July 23rd, 2012
perfect weekend
“I want to hurry home to you / put on a slow dumb show for you / crack you up”
—The National
So I am pretty damn disappointed by the NCAA’s decision on Penn State. Not nearly enough. I can’t imagine them playing at all next year, let alone here (do they play here? I don’t know). Gross. In conclusion, I am declaring the “Death Penalty” dead, for why even bother if you won’t use it for this? Every time I bike by the Penn State flag in the row of 11 (and hey, where’s Nebraska? ha) along University on my way home from swimming, I want it to go away. Ugh.
And Colorado…tough times, man. Tough, tough, tough. And it’s so hard for people to get mental health care. I don’t know what would make it easier, honestly, but it’s true. But whatever. Heartbreaking.
(And I was about to quote my new song of obsession here, which is Sia/Guetta’s “Titanium”, for a completely different reason, but realize in the context of the shootings that’s just so wrong. So. No. But there you have it.)
BUT! I just had probably one of THE most perfect weekends EVER, the OLYMPICS are coming up, and I have a 6-year-old niece! HAPPY BELATED BIRTHDAY ANNA! I can’t wait to see her (& Mason & Stephie, etc.) so soon! I can’t believe she’s my niece sometimes. She is pretty darn terrific.
UPCOMING EVENTS:
-dinner w/ Kelly tonight at Turtle oh yeah!
-Macarena is back at yoga on Saturday BOOM
-OLYMPICS BEGIN!!! Team prelims Sunday AM, finals Tuesday…pretty sure I should just take Tuesday off no?? Watch live then pool then Matty’s party? We’ll see!
-OLYMPICS!! Yes this deserved another entry ha ha.
-learning some new tricks again (as always)…I do like this technical exploration indeed
-then to Madison to hang out with cuties!!! YAY!
-then STATE FAIR upcoming very soon…oh yeah! I am always so excited to Hang Out with Jeff at the FAIR
-Then September…we have not one but TWO amazing concerts to attend…!!! Orchestra video games(?) and Caspian. OH MY!
-Then it’s October which is fun for Halloween reasons, plus I hope we get to go to the North Shore or something too, then it’s November/Dec which Jeff loves, I guess I do too, we’ll see
-Then it’s 2013. OK then.
And now, since it was so grand, this past weekend is deserving of an EOTW. NOTE: I did NOT attend my family get-together/Grandma’s bday celebration in WI on Saturday. We had one car at our disposal and I did not want to leave Jeff carless, ALSO I have been to 4/4 of the past family events/have been traveling + leaving Jeff/home a lot lately and was not up for it. I understand it was quite the wonderful event, as expected, BUT I will be in WI shortly to see Stephie et al and ideally Gma as well. SO esp. due to this amazing weekend I feel this was the Right Choice by far. Woo hoo!
Moving on…
EOTW 7/20-7/22:
Friday I finished up work by filling out some ridiculous quiz for Ross. Poor Ross! He knows though I’d do anything to help him out, even from a state/years away. Partners in crime, we were, for awhile! Then off to grocery shop in the Roseville area. Weird/cool. I love Minneapolis but I do like my old ‘hood. Anyway. Picked Jeff up at work and home we went. Stopped for some beer and I saw a wine named Stella so I texted Jackie to say HBD Stella…awww. Home. Put away the groceries together, then I cooked us up a GIANT batch of shrimp fried rice (using ELR’s ‘veggie fried rice’ as the idea/starter…thanks ELR, you are annoyingly religious now : ( but still have good recipes!), grabbed us each a beer, and settled in to watch The Wire series finale. Finally. Wow. What a show. I don’t think I realized how much I liked it/characters until we finished it and watched the season ‘reels’. The food was perfect (we also had s’mores) and plentiful, the beer was cold, and life was grand. A basically perfect evening to start our weekend off right! Yes!
So then I dreamt about The Wire/cops. Ha.
Saturday we woke up to a surprise thunderstorm. Lovely!! Then just quiet lovely rain. We opened the window and laid there listening to the rain and dozing. Perfect. Finally got up and got going into the drizzle off to the FARMERS MARKET! Jeff’s colleagues had come back to the office on Thursday with $1/pint blueberries and Jeff was suddenly enchanted with the idea of the Market. I had been wanting to go there with him for ages anyway so this was an exciting development. Thank You Coworkers!
The Market was surprisingly uncrowded, perhaps due to the rain, but we were sheltered by the red roofs. We wandered around and got honey sticks and $11 worth of amazing produce – berries, potatoes, squash, peppers, etc. Filled up the bag! We spied the mayor and I was skeptical. Hmmmmmm. I blame The Wire. It was the 75th anniversary too. Anyway. Back home to drop off the goods, then off to yoga! We were trying the 12pm at Edina again since ‘Emmy’ was subbing for Macarena (boo). 12pm = FAIL, Despie was NOT GOOD (except Jeff did a great headstand and learned side crow) and now is taking over PERMANENTLY for Nikki…BOOOOOOO! We will never return. Oh well. Still mostly fun. Shower and then it was sunny again. Back to the house where Jeff mowed and I made egg salad (addicted) and cleaned up. Olympic Coke and egg salad. Good stuff.
Finally hurried Jeff into the shower as we had a MOVIE DATE to make, and that we did! DARK KNIGHT RISES at West End was in our future. This theater at West End was impressive indeed, courteous staff, reserved seating, etc. We will return! The movie was fantastic. Slow in places and a little weird, but still enjoyable. Nothing can top the Joker though. But! Still. Highly recommended. The TRILOGY!!!
We walked around West End looking for dinner and wound up going BACK to Roseville (yes I know…) to Ol’ Mex. It was pretty sleazy but pretty fun anyway, of course. Giant margarita oh my! Then home to read gymnastics gossip/play videogames…story of our lives lately! Great, great! Passed out. A pretty much PERFECT day in EVERY way. Yes!
I then dreamt I was on the Olympic team. It was, in a word, AMAZING. I seriously thought I was on the team w/ the current girls. This my friends is my secret dream that shall NEVER come true. Anyway.
Sunday Sunday. Woke up early and hungry…gross. Ate something then went back to bed for TWO more hours oh yeah! Delightful. That is when the Olympic dream occurred I believe. Hung out doing Important Things for awhile, then Jeff went to the gym. I emailed Ross’s contest lady to say I “didn’t understand the rules” ha ha (blame the designers “YEAH!” -Ross). Had an amazing lunch/breakfast of yogurt drink (Siggi’s!), omelette with Market tomatoes/cheese, english muffin and berries. Out on the patio with Bloomberg Businessweek. Yes yes, quite nice!
Packed up, got the bike ready, and rode up to the U. 10 mi. Swimming! TERRIBLE discovery (just like the Nikki-yoga discovery) that public lap swim is CLOSED until September. W. T. F. WTF?!?!?! I need to find out WHY. Grrrr. Nevertheless it made me very happy to have come to the UMN to swim that day. Got in a good strong 1600m then jumped off the 5m platform for good measure…will that ever not be scary? Haha. Love swimming. So meditative. I even had a lane to myself for a little bit.
Biked back home. HOT! Did some chores and had a snack (chocolate COKE!) and FINALLY showered. Then more kitchen work/cookingfest!!! I <3 it! Finally dished up BBQ chicken pasta (again w/ ELR, my new fave meal) and salads and watch Awkward./then Gabby on Rock Center. Love! I did some crafts and cleanup and then we went to bed despite my Coke-buzziness. A weekend of Hanging Out. A weekend of hedonism. A weekend of perfection!!!