Introduction. Sea Gulls. Maple Sap.

Yesterday was my Grandpa Willard's 80th birthday. I've always looked up to him and my Grandma. It amazes me to think about all of the things they have seen and experienced in their lifetime. The past couple of Christmases my Grandpa has given all of the family members copies of his "book" that he's been working on. I say "book" because it doesn't really follow a book structure at all, but more of a collection of thoughts as they come to him without any editing or chronological order. There is an introduction, but none of the "books" have endings because he plans to continue writing things as they come to him for as long as he is able to. He calls these books, Life As I Remember It Volume I, II, etc. This last volume was especially interesting to me because my grandparents had recently moved out of their home and into an apartment, and as they were moving they found a journal that my Grandma had kept in 1956 writing about her life up to that point. My Grandpa added it to his story and as a prelude wrote "LaDora's Story, written in 1956. It is not yet complete." I really hope she continues her story, because I learned so much about her that I hadn't known in just those few pages of story.

This is one of the paragraphs that I found most interesting:

"I had an incident recently in visiting with a lady of about fifty years of age. She is what I would consider someone that is right on top of things. We were visiting about my varied occupations during my lifetime and the subject of education came up. She seemed shocked when she found out that I had been a dairy farmer, run a John Deere dealership, was an accountant and even served as Mayor, acting City Administrator and on the City Council. Her question was how could I do that without a high school diploma. My response was that no one ever asked if I had a diploma or a degree but were interested in what I knew and what I could do. Today this seems to be different. When applying for a job the first question is what kind of degrees do you have? I feel this is somewhat backwards and anyone that feels when they receive a diploma or a degree that they now know it all is headed for failure. Education should teach you how to learn in the future. You never finish learning."

Very true G-pa.

New Plan

I can't believe today is Christmas Eve already! This year has just flown by. I made the hard decision to stay in the Twin Cities for Christmas instead of driving home to be with my family, due to the winter storm that much of the country is currently experiencing. The roads weren't terrible this afternoon, which is when I would have been traveling the roughly 2 hours back to my hometown, but I was more concerned about getting back tomorrow night since I work early Saturday morning. I was pretty bummed about the decision since Christmas with my family has always been something I look forward to all year, but I talked to my mom and we decided that we would all wait until next weekend to celebrate Christmas. Now that that is all settled, I'm looking forward to just having a relaxing day off tomorrow. I plan to play guitar, read a book, drink some coffee, and go for a long walk in the snow! Some people think it's strange, but I would much rather go for a walk in the rain or snow than for a walk on a sunny day. That's just how I am; if it's raining, instead of using an umbrella or running for cover, I'll be the one walking slow enjoying the fresh smell and taking it all in. So now that I'm going to be here, bring on the snow!

Currents

Currently reading: Hairstyles of the Damned by Joe Meno... I'm only about a quarter of the way through it, but I'm really enjoying it so far. I really want to start reading more, now that I actually have some time. I still have to finish Breaking Dawn; I don't know why I'm having so much trouble getting through it. I enjoy it, yet I just can't seem to stay focused when I'm reading it.

Currently listening to:

This was my playlist that I was listening to today while painting:

1. The Night Descending- Iron and Wine

2. When You Wake Up Feeling Old- Wilco

3. Downtown- Tegan and Sara

4. Her Words Destroyed My Planet- Motion City Soundtrack

5. Roscoe- Midlake

6. Turn My Grave- I Was Totally Destroying It!

7. Lonesome Swan- Glasvegas

8. Asleep in Life's Waiting Room- Small Towns Burn A Little Slower

9. Miles Davis & The Cool- The Gaslight Anthem

10. Camera Ready Kids- Farewell Continental

11. I Don't Deserve You- Skies Alive

12. Cut And Run- Electrelane

Currently Watching: I just watched a little bit of The Sweetest Thing with Stephanie. Such a bad movie; I'd seen it before and knew it was bad, but it's still kind of a fun movie to watch just because of how bad it is.

Currently Liking:

Painting. I used to paint all the time, but hadn't since I moved back to the Cities. So today I ran out to Michaels and bought a couple new canvases and some more paint. I decided to paint something for my younger brother for Christmas; I'm not sure he'll fully appreciate it right now, but maybe when he's older he'll like it more.

Guitar. I'm so glad that I started taking guitar lessons, and even more grateful that Tommy didn't just give up on me after those first couple of weeks. I realize I'm not the easiest person to get to step out of their comfort zone. haha. Playing the guitar has saved me from being completely bored on countless nights this past year.

Currently Missing:

My friends and family. All last year I impatiently waited to move back to the Cities and dreamt about all the good times I'd have hanging out with my friends and going to concerts, etc. Instead most days I only end up seeing my coworkers, who I luckily enjoy being around, but it's still not the same. I haven't seen Karen and Cory since September; that blows my mind. We used to see each other almost weekly. I live with Stephanie, but our schedules are opposite and most days we don't even see each other. As much as her little cat annoys me, I gotta admit, sometimes it is nice to not have to come home to an empty apartment each night. I've been getting to hang out with some new friends though, and go to concerts with them occasionally, which has been nice. It's hard being the only single one in our group; being the third wheel gets old after a while.

I miss being close to my family. My closest family member is my cousin Johanna, who is still over an hour away, but it's nice to occasionally get to hang out with her and her 2 adorable little girls. It's weird not being around kids all the time now, it's definitely quieter, but also less entertaining.

I think that's enough for today.

Bubbles blown into the sky...

The best adventures are free...

Dreams vs Reality

I'm glad winter's over (knock on wood); but I will miss the awesome snow forts Benny, Yaya, and I made this year. Last night I had a dream that we got a big snowstorm, so needless to say I was pretty relieved when I woke up and realized it wasn't real.

MCS Weekend

Play-by-play of this bombtastical weekend (thursday-saturday):

Thursday... 

9:00 AM: Thought I had to go get blood drawn for allergy testing, but turns out the med. assistant scheduled me on the wrong day so I didn't have to. This meant that I now have to go another week without any allergy meds, but at least it also meant no needles.

11:00-12:00 AM/PM: Finished my pathophysiology test, and officially began my 4 day weekend.

2:15 PM: Realized that I hadn't eaten anything all day and should probably grab something quick.

3:00 PM: Headed to St. Paul

3:45 PM: Passed an elderly woman hitch-hiking in the middle of nowhere. Thumb out with full arm extension and everything. Fucking strange.

5:00-6:00 PM: Guitar lesson

7:00 PM: Guilt trip, but I won't name names.

8:00 PM: Shopping with Karen

9:00-10:30 PM: Chile's in Roseville; 2 for 1 margaritas. Nuff said.

Friday...

12:00 AM: Watching funny youtube videos.

1:00 AM: Attempt to fall asleep on Karen's couch, but it's way too hot in there. Toss and turn for a couple of hours.

3:00 AM: Realize I'm missing an earring. Awake, but not really awake. 

3:30 AM: Still searching for the missing earring. Not sure why.

4:00-6:00 AM: In and out of sleep.

6:00 AM: Get up and get dressed. Continue looking for earring.

7:00 AM: Decide to go to Target and get a new pair of earrings, but realize Target doesn't open until 8.

7:15 AM: Eat breakfast at Perkins; waitress forgot my orange juice, but it's alright since I didn't have to pay for it that way.

8:00 AM: Find cheap pair of earrings, and head over to the U of M.

8:30-9:30 AM: Chill in the Coffman Union. Realize that the earring I thought I'd lost had been in my pocket the whole time. WTF.

9:45 AM: Head over to Christy's dorm. Meet up with Razzi and Aimee.

10:00 AM: Leave for Iowa City

1:00 PM: Remember why I hate driving through Iowa...boring. Feel something crawling on my arm, look down, and realize I had just been stung by a bee. Great. Flick bee out the window.

2:30 PM: Realize we missed our turn about an hour ago... doh.

3:30 PM: Finally back on the right road. Look down in my lap and spot another big bee crawling on my leg. Have mini panic attack and then smash the bee with a water bottle. At this point I'm paranoid because I can't figure out where the bees are coming from and it feels like they are crawling all over me. We determine that Aimee has brought the bees. Not really.

4:00 PM: Eat at Cici's pizza. Not a big fan. They didn't accept credit cards; i'm sorry, I didn't realize I had stepped into a time warp.

5:00 PM: Make it to the venue; already about 15 people in line.

6:00 PM: Standing in line next to some of the most annoying kids on the planet. The word 'epic' was said far too many times.

7:00 PM: Get into the venue. Christy was saving us spots on barricade between Justin and Matt. Nice.

7:30 PM: Start to realize that this is quite possibly the largest amount of douche bags that I have ever seen in one area.

7:45 PM: Surrounded by annoying girls; actual quote "Mr. Pierre's hair better be banging or I'm outta here" (that girl did end up leaving the pit about 2 minutes into the first song, hmm), and douche bag guys that thought it was hilarious to stick their hands up girls shirts and hump their legs.

8:00-9:00 PM: Motion City Soundtrack puts on a wonderful performance as always.

9:00 PM: Encore. Girl with quite possibly the worst body odor on the planet pushes her way up next to me. She's drenched in sweat and I can't help but gag. Hold my breath through most of Throwdown and TFFMO.

9:30 PM: Head back to MN. Razzi and Christy drive again. I sleep almost the whole way. Wake up a couple of times when it was hailing pretty hard. 

Saturday...

2:30 AM: Get back to Minneapolis. Drop off Aimee. Go to sleep on the floor in Christy's dorm.

7:30 AM: Move to the now empty futon.

10:30 AM: Wake up to find that Christy and Razzi had left and that I'm alone in the room with Christy's roommate whom I've never met and who had no idea that I was going to be there. She was not pleased.

11:15 AM: Christy returns from dropping Razzi off. We head to the dining hall for brunch.

12:00 PM: Decide to head over to the MCS show at St. Johns.

1:30 PM: Arrive at St. Johns. Park the car. Walk down a steep embankment only to realize that it actually costs $30 and not $20 like the online tickets. Also Realize we don't have enough money to get in since the parking garage cost me $18.

1:45 PM: Contemplate our 2 options... 1) Drive back to Minneapolis or 2) Try to sneak in. 

1:50 PM: Decide to sneak in. Now, I don't condone this behavior and normally wouldn't agree to it, because I'm all about playing by the rules and paying what I owe, but seeing as they wouldn't have gotten any money out of us anyways we decided to take the chance. Plus it's MCS.

2:00-3:00 PM: Walk 1 mile down a gravel road, turn the corner and see two cops standing off in the distance. We decide to duck around the back of an old church and run into the woods. After walking through the woods for about 15 minutes we spot an opening in the distance, and then we spot the main path that all of the concert goers are coming in on. 

3:00 PM: We try to duck in behind the group of people walking in. Christy doesn't get spotted by security, but I do. Story of my life.

3:15 PM: We walk past security like nothing happened and get up by the stage. Just then security approaches me and asks me why they saw me coming out of the wrong path. I make up the most outlandish lie off the top of my head and completely think I got busted. They take my name and get on their walkie-talkies (it probably helped that the guy thought I said my name was Holly even though I gave him my actual name). At this point I think I'm completely screwed and figure that he would ask to see my wristband, stamp, or ticket stub...none of which I had. Turns out, St Johns wasn't on top of things, because they didn't give out any of those things, which worked out nicely for me. They had no way to prove that I hadn't legitimately paid to get into the show so they just walked away. I'm not a rebel, so my heart was pounding, but at the same time I was pretty pleased with myself for actually getting away with it, because I never get away with shit.

3:20 PM: I realized that Christy had taken off as soon as security approached me, so I moved to the other side of the stage before I gave the all clear for her to come over and join me.

3:25 PM: We finish watching Unicycle Loves You's set. Pretty good stuff.

3:45 PM: Motion City Soundtrack comes on stage. The weather was perfect for an outdoor show. Everything is sounding great.

4:00 PM: A group of at least 25 drunk guys run into the crowd and push everybody out of the center. I fear that this may turn ugly. Justin: "Looks like Josh's crew just showed up." haha. Ends up making the concert more enjoyable; everyone got really into it and the guys were careful not to crush any of the girls around them. I just wish they could have been a little bit shorter; I swear it must have been the basketball team or something because they were all at least 6'5''. But beggars can't be choosers, or something like that. The concert was held outside on a gravel lot, so with all the jumping there was dust flying everywhere. 

4:45 PM: Concert ends. I looked down and realized my pants and shoes were completely covered in dust. Between the car ride, two sweaty shows, sleeping on the floor, walking through the woods, and the dirt I feel pretty damn grody. Everything was totally worth it, and since I have a guilty conscious I'll make up the missed payment by buying some extra merch or something. 

So yeah, that was the weekend. Not too shabby.