I really need to take more pictures to post on here. hmm.

There is a storm moving through the south metro area. As a result, there is nothing on TV other than radar maps and weathermen spouting off tips for stayin safe during storms. blah. Stupid weather people, just like hearing themselves talk. Surely a small warning on the bottom of the screen would be enough, do they need to interrupt a full 40 min of my regularily scheduled program?? Oh well, it's to be expected. Minnesotans are obsessed with the weather. My dad is sitting in front of the TV with he laptop so he can also see the weather online. Crazy.

Chelsea and I went up to the lake house Sunday and stayed through Monday. It was lovely! We went out on the pontoon with my parents and swam at "the point" which is a sand bar kind of and a popular spot for boats to park on weekends. The lake pretty much clears out by sunday night and is empty on week days. Silly people having real jobs. psch. sitting around at the lake during the week is waaaay better than working. Monday Chelsea and I got up and took out the paddle boat that the previous house owner sold to us. It is great. And there is a perfect path for it, there's a channel that goes from Clearwater lake to Otter lake and it is just the right size for a paddle boat, and makes a nice little outing. Lovely! We did some reading and after lunch went swimming in the "Black Pool" which is the best swimmin' hole I ever did see. It's just off the the side of our property, but the nieghbors have a nice beachy area on it that they let us use. The pool is 50 feet deep and spring fed. It's really truly a swimmin' hole! Chelsea and I busted out the floaters and did some serious lounging and chatting in the pool.

I also went through some of the papers that the previous owner left. There is a newspaper article about the island on the lake, called Bungalow Island. There was a hotel on the island back in the 1920's that was popular amoung the very wealthy at the time. Rumor has it that gangsters stayed there and no one is sure why the owner decided to close the place down and burn it to the ground in the early 1930's. Shady buisness if you ask me. It's pretty cool though. I want to go walk around the island, I guess you can still see the foundations and sidewalks.

So today I've been kind of trying to clean my room. Slowly. I didn't get particularily far, but I am doing laundry, so that's something. I got distracted when I started trying to organize and put away all my books. but I've gotta get it done before Shannon comes Saturday so I can set up a futon. Shannon is coming! hoorah! The plan is to pick her up and wisk her off the the MOA (Mall of America) on Saturday, because of course she must see it. And it's just about the only real tourist attraction around here. That and the lakes. And tornados.

We're having a party on the fourth at the lake house! I'm so excited! yay summer time! yay people visiting me! yay fireworks!

What Philosophy do you follow?

You scored as Existentialism. Your life is guided by the concept of Existentialism: You choose the meaning and purpose of your life. "Man is condemned to be free; because once thrown into the world, he is responsible for everything he does. It is up to you to give [life] a meaning." --Jean-Paul Sartre "It is man's natural sickness to believe that he possesses the Truth." --Blaise Pascal More info at Arocoun's" Wikipedia User Page... Existentialism 95% Hedonism 65% Utilitarianism 40% Nihilism 35% Strong Egoism 25% Justice (Fairness) 25% Kantianism 20% Apathy 5% Divine Command 0% What philosophy do you follow? (v1.03) created with QuizFarm.com

Wedding Bells

Hello. I just got home from Melissa's wedding. Whew. My feet hurt. We did so much crazy dancing... it was a blast! The last wedding I went to was Jessica's, which was nice and I love her dearly, but she's Baptist, and they can't have dancing at their wedding. Needless to say, the reception was pretty short. So, it was nice to have a good Catholic wedding with plenty of alcohol and dancing! We Catholics sure can party, that's for sure. The service may be a little longer, but at least there's something to look forward to afterwords.
Chelsea, Alexis and Katy were all bridesmaids. It was a little surreal. Missy is married! yikes. I guess I should feel old or something, but I don't at all.

Tomorrow I'm heading up to the lake house with Chelsea and Alexis! :) We moved in last weekend and it is GREAT. I love it. The house is really nice and we've got a pontoon, and there's a great swimming hole right there. It's fabulous. And I have absolutely nothing to do this week so I might be up there a lot. I finished the synchro coaching, the team is off at nationals in Buffalo this weekend.

Shannon is comming next weekend!!! I'm so excited! people are visiting me! And I get to introduce her to the wonders of the Midwest :)

view from the porch of our lake house 

Salsa!

Not the condiment, the dance. Silly. I just got back from salsa night at the Quest club in Minneapolis, and I LOVE salsa dancing. I'm not really particularily good at it. I mean, I can do the basic steps, but then I start dancing with a guy and he's turning and flipping and stepping and twisting all over and I mostly just try to hang on and go where he pushes me. When the guy is good at it, and nice enough to give you some pointers it can be really thrilling.
It was so fun just to go out and do something different. I've been getting a bit bored at home. Don't get me wrong, I like being home and I like not having lots of stuff to do. It's nice to wake up in the morning and not have to do anything in particular. But after a few weeks of interacting only with my family I get a little stir crazy. I didn't even really go out all that much while I was at school, but I was at least always interacting with people, meeting people, and doing and learning new things. Just walking around to classes and going to the library was a social event.
I miss meeting people. I like that there are often a lot of people from all over the world at salsa clubs. Usually a lot of Latin Americans. Tonight I met a really nice Russian guy who lives in Toronto and was here on buisness for the week. We talked for a bit and he showed me some dance steps. He was such a sweet interesting person. Oddly it seems like it's harder to meet people where you live than it is when you're traveling. Traveling around Europe it's so easy to meet people, in trians and at hostels and in school, especially other international people. And you all have something in common already. But here there's not really any reason to just introduce yourself to people. I don't know. It's just different. I'm excited to go live in Munich next year and meet lots of new people, and see some people I met last time I was there!
Oh! I found a synchro team in Munich! A masters team, so I could swim with them. Wouldn't that be a great way to meet people? I think I'll e-mail them, I just have to do it in German so I might take a bit. I'm still nervous about e-mailing in German. If you mess up while speaking you just keep going, but when it's all typed out I feel like it should be perfect. Anyway, I'll do that.

Synchro! it's everywhere, I don't think I'll ever be able to stop. I'm helping coach a club team nearby this week and next before they head to national. Oiy, it's a lot of work, coaching is. It's kinda hard to come in at the end of the season and try to help when you don't know the rutines or anything. It's especially difficult when you're working with 6-8th graders who just got out of school a week ago and definitely don't want to be cooped up in an indoor pool all afternoon. Plus they've been doing this rutine since October... I'd be restless and obnoxious too. So they were a little diffcult to work with, to say the least. I was horse by the end of practice from trying to yell over them. But it's still fun, now there are synchro moves going through my head and I'm sure I'll fall asleep trying to figure out how I can get that line formation they do in the second lap to work better...

This is our pet painted turtle. He is living in a big platic horse trough outside right now. My dad caught him in a lake up at the farm because Scott wanted a pet turtle. Guess how many times Scott has even gone out to look at his turtle? That's right, never. So I've been feeding him pieces of chicken and lettuce. He seems to be doing allright. He doesn't have a name yet, I just call him Turtle turtle. Any turtle name ideas? 

This is the quilt I'm making for Missy's wedding present, isn't it pretty?

Welcome Back

Hello out there in Blogland. I know I know, it's been a while. What can I say? Life as an American college student just isn't all that thrilling, I ran out of material. Ok, that's not entirely true, I did have lots of new experiences this year. I lived in two different of apartments with two very differnt sets of apartmentmates. I made new friends. I took all kinds of stimilating classes. I did a lot of reading, wrote a lot of papers. I even made the deans list finally. I wrote a thesis! woo hoo! I had my wisdome teeth taken out. I went to collegiate synchro nationals once again, go Spiders! :) I went to California for Thankgiving, Myrtle Beach for spring break, San Antonio and Gainsville FL for synchro, Wachington DC for an interview, Virginia Beach just for fun, and Nags Head NC for beach week. Overall I very much enjoyed being a college senior.

Oh yeah, and I graduated :-D

I gotta say, it's been a few weeks now, and I'm really not missing college. I'm so glad to not have homework to do or meetings to go to. I would like to never ever see the inside of the UR library ever again. And I'm glad I dont' have to listen to anymore graduation related speaches or say good-bye to any more people for a while. And I'm glad I'm not living in an isolated little bubble of a campus in a cramped apartment with a twin size bed. I loved my apartmentmates, and my roomie, and I'm so glad I got to live with them last semester... but I really really like my house and my nice big pink room with a nice big bed. And maybe I'm the only one, but I like living with my family. I guess it helps that i know it's only for the summer, and I'm definitely leaving after that.

It's just so nice to be home for the summer like I always have been. It was such a crazy busy emotional year, and I'm glad to have this down time before I have to really start anything big. I really missed it last summer. I've been reading, I'm making a quilt, I'm taking yoga classes. I'm nannying part time. I'm going to do a little synchro coaching. I do the grocery shopping and occasionally some cooking. In a couple weeks my family is going to be getting a second house on Clearwater lake, about fourty miles northwest of here. And then I'll be helping to move in and paint and decorate and stuff.

mmmmmmmmm. Summer time :)

And what comes next? Germany! A year in Munich teaching high school english. I'm really looking forward to it, it's going to be quite an adventure! I promise to write about all of it. Sorry this post is kind of dull... I just felt the need to sumarize for anyone who may not talk to me on a regular basis. So here it is. My lovely and thrilling life to date :)

Hopefully future blogging will be more to the point... or at least have a point.

until then,

Don't worry, be happy :)