MTB

Here, in Gopher country, you don’t see a lot of Blue or Wolverines walking around.  In fact, when I see someone with something UM (MICHIGAN) related on, I try to say “Go Blue!!” to them but oftentimes they don’t hear me.  :(

I get a lot of crap from guys at work about being from Michigan and the “other” U of M.  Mostly, I think they’re just jealous that we are better than them.  It’s nothing I can’t handle.  In fact, I don’t really fight back because I just know we are better.

So, I brought in a block M flag to work.  A nice sized one — a 2′ x 3′ — and hung it on my cubicle wall.

I got some immediate visceral reactions — and in fact, the guy who works on the other side of the building and went to MSU happened to walk by the day I put it up —  it was just what I was hoping for.

Yesterday, I had an all day training and came back to this:

And the filthy vandals even went so far to do this:

AHHHHH!

I’m playing it cool because that’s what we classy Wolverines do.

Yes, I did it.  I went back for a second round at the Minnesota State Fair.  This time I went with Madoka, my work friend, and Ike.

We parked in Ike’s work parking lot, which is something like a 7 minute walk to the state fairgrounds.  There are train tracks that border his building, which we needed to cross to get to the fair.  And just as our luck had it, a train was passing by and it kept going and going with no end in sight.  Then, it stopped.

Darn!  So, I thought we’d have to wait.  Then I saw people climbing through the train and I thought and said aloud, “OMG, are they crazy??”  And a few minutes went by and the train wasn’t moving.  So, guess what we did?  Yeah, we started climbing over it, too!  It was quite thrilling!!

That’s Madoka and Ike.

We hit the birthing center first because I really wanted to try to witness some kind of farm animal being born.

Baby lambs!

There was a huge cow in labor and we could see some mucus coming out orifices at both ends of her body.  She seemed like she was ready to roll any minute, but the vet said it would be at least a couple hours or into the night until she gave birth.  Though, it seemed like she was having contractions.  Weeeeeird!  For some reason I forgot to take a photo.  And I decided to relinquish the idea that seeing a live animal birth would have made my Minnesota State Fair experience complete and move on to eating.

I ate a lot. A ton.  Too much, but I didn’t care as long as my stomach could handle it, and it did.  Atta boy, Stomach!

We started off the night with some lovely fried cheese curds, except this time we had them at a different spot.

Then, we all enjoyed a corn on the cob, each, dipped in melted butter with some salt sprinkled on it.

Then, I indulged in some key lime pie on a stick covered with dark chocolate:

Mmmmmmmmmmmm.

The other two didn’t find it as appetizing as I did, but there’s something about the tanginess and creaminess that I can’t get enough of.

We continued to walk around and I realized it was time for a bratwurst with sauerkraut and mustard.  DELICIOUS.

We circled back around to the flowering onion stand because it was the end of the night and the line had dwindled.  $8 for a deep fried flowered onion.  Whoa.

Phew.  At that point, the only thing I could squeeze in was a small beer.

Oh yeah, we went to see the art and arts&crafts building too.  The art was awesome, but arts&crafts — BO-RING.

We made our way to the Midway (rides and games) so we could kill time before the fireworks.  Throughout the night, Madoka kept pointing to a little ladybug pillow pet and saying how much she wanted it.  So, I decided that I needed to take matters into my own hands since Ike was not willing.  So, I picked out a super easy game to play (the one where you squirt water into a hole and it makes something rise up).

I played once and lost.  Madoka played once and lost.  Madoka played a second time and lost.  And the second time I played — BOO-YAH!  I won!  I won, I won, I won!!!

And MAN, was I a sore winner!  I cheered and jumped up and down and then Ike said to me — “Yeah, aren’t you so happy you beat out that 8-year-old boy over there?!?!”

Yes, why yes I was!  Because I won Madoka the thing she wanted all night!

The second trip to the State Fair was totally worth the $80 I spent throughout the course of the night.

Last night, I had the opportunity to experience the awesomeness the locals here call the MINNESOTA STATE FAIR!!!

I have to admit that I was very skeptical and hesitant because I abhor crowds, especially during the summer when it’s hot and sticky and you’re touching the bare, sweaty skin of way too many people you do not know.

Also, deep fried candy bars just don’t sound that appealing to me.

But, last night the temps were in the 70′s and my friend and I went at night and the crowd had dwindled down a bit, as if it were like they were clearing out just for me and they knew how much I panic and get anxious walking through crowds!

My friend got a foot long hot dog but I knew that would be too big for me and I wanted to pace myself.  So I started with a big, fat slab of bacon on a stick:

You can see the stand in the background!  Salty, fatty goodness.  My friend was very proud of me for diving right into it.

We then ventured to look for something a little healthier and since I love corn on the cob (oh yes, I am a Michigan girl), we found a corn on the cob.  There were a dozen youngsters around a huge grill grilling the corn.  They took the cob off the grill, dipped the whole thing in a vat of melted butter and handed it to me.  I sprinkled on some salt and I chomped away at it.  Yummmm.

Then we went on a ski lift ride (what are those really called, anyway?) and rode across the grounds in the sky.  ’Twas quite a nice evening: cool weather, not humid, and good company.

From up above, on the ski lift, we saw this attraction called Giant Sing Along.  What is it about people and wanting to sing in public and sing along with other people singing in public?  (I.e., KARAOKE??)  I mean, don’t get me wrong.  I love karaoke, but that’s because I love to sing.  Some people love to sing and they can’t sing.  I find that to be interesting because I really hate doing things I’m not good at.  Such as a lot of video games.  I hate ‘em.

So, anywho — here’s the Giant Sing Along:

On the other side of that giant box, there was a big screen with words and the music came out from a bunch of loud speakers.  In front of that box, you can see there is a crowd of people standing in front of a bunch of posts with mics in them.  Interesting, eh?  And when we were on the ski lift, they all started singing “Don’t Stop Believing.”  I know — that is a fun song to sing along to!

My friend and I went on to eat some cheese curds.  They were good.  Salty, but good, but we couldn’t finish them so we threw half of them away.  I know, sort of sounds a little wrong, doesn’t it?

And now on to the highlight of my evening.  We were walking along and we spotted a giant glowing robot!  A real live robot!  My friend had heard about it being at the fair so he was really excited to see it.  It was tall and ominous.  (And yes, we knew there was someone inside there.  There had to be because it was talking and reacting to people and moving just like a person.)  Very smooth.

I jumped in front of it to take a photo with my iPhone and he stopped right in front of me.  Then suddenly we heard the wedding march song.  Dum-dum-de-dum.  Dum-dum-de-dum!

He started walking towards me and I stopped in my tracks and was looking up at him in awe.  I was completely dumbfounded, floored, and flattered.

The wedding march song continued to play and he said a bunch of stuff along the lines of “Who do we have here?  Blah blah blah,” and hitting on me!

He started coming after me and saying something about who I was with or who was going to defend me.  Everyone in the crowd was watching us and people were even filming our encounter!  He kept walking towards me, taking slow, deliberate steps and babbling and babbling, but I was so taken off guard that I just stood there and stared!  I didn’t hear a thing he said.

Instead of letting it drag on, my friend played along and stepped in front of me to protect me from him.  And the robot retreated.

It was time for it to go nite-nite.

Isn’t that awesome?!?!?

It’s like I was in Iron Man the movie or something.  Man, it was a fun night and what made it better was that I didn’t have a heart attack from all that grease.

I want to go back for more before it’s over on Labor Day!

Last week, the doctor asked that I take it easy on myself and not run for 5 weeks.

That is a serious bummer.  So, today I decided to take a stroll through Nicollet Mall to return some pants I bought at Off 5th and to do a little “eye shopping”.  (That is what my mother calls window shopping — which makes a little more sense than window shopping, if you ask me).

I haven’t been splurging with the shopping and going crazy because I feel like I have too many clothes than what I know what to do with.  Not being on the dating scene and staying in on many weekends means a lot of cute tops, jeans, and dresses do not get worn.  So, I have put myself on a mild shopping ban.

If I am out and about and see something that I like, I think to myself, “Do I already have something like this?”  And it is most likely I do.

However, today, I bought three pairs of shoes.  Yes, three pairs.  And they are all justifiable because I needed them, and plus, the were $88 total!  Yeah, for all three pairs!!

JUSTIFICATION:

a) Brown pumps are for work.  My light brown pumps are very badly worn out and I’ve already spent $20 getting them repaired a that expensive-ass Macy’s shoe repair that I wrote about before.  The heels are a little high, but that’s ok considering I sit at a desk all day.

b) Black t-strap sandals:  surprisingly, I do not have a pair like these and they were super comfy.

c) Brown t-strap sandals:  also surprisingly, I do not have a pair like these.  Yes, they are similar to the black, but they are brown. And plus, they have a mild heel, which I like.  My tall ass does not need super high heels all the time.

Then, I headed to the bookstore.  I just browsed around and found some interesting books that I’d like to pick up.  Then, I exercised the same kind of questioning when I encountered a book I thought would be compelling.  I asked myself, “Do I have a book that is similar to this one?”  It is most likely that I have a book like it.  Plus, I have a gazillion books that I have not read.

See?

Notice how some books are piled up behind the nicely  lined up books in the “front row”.  I haven’t read like 90% of those books.  And some of them are from business school.

JUST KIDDING.  Maybe it’s more like 75%.  Ok, maybe more like 60%.  And now I am just kidding myself.

That’s my living room, btw!

My peeps are making some waves in the literary world.  Check out these findings:

That book “Please Look After My Mom” is supposedly the biggest selling novel in Korea or something like that.  My mom actually recently gave me a copy and I started to read it.  This little trip to B&N reminded me that I should try to read it.

And actually, this trip to the bookstore reminded me that maybe I want to read some of my favorites again like “The Catcher in the Rye,” and “The Fountainhead.”

I’d never heard about the one about the Korean deli.  I’m curious about it, but I wasn’t curious enough to purchase it.  Haha.

But, I did pick up one little nerdy book because it was on a super sale.  Now, why on Earth would this little gem be on a super sale?  To me, super sales mean that the item did not sell out and was not that popular.  It was $4.98, baby!  This is just the little nerd in me coming out.

If you ask me, it’s a pretty awesome book:

“The Scientific 100: A Ranking of the Most Influential Scientists, Past and Present”!!  Isn’t this a perfect coffee table book?  I’m excited to thumb through it.  I wish I had it when I was teaching science.  Darn.  Better late than never.

I also picked up a copy of the Mpls St Paul magazine to try to venture out and try new restaurants in the area.

Phew, and that is all!  Lots of photos in this post, folks.

Can you believe it’ll be August tomorrow?

I had a strange dream that it was daylight savings time again and we adjusted all our clocks.  I woke up, and I could have sworn that my alarm clock and my phone clock did not match.  Then, I went back to bed thinking how crazy it was that we were doing daylight savings in July.

I need to cut back on the poison that is called booze.

Hangover successfully diverted, today.  By the way.  YES.

Today I went to have an unofficial golf lesson with my friend, Matt, at the University of Minnesota’s golf course driving range.

It was a ton of fun but it was like golfing in a sauna today!  I mean, I might as well have been swinging in a sauna.  I was dripping sweat — so much that it was getting in my eyes and Matt had to go to his car to get me a towel.  He really wanted me to take a photo of the sweat towel and put it on my blog.  Unfortunately, I didn’t get the chance to take a photo.  I may or may not have intentionally forgotten to take a photo.

Matt managed to take a video of my swinging.  Don’t worry, no need to comment on my swing — I know what my problems are –IT’S JUST THAT IT’S NOT THAT EASY TO FIX THEM, OK?!?!

Matt learned how hard I am on myself when I got pissed at myself for not doing what he told me to do.  It’s that darned Korean-ness in me.

Enjoy the video:

Ok, the video format can’t be loaded.  I tried to figure out how to change it but it won’t let me.

Enjoy the photo.

I went to the car dealer that I recently purchased my car from.

And in the showroom was sitting a little, shiny beauty:

I went up to it and I touched it gently.  There was a sales man who was talking about it with a customer, standing behind it.

He goes to me, “You’re wondering what it is, aren’t you?”

I say, “Oh, I know what it is. . . ”

It’s an Audi R8.  It was a used model.  This showroom is full of used cars — I bought my car used.  I think it’s the best way to go.  Plus my A3 was in pretty good condition and only year old.  I think I got a pretty good deal on it.

So back to little beauty.

I looked inside it — black and beautiful with a six-speed manual transmission.  Only $119,000.  Only $119,000.  And that’s the used price.  Talk about retaining it’s value.  But it’s not a V10.

I say to the sales guy, in awe, “Can we sit in it?”

Sales guy says, “No, no, no, the doors are all locked.”

Poop!

Then he says, “Maybe you can ask your sales guy and maybe he’ll go get the key and let you sit in it.”

My eyes got big.  Really??

I had been waiting a week to get my car back — just so they could turn off that service notice, fix a speaker, and get a front license plate bracket on, that I forgot to even ask my sales guy about sitting in it.

I MISSED MY OPPORTUNITY!!

Boohoohoohoo.  :(

Today was the loneliest day of my life.

If you consider how old I am and where and how I’ve lived, you have to know that to have been the loneliest day of my life, I must have been pretty f*cking lonely today.

I’ve been suffering some pain in my abdomen the past couple days.

Today it was at it’s worst.  I had to leave work around 3:30pm because it was so unbearable.

I thought something was about to explode inside.  Sharp pains and bloatedness.

I raced home because I just didn’t know if I was going to pass out while driving on the highway on my way home or walking home from my parking garage.

I raced home to be somewhere comfortable because if I dropped dead, it would be a long time until anyone that cared would know.  I know it’s crazy thinking but I wanted to be in the comforts of my own home should anything happen to me.  It’s completely morbid, but that is just how I think.

That made me feel really lonely.  I have no one.

And what added to it was that I contemplated going to the hospital.  Do I go alone?  I barely felt like I could drive but who could really drive me?  Everyone was at work.  That would mean that I’d have to call someone to come get me and drive me to a hospital and have to endure 15-20 minutes more of blinding pain.  I didn’t know if I could wait that long.

And even if I wanted to go to the hospital, I don’t even know where it is!

HOW COULD I BE SO IRRESPONSIBLE?

Not only am I in pain, but I’m also hard on myself for not knowing where the hospital is after living here 4+ months.

Get with the program!

I started implementing my “Cheek-Kiss-Greeting” strategy.

I tried it out when I said good bye to my business school friends (Annie, Raul, and Marjorie) after we had dinner at the Cafeteria.

SUCCESS!

I forewarned them though.  I said, “Hey, have you read my blog?  (I know these guys do)  Get ready, because I’m going to kiss you when you I say goodbye.”

Surprisingly — well, I guess not so surprisingly because they are all super awesome — they were all very receptive to it.  Raul is used to it because I kiss him on the cheek all the time.  And, afterall, he is an Argentine.

So, there I went, one by one, kissing them all on the cheek when I said goodbye.

So far, so good.

Now, on to the next group of friends.  And the next time I see this group, I will do it again.  They are going to catch on, and they are going to like it!

Little by little, slowly by slowly, I am going to get to everyone I know and watch it spread.

Muahahahahaha!  Minneapolis cheek-kiss-greeting domination!!

I’d like to revisit a blog post from my previous blog, ajoblessexistence.com.

Last year, I wanted to introduce the “kiss on the cheek greeting” to Minneapolis.

After being more exposed to the fashion industry of the Twin Cities, I think it is time to be much more serious about this mission.

I mean, I worked in the fashion industry as a model for FIVE YEARS in New York City.  There’s no such thing as the fashion industry without kisses on the cheek.

Oh wait. . . yes there is. . . And it is in MINNEAPOLIS.

(Yes, those are my lips.  Photo courtesy of Rotem.)

What’s with all this hugging when you say hello to someone?  And what’s even worse is that sometimes some people will just shake your hand.  Yeah, so cold!

It’s a mission: impossible, but I’m determined to do it.

I’m going to start kissing people on the cheek when I see them.  Anyone.  Man, woman, child, grandma, grandpa.

Too bad it if makes you uncomfortable.  It’s better than the hug.  In so many ways.

First of all, when you hug, what are you doing?

Issue 1:  Why are you pressing your body up against someone else’s??  That’s WAY more bodily contact that a kiss on the cheek.  With a kiss on the cheek, you don’t even have to touch your lips to the cheek.  You can just touch cheeks and make a “kiss” noise with your lips.

Hugging begs the question of how many arms you need to use.

Issue 2:  One arm or two arm hug?

Well it depends on how much bodily contact you want to have with the person you are hugging!

Which brings up another issue!

Issue 3:How much bodily contact do you make with people with a hug?

With some people you want a lot.  With others, not so much.

You could do that one arm wrap around the shoulders.  I know you know what I’m talking about.

Or you could just reach around to someone’s back and give them quick little taps on the back.  ARgh.  I hate that one. Those little pats are so belittling, aren’t they??

Some people will give you the complete embrace.  Two arms wrapped around you really tight and your chests are pressed up against one another.  That’s WAY more contact than a cheek-to-cheek kiss!

Which then leads to the next issue:

Issue 4:  How long to you hug for?

See with kissing on the cheek, it’s quick!  No one sits there and lingers on your cheek.

With hugs — really, how long do you hug for?  Man, that is awkward.

Have you ever gotten stuck in that kind of hug that is just a tad too long?  Like, you want to let go waaaaay before the other person lets go?

See?  Kisses on the cheek can solve all these issues.

That’s it.  I’m on a mission.

Looks like I still got it!

The glutton for punishment that I am, I went back for yet another casting for AVEDA.  Yep, the agency convinced me to.

I got there and I was like, “Aw, man.  I am sooooo over this bullshit.”  I sat there nonchalantly looking at my phone while “they” the important people made announcements about the silly shows and what exactly they would want us to do for the shows.

I half-paid attention.  How many times have I been through this?

I went through the motions of meeting the hair designer.  He touched my hair (yeah, it’s a little awkward!), he asked me some questions and asked me to go back and sit in my chair.

Another guy asked us to get up, one by one, and do a runway walk.

Ok, blah-dee-blah-dee-blah.  I walk down, turn, walk back.

“Perrrrrfect. . . ,” says the guy.

Then, some more waiting.

The hair designer comes back and tells the other guy his ideas.  He calls me up first.  Says something about me being the opening, violet hair, blah blah blah.

Other guy says something in affirmation and excitement.

And next thing I know, I think I’m booked for the show!  All I know is I got my mind on being in the ‘burbs in 10 minutes to meet our supplier for dinner.  I don’t care what color they want to die my hair (violet) and how they want to do it (something about making it really big and maybe even adding extensions) and what I’d be doing in the show (the big opener).

I just need to fill out some papers, take a few photos and get outta there!  Come on, people!!

I made it to the supplier dinner just ten minutes late.

Thank God those Wisconsin boys were subdued by beers when I got there.