Awkward Door Holding

I pull my car into the parking lot. My windows are down, so I can feel the cool fall air and hear the dry leaves crush under my tires. I turn off my ignition and sit there for just a few moments, sipping down the last of my luke-warm "morning ride" coffee and catching the last few minutes of KQ's 8am interview. I get out of the car. I grab my backpack heavy from a stone-age laptop and workout attire. I'm going to the gym over lunch. I begin the long walk toward the building door. I'm tired. I'm cold. I hate carrying things. I just want to go back to bed. As I get closer to the glass entrance, I notice another "Nine-to-Fiver" walking alongside the building and headed toward the same destination. Ugh. He is about 50 feet in front of me, looking chipper, with his shirt half-untucked and tie slightly crooked. Ugh. As he reaches for the metal door handle, he notices the reflection of a young woman approaching him from a distance. Ugh. He proceeds, as a gentleman would, to open the door and hold it there; just for little old me, who is still a full 20 feet behind him. Ugh. Here we go. There is no way I can continue to slowly trudge my ass to the door, as someone is now waiting for me. Staring at me. Just trying to be a nice guy. I pick up speed in my already uncomfortable heels. I do an awkward half-walk-half-sprint, swinging my stick straight arms back and forth as I go. Trying to keep my packpack, lunch and purse in tact without tripping. I get to the door. I'm out of breath. I smile and say "thank you." You just made my morning so much easier. Moral of the story: if someone is more than 5 seconds behind you, don't hold the door for them. It's not that heavy...

Seeing old friends

"Make new friends, but keep the old; one is silver and the other is gold." The above is a line from a traditional Girl Scout song written by Susan J. Ellis. To this day, it is the only thing that I consiously remember about being in Mrs. Blumer's kindergarden class (besides sitting on the colored block carpeting), and is one of the philosophies that I still live by. Keeping up with old friends takes work. Life is busy, work days are long, and ultimately people change. It is amazing how easy it is to drift apart from your childhood friends while you are in your twenties, as everyone is heading their own directions and building their own lives, which often includes new love interests and different circles of casual friends. Long gone are the days of calling your best buddy at the crack of dawn so you can hang around and just be bored together. I remember being so bored with some of my best friends, that we would watch TRL together over the phone, take long walks to the gas station just to buy a pop, and make up songs and dances about being "so, insanely bored". That is true friendship. I miss those days. The past few days have been spent (working, of course, and) catching up with old friends. The first, believe it or not, were my grandparents. Remember those kind, sweet people who love you unconditionally, even though you were fairly recently some bratty, spoiled teenager that acted like you didn't care much whether you only saw them for a few hours on holidays? They are great people, and I need to make more time for them. On Friday I went out to lunch with my "Papa" and even took him to my office to show him my "cube". He sure got a kick out of that. I asked him a lot of questions about his past that I realized I had never really asked him before. It was really nice to hear his story. On Sunday I invited the Park grandparents over for brunch. It was just them & me, and while we were chatting over eggs & coffee I realized that we had never spent any alone time together. My grandma loved seeing the new Mums I bought for our patio and even plucked a flower to take home and press into her diary. How cute. She appreciated the time we spent together so much that I received a letter from her in the mail yeserday thanking me again and again for the lovely time. It made me really sad that I had never made that time for her before. On Monday I had happy hour with my friend Sue who was in town from Boston, followed by dinner with my friend Kim who was in town from Columbus. And tonight, I was able to grab a late night drink with a work friend who recently moved Florida. It was so great to catch up and see each one of them, and not to mention great to know there are a few potential "vacation spots" in the near future :) Staying in touch takes work, but it is worth it. I hope to never let an old friend be forgotten, as every person who has come into my life has made an impact on the person I am today. I am so lucky to have the great friendships that I do. Goodnight! ...if you're wondering, my "dreaded meeting" last week went great. THANK GOD IT'S OVER!!

Calm Before the Storm

Tomorrow marks the first day of a two-day meeting that my co-worker and I have planned from start to finish, and now we must execute. I'll spare you the boring details, but what I will tell you is that I will be running around like a chicken with my head cut off for the next couple of days. The details are planned, and now as I wait for tomorrow to come I am sipping a glass of red wine and blogging to get my mind off things. I'd like to tell you about my weekend. It was quite phenomenal. On Friday night Jared & I met our friends Kristen & Brian at the new Rick Bronson's House of Comedy at the Mall of America to see Greg Giraldo. We are both huge fans of his comedy and became extremely familiar with him in his many appearances on Comedy Central "Roasts". He was hilarious to see live, but the comedy club was a bit of a disappointment. The large room somewhat resembled an abandoned large retail store, and the tables were set up awkwardly so half of the audience had to turn their chairs to see him. The service also sucked. But, it was a great time regardless and we were really happy to have seen him. After the show, we stopped in at the new bar/restaurant right across the hall (on the 4th floor of the MOA) called Cantina #1. It is a Corona-inspired cantina with a room design that does as good as it can to make you feel like you're on the beach, inside a mall in Minnesota. Us girls took advantage of the fact that our male friends were driving home, ordered a couple of sangrias, and had a blast on the dance floor! We ran into a 50 year-old Mexican man who was there celebrating his 50th birthday with his family. He didn't speak a lick of English, so Kristen & I used it as a chance to refresh our Spanish skills (we studied abroad together in Costa Rica) and our salsa skills!!

Am I really doing the twist??

After this next picture was taken, all the man kept saying to us was, "Thank you, thank you so much for one of the best nights!" LOL

On Saturday, Jared & I spent the day bumming around & running errands, then had an AWESOME dinner. OK...I'm am about to give you a restaurant reccomendation that surpasses all others that I have given you in the past...but are you ready for this information? Are you able to eat delicious food, without thinking twice about how many calories you are consuming? Ok, here goes... Town Talk Diner Go there, and go there now. This place is located on E. Lake Street & Hiawatha in Minneapolis, and has been featured on the popular Food Network show "Diners, Drive-Ins and Dives." This cute little place has AMAZING food, a cool menu and fun drinks. They serve "Adult Malts" (malts infused with adult beverages), beer cans in koozies and they even sell 40s! Jared ordered the "Brat Burger" with garlic fries, which was featured on the show. With God as my witness, this is the only time that I have ever witnessed Jared verbally lose his mind over food, yelling "Oh my God!!" after each bite. It is that good. To drink, he ordered a 40oz of Schlitz, which was very appropriately served on ice with a champagne glass. I had the "Kitchen Sink Burger", which is basically a bacon cheesebuger with their special "Kitchen Sink" sauce. That was the best burger I have ever had.... In. My. Entire. Life. To drink, I had a can of Grain Belt, and then helped Jared finish his 40oz of beer :) Then Sunday came, I cried a little knowing Monday was so close, and then Jared & I met our photographer at Lake Calhoun for round 2 of our engagament pictures. We already took some last November, but because we recently hired this photographer he "insisted" that we take some with him so he could "get to know our style". And, he offered to shoot us for free, so we couldn't resist! We think we got some good shots - stay tuned for pics! That's all for tonight. The next time you hear from me I will be a much happier and less stressed out woman. I sure as hell can't wait for that :)

This is my "it's almost the weekend" dance...

Happy Labor Day...

...to all of you laborers out there :) This is such a bittersweet time of year. Summer is winding down, Target is packed with kids picking out the perfect folders and backpacks for back-to-school, and Halloween decorations are advertised in the Sunday ads. While the weather is still beautiful, a few leaves are starting to change and the night air has a chill to it that didn't exist just a few weeks back. Ah yes, fall is almost here, and what better way to send off summer than a long weekend of summer fun and celebration. One last horrah, if you will. Even though Jared had to work most of the weekend, we did our best to enjoy the weekend with family, friends, and fun. On Friday night, we spent some time with Jared's brother Greg and girlfriend at Acme Comedy Club in Minneapolis. We LOVE live comedy, and Acme is a very intimate and fun place to enjoy it. Not to mention, with a student ID you can purchase a ticket for $5 (normally $15) for the 10:30 show on Friday night! Being one of the top 5 comedy clubs in the U.S., the club typically attracts some great headliners. We were lucky to see Isaac Witty, who we literally did not stop laughing at for the entire hour he was on stage. I got quite the ab workout. Here is just a taste of his goofy style:

On Saturday, a few girlfriends and I packed a few brewskies, snacks and lawn games and headed to Thompson Beach on Lake Calhoun. We had an awesome time chatting in the sun, playing some sand volleyball and badmitton, and when that could no longer entertain us we turned into the 12 year old giggly girls (who we really are at heart) and thought it would be funny to videotape eachother jogging alongside real "runners" in our bare feet and swimsuit cover-ups. Have I told you I love my friends?

That evening, we hit up downtown Minneapolis with dinner at The Local (yum!), drinks on Brit's patio (fun!), and dancing at Brother's, where we sadly discovered we might be getting just a bit too old for the 21 "birthday bar". Oh well.

If you thought that was enough fun for one weekend, just wait, there's more...

On Sunday afternoon the "gang" headed over to Lord Fletcher's on Lake Minnetonka for a "Sunday Funday". What a blast that place is. Great people watching, beautiful scenery with the lake and boats, and awesome fried food. They have THE BEST sweet potato fries. We spent the afternoon day-dreaming about someday putting our money together to buy a huge home and boat on Lake Minnetonka. Hey...it could happen! I also got to take some pictures with my new camera:

On Sunday night, I spent some quality time with my dad and we went to see "The Ugly Truth". All I will say us that typically I am a fan of cheezy chick flicks, but this one was just horrible, cheezy, and not funny. Not to mention it was pretty awkward listening to some of their unfunny sexually oriented one-liners while sitting next to my dad.

And finally, today Jared & I spent the day together relaxing, drinking coffee outside, running errands, and enjoying a BBQ at his parents house with his family. We got to see our Goddaughter and Nephew again tonight, and we fall more & more in love with them each time we see them! Such cuties. It is thanks to them that we will probably consider having kids a few years earlier than we originally planned...after the wedding, of course! :)

Goodnight everyone, have a great week...

Sigh of relief...

Whew, that feels good. Today my team at work had a two hour meeting with our Vice President to "showcase" everything that is going on in our group. I had to present two portions of the meeting, and man was I... Anxious. Nervous. Scared. Terrified. Dreading. Hopeful. Fearful. ...etc. etc. etc... For some reason, I was convinced that I would get up there and completely forget everything I had to say. There was a split second that my brain even went to the..."what if I forget to wear pants..." fear. But then I realized hey, I'm not that unprofessional, am I? I was especially nervous because last night as I was practicing my "schpeal" in front of Jared, I kept screwing up my intro. When I was finished Jared just sat there with a blank look on his face and said, "Uh Oh". But HA! I pulled it off, without falling, or fainting, or studdering, or saying anything stupid. In fact, my senior manager told me I did a great job. Once again, Whew. And even better, it's almost the weekend. Zang.