A lot has happened in a year...

It's crazy how much can happen in one year. From day to day, it doesn't really seem like much is going on. But in hindsight, I think not only have a lot of things changed this year, but I've changed a lot too. For the better, I hope. :)

Here's my version of a holiday letter:

January: Spent New Year's weekend in Chicago with Em and Sam (college roomies). Finally realized that it was a good decision not to date Derek again -- and actually felt like it was a good, solid decision. Communicated a lot with Target about my job interviews and was a final candidate for a marketing/comms position at their headquarters in Minneapolis.

February: Interviewed for a job at Fairview Health Services in Minnesota. Found out that I didn't get the Target job. Spent Valentine's Day with Megs and Courtney (more fun college roomies) at the Rathskeller.

March: Got offered the position at Fairview and turned in my 30-day notice at Clarian (in Indy) within one week of receiving the offer. Coordinated my moving logistics. Went on a day trip to Bloomington with Courtney and did some great shopping and eating at the Trojan Horse. Interviewed Megs for my position at Clarian and then trained her in for one week after she was offered the job. :) Had a great going away party in Indy that included the Rathskeller and karaoke.

April: Bought Indy (chocolate lab puppy) on April 1. Packed everything with the help of friends and had all my stuff shipped up to MN with the help of U-pack mobile containers (like PODS). Made the move to MN and moved in with mom. Started my new job at Fairview. Hung out at Stacy and Taylor's condo about every weekend. I was kind of a stalker.

May: Spent a lot of time training Indy and taking her to puppy kindergarten classes and the dog park. She mastered sit and lay down pretty quick, but was still the livliest pup in the group. :) Had a couple different people try to set me up with two different guys. Started dating Taylor's friend Ryan.

June/July: Moved into a four-plex in South Minneapolis near lots of running trails and a couple lakes. Stacy and Taylor got married in June so I spent a lot of time helping out with invitations and dress fittings, etc. So much fun! It was also fun to hang out with all the family member who came to the cities for the weekend. I also pretty much spent every weekend out on a lake somewhere -- either up north or in the cities -- wakeboarding, jetskiing, waterskiing, etc. It was a great introductory summer back to Minnesota. I also had a work assignment to shadow a group of clinicians and write an article about their rounds....that's when I decided that I needed to be doing something like that instead of just writing about all the cool things clinicians do. From then on, I was majorly researching graduate schools for speech-language pathology.

August: I started looking more closely at graduate school and visited the University of Minnesota wth my uncle Jim (who works at the U in physical therapy and tried to work his magical connections to get me a tour of the speech pathology building. It worked.). Enrolled in an American Sign Language class at a community college in Minneapolis.

September/October: Dad and Beth visited for a weekend, and we had a great dinner party at the Ritchie household. Spent a couple weekends with my Butler girls in Chicago and Indy for a bachelorette party and wedding (respectively). Happy marriage, Mae Wo and Chris! Things with Ryan didn't work out. Realized that I have grown up a lot and know a lot more of what I need in a relationship/who would work well with me and who wouldn't. He wouldn't. Went on guy sabbatical. Worked a lot on grad school applications.

November: Spent a lot more time on grad school apps and also hanging out with cousin Jess listening to Love Songs for Angry Men (another cousin's band). Had a quiet Thanksgiving at Mom's house with her and Rob -- the first year in a long time (or ever?) that I didn't try to fit in as much as possible. I just picked a place and stayed there all day. It was quite relaxing. Spent a day job shadowing some speech pathologists (thanks to Angie's mom!) in an elementary school, early childhood education center and an autism program, and I realized that that is exactly what I want to do. Becoming a speech-language pathologist is a perfect fit for me. I've never been able to pinpoint my career goals, so this is a huge thing for me.

December: More grad school apps. Finished my ASL class and did pretty well. I loved it and want to take more classes. Got back into a more regular work-out routine running with Indy after work and on the weekends. Now, I'm just about to turn in my grad school apps and should hear back in March or April 2007. If all goes well, I'll be enrolling in master's classes next fall. I'm really looking forward to spending time with family during the next week -- Jason and Felipe are in town from London, so that's always fun when they're back.

As for next year, my big goal is to get in to grad school. After that, I just want to make sure I am true to myself in all decisions I make. And as for boys....I'm not sure how long I'll be on sabbatical. I'm not completely closed off to meeting them (I'm not going to bury my head in the sand like an ostrich!); I'm just quite content with being a young single lady. If a nice boy happens my way and meets my standards, then perhaps I'll reconsider my sabbatical.

There's a place for fun in your life... Mall of America!

Anyone remember that commercial? Did it ever play in states outside of Minnesota?

Anyway, this weekend, my mom and I went shopping at the mall and also stopped to see Kelli Pickler (top 10 finalist from last season's American Idol). Here are a couple pictures that show how crowded the hallways were around the rotunda. If you look closely, you can see people gathered to the edge of the railing on all four floors. It was a fun little diversion from shopping. Go Pickler!

Brrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrring it on!

I'm not sure why I get such a kick out of the weather. I mean, I grew up here. But man, it's cold. This morning as I took the dog out, my mittens didn't do much for my fingers -- they were still freezing as the wind penetrated the two layers of fleece cloth. I usually don't check the weather until I get to work and go to read the paper online. If I found out what the actual temperature was, I'm not sure I'd ever leave the house -- especially to go stand at the bus stop. This morning, I laughed outloud as I read "Temp: 1 degree, feels like -18." Currently, at 1 p.m., the temp has crept up to a whole 10 degrees (feels like -2).

Despite the freezing (actually, way past freezing) weather, I'm still loving living in Minneapolis. Hope you're all keeping warm!

PS I had part of my final in my American Sign Language class last night and rocked it out, thank you very much. I had to tell a 3-5 minute story in sign to the whole class. I told the story of Blue Blocker Lady at the dog park. It was a hit.

Button up for a blustery day

That is one of the Indy Star's headlines this morning. So I thought, ha! It's finally getting cold down there too. Then I read further into the article...it's 34 degrees. Sadly, I laughed because our temp today in the Twin Cities is 13 degrees. Either way, it's COLD. It's just funny to hear the different perspectives.

'tis the season...

...to be jarry...fa ra ra ra ra, ra ra ra rah!

This past Sunday, a Miss Stacy Ritchie and I got into the holiday spirit by baking five, yes five, different kinds of Christmas cookies/treats. We made buckeyes, peanut blossoms, ginger snaps (minus the snap :)), cinnamon roll-ups and snickers bars. Well, the snickers are half done. We have to finish them next weekend. Stacy, how does next Sunday work for you?

It was such a fun way to get in the holiday mood. We had Christmas carols playing in the background and lots of laughs as we tried not to forget ingredients or forget to set the timer on the oven. Good idea, Stace!

Stacy also pointed out to me that my family apparently is really into making candy bars -- I mean, I have the recipe for butterfingers, nut goodies and snickers (which didn't come from my family - thank Kathy in Cali for that one). And then there's the lifelong debate of whether you call things "bars" or "treats" or "squares." In Indy, my friends (you know who you are) would always make fun of me for saying "rice crispy bars." According to them, they're rice crispy treats or rice crispy squares. Well, up here we call everything bars. If you're planning a potluck for work, there are bound to be several people who sign up to bring "bars" -- that's it. Of course, when they show up, they'll each bring different kinds of bars -- lemon bars, Special K bars, rice crispy bars, seven layer bars. See? It just rolls off the tongue.

You know what else this brings me to? Hotdish. Yes, it's that time of year -- it's cold out and all you want to eat is hot food that warms you right up. Kind of comfort food, if you will. Does anyone else outside of Minnesota know what "hotdish" is? Nope. It's called casserole in Indy and elsewhere. Me? I just made a kick-ass tator tot hotdish for dinner the other night, and it's wonderfully delicious. In honor of hotdish, here's a little photo for you straight from the Minnesota State Fair (taken in August this year).


If you look really close, you'll see "UFF DA!" another Minnesotan phrase...You didn't know my blog was so educational, now did you?

How to make a Heidi

How to make a Heidi

Ingredients: 1 part competetiveness 1 part humour 3 parts joy

Method: Layer ingredientes in a shot glass. Add fitness to taste! Do not overindulge!

Personality cocktail
From Go-Quiz.com

Happy Thanksgiving!

This year's Thanksgiving was a little different than years past -- just a little more chill with a smaller group of people. Although I'm usually the one who tries to fit in as much as possible and see as many people as possible for each holiday, it was kind of a nice change to just relax at one place. So...in the morning, I ran the Turkey Day 5K with my aunt Katie and some of her friends. Then we went over to her friend's place for some wonderful brunch and mimosas. I had all these visions of me being productive in the morning getting some work done on grad school apps, and then the mimosas happened...so I just went home and took a nap instead. :) Then I went to pick up my brother and have a non-traditional Thanksgiving dinner at my mom's house -- we had prime rib, twice-baked potatoes, an awesome broccoli salad, bread with oil dipping sauce, asparagus and then the traditional pumpkin pie. Yum! What a nice change from turkey and stuffing! I'd suggest trying it sometime if you're open to change. :)

Anyway, I hope you all had a wonderful Thanksgiving and got to enjoy a day off work. Me? I'm back at it in the office again today, but it's nice and quiet (and I'm taking some time out to write in here...) so it's not too bad.

Enjoy your weekend!

PS Thanks Rob for the Big Bird pic!

Tap dancing

For your entertainment, click here to see a video of Indy tap dancing on my kitchen floor. The wood floor is just too slippery for her little paws, so she slides all over the place. This is not quite representative of her usual clumsiness, but it'll do for now. Enjoy!

Blue blocker lady

So...I was at the dog park the other day with Indy. We had spent almost an hour there, so Indy was getting pretty tired at this point but she wasn't quite ready to leave yet (and neither was I -- it was a beautiful day). Off in the distance, I see two dalmations. Apparently, Indy saw them, too, and being the social butterfly that she is, she ran over to greet them and play. I haven't seen dalmations in years, so I was thinking, "oh cute...dalmations."

I walk over to follow Indy, who is already running along with the smaller of the two dalmations, and as most people do at dog parks, I was going to say hi to the owner (who I might mention was a 60s-ish woman wearing blue blockers and a hiking/fishing hat). So I'm about to comment on how pretty her dogs are, when she shouts (no exaggeration), "Is that your labrador retriever?!"

I respond with a normal-sounding "Yeah."

"Can you get her off my dogs?!" she shouts, growing more agitated with every syllable.

At that I was confused and shocked. I glanced over at Indy and the blue blocker lady's dogs. All tails were wagging. They were just running along and playing like normal dogs do at dog parks.

"Aren't they just playing?" I ask.

"No!" blue blocker lady screams. "I've never seen a dog play like that! I've been bitten by labrador retrievers and so have my dogs! Get her OFF!!!"

At that, my jaw was probably on the ground. It took all I had not to respond with a snotty remark, like "why did you bring your dogs to DOG PARK if you didn't want them to PLAY WITH OTHER DOGS?" Instead I just kind of gave her an odd look and called Indy, who had already developed ADD and moved on to another couple dogs to play with. I think she could sense that they came from an odd upbringing. I totally wanted to yell at her -- I can now empathize with some of those parents who get mad at each other at T-Ball games when someone bad-mouths their kid.

After that, I made friends with some other owners by telling them about crazy blue blocker lady and her dalmations. Ahhhh....isn't it great how gossip brought us together?

So now I ask you, how could you be intimidated by this cute dog? She wouldn't harm a fly (not on purpose anyway -- maybe only if she tripped cause she's clumsy or if she thought she was biting her bone but missed and bit your hand).

Just a quick final comment: I think that Christopher Guest should make his next mockumentary about dog parks. It could be a follow-up to "Best in Show."

Indy's favorite drink

Sink water. Yup....not a good habit to get her into, but I just had to capture this moment. She tries to jump up and drink out of the sink whenever I'm washing my hands or brushing my teeth. She's a smart dog -- the coldest water comes out of this sink.

It's raining leaves

Last week for my bday, my co-workers decorated my cube in fall/puppy decor. You can't tell, but there were also leaves, leaf confetti and paw prints all over the floor. What a beautiful surprise. :) I also really like the acorn hanging from the ceiling.

John Kerry Excuses

Check out this top 10 list. Sooooo funny.... :)

Happy Halloween

In honor of all things scary and frightening on Halloween weekend, I decided to dress up as a jazzercize instructor. Check out that spandex unitard, baby!

For more photos of my cousin's Halloween party (and to see pics of Mrs. Butterworth, Slash, a cowgirl, a Mexican and a warm-fuzzy), click here. For some reason, the camera got put away early in the night, so we missed out on some other photo opps...

Just thinking about Halloween as a kid...did anyone else ever sing this song:

Trick or treat, smell my feet
Give me something good to eat.
If you don't, I don't care
I'll pull down your underwear!

Hey Mae Wo!

Oh Mae Wo, you're so fine, you're so fine you blow my mind...Hey Mae Wo! (I've had that song in my head since Oct. 14, thank you very much...)

Another one of my college friends, Mae Wo (her real name's Megan...her nickname was created in the times of JLo) got married a couple weeks ago. It was a beautiful wedding and reception, and really, it was just a great time to see all of my Butler friends. Now that we all live all over the country -- Boston, San Fran, Denver, Minneapolis, Indy, Lexington -- we don't get to see each other as often as we'd like. But when we get together, watch out... Butler/Purdue kids, you know who you are -- thanks for being such wonderful friends. It was soooooooooooo good to see you all.

And don't let me forget the Clarian crew! It was good to see you all as well -- and the Rathskeller continues to be my favorite place to go out in Indy.

If you'd like to browse through pictures from the entire weekend, click here. There are pics from the Rathskeller, Living Room Lounge, downtown Indy, the wedding and reception. Enjoy!

Laugh Breaks at Work

We all do it...slack off a little while we're working when we need a break from being productive. Well, as you can see in my "links" area to the right, I've added one of my favorite Web sites to visit when I'm in need of a laugh break at work: the Late Show's Top 10 Archive. I would highly recommend it. One of my most recent favorites is the Sept. 15 list, "Top 10 New Fall Shows on Al-Jazeera." Ahh..... Spongeabdul Squareturban cracks me up. :)

Family Weekend in the Cities

A couple weekends ago, my dad and Beth made a trip up here to visit. Here are a couple pics from dinner at Stacy and Taylor's place...

The beautiful hostess.


















The view of the Capitol building from Stacy and Taylor's balcony.













Me enjoying a nice glass of red wine.











Click here to see all the pics: http://www.kodakgallery.com/ShareLandingSignin.jsp?Uc=18feg6zq.b3dh0cn2&Uy=-8817wi&Upost_signin=Slideshow.jsp%3Fmode%3Dfromshare&Ux=1

Chillin' with Indy

So I thought it's about time I get this blog going since I started it and then never really added anything. So what better way to kick it off than with a nice picture of my puppy, Indy. :) This is one of my favorite pics of her so far. She will sit like this (if you make her) and stay like that without a struggle. It's quite funny. :)

Sadly, Indy got spayed yesterday and is currently resting. Last night, she was a little disoriented and had to vomit a few times -- poor girl. But today, her spirits are higher and you can tell she's getting back to her old, crazy self.

Indy's most recent tricks: she's getting really good at rolling over. Other than that, we're kind of heading back to square one to get "come" down. Sometimes, she just gets distracted by falling leaves and needs to chase them down. The other day, she got distracted by a lady riding her bike, and yes, Indy decided it'd be a good idea to chase her. Oh man.... good thing the lady was nice and liked dogs. Lesson learned: Indy doesn't get to be off her leash until she's over her adolescent phase.

Welcome to my blog

Well, back when I decided to move from Indy to Minnesota, I started telling my co-workers, "Don't worry, I'm going to start a blog so you can follow my crazy travels, relocation and new life in Minnesota." It's been a few months since I moved back up to the north country, but it's better late than never, right? I'll try to keep up with some updates here and there -- and most importantly, I'll post lots o' pictures. And if you're lucky, perhaps I'll create a section about the culture and slang used up here in Minnesooota. You betcha!

Keep in touch! Post comments! Start your own blog!