On the road again...

Happy Wednesday to all! (It's really my Friday this week.)

I'm at work and feeling a little sleepy from editing a lot of web content and forgetting to bring my glasses to work. Ah, what can you do?

Today's schedule looks like this: work, home, choir, then pack for my weekend trip to Grand Marais with Eric. We're staying at his parents' place up there and keeping his mom company over Easter weekend. Should be fun. Some might say it's odd that I'm going somewhere 10 degrees (or more) colder during spring break, but I say it's going to be fun. I've never been, but I've heard good things. It's right on Lake Superior, there's plenty of outdoorsy activities to do, Indy gets to meet Rocky (Eric's dad's black lab), and there will probably be some good food involved. And who doesn't love a little road trip just to get away from the same ol' routine? Anyway, we leave tomorrow morning after I take Indy for a little jog to tire her out a little bit. Otherwise, she will whine for the first hour or so of the trip, and that is not cool.

Well, have a good rest of the week and fabulous weekend. Check back for some pics from Grand Marais next week!

Spring break

That's right, I am on spring break for the first time in 5 years. It's lovely so far. This weekend, I slept in, didn't study at all, hung out with Ang & Pat, Ashlee, Eric, the cousins, Mom, Aunt Katie. I even went for a little jog/walk with Katie yesterday around Lake Nokomis. She and Rae got a dog -- a 2 year old poodle/cocker(?) mix named Kramer. He made Indy look ginormous.

I'm doing better now that it's been a week since the car incident. I don't like driving under that same bridge, but it's the quickest way to St. Paul from my house, so I've done it now about 10 times since last week.

My midterms last week went well, I think. They were in Stats and Hearing Measurement & Disorders. I really never knew it, but the ear can look mighty gross when there are different disorders going on. Top thing no one in my class wants to ever get: cholesteatoma. Look it up. It's nasty, and it can recur, and there's no good treatment.

I've been spending a lot of time lately joining Eric on his search for a house. Let me just tell you that although everyone says it's a perfect time to buy and it's a buyer's market, it is really hard to find a good house! He had a major heartbreak last Friday when he put an offer on an awesome house with all the cute built-ins (buffet, bookshelves), hardwood floors, etc., and then later that night he found out that someone else's offer got approved just hours earlier. It's crazy. Apparently there are people looking for exactly what he's looking for and they're on the prowl just steps ahead of him! Bah! So think good thoughts, say a prayer, send some positive energy his way. It'd be so awesome if more houses were put on the market soon.

Well, happy St. Patrick's Day to you all. I'll be celebrating my non-Irish heritage by working, taking Indy to the vet and then going to watch Eric kick some butt at his soccer game and then join his team for a beer after the game. I am wearing my green Notre Dame t-shirt with the little leprechaun on it. I'm festive.

New Mexico Pics

Remember how I went to New Mexico for Christmas and I was there for 10 days? Well, I finally got all my pics online and sent them out to the immediate family. If anyone else is interested, click here to see them.

P.S. There are about 140, so feel free to click through quickly. Or feel free to use this as an excuse to take a break from work or studying.

To Whom It May Concern

To the inconsiderate, immature jerks who are obviously unable to consider any possible consequences of their actions,

Here is what my car now looks like. This is from when you threw a large rock of some sort down from the bridge that goes over Hennepin Ave. in NE Minneapolis. I was driving home from my mom's house with my dog in the back seat and couldn't figure out if I had been shot at or if something had hit my car. When I heard the initial blast of the shattering glass, I ducked by instinct (or maybe because I just watched the movie "Shooter"). So if your goal was just to scare some people, job well done. You not only scared the crap out of me, but also woke up my poor dog in the back seat, who was covered in glass shards and very confused. I immediately looked at the car next to me and the car behind me to see if there was any way that they were possibly shooting at my car. At the same time, I got my phone out and called 9-1-1. Once I was home and ruled out the whole shooting option, the dispatcher sent a policeman out to help me. Last I heard, someone else had called in after me to report a similar incident, and the cops were apparently trying to chase you down. I'm really hoping they caught you. I'm not sure if you will learn your lesson and never do this again, but I really hope you do. For now, I would consider yourself lucky that you didn't seriously injure or kill someone. If your timing had been a couple seconds different, that rock could have gone through my front windshield. And thank your lucky stars that the rock just hit and bounced off my car instead of falling through the glass and hitting my dog. And....thankfully, there were no other passengers in my car besides my dog, especially in the back seat. At this point, I'm pretty angry that someone could be so stupid and just totally ignorant of what could have seriously happened. I'm also thankful that at least my car insurance will cover the cost of this window replacement and that my dog and I are both uninjured.

Here's hoping you get caught and never do this sort of thing again. And here's to hoping that more people actually consider the consequences of their actions.

Sincerely,
An angry driver who hopes your punishment consists of community service helping people who have been disfigured or incapacitated due to stupid actions like yours

Cute shoes

I am pretty excited to wear these cute little things at my friend Laura's wedding in one month (exactly one month from today!). I just got them the other day to go with my bridesmaid dress -- JCrew halter beach dress in espresso. All the bridesmaids are wearing different styles of the same dress and we will all have different shoes. I think it will be a fun look -- and of course I'll post pictures after the wedding....you just have to wait another month until I can do that.

These shoes make me feel like I am way more sophisticated and trendy than I really am.

Spice girl: Ginger

Yep, another quiz-type thing lifted from Katy's blog. What can I say? I like these things. Guilty pleasure, folks. So, I took this "What Spice Are You?" Quiz and apparently, I am a chameleon in a spice. I am Ginger. That just makes me want to go eat sushi. Sushi, anyone???

You Are Ginger

Like ginger, you are a total shape shifter. You can be sweet, spicy, mellow, or overpowering. You are both soothing and unique. You are popular... yet you are often overlooked.

What Spice Are You?

Fav email forward that will probably make you say "Really?"

I know, forwards are a waste of time and usually stupid. That's why I'm just putting this one up here so I don't annoy you with an email forward. I saw this one several years ago and thought it was so funny that I saved the picture as my desktop background. And now, here it is again, making me laugh all over again. Here you go....

Subject: Stress

I am not sure exactly how this works, but this is amazingly accurate.

The picture below has 2 identical dolphins in it. It was used in a case study on stress levels at the Mayo Clinic and later at Fletcher Medical Center in Burlington.

Look at both dolphins jumping out of the water. The dolphins are identical. A closely monitored, scientific study revealed that, in spite of the fact that the dolphins are identical, a person under stress will find many differences between the two dolphins.

The more differences a person finds, the more stress that person is experiencing.

Look at the photograph and if you find more than one or two differences you may need to take a vacation.

Happy Belated Valentine's Day!

For Valentine's Day, Eric and I made chicken kabobs (very fun meal to make together!). We made 11 and ate......all 11. And then ate this lovely gigantic cookie (made by yours truly). Don't worry, we didn't eat the entire cookie in one sitting. It took all weekend to eat it. Aren't you impressed with my decorating skills?

A random update and a movie review

In response to my sisters' harassing comments, I thought maybe I should update. Not so sure what to update with, though.

My life lately has consisted of the following:
1. Wearing leg warmers or long underwear to ward off the damn cold weather. Yes, "damn" is necessary. It's that cold.
2. Not yet working out cause it's cold. I don't like treadmills or exercise bikes, but I'm starting to think that might be a good idea.
3. Watching a lot of movies (again, too cold to do anything outdoors). I'll give you a movie review below. These are all rentals.

"Joshua" - crazy creepy movie. See it if you never want to have children. It creeped me out. It's about a boy of genius level who turns into a "bad seed" and does evil things to his parents and others. I had no idea what it was about before seeing it, so that made it even more crazy and weird.

"Zodiac" - another suspenseful movie, but this one was good! It has Jake Gyllenhal and is about a serial killer, and it is a true story, which I always enjoy. Very suspenseful, but not gory. I did not have nightmares or weird dreams after this one (like I did after "Joshua").

"Rocket Science" - good movie that won some artsy awards (maybe Sundance?). It's about a boy with a stutter problem (of course I liked it, as a future speech-language pathologist, right?) who falls for this girl on the debate team. The story just follows him through his different attempts at solving his problem, and it also deals with different types of relationships. It's not a typical "feel good" movie; it's different, and that's why I liked it.

Those are the most recent ones. Well, I also made Eric watch "Love Actually" last night for Valentine's Day. His commentary: it was goofy. My commentary: still a favorite movie of mine and I'm very glad that I spent $7.50 on it at Target the other day while bday gift shopping for my brother.

8 Things

Okay, so I got to work early this morning and figured I'd do this little thing I saw on my cousin Katy's blog. Thanks Katy!

8 Things I’m Passionate About

1. Helping others
2. Speech-language pathology
3. My family
4. My friends
5. Trying new things (food, experiences, etc.)
6. Taking responsibility to train your dogs so they are nice and friendly and loving
7. Traveling
8. Being open minded about the world (other cultures, religions, political views)

8 Things I Want To Do Before I Die

1. Learn another language (and/or maybe improve my French or ASL)
2. Be a mom
3. Travel to more of the countries of my ancestors
4. Travel to Australia (and probably many other places in the world I haven't been yet)
5. Go to the boundary waters for a long canoeing/camping trip
6. Own a house (and a cabin!)
7. Potentially have my own private practice for speech path
8. Ride in a hot air balloon

8 Things I Say Often

1. I like it
2. Indy, off
3. Indy, want a treat?
4. It's cold
5. My roommate had people over again last night and woke me up between 2:30 and 4:30.
6. Bitches
7. I love you
8. Really?

8 TV Shows I’ve Recently Watched

1. Democratic debate
2. Friends
3. Two and a half men
4. Scrubs
5. American Idol
6. News
7. CSI
8. The Office

8 Songs I Could Listen to Over and Over

1. Rollercoaster by Kimya Dawson
2. 100 Days, 100 Nights by Sharon Jones
3. Free Fallin' by Tom Petty (anyone who attended the 2003 Lakehouse trip knows exactly what I'm talking about here :) and I'm sorry....not really)
4. Cold, Cold Heart by Norah Jones
5. Dear Mr. President by Pink and the Indigo Girls
6. Peace Train by Cat Stevens
7. All I Want for Christmas by Mariah Carey
8. The entire "I am Sam" soundtrack

8 Things That Attract Me To My Best Friends

1. Sense of humor
2. Genuinely good character
3. Laid back/easy-goingness
4. They think I'm funny
5. Their singing voicemails
6. Their voicemails left in French
7. Intelligence
8. They are all very fun and unique individuals who I love for different reasons!

8 Things I’ve Learned (or been reminded of) This Past Year

1. Life is short
2. Family and friends are sooooo important
3. You never know when great things are just around the corner
4. Being far from good friends is hard sometimes
5. It is possible to pick up right where you left off with some friends, even if it's been 8 years since you last saw them.
6. I can sing some pretty high notes (learned after having to sing soprano in choir....I still like alto or soprano 2 better, though)
7. Living with random people can work, but can also be sucky. I miss my one-bedroom apartment.
8. Being a student in a subject you're truly interested in is amazing! (I am a dork.)

8 People I Think Should Do “8”...

Really, respond if you want in a comment or post it on your blog if you have one! But if I had to pick 8 people, they would be: Mom, Laura, Alyse, Stacy, Kate, who else reads this regularly???