WoW

Wednesday after my birthday I skipped work to help Sara move in to college at the U of MN. Driving on the campus was terrible, as was parking, but I managed to make it there right after they got all the stuff from the car to the room. After we got done with that, the parents and I went over to the State Fair. Ate Australian Battered Potatoes, malts, and that's all I can remember at this point. Around 5:30 the parents left and I hung out in the Miracle of Birth barn until Vicki and Sybylla arrived. We ate cheese curds, footlong corndog, and Sweet Martha's chocolate chip cookies. We also rode on the skytram thing across the fair and had tons of fun.

On Thursday the parents came up again and dropped Belle off at my place (they went to a friend's cabin for Labor Day weekend). We went to the dog park up here once and that's when I discovered that she'll literally dive completely underwater to try to fetch things. That was kind of crazy.

Friday I drove down to Rochester and spent the rest of the weekend (including Monday) down there watching Belle, eating food, and being generally lazy (as far as I can remember).

Tuesday had kickball and I played great! Well we all did - won the game and I actually scored! It was brilliant.

Thursday I went to see Toy Story 3 at the Riverview with Hannah (who was in town catsitting). It was amazing and sad and wonderful, just like the first time. It inspired me to watch the first two movies later that week. And there's a part in the third movie that is a direct reference to the beginning of the first movie!

On Sunday Nathan, his roommate Chris and I went to the Renaissance Festival. It was awesome - saw vilification tennis again (some good burns about cucumbers and the Donner party), and a new good show called Moonie - the guy rarely talked but was hilarious! We ran into some of Nathan and Chris's friends (Crystal and Jeremy) who actually work at the fair (they dress up as the big creepy puppet that wanders around).

Tuesday Hannah came over and spent the night in the guest room. I also had kickball that night, and unfortunately we did not win. We were tied at 0 until the 4th inning, then tied at 1 until the 7th (and last) inning, and then they scored 4 more runs and then we scored none so we lost. Oh well. Had a fun night with Hannah though, watching TV and being semi lame.

Thursday Nathan, Chris, and I went and ate dinner at Jeremy and Crystal's (they're married) along with Kyle (friend of Chris and Jeremy). Pot roast, watermelon, and cookies (I brought the cookies). It was pretty delicious.

This weekend I hung out at Nathan's for the majority of the time. We went and saw Scott Pilgrim vs. the World (pretty good and definitely not your average movie) with Chris on Saturday.

Spent most of the rest of the time this month playing games. And not just any games, WoW primarily. Also tried Starcraft II and it's pretty damn fun but I'm not sure I'm willing to actually pay for it. I just played on Nathan's account - and just for a little while.

I've definitely learned a lot more about WoW (okay the rest of this paragraph is probably going to be me nerding out so feel free to skip this one and continue below) thanks to actually playing with people who play with me (ie Nathan and Chris). Did I know anything about dungeons or instances? Not really. Ever done the PvP stuff? Nope. The game is so much more fun and much easier to level now. And playing on a PvP server is much more exciting - it's more like CO now with places you can kill other people and places you can't. Having to watch out for that Horde level death character running past and hoping he doesn't see you so you can just get that last gorilla skin and finish the quest you're on. Wow, that was total nerdzone. Yep, definitely been playing way too much lately, but I'm still not sick of it! That's a new one for me, usually I get bored after awhile but I haven't yet. That's probably why I find The Guild so freaking hilarious - I actually understand most (if not all) the weird gamer references they make now.

Sad, I know. But I'm so much happier now than when I was redirecting my entire life around trying to get Tom back. Yep, I'm admitting it. I'm pretty sure the only reason I was out drinking and making drastic lifestyle changes was because I wanted him to see that I'm fun, I can go out and party as well as the next girl, and I wasn't just going to disappear from his life because he brutally dumped my ass on the concrete for someone else with no regard for me whatsoever. Okay, obviously still bitter and hurt about that, but not the point! The point is while I may actually enjoy the occasional alcoholic beverage, I'm much happier being myself. Still haven't really come to terms with being happy about who I am (why can't I just be the outgoing partier??) but at least I'm no longer in denial about it.

Since the slap by the way there has been minimal contact with Tom. Ran into him at work once and it was really awkward but brief and Joe and Katie were with me so it wasn't too bad. Still think about him too much though. Still hurts a lot sometimes. But I managed to not go to the Cardinal this Saturday (was conflicted about it because he was running the show so do I go just to prove that his being there won't stop me from going out and having fun or do I avoid contact because he's just not worth the shit I put myself through?). This insight into my craziness is probably only coming out because it's 2am on a Sunday night (Monday morning?) and I have to go to work tomorrow.

So I bought 8 postcards while I was in Colorado and I have not been able to find them. I'm intending to mail them to people (Gramma, Grandma & Grandpa, Sarah, Michael, Alan - ironic I know!, Javi, Kristin, and one more person I haven't decided on yet) but I just can't seem to find them! So if you read this know that I'm intending to send you a postcard and will as soon as I find them!

I still have to give Megan the tshirt I bought her there, but just haven't seen her since! Except birthday weekend... but I just forgot then.

Yep my mind is totally scatterbrained right now. Talking to Michael is fun though, he rarely pays attention anyway. Just shared the link to the awesome Mal/Castle reference (see here) and now I'm pretty sure it's time for me to go to bed.

Oh! One more thing! Awhile ago (can't for the life of me remember when) I bought Wizard's First Rule at a used bookstore. Just recently started rereading it (note: book series by Terry Goodkind that Tom got me into) and it's still as fantastic as the first time I read it. But I'm almost 3/4 of the way through it and I know I'll have to read the second one and I'm not sure what to do! I'll probably go check Half Price Books, or maybe even venture to a library, but if that all fails do you (my lovely reader/s) think it's kosher to ask Tom to borrow it? I'm guessing that's a bad plan, especially since this no contact thing has been working well for me(has it? I hope so...). What are your thoughts? This could just be me trying to reestablish contact because I'm masochistic and can't let go or it could be totally innocent must read book-ness that I get. I just can't tell!

Moral of this post: if you game, watch The Guild. If you read this, answer the above query. If you have a cookie, don't give it to a mouse.

Thank you, and goodnight!

Happy Birthday to me!

So again a lot has been going on. And like a lot of this summer it's heavily involved my family. Kind of crazy but I'm not complaining!

The festivities really kicked off on Saturday so I'll start there. Megan got to my house a little before 1pm and she helped me pack up quick and ate the delicious peanut butter sandwich I made for her before we headed out to Canterbury Downs to meet up with the rest of the family. We watched the horse races there and bet on a few. The most exciting was a maiden race (none of the horses had ever either raced or won before - one of the two) and there were 10 colts (boys) and just 1 filly (girl) out there. Well we all bet on Early Girl and she won! Decisively - like 3 lengths or something. Anyway, after we got tired there we drove back over to the hotel my parents got for the night and we all conked out on the beds and took a nap. Eventually woke up, changed, and we headed over to Mystic Lakes casino. I know right? A day full of gambling, what a good family bonding experience. Won on video poker, lost on slots, and then the whole fam took over a black jack table where we all came out ahead. Some more than others (I was one of the lesser wins) but it was pretty fun. Left and went back to the hotel for bed.

On Sunday we got up early (~9am), got ready, and headed to Valleyfair. Spent the day there - rode Wild Thing twice, Power Tower, Steel Venom twice, Xtreme Swing, Corkscrew, Renegade, the Wave, the ferris wheel, Thunder Canyon, the Hydroblaster, and a few others that I just can't remember. We also spent a few hours at the waterpark there. Overall it was an awesome day - I love Valleyfair! After we were done there (~6pm) we went back to the hotel to get my car and then Megan and I went to my house and the other three headed back to Rochester. Megan hung out at my house for awhile but eventually she headed back to Eau Claire.

Monday was blah, back to work after all the fun. On Monday night I stayed up late in order to call Megan at midnight to wish her a happy birthday. When she answered it was loud and she informed me that they were just leaving Taco Johns and heading out to the bars for her 21st birthday legality fun.

Which brings me to the big day: Tuesday, my 23rd birthday. Woke up, went to work and spent most of the day doing very little. Went out to lunch at the 5-8 Club (good burgers), snacked on the birthday cookie cake all day, and also worked on Illustrator on a new schematic (actually fun). Afterwards I went home and watched the last episode of Gilmore Girls (almost cried) and then got ready and headed out to kickball. Unfortunately I did not play very well (the ball actually kept coming to me and I got so flustered I didn't know who to throw it to, and then once someone threw it to me so hard it jammed my finger). We ended up losing that game. Went home and showered quick then drove to Southdale to meet up with Nathan and go see Inception. It was fantastic! Such a mindblow! I definitely have to see it again at some point.

Okay this is crazy - I started typing up this post about a week ago, completely forgot about it, and just now remembered to come back and finish it up.

And then I stopped again for a long ass time so now I'm just going to post this as is and start working on the next update.

In the meantime - watch The Guild. It's awesome (especially for gamer-nerds).