MTB

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.