Parties and Traditions

In March, I made another trip back into the wild landscapes of Wisconsin. Leaving Minneapolis Wednesday evening gave me two nights in Stevens Point before making the next leg of the trip down to Fond du Lac. My interest in stopping through Stevens Point was to see a few friends from school who are still in the area, still attending school, and/or my past supervisors and coworkers. I made a few other plans along the way, too.

Brighter and earlier Thursday morning than I was even ready to begin, I went for a brisk 2.5 mile run at 4º F with my friend Heidi (you can find her blog there, including our CRAZY photo at our final destination, Starbucks). She ran to me, we ran just over 2 miles, and then after our quick Starbucks date, we ran back to our respective places. Talk about feeling like a champion! Her Garmon watch froze, my iPod Touch shut down. We should not have been this ambitious, but boy did it feel sensational!

I followed my run with a quick breakfast at the Basement Brewhaus, and then coffee with a (past supervisor) great friend at Zest. Lunch was a group date at Polito's Pizza, mixed with a little shenanigans... Of course I had to make my rounds back to my alma mater residence halls, Knutzen and Burroughs. Dinner was at Tokyo Steakhouse with my London flatmates. Precious stories, laughter, vegetarian meals and life updates happened all around. Evening plans were wonderful. We pulled together a large group of kids to meet at the Basement Brewhause for Thursday $1 bottles, before heading for Partners' $5 (liter) Long Islands. Woof.

 

Special thanks to Val, for letting me stay, and Marsha, for driving all the way from Waukesha to join in on the fun. Tooooo much fun... never.

Friday morning, I headed out to Fond du lac for a Mom and me day. We had a little pampering, a great Culver's lunch, and a few errands while I did (a little) laundry. Saturday was the hugely eventful day: bridal shower in the morning with the bachelorette party in the evening. Talk about a whirlwind! No photos were documented for public use in the evening, but all was completely successful. The shower was wonderful with just the perfect balance of great food, happiness, social times and a few games! I'll have you know during the party, Emily completed all challenges flawlessly and even did a few not asked! We are still impressed.. :)

In case you were concerned, I did make it back to Minneapolis safely. Good travels make for wonderful stories!
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Madison Excursion

For the last weekend in February, Jenni and I ventured to Madison, WI. When we initially planned this trip, we were going to attend a Passion Pit concert at the Orpheum Theatre.  By the time we had it figured out for the weekend, time off from work, and a place to stay... the concert was sold out. Though because neither of us had taken significant time off and been out of town since Christmas, we decided to keep our plans any way! Despite the onslaught of Winter Storm Q, who's anticipation was more overrated than what actually happened in Minnesota and Wisconsin, we left the cities Friday just after noon. The roads were close to dry, and the light snow we did experience was gone by the time we drove past signs for Tomah. We rocked out to all my Now cd's: 1, 2, 4, 5, and 7, mixed in some Grammy Nominee albums from the late 2000's and Totally Hits 2001. Wow. Talk about a set of throwback jams.

Upon arrival, Jenni and I went to Erin's apartment. Erin and I went to school together at UW-Stevens Point, and she landed a job in Madison. We settled in a little bit and started planning what to make up for dinner. Having a few ideas, we settled on salmon (it was Friday, which means no meat for Erin!) with sweet potato fries! Yummmmmmy. We took the evening to relax and enjoy each other's company and only really set up plans with other friends late in the night. Jenni and I left to meet up with other friends from high school who were around, Sarah, Erin and Lizzi. Erin also lives in Madison, Sarah is in Chicago and Lizzi was home on vacation from France! We met them out for drinks and made plans for brunch the following morning.

Brunch was at the Marigold Kitchen. If you are ever in Madison, go. Please. Do yourself the favor! It was great to combine groups of friends, this is something I do often and I love it when everyone meshes well! Erin, Sarah and Lizzi had other plans to get to after brunch, and Jenni, Erin and I made coffee plans with a friend of Jenni's and another friend of Erin and mine from school. We helped fill the coffee house with stories and laughter. After our afternoon date, we headed back to Erin's to lounge some more. We finally decided on dinner at the Great Dane. Best. Ever. Do it, also. Please.

Sunday morning we pulled out early and headed to Fond du Lac for some brief family time for both Jenni and I. Her family was celebrating a birthday and mine was going to help me with taxes and I wanted to get an oil change. Real fun stuff for Jenni! :) After our short stint in Fondy, we headed back to Minneapolis for an Oscar party! On the way back to Minneapolis, we got a phone call from our friend Kate, who was looking for some extra drinks for the Oscar party she was hosting! *For those of you who do not know, alcohol is not served in Minnesota on Sundays. Before Jenni and I left Wisconsin, we picked up some additional beverages.

The Oscar party was intended to have everyone dressed to the nines, and because I set Jenni and I back by close to a hour leaving Fond du Lac, we were not in 'to-the-nines' wear. Next time..

Short and sweet!

Recently I've been going through pictures and posts and memories of what I did in London last summer. I had so many exciting updates and trips to share! Unfortunately the weather in Minneapolis hasn't provided the greatest of opportunities to really and truly experience the Twin Cities as a proper tourist. As soon as the snow quits, I'll be sure to share every bit! 

For the meantime, I must apologize for not keeping regular tabs! I have a few trips to share, stories to tell, and the general hilarity that follows my random acts of stupidity. I'm making plans and setting goals with running and beginning to really get excited for races! I'll bring you up to date sooooon! I do have a few posts drafted, however, I haven't found any award-winning finishing touches. I'll be sure get them out in the next week or two. 

As of today, I've got a new address! Super exciting. The house is fantastic and it's going to be a wonderful opportunity to share the life of this house.

More fun and love to provide, given a little more time! 

Best. 

Networking.

If you know me, you know how much I enjoy networking and getting to know other people. This may or may not be why I am so interested in social media... to say I am connected is a bit of an understatement. Besides having this blog account, I also have Twitter, Tumblr, Instagram, Foursquare, LinkedIn, Klout, Pinterest, YouTube, and Facebook. I interact with a number of people on each outlet, and find the social media concepts to be learning opportunities. Here, I'll share a few small world moments that these connections have brought on.

This summer, I thoroughly enjoyed utilizing Foursquare to check in at famous locations, museums, tourist points of interest and airports. Early on in my European adventure, I had the opportunity to attend the Churchill War Rooms / Imperial War Museum with my Aussie friend, Fred. Towards the end of our trip with our class, we were able to visit the Churchill War Rooms / Imperial War Museum again. This was one of my favorite class trips, I had already been there before and all of the information was so great. This has got to be one of the most well done museums I have ever gone through. For Foursquare purposes, and because I was able to visit the Museum twice in three months (unless you work there, who does) I checked in on both occasions. This granted me Mayorship of the museum. It was not until the middle of September that social media informed me, the torch had passed. A man from Mexico had checked in more often than I had, and held the mayorship for quite some time, following my reign.

When I first moved to Minneapolis, I picked up a number of Minnesota-friendly followers on Twitter. One such person, @buddhastew who is described as "your local neighborhood woman boner", complete with a trombone in her picture. Considering my hobby and past of playing trombone, I reciprocated the follow, and tweeted at her asking where she plays and where about she is actually located in the Twin Cities. Wouldn't you know, she was performing on a cruise ship in the Caribbean (at the time). She then inquired about my job, asked if I was indeed working for the Minnesota Orchestra? I responded telling her I was, and that if possible we should get together when she returns to play duets. Just when I thought that would be as far as the connection went, people at worked mentioned a girl who used to work in our department, a trombone player who was currently performing on a cruise ship. When in fact, they knew exactly who she was. Lauren and I have since met, and on a number of occasions talked about getting together, though no plans have been made. We are just too busy!

Besides making friends and connections through social media interactions, I have been invited on a more professional level, by a friend from high school, Kate, to assist her at University of Minnesota Wrestling matches. I know I have touched on this briefly in the past, but there was one extra exciting event towards the end of January that left Kate and I on television. The Big Ten Network to be precise. The University of Minnesota was wrestling against Iowa, if you're familiar with sports conferences or the Big 10, you know this was a huge event. The dual was held in a larger venue than normal, and we were surrounded by Big Ten Network broadcasting staff (if you know who you're looking for, you'll enjoy some of the video around the one minute mark). Before the event began, I sent a quick text to my family and a few friends who I thought might get the channel and/or be interested. My brother, Morgan, went so far as to watch the event on TV (from South Carolina) and interact with me on the Minnesota Live Blog. Talk about cool. I love technology and how it brings people together.

More recently, my friend Marsha came to visit and we met at a coffee shop in Uptown (quite possibly my favorite), Spyhouse. While we were there, we had some small, casual conversation with a guy (Michael) who said he was visiting home for a couple weeks from China. A few harmless conversations, interjections and eavesdroppings later, we realized that Michael and I had a few mutual acquaintances. Not to mention similar plans for dinner. Michael was going to meet a friend for dinner at Pat's Tap. Marsha and I were going to grab food there as well. And later in the evening, I was going to stop by to see a friend who was going to dj. Towards the end of the late afternoon, when he went to take the bus to the place we were all going, Marsha and I extended him the offer of a ride. We quickly became connected through Twitter and have since kept up with one another.

Did you feel that? The world just got a little smaller. We must give thanks to social media, what else would we do with our free time?!
Sarah Marsh

Learning Curve

This month has continued to teach me that patience is a virtue and cars are not indestructible. Why do I know this? Because, in the month of January, I have experienced numerous occasions where my car did silly things and required my patience. This month kicked off with a ton of fun, some of which you probably read in past posts. What wasn't included were some near-to-tragic events with my car. I have had the opportunity to be angry with my car, which made me have patience over having no control and needing to wait for repair.

Initially, I had a small fender bender to begin the month. I tapped another vehicle while I was in reverse. Next-to-no damage, but the fact that it happened was enough. Saturday morning before work in Saint Paul. I stopped at the house the car was parked infront of to inform whomever owned the vehicle and consequently was late to work.

The following Saturday morning before work in Saint Paul, my door was frozen shut. Once I was able to unfreeze the door and get in to start warming up the car, my driver's side door would not shut. I ended up holding the door as tightly as I could with both hands and locking the door to make sure it stayed shut. How else do you expect me to have driven to Saint Paul with one hand on the door, one hand on the steering wheel and a third, that I do not have, on the shifter? Yes, yes I know that is impossible. Reasons why I needed a quick solution.

If you can believe it, the next Saturday morning on my way to work in Saint Paul (are you noticing the trend here?), I stopped for some gas in what was turning into a bad wintry mix. While stopped I planned on cleaning my windows for a fresh clean start before the weather kicked into overdrive. When I lifted the wipers off the windshield, one of my wiper blades tumbled to the ground. Just so happening to be the wiper in front of the driver's point of view. Go. Figure. I picked up the blade and headed the rest of the way to work.

Luckily, there is no official damage to the other vehicle, or mine, from the small accident. My door has had no problems (cross your fingers, knock on wood!) since that day, and the lovely man at AutoZone was able to snap my wiper blade back on easy as pie. At this point I felt confident is saying, nothing else could possibly go wrong with my car this month; that would just be crazy!

Until the next Friday night. I was headed to my cousin's house to babysit and something, a little more than half way from where I live to where they are, started making some noise. I was unable to tell just what it was, but I thought it was bizarre that I could hear it over my music. I waited until I arrive at their house to see what was the matter. Low and behold, my rear right tire was flat. I figured there was not much I could do to change the situation, so I went on to the house. Finding out quickly that my cousin didn't actually need me to babysit anymore, I had the time to contact AAA and be rescued.

Although unadvised to drive around on your spare, I managed to be successful at navigating around potholes for less than a week before selling an arm and a leg for two new tires. Game on car. Let's see what you will do -or won't do- the rest of winter!

More on the way!
Sarah Marsh

Life & Times in 2013

TAKE CALCULATED RISKS.
THAT IS QUITE
DIFFERENT FROM BEING RASH.

On New Years Eve, I spent the evening with the dear and wonderful, Jenni. When I finished work in St. Paul at the shoe store (more on this later), I picked her up and we headed to my place to make the dish I have so wonderful procrastinated on, the green bean casserole I received ingredients for as part of my Secret Santa. When it had cooked and without eating it, we moved on to apparel. Our plans included the Beer and Pretzel Party: Dress to Impress. With my personal stylist on hand, Jenni concocted what I was to wear so ensure we went out in style. We headed out to pick up our dinner, chinese take-out and then headed back to Jenni's to enjoy it- not to mention celebrate our fortune resolutions!!  Afterwards, we headed to Hannah and Amanda's for the shindig.

As we walked into the party, only knowing Hannah and Amanda, I could have sworn we walked into the wrong apartment. The music was going, conversations were innumerable, and there were so. many. people. Finally Amanda emerged from the crowd directing us on where to go to put our coats. Talk about a blast. There was dancing, great music, conversation, not to mention the meet and greets with soo manyyyyyyy peopppple. At one point, Jenni had a Michael Jackson encounter. This required photographic evidence:

PHOTO SHOOT WITH MICHAEL. .

HAPPY NEW YEARS!

Be jealous. We thoroughly enjoyed ourselves and could not thank Amanda and Hannah enough..

WITH OUR LOVELY HOSTESS', HANNAH AND AMANDA!

They provided a bit of a champagne fountain when it got closer to midnight. We counted down off of people's cell phone clocks, and rang in the new year with some of the world's best company! 

On New Years day, when I finally rolled out of bed, I went to Jenni's house to order more chinese take-out and to go see Perks of Being a Wallflower. I cannot wait to purchase the book, soundtrack, and movie- once it is released. This movie was wonderful and fascinating.

HANNAH BELTING IT FOR
LUNA AND THE SUNBROTHERS.

TAYLOR & ME LOVING
EVERY SECOND OF
SERENADING BY HANNAH.

I went to see Luna and the Sunbrothers peform at the coffee shop again, and the were of course marvelous. I'm really enjoying seeing Hannah so often, not to mention hearing her sing! The group is great, my offer still stands, if you want to join me- let me know! The coffee shop they perform at has recently gone under a name change. It was previously, Second Moon Coffee House. It is now called Precision Grind Coffee. It's located off of Franklin and 22nd, and they typically play every other Thursday (as in, this week, but not next, but then again on the following). Yes, they have this discussion every week and it is hilarious. :D They have great coffee, great art, and great sounds. If you're a fan of specialty drinks, straight up coffee, free WiFi, or jazz & blues, you should be there. As soon as possible. Let me know if you're interested in finding out more about them, or just visit their Facebook page!

Since it is the holidays and people are in the area that aren't always, a miniature London Reunion was in store. Adrian, Shannon and I live here now, and Taylor is home being on break from university. Taylor came up with a wonderful idea for an out-of-the-box activity and drinks: Sky Zone and Margaritas. Not at the same time, mind you.. that would be outrageous! We paid $8.00 for a half hour of jump time. Shannon and I were joking to Taylor that we should jump for an hour, we've got the time! Taylor kept insisting that she had done this before and we would understand when it got to that point. Sure enough. We had 12 minutes left to jump, and we were exhausted. It was such a great workout. Even a few days later now, my shoulders are aching horribly. When I stretch my arms out forward, the muscles between my shoulder blades feel like a telescope being opened, section by section. I cannot wait to go back!! After jumping, we headed to Taylor's for fantastic margaritas and catch-up time with Adrian, who unfortunately could not make it to the trampoline house.. Next time FOR SURE!

BIRKENSTOCK SOCKS. 

As you may have picked up on in the first sentence here, I have another job. This is another part time deal, looking to raise funds in my life. Here is the point in time where you say, "Of course you did."... I have a job at a shoe store called Shoesters. There are two locations in Minnesota, and two locations in Virginia. We specialize in foreign comfort shoes, some fashion shoes, and loads of Smart Wool clothing. I had to share this picture today. I organized all of the Smart Wool socks, and then moved on to fix the mess of several, maybe seven (?), boxes of unorganized Birkenstock socks. Here is the outcome: seven MORE boxes of ORGANIZED Birkenstock socks. Loveeeeee itttt! :)


A short note about a fun adventure.. On Sunday, Jenni and I headed to the Minneapolis Institute of Art to see the exhibit: China's Terracotta Warriors. It was fabulous. We arrived later than planned, around 10:45am only to find the MIA didn't open until 11:00am. Much to our surprise, there were somewhere around 100 people (or more, who knows!?) waiting in line ahead of us. Here is the moment Jenni reminds me, Sunday is the free, Target-sponsored day. Of course! We made our way into the atrium, happy to be warmer than the 1º F temperatures outside. This was the case, until MORE people came. It was tremendous, and everyone wanted to be out of the cold. Even the people standing outside.. who were holding the doors wide open. I'm leading off topic here... When they let us in, Jenni and I decided to start with the short documentary about the Terracotta Warriors. This video was immensely helpful, at least to me, as I have not studied or learned more about this since approximately Mr. Robert's 6th grade S.O.A.R. and history class. Yes, I know, shame on me. However, as soon as the first cycle of the video ended, the executive decision of getting in line for the exhibit was made. It maybe took a half hour for us to get in, but as we were heading through the exhibits, we heard employees saying the line had become so long that some people might not get through the exhibit today... WOW. I'm so glad we made it in.. not to mention snapped a couple photos to create the picture above. :)

Once again, I promise not to procrastinate on my blog posts again. It is entirely too difficult to remember details of events so far from the original fun!! Here is my resolution. At least two blogs a month. One for every trip I take, another for every crazy Minnesota-related adventure, and one to just let you know that life is swell and what crafts are in my head or cooking is being done in the kitchen. All of this needs work, and it's an adventure.. why not document it? It will be all the more fun to recount and revisit in days, weeks, months, and years to come.
Sarah Marsh

New Years!

Tonight held a little bit of reminiscing for me. I read through a few blogs from a year ago when I first started. I was recounting my enormous amount of anticipation for the fabulous trip I was taking to London in the summer and how excited I was to complete my final semester on campus at school. A year has come and gone, didn't it go by in a blink?

Each new year is like renewing your membership to something. You have a chance to evaluate how the last year went and what you want to change, work on, or challenge in the next year. You have every moment as opportunity to grow and develop further skills, make new friends and see new places. This year is the year of opportunity and ambition. Let's conquer these goals and make this year out-do the last. Game on.

To look back on this year's major events: I spent spring break in California with my best friend and family. I graduated from undergraduate university. For ten weeks, I lived in London. I visited Dublin (Ireland), Paris (France), Bangor (Wales), Kenilworth (UK), Brighton (UK), Cambridge (UK) and Brussels (Belgium). I spent about 36 hours in New York and half a week in Washington, DC. I bought a car. I got a job, in my field. I moved to Minneapolis. I spent a long weekend in Arizona. This year has been spectacular. Pictures and words do not even begin to describe how wonderful my experiences have been.

Here is an extra special thank you to all of my friends, family and other various forms of support networks. Thank you for encouraging me to be the best person I can be, to experience things that only happen once in a lifetime (if you're lucky), and supporting me through all my endeavors. It's because you are so awesome that I can attempt to live so fully. <3 I wish you the very best new years you've ever had.

Bring it on 2013. Let's get this party started.
Sarah Marsh