*blush*

It's nice to finally have Saint Paul feeling like home. My aunt Shelly and I have made our apartment a wonderful place to be--I know I like hanging out there! And I'm starting to have friends that I totally feel I can call out of the blue to invite myself over or plan some outing. Probably two of my closest friends right now are Melissa and Elizabeth--some of my co-workers right now. Actually, my first temp job here was to fill in for Melissa's position while she moved to a different one, and then Elizabeth was the person who was hired full time for the position I was temping in. So we're all united from one desk :) Now we're in different parts of the building, but we still go and get coffee and muffins in the morning together and hang out for lunch and stuff.

Getting sappy? I can't help it, they're both awesome people! I should also mention some other awesome people that I love here: Brittany, Marjon, Suzanne, Adib and Berglind, Bassim, Everett, Celeste, Erin, Shaghayegh, Heidi, Fran... the list just goes on! And I'm sure I haven't even mentioned everyone.

So I'm grateful, being the social person that I am, that I have amazing people to hang out with. Melissa has just started her own blog, and she surprised me with an entry about me--so all humiltiy aside, I'm linking you to Moving Melissa to check it out :)

Oh, and all you guys in Alaska--I'm way jealous that I'm missing out on Lost night. I love you guys way too much for one heart to handle!

The newest member of our family

Ladies and gentlemen, I introduce you to Winston.

My brother, Colin, just last week got this little tyke (who apparently is all teeth!). I'm pretty in awe of my brother getting a dog--puppies are a lot of work, but he seems to be doing very well. He did a lot of research into the breed (English Bulldog), and he got to know some breeders in Anchorage. I'm so happy for him! The rest of the pictures are of Winston meeting another non-human member of our family :)

Getting active!

Well, today was "ride your bike to work" day, but I don't actually own a bike. But my friend Melissa happens to have an extra one :) So she invited me to ride to work with her this morning! She was able to convince me to wake up extra early on a Friday by promising to make me a smoothie... it was delicious!

So I kind of defeated the point of not driving today by driving to her house. But I did it in the right spirit! We had a great time going to work. It's only about 3 miles, which actually goes pretty fast when you're on a bike. And it was pretty much all downhill... which means the ride home is going to be really fun :) But it's nice to do something active, and Melissa is infectious with her bike riding. She is going to be riding in the MS150 in the beginning of June, where she'll bike 150 miles in two days (yikes!). If there's anyone out there that wants to help sponsor her to raise money for Multiple Sclerosis research, you can click here. Melissa also just started a blog where she'll highlight a lot of her activites, and I'm sure she'll put an entry about her MS150 ride... she's one active lady, and I'm grateful when she's willing to slow down enough to drag me along :)

In downtown Saint Paul (where I'm currently working) there was an event in a nearby park where there were various booths for people that ride bikes and such. I even got to practice putting a bike on the public bus rack, something that I've never done before. It would certainly make me feel comfortable doing it in the future. And there were free items and breakfast, so it was a lot of fun.

Of course, maybe I'll have to adjust this entry once I've tried riding uphill back to Melissa's home :) I'll post a picture of the two of us later as well... once I'm home and can get the picture off the camera!

Added after: Well, I obviously made it home! But MAN was that ride more difficult on the way home :) There was only once when I had to get off my bike and walk, but this was towards the end, after I had made it up the biggest hill... so I was okay with that. It was nice getting out and active, especially after sitting at a desk all day. Thanks again Melissa!

I love you mom!

Well, all over the US mothers are being honored today, and I would just like to say how much I absolutely adore my mother. It's great that many people in the world would disagree with me (in favor of their own mothers), but my mom is the best mom in the WORLD!

I love you with all my heart :)

Well it looked extremely rocky for the mudville nine that day...

Maybe it was rocky for the Mudville Nine when they played on that fateful day told about in "Casey at the Bat", but our jaunt to the Metrodome proved for the Twins to be a slamming day for them! They took the White Socks for a spin, ending at 10-1. And boy was it fun :)

This was my first baseball game here and only my second professional ballgame ever, so I was super excited about the whole thing. The perk was that I got the tickets for free! The place I'm temping at right now had about 30 guests from Brazil in this week, and part of their MN experience was seeing the Twins play. But they had extra tickets, so some of us lowly ones lucked out and got them! And not only did we get to see the game for free, but they gave us food vouchers which were more than enough to pay for the pricey game food. So I was having a grand ol' time.

The whole evening was a fun adventure. I had yet to take the train in Minneapolis, but the train has a stop just outside of the Metrodome. So rather than worry about parking, my coworker Elizabeth, her husband, daughter and I took the bus to the airport and took the train to the game. The whole day at work I was looking forward to the whole experience... seriously, I was kind of laughing at how giddy I was for the adventure. So we rode back as well, and the great thing was that the train was filled (and I mean filled) with people from the game--and all in a good mood since we had won.

Tickets to a Twins game: free
Food for the game: free
Transportation to the game: $3.50
Doing the wave and singing "Take Me Out to the Ball Game"?: Priceless

Oh, and I even got a "Ciao Bella" from one of the Brazillians as we got up to leave--how cool is that? Somehow so much cooler than "See ya beautiful"...

Anyway, here are some pics from the game:

This picture is for Matt I., who should appreciate who this is...
I didn't know he was the prize pitcher for the Twins until
someone told me--so I took a picture!


This was still pre-game, but I kind of forgot to take photos
once the game actually started :)

My friend Elizabeth and her daughter Emma (who is
SO absolutely adorable!)

Take me out to the ballgame!

I'm going to see the Twins and the White Socks play on Friday night! I've only been to one other professional game (I saw the Rangers and Blue Jays in Texas when I was about 15 or 16), so I'm super excited! I'm definitely taking some pictures, which I'll share later. But the best part? Shelly and I get to go for free! I got some tickets from work because they weren't being used, so we get to benefit :)

I'm hunkering for some peanuts and cracker jacks :)

No news is bad news

Well, it seems I did not get cast in "War of the Worlds". If I was cast then I was supposed to hear back at some point yesterday, but alas I did not hear from them :)

Ah well, like I said before, it still felt great to have a good audition. I'm hoping at some point I will look back at all of this and smile--"oh, those were the years that I suffered*... but it was all worth it for what I am doing now!"

So the auditions continue!

*added note: "suffered" is used in that overly dramatic, "I'm ready for my close-up Mr. Demille", not taking oneself too seriously way... just in case someone reads it differently, I'm just being my typical dramatic self :)