pagoda Archives - Memos and Mirth

Best Summer Ever Week 1: The Real World

May 23, 2011

I had the post written, and then wordpress logged me out. So pictures will have to do.

blackberry pictures / Life / Minneapolis-St. Paul

Minneapolis ice storm

November 21, 2010

Nathan and I leave Pagoda and get on the highway to the movie theater. There is a light rain. Traffic is horrible.

We sit in traffic for a while before we see the accident: one car smashed into a metal barrier, front crumbled, airbags deployed. Two goofy-looking teens stand next to the car in the rain.

Ahead is a SUV facing the wrong direction in the middle of the road. The driver is a frantic-looking blond girl. Traffic moves around her car on the shoulder.

Alesus / blackberry pictures / Minneapolis-St. Paul / picture of the day

Jellyfish at Pagoda

September 24, 2010

Alesus and I went to Pagoda, which is one of the first restaurants I visited in Minneapolis. We had a Jellyfish appetizer.

Judd

Zombies, a lost blackberry, and the gushy stuff.

February 27, 2010

Last night I went on my third date with Judd.

We went to see “The Crazies” in Roseville because gory, apocalyptic zombies movies are totally appropriate for dates.

It’s like a gay club, minus the Abercrombie cologne.

There was a pack of girls behind us in the theater, so we got the stereotypical commentary – “OH GIRL! HE CRAZY!”

Word.

After the sheer terror movie, we went to Dinkytown to Pagoda. Pagoda is a pan-Asian restaurant and an old haunt from 1L year.

I usually loathe dinner dates. I fear being stuck at a table with awkward silence or even more awkward conversation. There is also the possibility that the guy will drop a deal breaker early on and make the rest of the dinner uncomfortable.
On our first date, we ate at the bar area of a Granite City, and the only awkward part was that one of my friends¹ just so happened to be at that very restaurant, at the bar, snickering.
There were no cameos last night and the conversation wasn’t forced or awkward. We lingered. At one point, I wanted to look someone up on google images and noticed that I didn’t have my blackberry. It was probably in my car…

There was also a wild bachelorette party going on in the back room of the restaurant, so our conversation had brief pauses for the random cheering, laughing, and singing coming from the walls.

We eventually left Pagoda and I noticed that my blackberry wasn’t in my car.

I left Judd in the car and went back to the restaurant. The blackberry wasn’t there. It wasn’t on the sidewalk…or in the car… this was strange, and a giant date-swagger fail.

After another fruitless search of the car, I went into the Jimmy John’s near the car:

Me: “Hi, I lost my blackberry outside. Did someone happen to turn it in?”
JJ Deliveryman: “Pfft. A blackberry? I would have pawned that shit already.”
Me: “Heh. Lovely. Have a good night.”

I drove Judd to his house, and he helped me to search the car one last time.

So of course the phone had fallen in between the seat and the center console, and it was still plugged into the charger. Epic fail. Judd is dating a bald blonde. You can call me Amber Rose.

¹Aka, the only law student with whom I discussed my upcoming date. He swears this was a coincidence. Right. And Alesha Dixon coincidentally looks like Beyonce.

0L / Life / memories / Minneapolis-St. Paul / pictures

Notes from Minnesota

August 7, 2008

I knew Minnesota was cheaper than Miami but dang – the portions are ridiculous here. I went to the Pagoda pan-Asian restaurant and ordered this $8.99 dish. And erm…. Yeah. That’s too much food. It doesn’t look like a lot but that plate is like 10×10 inches of nothing but meat. PETA would flip.

Another thing that’s killing me is the drink specials. The drinks are about $2 cheaper than in Miami and there always seems to be a 2-4-1 or 3-4-1 special going on. My problem is that I’m not a huge drinker, and at some clubs they don’t give you a ticket… they just hand you two beers.

There’s no graceful way to doublefist beer at the clubhouse. You’ll look like you have issues every time.

So the result of the Minnesota portion problem is that I’m always lugging around a to-go box.

And yes, there’s one sitting on my coffee table as I’m typing this.

The University is only about two miles from downtown so I’ve spent a lot of time roaming and playing tourist. I love the sculptures that are all over downtown.

These guys are my favorite. It’s like the bird turds have come to life and decided to garden!

So apparently the Mary Tyler Moore Show was based here… as a kid I assumed all city shows took place in NYC. Oops!

Moving to Minneapolis a month early was a good idea. I’m meeting my housemates sort of one-by-one as they move in instead of in a huge group a few days before school starts. I also get to explore at a relaxed (and random) pace –“Oh let’s see where this bus goes to!”

One thing that has been on the to-do list is City Hall.

City Hall!

Stained glass windows in City Hall

I was a history major as an undergrad and I’m a huge sucker for historic buildings. City hall didn’t disappoint – a highlight was the heroic statue in the middle of the lobby.

“Father of Waters” by Larkin Goldsmith Mead

The downtown Barnes & Noble has become my downtown hangout spot. It has window seats facing Nicollet Avenue – the people watching is amazing. Today however, the entertainment was inside,
Lady sitting behind me (to her friend): Our new couch is AMAZING. This must be the best time in our marriage because we must have tried seven different positions last night – the sex has never been better!
Umm… maybe they’ll name the baby Ikea?

Other snippets:

I’ve now competent with the public transit system. Well, uh, less awkward at least.
Package scare. Madre Jansen calls me and says, “Uh, the package I sent was delivered yesterday. They left it outside of the house on the side door. FIND IT!” Turns out that they left it on the side door of the house. Why? No clue. I think it was out there all night but someone brought it in eventually. Whew. This is after yesterday’s package mishap where mom accidentally sent my stuff to my next door neighbor, Campus Crusade for Christ.
Latin Night at Saloon was a hot mess. I had my “Oh my god where the heck did I move to?!” moment somewhere between the Latin room (where no one knew how to whine) and the karaoke room where the male cast of Friends was belching out golden oldies.
There are so many bikers (bicyclists) here. A lot of them wear helmets too, which I find unusual as well. They tear down some of the streets like the apocalypse is nigh – I’m scared that I’m going to get hit one of these days.
What really perturbs me is that the clubs here serve food. A girl was eating fries at the bar. Ew. “Girl you know your breath is hot.” One club even has computers. That’s right. Computers. People check their email up in the clubhouse – that’s just seven different forms of unacceptable.
And finally, NASCAR came to downtown Minneapolis today. Why? I don’t know. I don’t question racecars in the middle of the city.

And I realize my posts are incoherent/in snippet format. Things will shape up once I get out of my wide-eyed tourist mode.