The semester is over! Now I am busy working full time at the office and pummeling through the snow with the dogs.
Here’s an outline of what happened these past few months:
The tree leaves colored, launched themselves from their branches, and blanketed every corner of Minneapolis. The leaves are crunchy too! Walking around feels like smashing Sun Chips, minus the faux-healthy chip grease and glaring janitor.
Alesus and I are outside of the Uptown Suburban World Theater, having beverages and people watching.
The manger comes out and moves a sandwich board into a metered parking spot. This placement looks awkward, so a waitress suggests that he put the sign on the trash can in front of the restaurant.
Manager: “Hm, sure that looks real appetizing. They’ll come right on it!”
And then he puts the sign up:
What a week. Long days at school, a weekend at work, and the first signs of frost and fall. Despite my packed schedule, I still made it to the lakes this week to enjoy the last of the green:
Alesus told me that he had never been to a Denny’s. I was scandalized and informed him that we were going to a Denny’s that very moment. It is now one of our favorite restaurant chains.
Why do I have a passion for this restaurant chain? Well! First off, Denny’s does its part to help promote awareness of county ordinances by posting them at the cash register:
You won’t see this kind of civic involvement at Chino Latinos!
The lady working at the Brooklyn Park Denny’s cash register is also hilarious. One week she saw us and said, “Y’all back?! Our food good ain’t it?”
Yes it is, Keke. Yes, it, is.
Keke only refers to Alesus as “beautiful.” This creates a considerable amount of confusion in the lobby.
Also, when waiting for seating, there’s often a religious coloring book for your Tiny Tots for Christ:
The politeness of Denny’s managers isn’t constraint by spelling conventions:
And, possibly the best thing ever (people watching aside) is the toy-grab machine:
Alesus and I ended the week eating oysters on the rooftop patio of Stella’s Fish Café in Uptown Minneapolis.
Alesus and I went to Pagoda, which is one of the first restaurants I visited in Minneapolis. We had a Jellyfish appetizer.
My schedule is a disaster.
I scheduled afternoon classes so I could exercise and work in the mornings. That plan feels ridiculous now.
The problem is that my professors love scheduling and re-scheduling things for the 12:15-1pm time slot, which makes the 30 minute drive to the office not worth it if I wake up after 7am. (Which happens a lot.)
I also underestimated the amount and type of work I signed up for. Sure, I only have 12 credits, but my schedule is beholden to weekly assignments and “special projects.” I am constantly in the library cursing the decrepit computers and lack of staples.
The odd weekday schedule meant that my weekend consisted of marathon days at work. I’d walk the dogs, spend 8-10 hours at work, come back, walk the dogs, and veg out on trashy reality TV. Hardly the relaxed 3L schedule I imagined.
Despite the odd schedule, I still made time to make an appearance at Lush bar with a gaggle of law students, and I also attended Classafrass, the drag show at the Townhouse bar:
Some weirdness went down at that show – one of the drag queens who looks like Tila Tequila decided to perform Madonna’s “Erotic.” Tila’s performance was… well, true to the song.
And then comes a barefoot old man with the old-man shakes. Tila makes him part of the show. It’s unspeakably awkward. Pictures after the jump.
The Minnesota Veterans’ Home has been on my “to see” list for a while now. I’m a sucker for historic buildings.
The buildings were nice, but more impressive from a distance.
Things got real bad on Friday night.
I come back from work around 10pm and find Mark, who lives on the second floor, waiting by the building door. Mark tells me that his sink kitchen clogged, so I call the emergency plumber.
The plumber dredges Mark’s sink while Alesus and I skip over to the Showplace ICON theater and watch the new Resident Evil1 movie.
We come back to my apartment, watch Jersey Shore, and go to bed around 2am.
I hear a knock on my at 4am. It’s Heidi, the tenant who lives under Mark. Her kitchen is completely flooded with stinky black water that is shooting from her kitchen sink. Heidi’s bathroom ceiling is also leaking.
Law school orientation dominated the past week.
I was an orientation leader and spent the majority of my week convincing 1Ls that they can survive their first year of law school without being crazy. I also squeezed in some hours at the office, a movie, and even went to the Minnesota State Fair with Alesus.
It was my first time at the fair. I went primarily because the state fair is the only place I can buy Shoe MGK cleaner for my tacky white Aldo shoes. I also wanted to try camel on a stick.
Apparently the camel-sellers left the fair early, but I managed to buy the shoe cleaner, which was a life changing experience.
The Minnesota State Fair was surprisingly fun and great people watching.
There were cows:
Crowds:
Fancy kiosks with enormous light bills:
“You got served” style dance-offs:
Alesus and I decided to take a nature-tour with the krakens. Of course the path near the river was flooded and the dogs had to charge right through the middle of the muck:
Every…freaking…time…
And I, being ever so prepared, decided to wear flipflops.
Good thing the dog harnesses made it super easy to throw the dogs in the river to torture clean them off.
And yes, the back seat of my car is a hot mess.
People think I clean my apartment too often, but this drool train explains why:
Note how majestically it flaps in the wind.
Alesus and I went to the H&M in Edina’s Southdale Mall. It was a hot mess. We spent about 15 minutes skipping around and gasping.
First up, Goodwill-style mom jeans with matching top ala Home Improvement:
Poor mannequin. She’s trying to work it, but alas, fail.
Orientation training started today, so summer is officially over. Here’s what happened this summer:
May
Last night Naomi (who I only knew from twitter) told me that she planned to take a group of her friends to the Townhouse for Welfare night.
Naomi saw me tweet and blog about Welfare/$1 Beverage night before, and she decided to see the carnival for herself.
I already agreed to meet Katie (another twitter friend) at the Thursday night drag show, so I wasn’t going to join Naomi for Welfare night. Well, that was until I got into my car and my Beyonce playlist came on.
By the time I got near the Mall of America, I decided that it was time to update my shoe game and get my boomkats on.
So I found myself at Aldo at the Mall of America. I updated my foursquare status and received a tweet from Kristin, who is also a twitter-friend that happens to live in my neighborhood. Kristin said she works at Macy’s and that I should drop by, so I did.
