a minnesota break!

---note: I wrote this on the way back from Minnesota using the wonderful google wifi - and added pictures as soon as I got back to my place (let's just say I really wanted to avoid the arduous task of lint-rolling Hillary's blonde hair off of every single item of clothing)---

Sunday
--dinner with the U Group (friends of my mom's from college). We meet up every year for August (pool party!) and December. This year was a taco bar, complete with alcohol (another time where booze just feels odd. Seriously, man...am I getting old or what?) The two kids that are my age are getting hitched this summer, so there was a lot of wedding/dress/house talk. Not the first time I've felt awkward about this sort of thing, and it certainly won't be the last.

Monday
--lunch with family friends -- they're 5 and 4, and quite the handful. It's been fun to watch this next generation grow up, though. The younger girl was a bit mellower than normal (due to a 100ºF fever), but it was nice to just have her sit in my lap and read to her. I have a feeling that will be one of my favorite things to do as a parent when that time comes far in the future.
--coffee with this one...we were friends in high school that ended up on opposite ends of the spectrum academically (journalism vs. biology and music) -but she has some plans to get back into science, which is great!
--dinner at Good Earth with the other girl in my horn section from high school. We both ended up in science, and she's doing some rad work with a marrow donation registry right now.
--French horn ensemble - featuring 13 horns from all over the Twin Cities metro playing some fantastic music. Jealous? You should be. I'm pretty sure not many people get to spend their time at home playing a twelve-horn medley of Titanic or an eight-horn version of Mendelssohn's Wedding March. Heck. Yes. I also just found out I'm going to be in an octet this semester, so in general I am just ready to go with more music in my life.

Tuesday
--We moved the giangantimous big screen TV for the installation of the new carpet and wood floors
--lunch was two glasses of red wine and raw red/yellow peppers while watching Stargate (season 10, man! I'm so close). I'm pretty sure this makes me the most classy girl in the universe. Or something completely opposite of that.
--I wrote the Christmas letter in verse. Ha. That's what my mom gets for not giving me explicit directions.
--Dinner at a family friend's place with 3-on-3 hockey, Taboo, and the most gloriously large tree full of ornaments. And a fireplace. There is nothing better than laying in front of the fireplace with your feet up right next to the flames to thaw out your toes after a long hockey scrimmage (which included a shoulder to the face courtesy of my brother). Nope. Nothing better.



Wednesday
--lovely Thai lunch with a girlfriend of mine from waaaaay back. She made me the most beautiful hat that I will show off in a later post....it's just so wonderful. And seeing Seward in all the snow and those pretty old houses, practically rappelling over the mountains of snow from the little plowing good ol' Minneapolis actually did in the after snowmageddon
--meeting up with one of the kindest souls I know--there was tea, wonderful conversation, catching up underneath the lights of the Christmas tree, and the promise of a wonderful adventure in Boston, Chicago, or Minnesota. And I can't wait.


--Tea House for the last night of coherence before my brother's surgery - so good.

Thursday
--second day that I have drank two glasses of wine with lunch. Today, it was with leftover Tea House, however. I'm not sure whether that's better or worse.
--I made my brother's bed up for his recovery after a tonsilectomy. Poor guy. Spending the last week and a half have had lots of wonderful moments, though...from "PIZZA" to "What time is it? Time for a beer!" However---apparently it went pretty well. Which is good. He's recovering in his Rock Band jam-jams right now. (he was sad that there really aren't footie pajamas in his giant-man size of 6'3"). He's great fun to spend time with, and hopefully he'll end up in Boston for spring break so I can get him sloshed on two or three of the flights at Sunset Bar and Grill. It's the right thing for a good sister to do.



Friday
--Visited with my grandmother
--watched over the patient as my parents looked at furniture

Saturday
--Seeing my old babysitter (a friend of my mom's as well) for lunch at Flame in Rosedale. The chicken wild rice soup had nutmeg. Odd. But delicious. And the mall was PACKED. With snobby teens wearing their size 000 abercrombie jeans, family lugging around children in strollers, and lots of everything strewn everywhere. Shudder. It makes me want to just go for a long, long, walk. Too bad it's -15ºF (-35ºF wind chill), and inhaling air makes your lungs burn. Nature's Everclear...except stronger and cheaper. It's one of those really clean moments as well--you feel like you're on the top of Mount Everest gulping in something fresh and from the mountain tops. And then you see the exhaust coming out the car in the driveway, and try to keep the vision in your head as long as you can.

Sunday
--Back to Boston! It took about two hours longer than expected, leaving me absolutely exhausted by the time I walked into my apartment at about 10 pm. Suffice it to say, it's been quite the trip...and it's over. I find myself almost-crazed at the thought of an elliptical machine, as well as really excited to jump in to some pretty time-intensive experiments the first week I get back.

Yet--I wish I didn't have to leave so many people behind. Welcome to growing up, I guess.