Chevron

Apparently that was the theme of the day. I did some shopping, went to get a new swimsuit, ended up buying work clothes. I got four different shirts, two of which have this lovely pattern. I then noticed once I got home my new planner also has a chevron pattern. I guess that's what's in right now.

I'm ok with it.

Lake Walk

Decided that I should take a break from watching countless episodes of Friends today, so I went for a short 4 mile walk/jog (mostly walk) to the lake. There is a nice bog walk in the Gray's Bay area and it makes for a good destination/turn around point. It was a gorgeous day to be outside, thats for sure. (Although this picture doesn't show it very well...)

Obnoxious

One of the things I love most is obnoxious shoes. I always try to find the brightest most hard to miss shoes. My last pair were neon pink and yellow and glowed in the dark. So while I was out shopping today for bedding, quite unsuccessfully, I saw that there was a clearance sale at Dick's so I stopped by. Then I found these awesome shoes. I can't wait till I do the 3-Day again so I have an excuse to buy a pair. I just can't decide which pair I like best.

Wild Feathers

Made it to Sun Soaker #2 today! I ended up having the day off so, to get some exercise I walked the 5 miles to Maynard's to say hey to the Cities crew and watch the Wild Feathers perform. I had never heard of them before today, but they were shockingly good (although I heard their band manager was a piece of work.. so thats always good). Plus it's always fun to see Fletch and Min and that gang.

Then I had to walk 5 miles back home. I wanted to keel over by mile 4.25. Worth it.

Chef Bro

The bro has become quite the chef over the years. After having a mom and an uncle who are awesome at cooking it was probably only right that one of us kids picked up the skill. Clearly it's not me. Tonight we had some sort of honey spiced chicken and home made chocolate hazelnut custard for dinner. Delish.

F.R.I.E.N.D.S.

Rediscovered how awesome Friends is. So naturally I watched almost a full season. 

...I need a hobby.

But I had some hot chocolate! It was delicious. Especially with a little chili powder. Yum.

Under the Dome.

If you have known me at all, and my reading habits or asked me to recommend a book to read, in the past few years I probably would have told you to read Under the Dome by Stephen King. In fact, I loved the book so much it made a blog post a few years back (its buried in this post here). I have read it cover to cover once in three days (its well over 1,000 pages long) and reread several parts of it since. Well tonight it made its TV debut! The book is now a 13 part series on CBS. It's already a lot different than the book, but intriguing so far. Now I just want to read the book again. (JO if you are reading this post you better work on finishing it so I can take it back from you!)

Here is me, hiding from the dome... or something.

Maude

Today was a day of cleaning and recovering from the power outage (props to those surviving still without power). We got our food back from Cub, who housed it in their freezer, did a lot of cleaning and laundry, and picked up sticks and other things that fell all over the yard. Mom and I went to Now You See Me which was an awesome movie. See it. Then we went to Cafe Maude for dinner with the fam. Delish.

Back to work tomorrow... does this ever end? 

Blackout.

Well, like most of the Twin Cities, we were out of power for quite some time this weekend. We lost power around 3am Friday, got it back for a few hours Friday afternoon. Lost it Friday around 8pm and finally got it back Saturday around 10pm. You never realize how dependent you are on electricity until you lose it. And I'm glad to have it back. The first thing I did when I got power back? Charge my phone and computer and then watch TED talks. Cause I'm nerdy like that. 

Here is a boring picture of Brendan James' talk, which is more like a small concert.

Bobby Ray.

Last night, while I was spontaneously out in Excelsior, I got a spontaneous text from my Cities97 boss. She told me she had an extra ticket to go to B.o.B and invited me to join her - for free. So that's just what I did. About half way through the day she also informed me that she got a spot in the meet and greet KDWB was hosting. The perks of being a Cities97 intern continue!

The concert was awesome. I was pleasantly surprised at how great of a performer he was (especially after it literally rained on the stage at one point). Myth, where the concert was, didn't lose power which was a plus and I drove home during the one break in the storm there was all night long. All in all it was an adventure of an evening.

Send Off

I planned on spending my "Friday" night this week watching the two Red Box movies I rented (Life of Pi and The Hobbit); however, sometimes things just don't end up as planned. My friend JF sent me a text telling me to get to Excelsior to hang out around 10pm. I wasn't sure I wanted to go until he told me he was moving to LA tomorrow. So, I turned Life of Pi off and headed to Jake O'Connors. It ended up being a huge high school reunion and I got to spend time with people who used to be good friends that I just ended up losing touch with over the college years. It was an awesome way to spend the night. 

Punch.

Spent two of three meals with Gustie friends today. Had lunch with a CAB friend who also works at United. I haven't talked to her in probably a year so it was nice to spend some time catching up. Then after work - and an 8 mile walk (you would think I'm training for the 3-Day or something... don't worry. I'm not.) - I met up with EJohns for dinner at Punch. She is working in the internship now that I had last summer so it was fun comparing stories. 

On my way back home I stopped by the Wayzata beach and walked around the docks a bit. I don't spend much time in Zata, but I always love it when I do.

Bay Hopping.

Today we were lucky enough for the bro to take the fam out on one of his work boats. We were even luckier that the weather was nice, which doesn't happen all that often these days. Half way through the cruise I got dropped off at Maynard's to celebrate KN's 22nd birthday. It was fun to chat with some of the girls (while sitting on the Maynard's deck with some drinks). Then finished the night out back with the fam out on the lake. All in all a perfect day on the water.

Better late than never

Today I finally started cracking down on some things on my to do list. One of which was write out thank you cards from Graduation - an event which took place three weeks ago... whoops. But, hey, better late than never, right? Hopefully this productivity streak continues.

Happy Father's Day!

Every summer for the past three years now, SF and I get together on Sundays and watch True Blood (since she got me hooked on it Freshman year). Well, it came back tonight, so naturally I found myself on S's very comfortable couch watching the season premiere. It was a nice way to end Father's Day. The steak dinner the fam had was nothing to shake a fist at either.

Here's another pathetic picture of a TV screen... 

It's Raining Buckets

Literally. Today, it did. We have some gutter issues on the front of our house and if the rocks you see in the picture fill with water... so does our basement. Hence the three buckets. The only downfall is that when it rains hard enough the buckets tend to fill up pretty quick, so I was on bucket duty. I think I emptied a bucket ever 3 minutes or so. It was pouring. So, naturally, the fam went to see Man of Steel. It was good. I'm already prepping for the sequel.

Margarita Friday

Today was a little more eventful than yesterday. Watched a lot of Game of Thrones with the bro instead of getting any of the things on my to do list crossed off... Then went to Star Trek with SF (which was stressful to watch and awesome all at the same time, non-stop action and suspense). And finally headed out to Olive Garden and Uptown for a friends birthday with a bunch of other Gusties. It was nice to get some of them back in my life. Olive Garden now has watermelon margaritas so, naturally, I had to try one. It was pretty good! Happy margarita friday (which I try to celebrate religiously since I started it last summer)!

Adult Life

Since I have Fridays off from work today was technically my Friday. How did I spend it? I went for a run, ate some pizza, and picked up my mom and her friends from Maynard's then came home and went to bed. It's a pretty thrilling social life I lead. I think my mom's social life is busier than mine... this must be what it feels like to be an adult. Stay up waiting by the phone to hear when the kids need a ride home... yikes.

Here's a pathetic picture I took while collecting the bar-goers.

PGSD

Today at work I had a debrief meeting with my mentor to talk over everything that I've been trained in on in the past two days. The first thing he said was, "I know we are supposed to talk about training things, but more importantly how are you handling the PGSD." I had no idea what he was talking about. Apparently he meant the Post Graduation Stress Disorder. I told him it hadn't really hit me yet, but we spent a good amount of time talking about Gustavus and Senior Week and how bad we were both craving a Gustie Burger from Patty's. He also told me that even at 2 years out he still misses Gustavus all the time... so, glad to know I have that to look forward to. Ha. 

Can I give this back and do it over again?

Back at it

Day two: check! And it went a lot more smoothly than day 1. I'm slowly adjusting to it all. Except the fire alarm we had today... that caught everyone off guard and resulted in a cancelled meeting and a nice walk around the United campus. Since I get off at three (which has actually been really nice) I decided I need to start running again. I did really good with it this past fall, then not so good this spring. I did put 30 miles on my mom's new rollerblades this weekend so I'm getting back in the game. Slowly... but gotta start somewhere, right?

Blast from the Past

Made it through my first day! It was a lot of information to take in, so much so that my head started to hurt by the end of it. I will be working a total of 960 hours so I don't have an end date, I just end when my hours run out. So in order to prolong them I only have to work 8:30-3 Monday through Thursday until after the 4th of July then they will reevaluate after that. Which works for me!

But even better than surviving my first day of work, The Sisterhood (what our middle school selves named our group) reunited for the first time since high school (or Freshman year, no one could remember). But some of these girls I haven't seen for a few years. It was unreal that we all found time to get together. We went out on LW's boat and cruised around on Lake Minnetonka, had a potluck dinner, and caught up on our lives before everyone jets off to different corners of the country again. I couldn't decide which picture I wanted to use so here are four!

Real Life Prep

Drove home from the cabin in the rain (well, drizzle). First day at my big kid job is tomorrow so I decided to take it easy tonight. And the best way to do that was to watch the season finale of Game of Thrones and write some letters. I also got the awesome Instagram photo prints I ordered so I started including them in my letters that I sent. I still have a lot of letters to write.

The Best Sight of Summer

Putting the boat in the lake is one of the best days of summer there is. It's also the official start of the cabin season. It was also sunny for most of the afternoon which was a highlight. I did end up going into the water waste-deep. Let me tell you, the lake isn't that warm, but it is warmer than I thought it would be. So there is hope for the rest of the summer! (Especially since the ice went out only, like, 3 weeks ago).

Also, HBD Dad!

Cabins are great for...

Reading! I think the only place I can sit and focus on reading for fun is at the lake. It's basically all I do. Especially when its super rainy all day like it was today...

Currently reading the first book in the Game of Thrones series (which is officially called A Song of Fire and Ice series). 

Zummer iz Ztarting

For any who have been to Zorbaz, you will understand that title. Zorbaz doesn't use 's' they replace them all with 'z's. It's confusing. But good for them. I headed north today with CW to spend some time with him at his cabin (which is about 7 minutes south of mine) before my family heads up tomorrow. We went to Zorbaz for dinner (after going to my cabin for almost 22 years I finally made it there) and got some free drink chips cause they were doing maintenance or something, we really aren't sure why they gave them to us. We then hung out at the cabin and watched Red Tails and The Hunger Games. 

It's good to be back in the north woods.

The Icon

After a day of doing basically nothing, C3Peeps0 and myself went to the Icon theatre in the West End to catch a movie. After being busy with finals and senior week things I haven't seen any of the movies that have come out recently, including Iron Man 3. The nice thing about the Icon is that there is a bar and restaurant for people 21+ upstairs and now that C and I are both 21 we had some drinks before the movie. Our bartender also let us sample the bacon popcorn they serve there. It was actually a lot better than I thought it would be. The movie was pretty good too. Cross that one off the long list of movies I have to catch up on!

The Kingdom

Drove back down to GAC today to finish packing since we couldn't fit it all yesterday. I also turned in my keys to the house. Saddest of things. It was a good house. It treated us well. I'll miss it. The rest of the day just consisted of unpacking, organizing, and cleaning. Always fun.

Class of 2013

This is it. Graduation. I don't really know what all to say about it since I'm still in denial that it happened. Here is the picture I took at the baccalaureate service.

Here are other pictures to recap the day. A picture is worth 1,000 words, right?

The Last Day

Tomorrow is graduation. Woof. The week actually just flew by. Today after grad rehearsal was a lot of cleaning and packing since we are supposed to be out of the house by tomorrow night or Monday morning. We had some of the girl's parents over in the afternoon for lunch since people started rolling into town. It was fun to see everyone again since there are some parents I haven't seen in a year or two. Plus the food we had was delicious. At one point a game of beer pong broke out. Keeping it classy. As always.