moral of the story is that we'd all get along better if we'd stop being assholes and start being "Minnesota Nice" to everyone. There's a lot to love in life, and even more in Minnesota.