Haiku of the day

Negative wind chill,
You make my bones freakin' cold.
When will Spring get here?

Divacups?

All I can say is REALLY?

My friend Emily sent me an email with this link today. The name reminds of me Dixie cups, with little cartoons on them or pretty little flowers. However, I'm not so sure these would have such designs on them.

Check it out: http://www.divacup.com/.

Red Ribbon Ride 2008

It's official. I registered to participate in the Red Ribbon Ride, a four-day, 300-mile bike ride that benefits seven Minnesota-based organziations that help those living with HIV/AIDS. I'll be on my bike from July 17-20, and sleeping in a tent or high school gym each night. As you probably remember, I had an awesome time volunteering last year, and I was pretty much decided that next year I would ride. And here we are already -- six months away! I hate fundraising, but if you're interested in donating, riding, volunteering, referring a friend, etc., click on the links below. Thanks!

Visit my personal page: http://www.redribbonride.org/goto/heidi.gehrman
Visit my team page: http://www.redribbonride.org/goto/umslp
Watch a video about the ride (warning: you might need a tissue): http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-SG4bWThfMw

Photo of the week: Scary Hillary

No matter if you want to vote for Hillary or not, you cannot deny that this is a bad picture. If there were a photo of me like this somewhere, I would want to tear it up. However, it seems the news reporters found Hillary to be very "real" and not as stoic last night. Personally, I don't have anything against Hillary, but I was getting annoyed with her weird faces she was making at people in the crowd before she began her speech. I called it her "making babies cry" face.

PS Thank you, Eric, for emailing this to me. That really means a lot.

WWI blogger

I just saw this article online and thought it was pretty cool. A grandson is posting his grandfather's letters that were written while he was a soldier fighting in WWI. That is a really creative way to read/share history. I'm a dork, I know. But I'll probably add that to my daily websites to check in on.

Holiday photo extravaganza

I seriously took about 142 photos in Albuquerque. Since the blogger site would probably collapse if I tried to upload them all on my little page, I will just post a few here and then post a link later on to the kodakgallery website (once I get them all up on that site).

Anyway....why was I in Albuquerque? My dad and Beth moved there last summer, so Christmas took place down in the southwest this year. I spent about nine days down there and had a great time. We did a lot of hiking -- they live one mile from the trail head of the foothills of Sandia Mtn. I also tried snowboarding for the first time, thanks to my brother-in-law Taylor for teaching me and being soooo patient. (Side note: I went for the second time last Saturday with Eric for his bday and felt like I was improving. I love it.) Other than outdoor activities, there was also a lot of eating, laughing, passing gas (Alyse, Beth...), driving through pretty scenery, exploring new cities and towns (Santa Fe and Madrid) and playing my new fav game (The New Yorker Game). I would highly recommend taking a trip down to New Mexico sometime. I want to go back in the summer time to see what it's like in the warmer months. During my stay, the temps varied from the 20s to the 50s, and the sun is very hot since it's in the high desert, so it warms you up pretty nicely even if it's cold. The top of the mountain is another story -- the night we took a tram up to the top, it was 8 degrees at the peak, with negative windchill and 40 mph winds. The pic below shows me looking like an eskimo and my dad pretending it's balmy and warm. I was prepared and thankful. He was cold and headed straight for the restaurant/bar located at the peak.

Here are some more pics:

Yup, it snows in New Mexico. It snowed the second night I was there, and it was so pretty. This is my dad and Beth's house -- it's smaller than it looks. Eric thought this was a mansion. It's a nice house, but definitely not that big. With 8 of us, we felt kind of cramped, or cozy. The desert plants look funny with snow on them, by the way.

The girls posing on top of a soda dam (sulfur spring is running beneath where we are standing, I believe). This was during our day of scenic driving, which also included some car sickness and bowel problems (people's names will not be included to protect the innocent...).

This was taken at Proex -- you know, using one of those fake screens... No, seriously, this is a REAL background. Beautiful.

The kids (minus Rob). We were all dressed up for church so they made us take a picture before we changed back into our sweatpants. :)

Me, Taylor and Stacy hiking around some volcanic rock that the Pueblo Indians once drew pictures on (to communicate? teach? play? we don't know). This was the day o' Petroglyphs. We also saw a roadrunner! Stacy chased it. I'm not kidding.

Jeff and Taylor snowboarding. Jeff was resting. Taylor was teaching.

Proof that I snowboarded. Taylor took us immediately to the green runs (skipped out on the bunny hill entirely), so I got really tired just going down one run. It took 1.5 hours to get down one run. I only got in three runs total in about 4 hours. My muscles would get so sore that I would stop/fall on purpose and sit there to rest. While resting, sometimes I would take some pics, like this one. I call it "Boots Overlooking a Mountain" or "Boots Over Santa Fe."

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.