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The entire entry was inspired by my conversation with Bill_The_Cat who called me Thursday when I needed company on my walk back to the car.


I gave him the walking tour of Fargo starting at the crossing of I-94 and University. He followed my journey on Google Earth and it was such a fun walk that I decided to do it again with a camera to share it with everyone else.


This is how we roll in Fargo. Totally Sharpie Gangsta. It's all about the West Side here. Seriously. No, I laughed so hard when I saw this written on EVERY pole along the way. One day I'm so going to walk over on the other side of the underpass to see if it says EAST SIDE! on the poles there, if not I'll bring my own Sharpie to start a gang war.


The first church I passed on my journey. I was telling Bill how there are TONS of freaking churches in Fargo, they are pretty much everywhere. One of these days I'm going to do a walk down 25th st and take photos of all the churches there, because it's rediculous!


Taco shop is a Fargo chain that really does have the best Tacos in town. SO amazing!!


So amazing that I couldn't resist there all amazing powers and so was drawn into the building for lunch. It was super nummy!!


Some of the super awesomely cheesey art at the Taco Shop. I totally love it!!! This one is my favorite, but they have others all the same style.


This is the hostpital that my aunt went to while she had cancer. It's also the walk in clinic that I go to.


This little sculpture here always makes me think of death and cancer. You know I was going to get a skull tat to represent all the cancer in my family, but the more I think about it the more this image is a much more intimate and intense relation to cancer for me.

But first let me show you a picture of my favorite pizza place of all time. This is Duane's, I grew up on the stuff and it's awesome. Though this is the wrong Duane's. The RIGHT one is in Moorhead. That one has better pizza ovens than this one since they are older/more seasoned.


And now here it is!! My favorite strip mall ever!!! Why you might ask? Well I'll tell you!! The entire mall goes guilty pleasure binge shop then pamper/healthy guilty pleasure. Seriously, it's really funny. Let me show you. As you can see it starts out proudly with a liquor store. Bernies. It was my favorite liquor store when I lived in Moorhead cause it was the fastest one to get to in Fargo. And Fargo liquor stores are open longer.


Then there is the coffee AND wine bar. So you can pleasure yourself morning and night there. Right next to a Hair Expressions Beauty & Spa. So after you get drunk you can go get a good massage to calm you down and a simple make over.


Then there is this emergency oxygen place. With it's very own little car! Right after I took this pic a lady walked out to the car and drove off. Oxygen Emergency to the rescue!!


Then there is the harvest bread company where you can load up on lots of carbs (since we all know carbs are really the devil) then go next door to Thrifty Drug to get your antidepresents to deal with the guilt of eating all those carbs.


Then you can go over to Cake and Candy world to you know, binge on some sweets and after you're so big you're having back problems, never fear! The Fargo Chiropractic is right next door to help you get rid of those pains.


And now that you're a huge fat cow, you need a better solution to managing this weight, so head on over to LAMB Plastic Surgey to get that routine liposuction and when you're done go celebrate your new body by getting some icecream at Icecream PLUS!! Cause damn it, you earned it!! Sersiously, I don't think I've ever driven by that place without smiling.

I really love this bell tower on this church. I think it's super beautiful in it's simplicity.


This is that same church and their attempt to be modern, cool and edgy... it doesn't really work with the rest of the building at all. This is the church that my parents too me to for like a year because it was known for appealing to a younger crowd because of their modern services..... my mom then insisted we went to their only traditional service at 7:30 am.... I think she kinda missed the point of why we were going.


What a way to make you feel wanted. This is the neighborhood of no entry! Leave all!!! hehehe no, Fargo has all these one ways everywhere which I think is just another ploy to help the cops catch drunk drivers. There is one right outside my favorite bar that's a block long only and the cops litterally park and wait for people to not see the sign for an excuse to pull them over. It's super lame cause the sign is placed awkwardly. Anyways, I don't drink and drive so it's no biggie.


This is the ultimate in sterotypical Fargo houses type 1. 3 season porch, 3 story a bit run down, definately in need of a paint job with the garage in the back letting off into some creepy alley that's probably got used needles in the grass that little kids play with cause they don't know better. I'd bet anyone 10 bucks that this house has been gutted out and remodeled so that it's now 3 apartments for college students. If it was within 10 blocks from one of our 3 major colleges I'd bet $50. I so used to live in one of those. It was tiny, terrible and damn.


Bill so kept getting mad at me for having no idea what street I was crossing and this is why, Bill. Everytime I'd look for a sign, this is all I'd get to see. The back of the signs. Boo for me, Bill, boo for me.


Damn you sign nazis and your single sided signs!


This tree so makes me want to climb it every time I see it. I figured I better take a photo of it in honor of my tree climbing friend Bill_The_Cat It's not my favorite tree in town, but it's up there. One day I'll do a Moorhead photo shoot and I'll post photos of my favorite tree in town. I found out last night that my roommate and me both have the same favorite tree in town!! How pimp is that?


Our town is so damn conservative that it makes me smile every time I see one of these homes that's got the crazy and bold colors they just look SO out of place. Sometimes I wonder if their neighbors wake up every morning and secretly scorn living next to a house that's so "crazy."


This is the gas station that I met my first boyfriend at. We were like 12 and we talked on the phone for like a week and then never called eachother ever again. Technically we never broke up, but I've cheated on him A LOT. Hell, I got married to someone else. He's real understanding about stuff like that though apparently cause he never called me to break it off. It's really too bad I don't remember his name.


I totally forgot to finish resizing and framing this one, oops!! This is the stereotypical Fargo house #2 with those pillars on a porch and all the bay windows. I'd so live in one of these.


Proof that I can have an insanely big house in Fargo within walking distance of the bars for when I'm rich and famous.

This is an apartment I used to party at. In the summer it's nice, you'd get this stream of drunks walking down the road to this place which is BLOCKS away. It was good times. I miss afterbars.


I so shared smokes with this guy I used to have a thing for at the top of those stairs... we were both so shy that we never made out up there even though I totally wanted to. Damn my shyness!! Another note, I love taking photographs of stairs. When I was in France I used to take pictures of them all the time. Especially these ones that are kinda hidden away. I think that'd be such a romantic place to make out.


Gompf's!! Don't ask me how they stay open selling just flags. I try to give them all the business I can cause I have a lot of love for this little store. It's where I got my Trinity outfit last Halloween when Joe and I went as Neo and Trinity. They are superpimp around Halloween.


This photo was taken from super far away, but I didn't want to have to cross two roads to get a good shot. This is Tailgators, my uncle Al's favorite bar. I love it too. Only when I go with him though, he's so awesome. He's that crazy uncle type. I remember when I was little he always got me the most random Christmas gifts. One year it was a baton, the next a stuff rabit that was bigger than me and the year after that it was a 24 pack of Moutain Dew and some peanutbutter cups in a nice tin. I love Al, he's my favorite football watching buddy.


Duffy's!!! This is a great tiny little bar. It's so small inside and then it's got this huge bar in the center with these booths around it and then darts in the corner and it just feels cramped with that huge bar. It's great. I think they must put out food cause they always have these little cats aroud the bar at night.


This place has the best soup in town and the shrimp they put in their foods is like BIG shrimp and GOOD shrimp. It's super pimp. This is all part of the asian marketplace. I like to go there on days off.


Because of all the trains in town a lot of our cross roads have overpasses. This is the one of 10th and Main. I walked it before and it was super creepy, I didn't want to do it again, but if I do, there will be lots of photos from under there. For now this is the best you get.

Yet another church... one day I'm going to do a walk where all I do is take pictures of churches... probably one down 25th st. Or as I like to call it church st.


Little known fact: this is where I went to get my license to get married and also were I went to finalize my divorce. The irony of that made me smile a bit deep down inside.


At about this point I found it nesc. to point out to eeryone that I was making this entire trek in flip flops.... Some girls have shoe addictions? I have flip flop addictions. I have something like 15 pairs, which for me is isanity.


I used to party here ALL THE TIME last summer. Matt and me were quite the duo about that time. It was some fun times, I'll have to post pics from those old days sooner or later. I also almost died there. When my shoe decided to fall apart while walking down those stairs, which were the most iffy stairs I've ever walked on. Thankfully Stu caught me in time, but I almost went over the edge head first.


10th and 10th, for Leethal. Cause he just couldn't get how a street could intersect itself. One's a street, Lee and the other is an avenue!! It's not the same street!


Another damn church. Seriously. After this photo I was sick of taking photos of churches so decided to go to a more purely residential road.


This neighborhood was so cute!! I mean look at this little cottage house. I would totally live there. For real. I'd feel obligated to play Green Jelly every day, but I'd so live there.


I totally fell in love with the organic curve of this road. It just felt so relaxing that I had to walk down it and it was worth it, very nice little road. When you live in ND, you really enjoy the little things in life.

This is the cemetary where we burry our Fargo family members. I think my parents both have plots there. I've been tempted to buy one, too. I've been meaning to come down here again cause it's not too far from my current place. I needed to come for research.


My aunt Tammy's grave. This is the reason I live in Fargo right here. Tammy passed when I was a Junior in highschool leaving her husband, who was a wreck and two little girls Kayla and Britny. I left home at 17 to come up to school here PSEO and help the girls with homework and spend time with them. God, I love them so much.


My grandparents. I used to come out here all the time when I was feeling down or needed a place to vent. I love the cemetary and how you can go there and just talk and be sad and feel everything you're feeling and say it all out loud and people, if they see you from far off, they don't say anything or think anything, because they know. They get it. There's something so amazing about saying what you're feeling and really talking about it aloud. When I was going through my divorce and getting so sick of all the judgement or pity this was a place I could go and not worry about what anyone thought, but just to deal with things. In ways I've become closer to them after their deaths because of this.


I was thinking about how you pick out a tombstone and it's all that stands to represent you for the rest of time. That's it, that's the thing that stays. After all the memories and the stories fade away, it's just that stone. And then I saw this one and it made me really sad for all the people that picked it out and chose it and put their faith in it's lasting power in that moment of grief and how now it's just a broken legend.


I took lots of photos of tombstones for research for a half dozen scenes in my book. This one was one of my favorites, but there was LOADS more. I kinda like tombstones. They fascinate me in the end. To be so close to all that grief and pain, it really just brings something out within you. I sense of the specialness of life.