Weekend with Kristin

So this has been a very intense weekend, and yes I know I'm skipping over what's happened since the cliff incident. I'm skipping it because basically nothing other than me working every single day between Friday and Thursday happened.

On Thursday (20th) night after work I went to see District 9 with some people from work. Well at least it was supposed to be some people from work but some of them backed out at the last minute so it ended up being just Josh and I. Josh is practically the only non-manager at Culver's who has worked there longer than I have. He also just graduated college and, like me, is looking for a job. So we went to the movie and it was amazing. Such a brilliant idea and so unique from every other alien movie out there. I really recommend seeing it.

On Friday I started preparing for Kristin to arrive. Kristin was one of my best friends while I was in Australia and lives in Greenbay, Wisconsin. Why I haven't seen her before this weekend is a mystery of poor planning on our part. Anyway, she came on Friday afternoon and we ended up bringing Belle to the dog park and then going to the mall. Saw Hannah working at the pretzel place and then went to Maurice's for Kristin to get a new shirt. Wandered around for a bit and then ate dinner at Applebee's while watching the Vikings play for the first time with Brett Favre as quarterback. He sucked. On the way home we stopped at a redbox to get a movie - Push. Didn't end up watching it but played cribbage instead. Then went to bed in the basement.

Was woken up very very early by Belle whining, and of course since it was Saturday no one else in my family got up with her (to be fair, mom was away on her girl's weekend and Sara was camping). Took care of her, went back to bed for a little while, and then woke up early and got ready to go to the Renaissance Festival. Unfortunately there wasn't an actual address listed, which made it hard to find using the GPS. Kristin drove and we got there just before they opened the gate. We got in, picked up a schedule of shows and events, and planned out the day. It was brilliant - we got to see so many amazing shows and got great seats to the joust! We also ate good food there and Kristin got a few neat souvenirs. We left about 30 minutes before it closed - it was just so much fun! We got home, ate food, and then watched Push. It was pretty good, but felt like it wasn't really over when the movie ended. Rearranged our sleeping arrangements and went to sleep a bit early.

Woken up again by Belle but this time dad got up with her the second time so it was alright. Kristin was feeling a bit sick so she showered and then napped for awhile as I showered and ate breakfast. Also got coupons for the MN Zoo, which was where we were headed that day. This time I drove, and luckily since it's well known, year round, and has an actual address we got there with no delay. We toured the outdoor exhibits first - smart move considering how hot it got later in the day. Started with the tigers and worked our way around the loop. We then went inside to see the sharks and dolphins, and spent a lot of time watching the dolphins play. One of them swam up and splashed the crowd, all on its own! They were so graceful in the water, not to mention playful and fun to watch. We then went through the tropics trail and then over to the bird show. That was really exciting, and amazing what they can teach birds to do! Finally we got something to eat and headed back to Rochester. Kristin packed up and left for Greenbay and I crashed.

Today (Monday) I worked from 11 - 3:30 (was supposed to work until 4) and then came home, showered, took a little nap, and then went over to Hannah's house at 5 pm. There we watched The Fellowship of the Ring and The Two Towers before finally calling it quits. One can only handle so much Frodo! We also talked a lot about how depressing it is to be unemployed and not going back to school. She works at the pretzel place again tomorrow and, since I don't work, I'm considering popping over to say hi. Well after the 6 hour marathon at her house I came home and watched the end of How to Lose a Guy in 10 Days with Megan and Sara and then came up here to post this entry.

Over the weekend I took 342 pictures and about 11 videos. Insane. Well that's all there is, and I'm still tired from the weekend, so I'm off to bed soon.

Hanging over the cliff's edge

So today was so exciting I had to post about it. Last night Megan was sad because she had no plans for the weekend, so she and I tentatively planned to go tubing in Lanesboro today. So I set my alarm to go off at 10:30 am and went to bed.

This morning I woke up, found out that Megan was still sleeping, and so went back to bed. Woke up later and we started getting ready to go. We got dressed, started packing up towels and sunscreen and Megan looked up the directions and tried to find some tubes that weren't popped (unsuccessful in that). Eventually we managed to get into the car and get going around 12:30.

Headed south and got stuck in road construction traffic and so it took us about 40 minutes just to get out of Rochester. We kept going and started to see some rain clouds on the horizon. This is when we realized we never actually checked the weather for today. So since my aunt and uncle and cousin were down camping at a campsite near Lanesboro we called to see if it was raining and it was. We decided since it was just scattered showers and still hot we'd just keep going anyway. On the way we saw a sign for the campsite our relatives were staying at and decided to head there and just go tubing on that section of the river.

We were going up the long narrow drive up to the place when all of a sudden a huge semi truck came barrelling down the middle of the road. Megan was driving and she started moving towards the side of the road since it was narrow and we'd only both fit if we hugged the sides. The truck moved over a little but not nearly far enough and so to avoid an accident, Megan pulled over just enough so that the left wheels of the car went off the road. Unfortunately, since we were back in the hills and the road was going up the side of it, where the road ended so did the ground. Which meant the wheels were basically hanging over empty space. Okay that's a slight exaggeration, it did have a steep drop but the wheels were on ground, it just happened to be very muddy and slick and the car sank into it and basically the stuff underneath the car was resting on the asphalt.

A man and his kid who drove up behind the semi actually stopped and helped keep us from totally freaking out as I climbed into the back and out of the car and Megan set the emergency brake and climbed out as well. He corroborated our story and even remembered the kind of truck so we could send angry phone calls to the company. Called our aunt and uncle and they came and really took care of us. They called the tow place while we called our parents and our parents found out we have towing insurance and so a guy came out and hooked up the left side of the car to a crane and the right side to a tree on the other side of the road and he pulled the car up and over and there (luckily) wasn't any damage to the car.

Drove it up and parked in the campsite parking lot and there Megan and I just ate our packed lunch and tried to calm down from all the stress. Then went and played volleyball with our relatives and their friends and then borrowed some of their tubes and went tubing. Eventually got too tired and cold and headed home.

Got home and Belle was super hyper, which of course means no one did anything with her all day. So I took her to the dog park for about 30 minutes until it started raining. Then we headed home.

Well that's about it for today, other than watching George Lopez and reading Flowers in the Attic, which is a really depressing book.

I also managed to get some sun on the river, hooray for vitamin D!

Drama at the Dog Park

Sigh. So I'll start off with a story from tonight and then backtrack and try to fill in as much from the last 11 days as possible.

So around 7:30 tonight I decided to take Belle to the dog park and mom decided to join me because she'd never taken Belle there before. So we got there and she played with a cute little bloodhound for awhile and then found a cute little 3 1/2 month old black lab puppy to play with. They were playing nice together and mom was busy chatting up the owner of the other puppy when Megan, Sara, and Emily L. came and watched her play. Of course this was a bit overwhelming for me because I usually go with her alone or maybe with Megan. I don't tend to chat a lot with other owners and am very non-confrontational. A few weeks back for example there was this basset hound puppy that plays a little too rough. Megan was there with me and it just pulled or bit down a little too hard and Belle would yelp and run away (or try to) with her tail between her legs. So last time I just would pick up Belle and walk her over to a different group of dogs to play with. This time however, the basset hound was back and its owners weren't watching it hardly at all (they were sitting at a picnic table 100 yards away). Well it came and interrupted the little lab puppy playtime and started barking at them and again playing too rough. Mom got worried and tried to pull the basset off of Belle and kept saying "no" and just kept trying to separate them. The basset owners noticed and the guy started yelling "she's just a puppy, she's just barking." Which of course inspired mom to yell back something about how she wasn't just barking and how she knows because she goes to puppy class and so there was a mini yelling match between mom and this guy and then the girl got a bit involved and then I did too but meanwhile he came over and put his dog on a leash and walked it away. Of course that inspired a lot of gossip between us 5 and the black lab puppy's owner. Because of how defensive he was and how quick he was to try and defend his dog it makes me think that it had happened before. You'd think he'd learn to watch his puppy and try to teach it to be less aggressive instead of just defending it and letting the behavior solidify itself in this poor puppy. Once that dog grows up it won't have any excuse for its aggressive behavior and its owners will regret not training it properly. Anyway, the basset hound owners just walked their puppy over to another picnic table full of people to probably talk about us. Sigh. There's never any drama when I take her by myself.

As far as these past 11 days have been, I seriously haven't done anything of note. One night I went over to Jackie's (when Sara had her Holy Spirit class reunion party at our house) and we watched Legend of Zorro. Yesterday Jackie and Natalie (her sister) and I took some old paperback books to this new used bookstore where you can trade in your old books for store credit and then use it to buy other used books from them. It was great, I got rid of about 7 books (big deal for me) and got 3 new ones. Afterwards Natalie went to her friend's house and Jackie and I went downtown to return some library books and run some errands. Then I went home and went to let out Becky's dogs (fat old black lab and hyper little shih tzu) and then to meet mom and Belle at her puppy class. Belle lost one of her teeth at the class (she's supposed to lose them all by around 5 months).

Later last night I was catching up with some people online and then got into a texting argument with an ex which was incredibly unpleasant. It's just that he doesn't get me at all lol. Keeps thinking that when I say I don't want to talk to him it's because I still have feelings for him. Sigh.

I really don't know what else to talk about here which is incredibly lame. Considering how long it's been since I last posted, I really haven't done a whole lot.

Went to the funeral and saw my cousin who got bit by a (brown recluse?) spider and had to go to the ER three times to get the bite cleaned out and get some good pain drugs.

Right now my sister (Sara) is practicing for her danceline tryouts tomorrow by dancing to this horriblely annoying music.

Dad and I are watching Extra. Not really sure why. Also watching CSI: NY which is about a stalker who got killed by one of the people he was stalking and I totally don't blame her.

I'm bored and I think I've been bored all summer. One thing I have been doing lately is playing Spore. I got the game when my hard drive crashed only to find out my computer can't handle it. But apparently my mom's laptop has a good enough video card to play it so that has been my latest addiction. I haven't been as obsessive with it as I would be just because I have to use my mom's computer to play it.

Last night there was supposed to be a big meteor shower but I went out during the supposed peak time and didn't see a thing. It didn't help that the moon was so full and bright and it was freezing outside. I wish I could curl up in a sleeping bag next to someone and just stare at the stars all night.

I had to reapply for the VA through like usajobs.com or something and I just got an email from them saying that I qualify for the job, but it's not a job offer. Wtf does that mean? I don't even know what to expect from them anymore. I don't really want this job but I do want a job and I'm sort of assuming after all this bs they've put me through they darn well better give me one.

R.I.P. Aunt Betty

My grandma's sister-in-law (my dad's Aunt Betty) had been sick for awhile. Last weekend my parents went down for a day to Iowa to visit her, and she wasn't doing so well. Yesterday her kids made the tough decision to take her off life support. So now we're going down to Iowa on Sunday for the wake and the funeral on Monday. The only good part of this story is that now she's with her husband, my great-Uncle Dick, assuming there's an afterlife of some sort.

Tuesday I went bowling with Hannah and Liz from Century tech. It was pretty fun, caught up on a lot of gossip and actually bowled really well. I broke 100 both times - although the first time the computer was cheating for me and kept adding 1 pin to whatever I actually bowled (not every time, but often enough, and once gave me a spare). First game I got 111, second I got 121. We only played two games but ended up spending 2 1/2 hours there just talking and catching up. Hannah is sort of in the same boat as I am. She was an English major and is trying to get a job in the cities. She's going to move there (if all goes well) in September. Liz is going to vet school at Columbia in Missouri, while living in an apartment with her boyfriend. At first (since she has no undergrad debt) I was thinking she had it made. Then she informed me that she took out a $50,000 loan just for the first year. After that I started to feel bad for her, although she at least has a plan.

Wednesday I didn't do much, but later that night I hung out with Jackie again. We went to DQ again and then off to Cinemagic to see The Ugly Truth. It was pretty funny, but I think I was expecting more. It also had a very confusing conclusion. I couldn't figure out what the moral of the story was. Be yourself? Be a slut? All so confusing.

On Thursday I worked from 11-5:30 (was supposed to work until 8:30) and walked home afterwards. Then took Belle to Foster Arends park where mom was having a work picnic and had a swimming lesson. Belle first jumped into the little lake and immediately sunk. And then clawed her way to the surface and figured out how much she loves to swim.

Today I woke up very very early to Belle barking her head off around 5:15 am. Took her around 20 minutes to quiet down and that much again longer for me to get back to sleep. Then she started up again around 7:15 am after mom and Sara left for a tour of the U of M and finally I got so fed up with it I just yelled "BELLE! THAT'S ENOUGH!" And she stopped! It was amazing. I still slept badly this morning because one of the neighbors was getting their house re-roofed and it was soo loud and noisy. Eventually got up, took a shower, started some laundry, and then headed down to the Apache mall to see if I could catch Hannah at work at the pretzel place. No luck there, but I did get a book (one recommended by Joel, The Left Hand of Darkness by Ursula K. LeGuin). Then came home, took Belle to the dog park (where she made friends with a malamute named Balto) and then came home and got ready for work. Worked until 10:30, came home, and started the long stupid application for the job at the VA. Took awhile to finish (all the normal stupid ridiculous application stuff that is all on my resume anyway). Now just working tomorrow 11 - 8:30 and then Sunday 11 - 2 and then down to Iowa.

PS - I can't believe it's already August.