Oh, Land Line

So, I got a home phone. You may have received an email from me with the phone number. In that email, I said that you could call me and be a heavy breather and I'd never know who it was because I don't have caller ID and that I'd be excited every time the phone rang.

Well, the phone rang for the first time last night. I don't think I could have been more excited. I actually jumped up and pretty much screamed "HELLO!?!?!?!" into the phone, but it was a telemarketer. And worse yet, it was a wrong number telemarketer. I talked to them anyways though. And then I kindly informed them that my number is on the do not call list and if they call again, I will report them to the FCC.

So then it rang again. I was a little suspicious since I had just gotten a telemarketer. But it was someone heavy breathing! I have no idea who it was, but suffice it to say, I spent most of the night accusing people of calling me and breathing heavily. So far, you have not stepped forward. I respect that, but I will eventually figure out who you are.

And then the phone rang AGAIN. I was so excited that time that I dropped the phone onto my plant and then it hit my computer...and then I was able to pick it up and say hello and control myself a bit more.

New things are fun!

Suit Up!

So, when I'm saying that law school is keeping me busy, I don't mean that in a casual "I'm re-arranging the order of my Entertainment Weeklys" kind of way. I mean that in a "I GUESS I can make time to eat dinner tonight." (Note - I'm having donut holes for dinner tonight. Someone please adopt me.)

But, there is something to be excited about - I get to suit up tomorrow! We're expected to dress professionally for our mock client interviews tomorrow evening. So, I went to JCPenney's bright and early yesterday and bought my first suit. Yes, my first suit is from Penney's. And yes, I did save $120, so stop judging me, Ann Taylor.

My wonderful sister leaves for Mozambique early on Sunday morning, so the whole fam (including the dog, Kirby) is coming up to Minneapolis for her departure. They're staying at a hotel, with the exception of Kirby, who is staying with me. I feel like I should go buy him some dog snacks or something for his stay here. But I'm sure my mom will pack those in his overnight bag.

Anyways, back to Erin leaving for Mozambique - I know that she has put a lot of work into this and she's super excited about it. And we're all super excited about it! It's such a great opportunity to go out there and do some real good - so, needless to say, I'm incredibly proud of her. And I know my parents are proud of her (because they told me - but my mom did follow it up with the compliment-fishing comment of "I wonder what we did so right...." and then looked to me for an answer, which I did.)

i long for the days of boredom

I am in dire need of time to update this blog. In fact, this post isn't even an update. It's more of a placeholder to get my sister off my back for not posting.

Suffice it to say - law school is keeping me out of trouble (and in the library.)

I'm Not One For Nature

This weekend, Rachel and I participated in the abbreviated version of the Mississippi River Challenge. It was 22 miles of canoeing on the Mississippi River for a good cause.

And poor Rachel had to listen to me ALL weekend.

First of all, it turns out that I hate camping. By the end of our last foray into camping, I had a sneaking suspicion that I hated camping, but I wasn't sure. But yep, I think I hate camping. No electricity, no music, no computers, no ANYTHING. But, we did get awesome cookies from Whole Foods and we got to speculate about our fellow canoers. My favorite people were: The Potheads, Tent Twinsie, Fake Tent Twinsie, Food Boyfriend, and Fun Guy. We later learned that Fun Guy's real name is Brian, but only because we heard him yell it at someone else while we were canoeing. Rachel and I were total canoe loners. Everyone else knew people! We knew no one!

Anyways, after a completely miserable night, during which my borrowed mummy sleeping bag tried to mummify me, we woke up and had a little breakfast. Time to canoe!

And canoe we did. My main motivators are food and anger. And I got both! There were three rest stops on the trip and I eagerly looked forward to each one. Yay - food! It was even organic, so I was forced against my will to be healthy. No pita pizzas though.

But between the second and third legs of the trip, we began to encounter more boats going very very fast on the Mississippi. They're entitled to go fast, but unfortunately, this creates a large wake. And large wakes make small canoes seem very tippy. I have bruises on the sides of my knees from bracing myself very tightly against the sides of the canoe. Rachel enjoyed the wakes - I say she's crazy.

So, as more boats went by at these high speeds, I grew angrier and angrier. At about mile 17, Angry Canoeing kicked in. Angry Canoeing consists of me canoeing very quickly, swearing at people in the motorized boats and wishing that I was not in such a small, capsizable boat. Rachel said she should have gotten me angry at the beginning and we would have cruised through the entire challenge.

We finished and it was a great event. I'm not sure if I'll do it again next year, but overall, I did have a good time. Friends of the Mississippi River does critical work to conserve and protect the Mississippi River and I'm so glad that they run such an excellent event.

Oh, and my arms after the event? I could barely hold a pen.

UFO Days

First post on my Macbook! Yay!

So, this post is being posted much later than I had expected.

Andy, Casey, Erin, Rachel and I went to UFO Days in Elmwood, Wisconsin for my birthday a few weeks ago. I'd put a link to it, but UFO Days is no friend to technology. Anyways, I love Wisconsin, particularly western Wisconsin, so I was glad to be back in my home state for my special day.

We arrived at UFO Days and it was....a bit lackluster. I think the best way to describe it at first is....non-fun. But no worries, I got myself an alien-themed bobble-head headband almost immediately and the fun began. Well, actually, the garden tractor pull began. And yes, it's a tractor pull with garden tractors. It went on for so long that we went and got dinner at The Shack (excellent curds! but a bit weird to put chicken fingers on pizza....but kudos to your inventive usage of the beloved chicken finger) and the tractor pull was still going on.

There are three bars in Elmwood - the Long Branch, Big Dick's and Sandbar Too (no word on where Sandbar One is). I know that we went to two of these locations. And I know I bought a drink at Big Dick's after I dropped mine all over a woman in front of Big Dick's.

It was my birthday, so I celebrated appropriately. But UFO Days, I have a bit of advice for you - MORE UFOS! There was a definite lack of UFO-ness going on. There was barely any UFO spirit! I was in the minority with my light-up alien headband! WTF? So, UFO Days, I have some suggestions:

- Have someone walk around dressed in a UFO costume. Instant fun!
- Stage a fake UFO landing. Or at least have tours of the UFO sighting sights.
- Mandate the light-up alien headbands.
- Have a song contest, American Idol-style, of songs involving aliens or outer space.
- Don't let me drink so much.
- Have the parade on Saturday. That would just be more convenient for us.

I'd recommend UFO Days, but be prepared to be the most UFO-spirited person there. I'm highly suspicious that this was actually just an excuse for people to drink.

A Bit Sensitive

Okay, well, I had planned to write a huge thank you to all of my friends and family for the wonderful birthday greetings over the weekend. And now I want to say thank you to everyone who checked in with me or our other friends last night to make sure that everyone was okay. We're an efficient bunch.

Back to my Adventures in Consumerism

Wow, 3 blog entries in one night. And I'm not even procrastinating cleaning the bathroom! Anyways, this entry will be about a topic near and dear to my heart: my Adventures in Consumerism.

So, I had pre-ordered a copy of the latest Harry Potter book at the Borders in Eau Claire. In fact, I distinctly remember pre-ordering it on June 23rd - it was supposed to be added to my sister's pre-order. The seemingly-capable employee at Borders told us that we were fine and we merrily left the store that day.

Now, my sister used to work at this Borders. She even knew the guy that took my pre-order. I was told that everything was fine.

So, we get to Borders at 11:30 on Friday night. After waiting in line for 15-20 minutes to get to the wristband table, we are told (by a manager!) that there was only one pre-order for Erin. NOT TWO. THE GUY HAD MESSED UP MY PRE-ORDER. So, the manager is nice enough to be all "I know Erin, I'll just mark her down for two." However, there was no apology - she didn't even acknowledge that my pre-order wasn't there. This turned into a problem later when Erin had the wristband on and had to get out of line to use the restroom. I just about had a heart attack because I had to hold the place in line - with no wristband of my own! Because I had no pre-order! I thought I'd be outed as a phony.

Unfortunately, that's not the end of the story. After waiting in line for 40 minutes and not moving, I have something akin to a consumer-mental-breakdown. I decide I've had enough of that crap and I drove us over to the Waldenbooks in Oakwood Mall. Borders employees, you could learn a lot from those folks. Not only was their line moving, but the employees actually seemed happy to be there! We waited in line 45 minutes there, but at least I got my book.

And no, after all of that stupidity, I still haven't started it. NO SPOILERS!

So, I will be refusing to buy any books at Borders from now on. I did not like how the Harry Potter situation was handled on any level. I now consider Borders to be the Best Buy of books. That's an insult. (However, snaps to WaldenBooks - I was impressed.)