A Funny

I was talking to my good friend this evening. He tells me he had a "scary dream" . I asked what it was and he tells me.

"I had a dream you lost your job"

"Wow, that would be awesome"

He laughed and said "Yeah, that's how you are in the dream. I was freaking out for you and you just said you could go back to waitressing"

I don' t know why, but I got a kick out of it.

Perhaps it is a sign.

Stuck

I know that the label of my blog indicates I am a knitting and caffeine addict. The caffeine addiction is still there, but I have been on the wagon with the knitting.

This is not voluntary . I really want to knit again. I just haven't been able too. I haven't knit since February. I haven't been to a yarn store in months. My Vogue and Rowan knitting magazine subscriptions have lapsed. I no longer know the new Rowan yarns. This saddens me.

I honestly think I am "stuck". I have 2 unfinished projects. The culprits are Martha from Rowan Cork Collection and Mary from the Debbie Bliss Cotton Angora Collection. the knitting portion is done. I just have to sew the pieces together. This is my least favorite thing about knitting. For whatever reason I can't get myself to do it. So the 2 unfinished projects have sat for about 7 months. I haven't knit in that long. That is very odd for me. Granted I now have a roommate that entertains me, and I have been reading a lot more. Enough with the excuses. I really need to get those finished, so I can feel like I can really knit again.

I did manage to choke out a pair of baby booties for a friend who is having a baby. But that is less than a 2 hour project. I need to up the ante on knitting. My yarn stash is taunting me.

Below is one of the 2 booties. The other one is with the future mother. This one needs to get to her. Don't ask...

Pattern from Knitting Pretty.

I think I will need to suck it up and get my seaming needle ready this weekend.

I heart the Farmers Market

I can't say any more. I absolutely love the farmers market. You can not get a better deal on flowers, meats and produce and it's top notch. That, my friends, is what the summer is for.

Unfortunately I have only been once before this past weekend. A shame I know, but being out of town a majority of weekends has it's drawbacks.

I woke up late Saturday morning, glanced over at the clock and thought "there's time! I can go!" I woke at approximately 11:30am and was out the door at 11:50. There was no time to be wasted, the market closed at 1. I also needed to get cash, so I raced out of the house, ready to roll.

After stopping at a gas station for cash and driving around for about 10 minutes looking for parking I was there at about noon. I had a whole hour of shopping pleasure.

I wasted no time. I grabbed my bag to carry the soon to be purchased goods and raced down the block to my destination. Aha! People! Plants! Strollers (although I am annoyed by their blocking presence)!. Here at last.

After zig-zaging row by row. I left with my goods in tow. This was approximately 55 minutes later. It didn't take long to load up on the following:



1 whole pineapple
2 fillets sushi grade fresh tuna
1 lb frozen free range ground turkey breast
1 bunch flowers
Approximately 1 lb of fresh blueberries
1 container strawberries
1 large bunch bananas
approx 6 large tomatoes
4 links gourmet chicken sausage (and mighty tasty I might add)
1 bunch fresh asparagus
6 ears sweet corn (for 2 dollars!)
3 cucumbers
3 green peppers
3 red peppers
12 fresh from the farm eggs.

Jackpot! I did go a bit nuts, but it was FUN! We enjoyed some of the goods Saturday evening. We had the tuna seared, mine with a bit of wasabi. The asparagus was sauteed with the red peppers. Toss in a bit of garlic and balsamic and it was a damn tasty side dish.

We also, will have a ton of fruits and veggies to put away this week, but that is a good thing..... right?

I can't enjoy the market again until memorial weekend. I am thinking of buying a bushel of tomatoes for $10 (so CHEAP!), so I can try to make a tasty pasta sauce for winter.

You can't beat the Minneapolis Farmer's Market.

Phew....

For those of you who don't know, I quit my health club late last spring. I was getting sick of the environment and needed a change. I figured I would take the summer off and run (or walk) outside to get exercise.

When I was in New York over Memorial Day my friend Kim and I talked about heading to the Firm together. I was excited. The Firm is a GREAT club. Fantastic, upbeat classes that completely kick your ass. They also have been rated as one of the best gyms by Glamour and Self. That tells you something. I went there regularly a number of years ago, took kickboxing, yoga and other classes there. I also shared a personal trainer with T and got into pretty decent shape.

Kim had wanted to go back (since she used to go also) and I did too. This is the thing. We didn't want to go alone. I am telling you the place used to have this kind of intimidation factor. It's urban, raw and sweaty. There is loud music pulsating throughout the warehouse space it is located in. That and the fact that I remembered everyone running around with half-clothed perfect bodies. We decided to go again together. This way we could force each other to go and get back into the swing of things.

We first went about 2 weeks ago. The place has changed a bit, but it still holds the high energy feel and pulse that it used to have. They also purchased the gym upstairs so they now has an open gym (this was not a thing they used to have, it was all classes..gym was personal training only). The perfect bodies are still there, but the clientele has normalized out a bit. Overall a good thing.

We took a kickboxing class and it was great. I was sore for 2 days afterwards. I can tell that this is the beginning of a good, good thing.

We headed over there tonight for a cardio circuit class. This class was packed. It ends up that the instructor, this high energy guy, used to live next to Kim. He comes over chats us up for a bit and tells us that there are ear plugs available if we need them. I tell you they play the music that loud. It's great.

LOVED the class. I not only got a great workout, but I had a fantastic time. There is something about the vibe of the place, the music pulsating and people crammed into a room sweating their asses off that is fun. Perhaps it is a sexual thing..who knows..who cares. It was FABULOUS!

I've decided....the Firm is my new gym now. Once summer slows down I will be heading back there regularly.

Normal-C! Review and Very Random Ramblings

I was finally able to get the final showing of Normal-C on Sunday night. This is the show that DJ was doing slideshow stuff for and I had a free pass. I really had been wanting to go, but the late showings were too late for my in bed by 11pm ass, so the Sunday showing at 4pm was perfect.

I really liked the show. It was entertaining and it also made one think a bit. Overall a great show.

Some words on Courtney. It amazed me how much of herself she put into this. She really puts it all out there and I have an immense amount of respect for it. I met her for a total of 5 minutes prior to the show. I could immediately tell she was an open person. She really put it all out there for the show. I envy people like that, since I am not at all like that. I guess it must be the Midwestern rearing, but I am a tough nut to crack :).

She did a segment on the Female Midlife Crisis...This which occurred for her in her mid-twenties. I also found that I had a similar situation. Not necessarily a mid-life crisis of sorts, but some sort of restlessness. Society sends us strong signals to do things in an "acceptable" order. Go to college, find a nice job, find a nice mate, produce offspring, move to the suburbs and live "happily ever after". Excuse the tangent here, but I don't think that's for everyone and at this moment in my life I know it isn't for me. Hell, my twenties were a time of self-doubt and reflection. Who was I? What do I want? I was also a lot more insecure at that time. Not that it all was bad, I partied a lot and had a lot of fun during those times as well.

Now that I am in my thirties I feel a lot more settled, but I still don't feel that need to continue down the 2.5 kids and dog route. I still feel like there is so many things I want to do that are in store for me. I haven't found the job that is for me. I understand that most folks don't love their jobs, but why give up that search? I am not ready to settle into corporate America for the rest of my working days. I want to travel, I want to figure out what I am meant to do for a living and I want to experience new things. There is way to many things I haven't done yet. The older I get the more I think that kids may not be in my cards. I want to experience my partner and share things before you have to deal with the stress of bringing up a responsible human being.

Wow, what a tangent....Excuse the roundabout random ramblings...But hey....

Life IS about the journey, n'est pas?

Minnesota Summers

Sorry for the lack of posting lately. Things have been busy here in the former Tundra, since it is now summertime.

Minnesotans do a funny thing during the summer. We cram a year's of activities into the months of June-Sept. That is 52 weeks of activity into 12 fun-filled weekends. With what you may ask. That's a difficult question. In my younger days it used to be weddings. Now it seems everyone is hitched, so that changes the focus a bit. We have been heading up nort' a lot lately to various cabins. Us midwesterners love our cabins and going up nort' as outlined in DJ's previous post. Actually, the more I think about it, we are a lot like birds who migrate. We head south for the winter (snow bird snydrome) and we migrate north for the summer (even if it is only for the weekends). Cabins are great and fun and all, but after a while you crave a weekend at home.

And, that, is exactly what we did last weekend. Relief at last..

Friday was a fun filled time for Ms. Jackson's birthday at the Herk. After a few APPS, drinks and coversation, we headed next door to the VFW. Yes, that is the VFW. Now, you would expect to sit in a VFW when you are a ho-dunk town for a cabin weekend, but there we were in Uptown Minneapolis, at the VFW.

I may have been a bit skeptical at first, but it ended up being great fun. They have karaoke at the VFW on Fridays and it was a good crowd. That and the fact that our waiter didn't have any teeth made the place pretty entertaining.

You can see video of the extravaganza here. Ms. J pulled out all the stops for the karaoke, which she loves. I did have a bit too much fun though. Thank God that DJ forced me to drink to huge glasses of water and take some advil. I would have had a killer headache the next morning if I had not have done that.

For more fun...pics from the evening are here.

The rest of the weekend was quiet. We headed to the Uptown Art Fair on Saturday and hung around the house. I didn't move from home on Sunday and finshed my book. The book was fab. I'll post more about that later.