Delighted

Once a believer that peanut butter and jelly sandwiches are no good after a few hours in the refrigerator, I have reformed. In fact, I have reformed so much that I am currently eating my third PBJ this week, which means three times this week I allotted some time in my already cramped morning to make one and cart it with me to work. And boy am I ever glad.

Good Dog....Here's Proof

I was looking through the pictures on my phone when I came across a couple that Chester must have taken. These pictures of Jack put me in mind of the movie Amelie, where she takes the pictures of the garden gnome in different locations to get her dad to travel. I have yet to see pictures that "person"ify him better--he's a laid-back, happy-go-lucky fellow who is more than happy to let us take his picture, and he looks it here.

Home Sick

I think that the excitement and late nights of this weekend took their toll on my immune system. I woke up yesterday morning with a scratchy throat and congested sinuses, which carried over to this morning; add an aching body to the mix, and I thought I'd do well to stay home from work. It's funny how you get that guilty, playing-hooky feeling even when you're ligit.

My day so far has consisted of sleeping in, napping and wasting time on the computer (which makes me feel ready for a nap). It's a shame that a person has to spend one of those rare, unscheduled days off feeling rotten.

The Weekend of a Busy Bee

This weekend is probably one of the most fun, eventful and longest-seeming ones I have had in a long time. Following is the rundown, even though we didn’t take many pictures. Hopefully you can create some visual ones for yourself.

Friday

Even though I got off of work at about 3:45 (trying to keep lake-goer traffic in mind), we didn’t even get out of downtown Minneapolis until just after 5:00, to begin our journey to Duluth to see David Sedaris.

No matter, for the stressful trip (in that nothing could be done about the traffic except to shake my fist and mutter some choice words) was well worth it. David read some of his stories and answered questions for the audience; the two hours he was on stage fairly flew by.

After David Sedaris, we left Duluth and headed to Grand Rapids where somehow I managed to stay awake and conscious until about 3:00 in the morning. We went to Country Kitchen and hung out with Mikey and some of his and Chester’s friends. We had a lot of fun, which included Cindy’s (Mikey’s sister) boyfriend Omar putting some maple syrup into water and stirring it up, which I, in an unusually courageous spirit, sampled and found not at all distasteful.

Saturday

This day we hung out in Rapids a bit longer before heading back to Duluth. We went to Cindy’s synchronized swimming meet, which I had never experienced, and played a few rousing games of Munchkin.

In Duluth, we got to see the house Rudy and Leslie just bought, which is the only place we took pictures this weekend. In the back, in all of its two-story glory, was a playhouse the previous owner built for his daughter. I couldn’t help but feel a bit cheated, a feeling that only got worse when I saw the bunk beds on the second story.

Rudy and Leslie in their backyard.

Me sitting on the floor of the second story of the playhouse...I like the interesting perspective in this picture.

After the tour (wherein many helpful home improvement suggestions were made by the ever-enthusiastic Chester), we made good use of the birthday gift card (doubling as a ploy by Rudy and Leslie to get me to Duluth to visit) for the Black Woods restaurant in Duluth (where they serve the best sweet potato fries I have ever had) before we made the long journey home.

Today

As if we hadn’t already done enough this weekend, I thought it would be a good idea to call a few of our friends to come over for a little barbecue today. I got to meet CJ, a high school friend of Chester’s, and Alexis and Aaron also came. We hung out, I got my bike in working order and then Aaron, Alexis, Chester and I headed to a park a few miles away. We walked the 2.16 miles around the lake and enjoyed the surroundings while we planned a camping trip we’d like to take in the north woods this summer. We also played a few games of Extreme Bocce Ball.

It was great to get out of our normal surroundings and have a bit of an adventure this weekend. It’s always wonderful when you have a weekend like this that makes you realized that summer really is here.

Update!

My uncle has been in town this week (unfortunately because I am a responsible class-goer, I only saw him Tuesday night and tonight), and a friend of his who recently moved to Italy was at my mom's tonight. She brought a friend (an Italian friend) with her. He was very interesting, as he spoke little English. We were trying to converse with him when she wasn't around to translate, and so I got to see the flip side of the coin where you're stuck not understanding someone. I was excited to learn that, due to my two years of high school Spanish, I could pick out some important words such as "biblioteque" and the like.

It was a fun night filled with lemon meringue pie, good company and even a little inspiration sprinkled on top. I know I've written cheesy posts about my life decisions before, but seeing as how I don't really have much going on lately, I'm going to again. I'm really happy with the career decision I have made--I feel like I can focus and have something to look forward to, and being involved with both animals and people will make me feel like I'm doing something for the greater good, where being a lawyer is uncomfortably close to the other side, no matter how lucrative it may be.

Getting ready to go to Duluth tomorrow for David Sedaris--I'm really looking forward to that even though I have no idea what to expect. After that, we're headed to Grand Rapids where we will visit Mikey. I haven't been there in a while and am not only looking forward to spending some time with Mikey and his new girlfriend, but his family as well. Great bunch of people. I could really use the weekend away, this I know.

I have been reading Margaret Atwood's "Oryx and Crake" and have been most thoroughly enjoying it. However, I got to page 218 and about 30 pages were reprinted from earlier in the book and put in the wrong place, so I took my book back to Barnes and Noble today and got a new one. I started "Prince Caspian" for my class and am halfway through that, so Oryx and Crake will have to wait. How's that for multitasking?

Solitary Confinement

I've been worried lately that I'm losing whatever people skills I may have. I was small-talking in the copy room with the girl my age that works here, and I found that not only did I not have much to say, but I didn't have much in the way of satisfactory replies, either.

I am interested in people, probably to the point of being nosy. For the record, however, I like to think that I am genuinely interested and nonjudgemental, rather than simply being gossipy. I'm beginning to wonder if my days spent at work, primarily by myself, and my evenings spent talking to mainly my boyfriend, my mom and my pets (I know...talking to the pets) are taking a toll on my social skills.

A nice break to the monotony was an outing Saturday night. David (my brother), Chester (my boyfriend) and I met Ryan and Abby at Gameworks downtown for some Dance Dance Revolution. We also played a few rousing games of air hockey, and David and I played "a" (I got a little obsessive here and ended up swiping my card several times to continue our game, and if not for David, probably would have done so until my trigger fingers fell off) game of Ocean Hunter (or something...damned if I can remember). It was a good time, but unfortunately all the distractions prevented good conversation and perhaps in part led to my concerns of the day. Even so, it was a great night and I had a lot of fun.

New Pants

I have been "downsizing" lately, as it were...which involves a lot of unpleasantness such as limited candy intake and running (which I bitch about but actually enjoy and can now run 2 miles--some of which includes up hill, so I'm proud of that). Anyway, one unexpected sadness came in the form of the loss of some really cool green plaid pants I had (but are now looking a bit clownish, as they are entirely too big).

I was in Target today on my "fifteen" minute break and discovered some perfect black pants...but they didn't have my size. This resulted in a trip to the Apple Valley SuperTarget, where you can only assume they would surely have my size in the holy grail of pants...but no. Grasping at straws, I asked Chester if he wouldn't mind if we zipped to the Burnsville Not-So-SuperTarget to see if they had them. You'll be happy to know that they did, but even better--BLUE plaid pants! I have been persisting on staple pants: khakis, black pants, brown pants and brown pinstripes, so it is quite pleasant to be able to have some fun pants. The picture does not do them justice, but enjoy nonetheless.

Fruit Basket

Fruit basket: a tasty treat that is dried fruit wrapped in a layer of chocolate and coated in an unidentifiable but palatable candy.

Have you ever noticed how sometimes you associate times/places/people/events/situations with tastes, smells, etc.? So I have noticed lately that I have some bad associations. Sometimes I like to eat aforementioned fruit basket candy at work (very rarely, because I have cut candy more and more out of my life every day...which is just as depressing as it sounds). One time I was eating them while I was working on something for one of our clients. Anyway, this particular client just called to talk to one of the attorneys and fruit basket was immediately brought to mind. This is a very cruel trick of my brain.

Other associations I have developed are eating Totino's pizza while watching my iTuned episode of Lost on Thursday nights (I have class Wednesday, so I have to wait to watch it) and grilled cheese and oatmeal cookie dough while watching Saved By the Bell (I went through a phase where I watched the entire show from start to finish--thanks, Netflix). So now if I watch or even think about these shows, I start thinking about the foods that go with them. This is a distraction in my quest to eat healthy, but luckily I have superhuman will power and can generally ignore these little reminders.

Jack

I love my dog.

Be Jealous...Be Very Jealous

Because tonight I am going to Gogol Bordello! Check out their site and some of their music...even if you don't like it, you'll have to admit it's interesting. We're seeing them at the Fine Line downtown, which should be a good time. If not for the girl I work with who is also going, I would have gone tomorrow (I thought the show was the 8th) and Gogol Bordello would not have been there. Sad. But all is well. Be on the lookout for some pictures--I may remember to take them!

My New Hoodie

So I ordered this hoodie online a few weeks ago, because it was on sale and I’ve been feeling lately like I need new hoodies. Plus it was just my birthday, and that always gives me license to do whatever I want. I finally got said hoodie on Tuesday. Much to my delight, I discovered that this hoodie has little holes to stick your thumbs into on the sleeves (so I can look like a hoodlum), a zippered pocket under the armpit (so I can pretend I’m a gorilla like Koko, and I can store little pet frogs in there like she did) and a little cap thing on the end of the hoodie (for further incentive never to use the hood). All in all, I am quite pleased with this purchase and its little gimmicks, and did not want to just keep it to myself.

My Bad Ass Birthday

Although I expected my birthday to begin, well, on my birthday, I came home on Saturday morning (after what I thought was only a pleasant lunch with my mom but was actually a ruse to keep me out of the house) to Chester, my brothers (one of which lives in Fargo and told me he wouldn't make it down for my birthday weekend), and several of my friends (coming from as far as Sisseton, SD, Duluth and Fargo) in my living room!

As I was taking time to digest the fact that my bathroom stop was actually a surprise party orchestrated many weeks ago, I was brought into the living room where there was honest-to-goodness PIRATE CAKE waiting just for me.















My next surprise (which was actually in the original room where my friends were, but I don't think I digested right away) was a projector that Chester rented to play DDR on. Part of the reason he rented this is that he bought me a PS2 for the sole purpose of DDR and a Ion dance pad (a metal one like they have in the arcades) that has not arrived yet. Very cool, especially for burning off that pesky pirate cake. Below is a picture of my brother David enjoying the projected DDR.




















The surprises didn't stop. I was then led back outside, where there was a cotton candy machine beckoning to me, which I did not hesitate to utilize.



As you can see, I'm not the only one who enjoyed the cotton candy machine and its products.






























Jack was especially pleased to take part...and I discovered that having a particularly damp mouth is prime for cotton candy eating enjoyment (at least, I assume so from watching Jack).



We brought the cotton candy machine in late Saturday night and tried to use up as much of the sugar as we could. We had pleasing results.



At the end of the day, we were all about this tuckered out...



...and I was ready to get back to this.















However, I did have a few pleasant surprises today, on my real birthday, in the form of phone calls and some flowers from my dad (the bouquet on the right) and Chester (the roses in the attractive Chinese vase). All in all, quite the grand birthday!