J O B

I have 4 interviews in the next 3 days!!  Exciting Stuff.

long time no see...

So I haven't blogged in a while and it isn't because I have nothing to blog about...quite the contrary, I have been doing quite a bit and just haven't found time to sit down and write any of it down.  Here is my best attempt to recap the last few weeks (In list form, because who doesn't love a list).

I really don't even know where to begin...

(3/12-14) Kier and Nic came home for the weekend.  I ditched out early on my sustainability conference Saturday so that we could go to Sweeny's Bar to hang out with a few of there Kier/Nic's friends for the night.  Boy, I haven't seen male/female segregation like that since middle school!  On Sunday, Kier and I went to Natalie's baby shower.  It was a baby shower.  But, AFTER the baby shower we went for a walk around St. Paul and decided that Kier/Nic, Ike, and I are all going to get houses in a neigborhood like that someday...that someday is looking pretty far off with my ever existing state of unemployment...

Speaking of, I am still job searching and don't think it will ever end.  I do have plans for myself and will share them in due time.

(3/15) I have been coaching the girls distance team at a a local high school since the 15th.  I LOVE IT.  At first I was a little concerned, but now that it has been a few weeks I am figuring out my role and it has been a lot of fun.  The girls are definitely kicking my butt, but I think I am doing a good job of hiding it because a few of the girls have made comments about how good of shape I am in...ha! if only they knew...

(3/18-22) Ike flew in for the weekend, so needless to say, Kier and Nic came up for the second weekend in a row.  We had a good time just hanging out and being awesome.  One night we went to the comedy club and then to a bar downtown with a hodgepodge of people - it was funnn!!

(3/25) First bonfire of the year!!!  It rocked, I made 2 hot dogs and 4 smores!!!  Talk about healthy.

(3/26) Brenna, Gretchen, Heidi, Lindsey and I (along with other friends of friends) went out to dinner and then to the Shout House and Brothers where we danced the night away...Lindsey is moving to WI and we are all going to miss her, I just don't know if The Bachelor will be the same without her...

(3/31) And this afternoon, well here is what I did this afternoon

I have to admit, as much as I am in desperate need of money, sometimes it pays to be unemployed.  This afternoon I sat in that chair soaking up the sun, reading, and eating chocolate cake...you may now be jealous of me.

goings on...

I haven't been a very good blogger lately, but here is an update on things I have done in the past few weeks:

#1 best thing to happen in the past few weeks is that my bff Brenna is finally home!  I am so excited that she is here, but a little sad that she is so itching to leave again.  The day she got home Gretchen, Heidi and I made her lunch and some welcome home signs.  It is weird that she has been gone for a year, but it doesn't really feel that way.  Then I went to dinner at her house for two different nights of a "family" open house...it was fun to hang with the P's.  I talked to Bren's sister Brie about her new truffle/card company Blue Calla Kreations - Check her out.  Here is a pic of Brie, Brenna and I at Brenna's welcome home party, which was also super fun!  Oh how I missed my brenny.

Beyond Bren being home I have been working on a few volunteer jobs.  I have been doing a few things for the Alliance for Sustainability to help get ready for the Sustainable Communities Conference coming up on March 12 and 13th.  When I say doing a few things I mean making a lot of phone calls.  I wasn't the best volunteer since if someone didn't answer I called it good and crossed them off my list.  I just hate making calls!  The second set of people I called wasn't so bad, I pumped out 50 calls in 2 hours or so.  Next weekend I will be helping at the conference which is more my style...hands on.

Even though I swore to everyone I would never volunteer for anything again I have already signed up with another group called Great River Greening.  I will be supervising groups of 5-15 people working to remove invasive species and plant natives along the Mississippi River.  I think this will be a little better for me, but we will see.  I have a training on April 10th.

I am also volunteer assistant coaching for the High School Track team this year.  We had a coaches meeting on Friday and it was really fun to catch up with a few old friends and I am really excited to start the season.

On that note...I really need a job!  A paying job.  I keep finding volunteer things I want to help with, but I force myself to forget about them since I am running out of cash real quick.  I have a list of jobs to apply for this week and I WILL have a job by the end of the week.  In this case when I say job I mean anything that pays me.  I am still waiting to hear back from two career jobs, so here is hoping.

Whew, this is a long post.  To speed things up....

I have started reading Eat, Pray, Love.  I have worked out consistently for the last 5 days.  I have a new goal to read one issue of Landscape Architecture Magazine every day until my stack is gone. I have beat Jake in 19 in 21 games of Foosball.  I am still awesome.

personal growth

Here is a tale of personal growth:

Last week I came across a spider in the hallway.  Not a daddy long legs mind you, but a big nasty black fat thing - it was prob 1/8 from tip to...tail [shudder].  Anyways, instead of screaming for someone to save me I decided to take matters into my own hands (also, no one was home so I didn't really have a choice).  I did the only logical thing, I grabbed the garbage can from the bathroom and tried to smash the darn thing.  Well when that failed I settled on trapping the spider under the garbage can and waiting for him/her to starve to death...

Five days later and the garbage has been moved to reveal my dead little friend...now I just need to work up the courage to remove the carcass...

today today

Today I am super bored.  Although it has been an excellent day, now that I have applied to every single job I can find I feel like I have nothing to do when in fact I have a ton to do!  Makes a ton of sense I know...

I ran 1.7 miles today...it was supposed to be the usual 3 but our streets had not been plowed yet so it was very slow going and exhausting.  I am really hoping I get a career job soon so that I can sign up for some races this spring/summer/fall.

This weekend was fun - except when I had to chase a dog around the neighborhood for close to 40 minutes!  In the snow. In the DEEP snow.

Kier and Nic were up and some friends came over for a taco lunch on Saturday.  Now I will be eating tacos for the rest of the week.

I have a job that I want more than anything in the world, but I am trying not to get excited about it since then the universe will punish me by not giving it to me.  Here's hoping.

I love watching the Olympics.  Cross-country skiing was on today and it was so exciting - makes me miss skiing so much that I might actually go for a second time this season.  Oh, btw starting March 15th I am going to help out with the high school track team, that will be fun.
 

This is a random blog post.

How can I get Kris Freeman to love me?

FOOS!

In case you weren't around circa 2004 "FOOS!" is what you yell while playing foosball when the ball gets stuck...or if you happen to be friends with a girl named Heidi, she will yell it whenever she feels like in a voice that is just so Heidi.

 

Tonight Jake and I began a 100 game Foosball tournament.  So far I am winning 5 games to 1, with 2 shut outs....I am pretty much awesome.  We play in 3 game sets and the winner of the set gets to make the other person do something.  Since I won both sets Jake has had to have a dance party by himself for 10 seconds and give me 3 compliments....this is going to be so fun...

True Blood

So I have just finished watching season 2 of True Blood, the HBO series based off the Sookie Stackhouse novels by Charlaine Harris.  Seriously, I can't stop thinking about this show - it is stuck in my head day and night and I CANNOT wait until June for season 3 to come out!  I may just have to re-read all of the books to get my fill of Eric. [sigh]

Speaking of Eric...Alexander Skarsgård, the actor who plays him, is from Stockholm, Sweden.  Even more motivation to get into grad school - my fingers are crossed...because that will happen...

...empty

So I have finished all of the Sookie Stackhouse novels that are available to me and now I don't know what to do with myself...  (I even checked the libraries in the area and all copies of the 9th book are out)  I mean I guess I could start a different book, but what's the point if it doesn't include a dreamy vampire like Eric!

Cross the following off of my 'bucket list' (I hate that phrase):

My car ran out of gas on the way to work yesterday!  Thankfully I was on my way to the gas station, but my car just quite working about 100 feet away from the turn lane.  Something I didn't know...your power steering goes out if the car has no gas...it was definitely a struggle to pull the almost U turn I need to get into the parking lot.  I was able to coast most of the way, but fell short by about 15 feet and had to ask some guy to PUSH ME!  It was mortifying.  And of course I kept babbling like a fool, saying this has never happened to me blah blah blah.

About the only other thing new with me is that I started working at Costco for the holiday season.  I repeat it will only be for the HOLIDAY SEASON!  I will have a 'real' job after that if it kills me...wait, don't they cancel your student loans if you are no longer among the living?  Where is vampire Eric - whoops there I go again fantasizing that I am Sookie.

Also, my grace period is officially up and I have to start paying off my student loans at the end of the month. Ug

Random: did you know that the new standard in typing is to only put one space in between sentences...this could take some getting used to.

Also random:  I NEED to start working out again!  I have put it off because I haven't been able to find the pair of shoes - I am very particular about my running shoes and I haven't found a replacement for my beautiful New Balances yet.  I have bought and returned two pairs already.

Music:  Has everyone heard the new song by Pete Yorn and Scarlett Johansson?  It is great, although I don't like the begining much.  Stream The Current more if you haven't...

Ike's visit

Here are some things we did while Ike was here for his r&r:

Kayaking; Peck family bon fire; Rollings family bbq; Twins Game; Boat Ride; Twin Cities Marathon; The Importance of Being Ernest; Lots of CSI.

And here are some pics:
hmmmm, on second thought the pictures won't seem to load from the cd.....

The post of all posts

(so I haven't updated my blog in a while so this one is going to cover a lot of events)

First of all I am in the process of coming up with a new idea for my blog. I hate the layout and the header (which is why it is gone) and I feel like it lacks direction - even if the direction is my random thoughts I think it has to specify that. I know no one reads this except my mom, Kier, and Nic, but I would still like to pretend people care about what I am writing. I want it to be about what I do everyday obviously bc that is what I do everyday, but I also want to talk about books I am reading, how much life sucks right out of college, how lazy I am at looking for a job which makes life suck right out of college, how confused I am about life, how I overthink every single decision ever (like blog design), how I am training for a marathon, all the things I want to do, and of course about how awesome I am. SO anyways, that is a work in progress and my blog page may change 300 times in the near future, so stay tuned...

So let's see...since my last blog post I made this cake (Root Beer Float Cake, from previous post):

It was delicious. So Kier doesn't kill me I will give her credit for mixing flour, salt, and baking powder together....go you!

I had an exciting weekend that started on Friday with a Date. Christian drove up to Blaine and 1) brought me flowers, 2)brought me out to dinner to Punch Pizza - it was soooo good, I am trying to think of the next reason I can come up with to go there again! and 3)went for a walk with me around Minneapolis (from Punch over the Stone Arch Bridge, to the new Guthrie Park and back). It was freezing out, in the 40's, but I had a sweatshirt and warmed up quickly while walking and thinking about how much I love Minneap. We were going to watch a 'movie on the lawn' (i.e. get a projector, laptop, and blankets to watch a movie on the side of the house) but it was just too cold!

We 'ended' our date early because we had to get up early Saturday morning to head to the first ever Minneapolis Duathlon! Christian had a 5k run, 18 mile bike, and another 5k run ahead of him.

We got up at 6am and CKE raced at 8:05. I saw him and caught a pick at the end of the first 5k and then went to find a spot to see him in the bike portion. Well I brought my book with me and got a little too involved and suddenly heard a 'MADDIE' and turned just in time to see the back of CKE zoom away from me....uggg I couldn't believe it.

Sunday night I went to the State Fair with Heidi and her friends, Mike, Lindsey, and Amanda. We went to go see the Kelly Clarkson/Eric Hutchinson concert. Well, an hour before the show Kelly C canceled due to illness and we were told we could get our money back!! This was the best possible thing to happen - I didn't even want to see her, I was just paying $40 to see the opener Eric Hutchinson. So I got my money back and also got to see my future husband perform and he was great! Best part about it was that although our seats were in the nosebleeds and behind a pole about 2 songs in E Hutch said, much to the security gaurds dismay, "I think this is a free for all tonight so why doesn't everyone just move up here to the front." There was a mad dash to get good seats and we got on the floor, it was AWESOME. After the concert I wanted to wait in line to get a picture, but no one I was with is all that into him so we had to drive home...sad! I went to the state fair and only saw one thing I wanted to (I missed out on my photo opp and seeing The Current booth)

(hmmmmm, I love him - I am certain had I waited in line to take a picture with him he would have immediately fallen in love with me and taken me on tour with him..)

Anyways, to complete my stalker status I left work on Monday afternoon determined to see E Hutch at the Best Buy in Roseville where he was doing a free performance. Only problem was that he performed at 12 and I didn't get off work until 1. By the time I got there he was gone. My future hunsband evaded me yet again...

Back to reality (oh there goes rabbit), I pretty much am on my last few days at work. I am working today and then don't know when I will be working again, definetly not in the next few weeks if ever. I am, however, working on updating my resume and portfolio in hope of getting them finished before the long weekend starts.

Finished reading Julie and Julia. It was good....I thought the way it was written was a little confusing at times, but overall worth reading. I am super excited to see the movie this weekend in Washington!!!







Running.....well I skipped my 18 mile run last weekend. That was the first long run I have skipped - it seemed just a little too long. But I am back on track this week with a 5 mile run out of the way yesterday and a 9 mile run coming up after work tonight. Only worry is that about every 10th step I take it feels like my achilles is going to snap (maybe I should call that thing they call stretching).....so we will see how that goes when I am 5 miles from home....

That is all for now I suppose. I have a smoothie waiting to be drank and omg I almost forgot my delicious Golden Delicious Apple and Cheddar Turnovers with Dried Cranberries. The recipe is out of this months Bon Appetit magazine. They were good and look something like this:

(Now I am going to write good things and bad thing I have done during this post period because I think it would be fun to do)

Negative Nancy's:

• I skipped my 18 mile run and feel guilty
• I still haven't finished my portfolio and Seattle is coming up in 2 weeks
• I am soon to be out of a job

Positive Pedro's:

• I have finished a first draft of my final resume, which is a step in the right find a job direction
• I am going to Washington this weekend!
• I got to see E Hutch perform and am now more in love with him than ever (could this be a negative since now I just want to have his babies even more and am no closer to it being a reality...?)
  

Well Obviously No One Reads This Blog

So apparently 3 people look at my blog....2 of them live together and one of them lives with me and I talk to these people on a daily basis. Hey guys! WE ROCK. I do know that even though my blog has the name of a particular person in it, that person fails to read my blog as well....hmmmm, interesant.

Well I just got done running 5 miles! I about quit 10 times and am wondering how I am going to make it through 8 miles on Saturday and how in the world kier has made it through 10 and 12 miles - you are an inspiration to us all. :-)

I get to re-celebrate my b-day tonight! My good friend, Heidi (who also apparently doesn't read this) is taking me to Salut and then to The Shout House for 80's night. Fun stuff!

That'll do pig, that'll do.

Med City Half Marathon + Memorial Day Festivities

This past Sunday, Kier and I completed the Med City Half Marathon in 2 hours 6 minutes and 20-some seconds.  It was a lot of fun and we kept to our 9-minute-mile pace for the first 8 miles and then slowed a bit after that.  There were not a lot of fans, but I made a Cyclone friend on the way and Nic and Christian were waiting at the finish.

...Let me tell you, I am writing this 3 days later and my legs are still sore

After the race we went back to Becky and Kurt's place to shower up and get on the road for our memorial day bbq at Emily and Sam's in Wisconsin.  While there we ate wild rice brats (mmmmm), and salsa, and had a plethora of drinks.  We played bocce, jumped on the trampoline and had a bon fire....where we almost killed a family of bunnies!  We lit the fire and then the screaming began and we saw 5 baby baby bunnies run out of the flames - they were alive, we caught them all, but who knows where mamma was.  Besides the bunnies it was a good day.

(I am fully aware my memorial day had nothing to do with training for a marathon, but it was fun and I wanted to test out this whole blogging thing with more than a single paragraph.)