Jake and I have started a new photo project that I am suuuuper excited about. It’s called 365 + 365 and it’s a collection of photos…one a day from each of us for the next year. I hope you guys will all check it out—I’m having a lot of fun working on it.

It started the other day when I was walking back from Common Roots cafe and I passed by my toothbrush. Well, not MY toothbrush, but someone who had the same toothbrush as me. Except they kept theirs on the front lawn. For some reason, I foudn this to be incredibly funny and I wished that I had my camera with me to take a picture of it. And then I thought about all the funny little things that happen to you and how nice it would be if you could remember them in some way. I know there are other photo blogs out there and other people using the one photo a day concept, but I think ours is fun because you get TWO photos a day and its interesting to see how different our days can be! I hope you guys find it to be really fun too! Maybe you can post a photo as a comment too if you want to remember your funny little thing of the day.

Immediately after turning in my last take home exam and finishing up my working hours, Jake and I headed on the plane to reach our spring break destination: Casa de Holly in Denver, Colorado!

We’ve been meaning to visit Holly ever since she moved…but lacked funding slash the right time. It was a great weekend for a visit: the weather was beautiful, it was free day at the botanical gardens, and we had a blast! Highlights of our trip:

• Seeing lots of Bowdoin kids!
• Fun trip to Fort Collins for beer tasting and Rasta Pasta (new fave beer from New Belgium: Bier de Mars, of course not sold in Minneapolis)
• Hike to the lake and seeing herds of elk in Rocky Mountain National Park
• Delicious Denver meals
• Hanging out with TRE!! Coincidence of us both being in Denver at the same time made it possible for us to sneak in an extra visit!

Overall, we had a great time. Spring break mini-trips are way funner than going to school! just kidding, school is fun too. Just in a different way.

Some pictures:

Many days have gone by, with no adventures. Okay thats a little bit of a lie, I just got back from a very fun trip to Kansas City for Jackie’s wedding but it involved no exploration of the city itself so I feel as though it’s in a different category.

Now the reason why there have been no adventures is simple and can be described in one word: Spreadsheets. I am addicted to them, it’s all I do. The eye doctor said my eyes might be dry if I spent a lot of time staring at the computer screen, I was like lady, I do nothing BUT stare at computer screens. All my classes this semester involve making Microsoft Excel…and specifically, the VLOOKUP function. I remember distinctly at this time last year, Jake and his dad were doing a lot of VLOOKUP stuff and I mocked them. I was like I will NEVER be so boring that I have phone conversations about Excel formulas. Oh look, that day has come. It’s real. Today I said VLOOKUP (which isn’t even really a word, right?) 10 times at least and talked about it with at least 5 different people. Probably seven or eight actually. That’s what my life is all about right now.

I’m not sure when I will emerge from this cave of numbers, formulas, spreadsheets, talk about total employment in industry i and the NAICS code for dog and cat food manufacturing, population density measures and so forth, but when I do, I hope it’s sunny and warm outside and that there will be plenty of time for adventures then. Keep your fingers crossed for me.

January in Minneapolis…today I’m pretty sure that I’ve never hated anything else more than that. I knew it was going to be cold, everybody has been talking about it. But right now, in our great city, it is -20, feels like -36. Are you kidding me? I can’t go outside in weather like that! I’m SCARED to go outside. The wind is whipping away and powdery snow is blowing in your face and you have to sit in your car for oh….45 minutes just to get that little temperature ticker on the car to say that there is some life in the engine.

But this past weekend I LOVED January in Minneapolis. Jake and I went out to Baker Park and went for a little cross country ski. I felt happy that I could kind of remember how to move forward on my skis. Then on Sunday we went to play broomball on Lake of the Isles and had a blast. (Jake was ultimately more successful than I was, since he could move around, hit the ball, score, AND defend. I on the other hand just scurried around, fell hard on my butt and complained about how hard it was to move in one direction and then immediately have to go in the other direction.)

Anyways, now I have to decide if I actually will go outside or not today. Sigh.

Roommate Reunion!

Taken from our trip to Boston for a Pine Street K reunion.

Yesterday, Becky came to visit…again, a lot of being lazy (quite a theme for this year’s winter vacation). We watched 2 movies and made one lazy trip into town for lunch and a wee bit of shopping. We took this picture using my little computer camera:

I have been having a great vacation so far in New England. We had a very nice Christmas–lots of games and fun family time. Luckily for me, I had the opportunity to avoid post-holiday blues by traveling to Boston for a roommate reunion. We had a terrific weekend–very low key–that involved a lot of catching up, lazying around, and eating.

I’m not sure if this counts exactly as an adventure, because we didn’t really explore Boston very much. Most of the time we spent in Holly’s friend Ellen’s gorgeous apartment on Beacon Street. We did explore some restaurant choices near her apartment and had a brief visit to Quincy Market.

I’m just back from my first adventure of winter break…a nice trip to Plainfield, Vermont. Jake and I took the Vermonter on Saturday night, arriving in Montpelier around 9pm. We discovered that travelling by train is a very reliable and comfortable mode of transit. Although there were cancellations everywhere around us and we heard lots of horror stories about how bad the roads were, the train just chugged along. I even charged my cell phone on the train and we watched an old Indiana Jones movie. We weren’t the only ones who wanted to take the train this year, apparently the Vermonter has been having a record number of passengers this holiday season!

The other night, I attended NYLC’s 25th anniversary celebration. Jake and I arrived late (having to drive directly from my class…which technically ended 40 minutes after the reception had started), but made it just in time for the program, staring former Senator Durenberger.

Durenberger made a comment that has really stuck with me: he said we would be the first generation that does not make as much money as our parents. I became panicked. My first thought was that I was going to have to live like an Americorps member for the rest of my life. My second thought was…but I thought the economy was only temporarily broken. I thought by the time my “real life” had started, it would be back up and working again. Apparently the Senator does not agree.

Back in Brunswick, we had a weekly ritual that I enjoyed quite a bit: Friday Look Foward To. This involved an early Friday lunch out at a local restaurant. It served multiple purposes: we were celebrating the end of the week and the official beginning of the weekend, it was girl talk time, and we got to eat deeeeelicious lunches. We only really did that for one year, but I loved the tradition a lot.

It’s Thursday, classes have ended, and I have several Look Forward Tos on my list! In chronological order…

1. Listening to the rest of the 89.3 morning show
2. Possible afternoon ski fun
3. Holiday office party, featuring Indian food from my favorite Twin Cities Indian restaurant
4. Friend from Iowa in town!
5. A weekend where I perhaps do not need to spend more than 50% of it at the HHH computer lab!
6. Holiday cookie baking extravaganza!
7. And of course, our extra-long visit to New England!

Anyways, a lot of funto be had. First I need to get through one more (real) day of work…I hope you guys all have lots of Look Foward To’s these next few weeks too!