March 8th, 2009
Fun Weekend
I had a very nice weekend and in the interest of memory and just writing in general, I feel I must record it.
Friday after a quick, TV-watching workout at the downtown Anytime, I gathered up some candy, went home, showered, and watched Forgetting Sarah Marshall, which Jeff had gotten free from work, while finishing up my leftover Indian food from Wednesday, enjoying a beer, and then eating a ridiculous amount of jellybeans. Jeff came home from his night out with Dave around 11 and watched the rest of the movie with me. Not amazing, but an alright movie and nice to just sit around.
Saturday we slept in (I finally didn’t wake up at 4—and when I did wake up at 6:30, was able to go back to sleep), hung out and then hit up the gym. I did a fun little jumping and weights workout and felt good. Back to the house, where I made eggs with spinach and goat cheese for us and Jeff did a sprint-y clean. I got all dolled up and we headed off to the St. Paul campus for my little pre-frosh presentation (side note, I did not know it was going to be a presentation). I didn’t realize Jeff wanted to come with, so I was very excited when he did!
The UMN presentation was really fun. We hung out in the basement of McNeal in the newly-letterpress-furnished B3 (amazing!) and chit chatted with James. He is such a sweetheart as always and he warmed our hearts. The presentations were in 33; we spent a few moments in awe of the not-red chairs, and marveling over how small the room now seemed. Huh. James and Zhoura said a few words and the anxious parents and their (mostly bored) kids (the prospective students, naturally, probably wishing they were back home on a Saturday) soaked it in. How can you not, with James’s adorable accent. I gave a very stilted presentation, hampered by the lack of a correctly-set-up-projector, aaah, but got to reference “my husband, Jeff Akervik” when they brought up Beganik, and, prompted by Justin, showed Cadbury and FMTKY, which went over amazingly well. Even the dead-bored kids lit up a bit to see Stan get his ankles bitten by ferrets. I also got to chit-chat a bit with the students, who were all dressed in maroon and gold and all very sweet.
It was really cool to be able to talk about what I do and to be back in McNeal; it reminded me that we were very lucky to have been there, really. That was even further confirmed when we joined the rest of the group in B3 again, chatting with prospective students and their parents (a few of whom were very complimentary of the work I’d shown, a few who were very wary too), talking to Justin about Beganik, hard times, and What We Do, encouraging a parent to have her kid live in Bailey (explaining to her that I’d moved to BE there), reassuring a graduate-to-be that she’d figure it out (Jeff was very nice and complimentary to her), and updating James on where we were at. We were both pretty surprised that James not only remembered our names but also just about US; he said at one point that HITF seemed like the perfect place for me, based on the kind of student I had been. Ha. It was really, really sweet and I was so glad Jeff came with. It just is nice to be reminded where we came from and why we do what we do, more or less. Just a great day! I wish those kids all the best.
We came home and Jeff went shopping while I read my book. Settled down to Subway and the hockey game and the Gophers won, yay. I then checked Jenny in for her flight, did a quick hand-done tax form, found everything to be cool, passed out on the couch, and then was woken up by a frustrated Jeff who was doing our actual taxes in Turbo Tax. I think I’m gonna vote for doing it by hand, from this point out; Turbo Tax was crazy! But, we did save a bit more money, and it had the advantage of not having my messy handwriting (where I accidentally transposed a 9 into a 4, whoops). Sooooo whatever. We got pretty angry but then had a good time finishing it up and joking, finding that once we ignored TT’s bullshit it was all good. BY HAND might be BEST!
That fiasco meant we were up late and the daylight savings BS meant we were up even later. So another nice slept-in weekend morning followed. I did our MN taxes, made up some coffee, and made my first vegan cookies ever…using AK’s flaxseed/jam recipe. AMAZING! Ate about half a dozen of those and Clementines while watching Iron Man with Jeff. I thought I’d just watch a little bit of it but I got totally sucked in. Pretty cool! Now I’m catching up on emails, writing up our honeymoon adventures (still, I know), working on a Secret Project (maybe) and writing this blog. Then dinner and Friday Night Lights!. Yay.
Sooooo that was my weekend. It seems pretty simple but it was very nice for me to just Hang Out and not get too worked up. Bah! Happy March!