The end is near...

Only two more days until my presentation and I'm not freaking out yet. I'm so excited. Once the presentation is done the internship is essentially done, and I get a few days off. Next week I will party, so be prepared. I expect all of you to come to poker with your A game...

I've been trying to work out more often lately. Yesterday was my first break day in a while, and ironically I felt more sore today than i have any other day. Today we played tennis with Ed and Paul, which was fun. I wish I could be a little better so I wasn't constantly holding them back. I'm going to try to play tennis and/or run tomorrow. Then on Friday, once I'm done with my presentation, we get to go to Minneapolis for Dave's cousin's wedding for the weekend. Not that exciting, but I am excited to see my family.

Next week I go to work Monday and Tuesday then I am done. I'll probably make dinner on a few of the nights left and hopefully convince Dave that we should have a fun labor day weekend rather than a working labor day weekend. Then I need to buckle down and get ready for my G-Mills interview.

I always feel busy as of late, but in a good way. I'm hoping that I can leave Minneapolis this summer knowing that I will come back, but we will see. I'll have to get lucky twice for that to happen, once with Ecolab and once with GMills. Alright, I do believe it is bedtime. I'm trying to get back into the blogging phase so that I am ready once school starts. I also need to start taking more pictures to make this blog interesting.

Almost done

Things are actually going really well here. My internship is pretty boring but it is almost done, which makes things better. I give my final presentation on Friday and I work until Wednesday of next week. Then I get to be done! I can't wait, the end is near!

Although the one sad point of being done will be that I am closer to moving back to Evanston. I don't know how I feel about that. I am happy to be seeing my Kellogg friends and I miss them but I will miss Minnesota and my Minnesota friends. I have such awesome friends here. And I have to miss my awesome hip hop classes and my awesome hip hop class partner ;-). Plus I will miss my dinner parties, just randomly having people over, playing games, and all the fun things i get to do while here. But I get to go to my new very cool apartment in Evanston, spend more nights at the Keg (not sure if that is a good thing) spend lots of time on the lake, and get to start interesting classes.

Otherwise things here are good overall. I have actually been able to spend time with Dave, hang out with friends, do okay at work, lose some more weight, and continue running. This weekend we are going to a wedding in Michigan and then we will be hosting our annual Labor Day Party (which I think we missed last year since I was starting school). Should be fun...

An update

So its been mentioned that i have been ignoring this blog. I figured most who read this usually see me enough that they don't need a blog. But who knows, maybe there are people out there who read this who don't see me weekly.

So what has happened in the past month? Not much. I've had plenty of dinner parties (I miss them so much), played lots of sports, went to dance class (thanks Katie), played lots of board games (thanks to Nick and Karin) and spent a lot of time alone in Minnesota. Although that isn't a fair statement since I have had my wonderful friends around me, even though Dave has been travelling a lot.

I've also decided that rather than focus on the parts of my life that I'm not happy with, I'm going to change what I can, and just let the other stuff sort itself out. I joined LA Weight loss three weeks ago, and I'm already 9.6 (yes that .6 makes a difference ;-) pounds down. I know that at the begining the rate of weight loss is greatest, but I'm still happy. That was the highlight of my week probably. Although winning at Puerto Rico came close. I'm trying to continue the workout and the runs to get into better shape that way. And I'm going to work extra hard to be ready for my General Mills interview, and try to continue to work hard at my job to get the internship offer.

Beyond that, life is scary and exciting. In the next few months I have a lot of decisions to make and i don't know how I will make them. I need to decide where I will live, who I will work for, and so much more that is not blog appropriate material. I have probably avoided blogging because those are decisions I want to avoid but they occupy my thoughts every moment of every day. But like I said, my goals are to improve the things I can, make the best decisions for me, and let all else fall in place.

Tomorrow is Bob's birthday party. Next week Dave will actually be here. Although I will say, the past few weeks have been fun even though I have missed him-- I have had a great time with all my friends here.

Fun times

Overall it was a fun weekend. On Friday I got home from work late and made dinner. While I was making dinner NIck and Karin called so we had them over to join us and to play a game of Puerto Rico. I hadn't played for a while so it was fun. THen Dave and I went to pick up Dave's parents from the airport.
On Saturday we were woken up at 6:45 AM by Dave's dad beginning work on the house! I stayed asleep but Dave woke up to start work. Dave's mom and I hung around the house most of the day, and Katie came over for a run, which was fun. Then came the highlight of the weekend, girl's night. We went to the Melting Pot for dessert (so good) then went back to Karin's house. We played a few fun games, and suddenly it was 3AM. I was going to spend the night but then Andrea offered a ride home and I took her up on it so that i could join the Sunday morning festivities.
We went to church and then to Pracna's for lunch, which was also very good. We also went for a walk on the riverfront, and saw the new park put up by Excel Energy. The rest of the day was spent running errands, but overall it was a fun weekend, now i just need to be work motivated, not as easy!

Tired

If I could use one word to sum up my feelings about being in Minnesota tired would be it. I thought school was busy but it has nothing on this. I wake up, go to work, come back from work, go to my nightly activity, come back and go to bed.

I will eventually get used to it.

And I am slightly annoyed. Not at anyone but just at a situation. I came back to Mn so i could have my boyfriend back but he travels so much i never see him. I think i spent more time with him when I was in Evanston.

Alright, rant done. On the other hand I am having a great time in Minnesota with all my friends. I think I just need to learn to prioritize otherwise it becomes Thursday night and i get too tired for poker, my old favorite activity.

Back to cleaning. Nothing really interesting to report. And no new pictures. I will have to start taking more pictures soon...

One more thing

Forgot to mention one more thing that is taking up my time. Katie and I have started running too. Hopefully we can get Karin to join too. Right now it is a pretty sad sight. I huff and puff while we do 60 seconds of running and 90 seconds of walking, which is sadly an improvement from where we started. Hopefully by the end of the summer I will be in better running shape and will have lost my Kellogg weight (then i get to start on the General Mills weight and go from there)...

Busy Busy

So I am back in Minnesota and the posts will probably slow down a bit as things are really busy and there just isn't much time. Work is going okay, I am beginning to figure things out. Katie and I have started dance lessons which are a lot of fun, I have really enjoyed those so far. And volleyball, poker, etc has also picked up. My days are pretty busy and I am trying to make sure I still have time to spend with Dave after it all so it is a balancing act. I could post so much more right now, I will try to update more later...

M&Ms wedding

So our friends Mario and Marta got married last Saturday in Michigan and Dave and I along with some friends from school went to visit. It was a beautiful wedding and Marta was a gorgeous bride. The wedding ceremony was in this really pretty chapel. It was a Catholic wedding but without the Eucharist. which meant it was nice and short too. My friend Shree and I had told Mario and Marta that we would wear Sari's to their wedding. Since we both wanted to dance, we wore them to the ceremony only.
There were a few hours in between the wedding and the reception so we hung out with our college friends at Dave's place. It was so awesome seeing them all. We got lots of time to catch up while at Dave place. We then head over to the reception hall. Both Mario and Marta are Italian, and it was obvious once we got to the wedding. There was a huge table set up with appetizers. We were about to go get some but then we saw the meal menu and realized that we would be sorry, because there was just so much food. The food itself was awesome. It was funny, the wedding hall would not serve shots (it was an open bar) but the family of the bride brought in some of their own liquor and got the bartenders to serve us shots on ice. It is definitely difficult doing a shot when it is on ice, and things taste a little different, but it was funny to see everyone doing those. There was lots of dancing and I think a good time was had by all. You can see pictures of the night below.

Me in my Sari with Dave. The Sari didn't really show up great in any pictures. It was gold with lots of sparkles on it.

The entire Jokers crew

Marta with the girls, isn't she a beautiful bride?

Back in Mn

So the crazy week has continued. After a fun Thirsty Thursday last week, i flew to Michigan for a friend's wedding. I had a great time, and I got to see all my college friends, which was awesome. I will post pictures (I used my camera again!) from the event when I am back on my own computer (it has been lost in my car- more on that in a second). The wedding was alot of fun, but i realized half way through that my week had caught up to me and that i was sick :-(. Sunday was no fun, as I spent most of it in bed and then on the worst flight ever (flying when congested= bad idea).
I got back to Chicago with plans of finishing up my final and turning it in by the 9 AM time (which I did) and then cleaning up my apartment so i could leave by Tuesday. But I was feeling so crappy that I ended up not cleaning up at all on Monday. I slept early, woke up early on Tuesday and spent all of TUesday packing. I still wasn't done by the end of the day so i did the same thing Wednesday and then drove back Wednesday night. I'm still tired.
However, I do get to go to poker today, which I can't wait for! I also have a whole list of other things i need to do, and I'm a day short since i got here a day later.
My drive over was uneventful. I listened to lots of CDs and had a lot of time to think, not always a good thing. I was feeling depressed at one point, and then i put an old miz CD made by JC, which just made me feel better. Then I was feeling tired, and I put in another one made by him, a dance mix. I bet I looked pretty ridiculous to anyone who could see me dancing away in the car seat to wide range of dance music. Anyway, I'll have to thank JC again for the great mix CDs! The night was capped off with some Justin Timberlake, to keep me awake through Minnesota, gotta love JT! Now its time to start working on my list. Can't wait for poker!

Almost Done

So this week was crazy. You all might be amazed to hear this but I actually had to do school work. I got back from a great Minnesota trip (and a fun Memorial Day Party- thanks Karin!) on Monday night. On Tuesday I spent all day preparing for my NPI presentation. Then on Wednesday I woke up early, spent all day at the NPI fair, went straight to a Fin-D meeting, then to a Marketing Chanels meeting, then to dinner, then back to Jacobs for another FIn-D meeting that went until 6 AM. Yes that is right, 6 AM. I was so tired on Thursday. HOwever, we turned in our Fin-D final case then i had to give a presentation for Marketing Channels on only 2 hours of sleep. I was barely coherant.
Afterwards, our Fin-D prof took us to the Keg for beers and i went to dinner with some people. Then i went home, took a nap and then went back out for the final MMM Thirsty Thursday. Below are some pictures.

My New Product Innovation group

The MMMs play flip cup

Allie, Amit (my future MBC co-chair) and me

The MMM girls who were out (we had 1/3 of us show up!)

It was a fun night. Now I am in Michigan for my good friends Mario and Marta's wedding. It should be fun, hopefully I will take more pictures (Karin- are you proud of me actually using my camera?)

And my birthday continues...

Nick, Karin and Dave came to visit this weekend and i got to celebrate my birthday even more. Nick and Karin gave me the best present ever. I have been bugging Karin for a DVD of all of her pictures so i could make a scrapbook. However, Karin knowing me well, knew that that scrapbook would take years for me to get to (I will finish my Europe one eventually) so she made me the best scrapbook ever! It was awesome seeing them. Then we went out for Chicago style pizza which was good. We hung out at my "apartment" and played games after. Fun times.
Nick and Karin left on Saturday and then Dave and I spent the day together. We went to look at apartments for next year (i dragged him along) and then we went to Kellogg sports day which was fun. Afterwards we went to dinner at Dixie kitchen... good stuff.
On Sunday Dave and I went for a run, hung out for a bit, and then went to dinner with Nick and Karin who came back in town.
On Monday my birthday continued when i got my birthday present from Dave and my sister. I got the Fluidity bar which I was so excited about. I have already used it twice. So great, i love it! Plus i went to the NRA (national RESTAURANT Association) show and was surprised when i ran into Geoff. Unfortunately i only got to say a quick hello but it was still a good surprise.
Today i had tons of group meetings then went to Bar Louis for dollar burgers and drinks.
I still don't know where i will live this summer, where i will live next year or how things will be in general next year. And the Red Wings lost. The week has definitely began to go downhill. I hate uncertainty...

Anyone watch Grey's?

So I don't know about everyone else, but when I spend an hour of my night watching a TV show every week, I expect to get something out of it. I expect to be somewhat uplifted, or be given hope, or find out something interesting and new. Since Grey's isn't exactly the show that is going to teach me something new and exciting, I expect to at least leave the show with some hope, or feeling a little uplifted. I was really disappointed by this season's finale. Last season's finale wasn't exactly uplifting, it was really sad, but it didn't make me depressed. This season didn't even have a light at the end of the tunnel, there was no hope in it, just sadness. I don't know how to explain it, but i think truly great show writing can have bad things happen but can still inspire you. I think last season's Grey's had that but this season finale just fell flat. So now I sit depressed, and annoyed that i spent 1 hour and 15 minutes of my Thursday night watching that show. I am sure most disagree with me, maybe I am just in a weird mood tonight. Sorry for the random post. Hopefully the Pistons and the Wing can pull out the win tonight and the night won't be a total loss.

Happy Birthday to me!

I had a great two day birthday celebration! My awesome friends at Kellogg took me out to dinner at Tapas Barcelona on Tuesday night and then to Nevins and then the Keg. It was an awesome night, and i had a great time. I of course forgot my camera but once the pictures get sent out I will post. Dinner was great. Nevins was a lot of fun too, although i think i had a few to many SoCo and limes. And following that up with a Jagger bomb was a bad idea. We then went to Keg where i danced off the alcohol. At 2 AM we were just not ready for the night to be over so we went to someones apartment. Overall fun times.
Today was more low key. I had lots of group meetings and then i went to dinner and dessert. I got to go to my favorite Thai place and then I had a piece of birthday cake at the only place besides BK Lounge open after 10 PM on a weeknight. The entire coffee shop sang to me, somewhat embarrassing.
Overall, it was a great birthday and i realized i have awesome friends. I will post pictures (assuming they aren't too embarrassing) once they get sent out! Thanks to all for the birthday wishes!

One week, so much done

This past week was possibly the busiest week ever, some of it business most of it not so much. On Monday night I went to watch a hockey game that some of my friends were playing it, it was lots of fun, and they ended up winning in a shootout which was awesome to see!
Then Tuesday was Daniel's birthday. Before going out for his birthday I had lunch with my future Ecolab boss who was in town. It was good to meet him. I found out I will be spending lots of time in Dallas, which should be fun.
For Danieal's birthday we went to see a Cubs game and then went out downtown after. The Cubs game lasted 15 innings. It was so long. And our goal to get Daniel drunk was failing miserably since they stopped serving after the seventh inning. Half ourgroup had left after the seventh inning since the Cubs were winning and they wanted to save room at the bar. By the time we got to the bar 2 hours later, and totaly sober, half the people had left. It was still a fun time, and we even didn't end up going out too late, which was an added bonus.
Wednesday was a busy meeting day, not lots of fun. Then on Thursday I had the crepe dinner I won at Charity Auction ball, which was lots of fun. Afterwards I thought I would stop off at a friends birthday party for just one drink. Well one drink turned into Nevins and the Keg, not what i planned. But at least it was earlier than 3 AM when I got home.
On Friday i spent all day making nametags for Manufacturing Buisiness Conference and then prepping for Charity Casino night, two events i was logistics chair for. I ended up going to bed at 1 AM becuase i was getting things together.
Saturday was also a busy day. I woke up early to be at MBC by 7AM. I worked the conference and then went home a bit early to prep for Casino Night. Igot things together then waited for the buses and pizza for Casino Night. I was so tired after it all. Casino Night was fun for most, but i don't think it is ever fun for the Logistics Chair.
Today was spent catching up and working on Fin-D. Can't wait for this weekend to see Dave, Karin and Nick. Tuesday will be fun too, as I will be celebrating my birthday a day early with dinner and then Nevins.

A fun Saturday

So it was a fun day. I started of the day just hanging out in my apartment by myself (something i actually enjoy doing) then i studied with my friend Daniel. I went to dance and then Daniel, a new friend Chris, Chinelo and I went to dinner. We then went to watch Special K, the Kellogg theater show. Afterwards we went to Nevins then the Keg. After a few rounds of flip cup and some fun dancing, we went to BK lounge. A few new revelations. If I never need a new guy, i can always get the Evanston Townies, some really classy guys. I can also always get really old creepy guys, apparently i can get the best. Thankfully Daniel and other friends were there to save me.
Fun times, now i just need to go to bed...

I should not be in school i May

I realized that I have mentally checked out of school for this quarter. Too bad there are still four weeks left, and they will be busy. Next weekend is Manufacturing Business Conference and Charity Casino Night, both of which I am logistics chair for. The weekend after Karin and Nick are coming to visit on Friday (yay!) and then I think I have plans on Saturday already. The weekend after Dave is coming (I haven't seen him for a few weeks now so it will be nice) and we are going to get my stuff moved. The week after that we have to go to Michigan for a wedding and then I am done. The summer will be busy too, with proving myself in a 12 week internship. I don't think there will really be a break in things until December.
My goals for this week are to get motivated to do schoolwork so my teammates don't hate me for being useless and avoiding too many long nights at the bar (I think Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday and Saturday might be overdoing it ;-) ).

What am I in school for again?

So the past two days have been pretty busy. Now some of you would think that means i have been busy with school work. Fair assumption. However, not the case. I started my own dance marathon on Tuesday. The dance studio closes May 5 for a month long break and i have 8 classes i needed to use this week. So on Tuesday I took 4 classes. Today I took one at the studio and one that i had won from Charity Auction Ball. And tomorrow I will take two more. Which means i should only have one left, which I will take on Saturday. Fun times. My body hurts, i feel old.

To make matters worse on Monday night I was up late "studying" with the Turkey ladies. And then last night someone convinced me to go out until 4 AM. It was fun but I feel it tonight. The best part of the night though was wrestling the phone away from a guy who was bothering one of my friends by hitting him with my purse and then grabbing the phone. Fun times. Tonight will be an early night, time for recovery before a long weekend.

Three Chefs and a cook are victorious!

So we had an Iron Chef competition today, and my team, three chefs and a cook, was victorious! Now I don't know whether it was becuase all the other teams were really bad or because we were good. Our secret ingredients-- SPam and Peanut Btter. Lets just say i hadn't tasted spam before today, very interesting indead. Overall, it was good, lots of fun, but so much work to do to make up for all the lost time!

Ouch

So usually my Tuesday schedule involves going to jazz class from 930-11 in the morning and then going to real class from 3-930. Well i got back from jazz and i felt kind of depressed and not really in the mood to go to class. Plus I had another appointment that was from 5-7 so i was going to miss part of my two classes anyway. Then i looked at the schedule for class (these are five week classes and today was the last day) and realized that I really didn't want to go, they didn't sound very interesting. Just a course wrap up and extra topics i didn't care about. I realized that i was an adult and i shouldn't force myself to go to class. Plus, one professor requested that if we were going to be late to class we shouldn't come so i was going to have to skip one anyway. So i had three options, go to the one class i could go to, go out with everyone else (Tuesday is a big going out night since Wednesdays i no classes for Kellogg), or else go to hip hop class at Giordano's. Well i decided to go to hip hop figuring it would put me in a better mood. Well while it has put me in a better mood it has also made me hurt. A lot. 3.5 hours of dance plus one hour of weights and elliptical in a day is a lot. But the natural endorphins from working out has made me feel better. I guess until i wake up really sore tomorrow. Oh well.

Nothing else really new. I am busy planning logistics for MBC and Charity Casino Night. And every night this week and weekend is already booked. I am doing an Iron Chef competition on Sunday, that should be fun. I think next year i am not going to be as involved and just go to events. Much more fun...

Happy Birthday to Karin

I had a great weekend in Minnesota to celebrate karin's birthday. I will be sad to leave school but i can't wait for this summer. I realized this weekend how much I miss my Minnesota friends. I guess Minnesota really is home for me, at least for now, we will see how this summer goes once i figure out what to do with my life.
Although there is so much left to do before i leave. I have to figure otu not only where I am living this summer but next year as well. So i got back yesterday at midnight and realized that there was still a ton of work to do on my Fin-D paper due tomorrow. My friend Pete and I were up till 4 AM working on it. So two nights of being up till 5 AM made me useless today, i even skipped my workout class for the first time in weeks. So tired, i need to sleep.