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?