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:
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:
I’m walking across campus. People glance at me, smirk, and avert their eyes. Some people laugh openly.
I finally figure out why:
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.
I didn’t want to take the hike to Cub, the local cheap grocery chain, so I went to the nearby chichi grocery store named Kowalski’s. You know a place is fancy when you’re shopping on carpet.
I was tempted at the check-out lane, but not by the trashy magazines:
I resisted. Trying to be more Knowles than Hudson.
We actually have several chichi grocery stores in the city – Lunds, Byerly’s, Trader Joe’s – and several farmer’s markets. Kowalski’s is pricey, but Lunds is the only place where I have ever paid $15 for grapes.
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.
It’s noticeably cooler now. The days are shorter, but I still make time to take the dogs to the lakes.
My blackberry keeps seizing and restarting so I decide to take it to the Sprint store near work. The Sprint store is busy and understaffed. The Sprint tech tells me to leave my phone and come back, so I decide to walk my dogs at a park near my office building.
I arrive at the park and get 10 steps from my car when a security SUV swoops down from a hill and informs me that no dogs are allowed on campus.
So I throw the dogs back in the car and unsuccessfully try to find parking near the Mississippi trail. I try Minnehaha park next, realize that I forgot quarters for the meters, and then end up back in Minneapolis.
The dogs and I eventually tumble into Loring Park.
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.
Tonight we moseyed down to Classafrass, which is what I call the Pumps and Pearls Revue at the Townhouse Bar. We even got some No Doubt realness:
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:
