A wedding, sushi night and a photo shoot in the car

Here are some recent photos from the past month or so.

I attended a wedding of a high school friend in November, had a sushi night with Stacy, Taylor, Karin, John and Eric -- we made our own sushi! -- and I played with my camera while waiting for my brother to be ready when I picked him up on Thanksgiving. Here is a sneak preview:

A face for brochures

I was highly entertained this morning when I checked my email. As you probably know, I spent about three years working in health care communications (two of which were spent at Clarian in Indianapolis -- the better two years for sure due to my awesome co-workers). So this morning, I was excited to see an email from my former co-worker and cube-mate (name changed below to protect him -- you know who you are!). :) However, I was confused upon reading the actual message... He now works for Clarian's cancer center and is apparently coordinating a brochure for the center. Apparently, when he typed "Heidi" into his email "to" box, he didn't check to see if it was going to right Heidi. This is what I received:

Hi, Sam* and Heidi.

I want to give you a heads-up that our development office is working on a brochure, and they would very much like to use the photos that were taken of each of you from the photo sessions earlier this year. I believe the release form that you signed gives us permission to use these in a variety of ways, but, if for some reason, you’d rather not be a part of the brochure, please let me know.

The brochure is about the “In Your Lifetime” campaign – the campaign which is supporting the new inpatient and outpatient facility that is currently under construction, new labs, and cancer research. The brochure will be mailed to prospective donors and be made available in the cancer center.

Let me know if you’re okay with your photo appearing in the brochure.

Thanks.

David*

*Names changed to protect the innocent/not-so-innocent.

The first thoughts running through my head were: "Did I have photos taken at Clarian? The only ones I remember being there are from the holiday parties or of the little magnets I made for my friends there to remember me by (I had closeups of my face put into little circular magnets)."

So here is the email conversation (shortened verstion) that took place afterward:

Heidi: Did you accidentally send this to me? I'm confused. If you do have a photo of me, what is it? Does it look like I have cancer?

David*: LMAO! Yep, wrong Heidi. Who knew there was another Heidi in the world!

Heidi: What is LMAO? That is hysterical. I love that you accidentally sent me this email. If you would like to set up a photo shoot, I would like to make some extra cash. Feel free. I have a good face for brochures.

David*: LMAO is “laughing my ass off.” Let me know your schedule so we can coordinate a photo shoot ASAP.

I learned two new things today:
1. I could easily be a cancer brochure model.
2. LMAO is my new favorite web acronym. It kicks LOL's butt, no contest.

Finals week

Life is busy right now. It's finals week, so that's why I haven't been updating regularly. My schedule lately has (and will) look like this:

Yesterday: 2 tests (Anatomy and Phonetics transcription)

Today: work and study and go to choir practice

Thurs: work and study (and hopefully watch "The Office" -- the Christmas episode!)

Fri: work and study and potentially take a final (Acoustics final is offered on two diff days)

Sat: 2 tests (Language Acquisition and Phonetics) -- yes, on a Saturday -- and no, I don't know what is wrong with the people in charge of scheduling finals -- and Christmas cookie-making party!

Sun: 2 choir concerts (one at 2 and one at 4), then study

Mon: work and potentially study

Tues: work, potentially study, 60 min. massage! (finally cashing in the Christmas present from Mom last year) :) and hopefully hanging out with Eric and playing Settlers of Catan or Stratego (best games ever!)

Wed: potentially take Acoustics final, work, drop Indy off at her grandma's house (Mom's), fly to Albuquerque for 8 days of Christmas/family fun!

So there you have it. And for your viewing pleasure, here is a picture of Karin and me after our choir concert last week at Bethel. Look at the amazing building we sang in -- the organ pipes were huge and lovely -- we were standing right in front of them as we sang lovely Christmas music with the Shoreview Community Band. It was a fun concert despite the fact that there was narrative commentary in between every single song.

Side note: If you like my haircut, it is the work of Karin (nice girl standing next to me/high school friend). I love it. When I actually do my hair (as seen in this photo), the layers look very nice. Thanks Karin!

I hate tow trucks

I got towed.

I am mad.

It's a long story and now that I actually sit down to type it, it makes me tired. Pretty much, my house is technically on Van Buren St. and the house number is 659 (an odd number), but the house faces Summer St. Well, Minneapolis has these crazy snow emergency rules about where you can park on Days 1, 2 and 3 of the snow emergency. I was parked right in front of my house today and figured I had followed the rules of parking on the ODD side of the street on Day 2. My roommate, Kyle, did the same thing, and we even texted each other to confirm that we had it right. Well, after being on campus for class and work from 8-5 today, I took the bus home, walked the block and a half home in the cold temp, and then noticed that there were no longer any cars parked in front of the house. I let out a loud expletive and am certain that if the tow truck guy had been standing there, I would have punched him in the stomach. I could feel the anger growing in my stomach. Oh, I was mad. So then I noticed that my neighbor across the street had just gotten home from work (he parks in the garage -- no worries for him). So I asked him about the snow emergency situation since he's lived here a while, and then I found out that on Summer St. (the street I face and he faces), his address is ODD, so I was supposed to park on his side of the street today. How confusing is that? Really? I mean, sitting here pondering it, I guess it makes sense. But when it is 7:30 in the morning, and you are leaving in the bitter cold to walk to the bus stop, you just comprehend the fact that your address is odd, your car is parked on the same side of the street as your address, and that's that.

So here is what I found out reading online:
1. I could have searched this nifty little website for my address and gotten a little pop-up map that shows you where you can and can't park on certain days. Would have been nice to know yesterday.
2. My roommate Kyle can't get his car until his mom (she owns the car) sends a signed, notarized paper giving him permission to do so.
3. To claim your car, you need to provide: proof of insurance, a title/lease info, your license plate number, VIN number, the promise of handing over your first born child to the tow company of my choice....These are all true except the last one. Oh yeah, and you also need $138 for the towing and $34 for the parking ticket. Tis the season to ... not buy any gifts because I had to pay the city of Mpls.
4. If you don't claim your car before midnight, they charge another $18.

So I'm sure you're now wondering why I'm sitting here typing instead of getting my car. Well, first of all, there is no one to drive me there right now. The other two roommates are at work with their beloved cars. Eric offered to drive me, but he's in class til 9. The guy across the street offered to drive Kyle and me, but now I want to wait to check out one more thing. See, Beth just called and said that a family friend of ours who works for Hennepin County might be able to help me with the situation since this seems to be a weird street setup -- it's not just your run-o-the-mill "here's the odd side, here's the even side." So when he gets home at 9:30 tonight, I will be calling him to see what he suggests. After that, I will head to the impound lot and see if I am able to resolve this.

Wish me luck.