tom wants to bring roses to the teacher.

HAPPY VALENTINE’S DAY, dearest internetland.

Man, it feels like I haven’t updated in forever. Which is always code for ‘I have a lot of typing to do, but I’m going to have to rush and maybe abbreviate some words’.

Thursday I did not go to the working, but instead stayed home and was a whirlwind of productivity. I did everything except my travel journal, because apparently that’s my taking-forever thing at the moment. Someday you, yes YOU, will get to read the story of me getting kissed by a cab driver in Nassau.

Thursday evening, I did my last truffle delivery and met a man named Stan who tried to convince me to put on an event for the entire Department of Education. Which would be cool, but that’s not really what I do. I told him I’d let him know about the bowling fundraiser, if I ever ever get word back from the Catholic bowling people. Also, it took me over two hours to get to Roseville and back in the snowstorm. I was cursing my head off, and only became amused once I realized that I really take things like weather and traffic personally. I have a Yossarian complex.

Friday, work was extremely quiet and Tom and I talked about .NET class a lot, because it rules. I left at 4 and headed off to the gym as usual, but then I realized I was walking right past the Depot and the rink was nearly empty! So I went skating for an hour instead. I seriously love ice-skating, and also my nice skates that don’t suck like rentals. Alsoalso, I want to go to Rollerdome sometime. Like, now.

Afterwards, I went to St Paul, but only because you have to go to St Paul if you want to see professional lacrosse. It’s like a technicality. Kaye and I went to Cafe Latte for dinner, and I got a parking ticket while Chico was sitting in a perfectly innocent-looking spot in a residential neighborhood. St Paul has it out for me, I know it. I can park illegally for a year in Minneapolis before they even start to think about giving me a ticket.

In St Paul’s favor, though, their tickets are $10 cheaper.

So afterwards, EXCITEMENT: we went to see the Swarm. I didn’t really know much about lacrosse except it’s supposed to be hockeyesque, violent, and goofy like pro-wrestling. The thing that convinced me I had to go to that very game was their theme night, called Guns n’ Hoses. They were celebrating the police and firefighters with a bunch of silly events: the SWAT team rappelled from the ceiling of Xcel Center to drop the game ball, they had the K-9 dog ripping off a cop’s fake arm and running around with it, and the SWAT team rode tricycles and did limbo at halftime. Also, there was the Swarm Performance Team, which is a really ridiculous dance line that seems to mainly serve as an ad for a local fake-tanning salon. Mmm, orange glow.

Lacrosse RULED. It’s pretty much just hockey on fake grass, and the dudes get into bare-fist fights sometimes. They wear the usual jerseys with lots of padding on top, and little shorts on the bottom, so they look all disproportionate and dorky. Except the goaltenders, who look like giant angry robots. We’re definitely going to be checking that out again.

Before going to bed that night, I cast on for the Knitting Olympics!!!

Saturday morning I had brunch with Bertine and Steve, then ran a million errands before Team Awesome headed to Gay Bingo. We didn’t win anything this time (I thought we were on a streak!), but that’s probably because Miss Richfield had to duck out at 8.

We left bingo around 9:30 and went over to Bertine’s housewarming party. Because we’re awesome, we brought her a bottle of Wild Turkey and Jesus candles, ordered a pizza to be delivered there, did shots of ouzo and fake absinthe and something pink, beat each other on the head while we traded off wearing army helmets (I have bruised knuckles from punching Wendy in the head as hard as I could – because she told me to, of course), did our best to avoid that one dude and that other dude, and propelled shirtless-Jon into a crowd of really confused partygoers. And then we left.

(Sober) Kaye drove us out to the geographical center of nowhere to play trivia. Sean has a team that does this 50-hour weekend-long trivia marathon thing that’s broadcast from a St Cloud radio station. People were going out there in shifts to help out, so we decided to take the 12-4am timeslot because we’re hardcore like that. When we got there, we were fairly useless, and I couldn’t believe how obscure the questions were. They had a bunch of computers set up, and everybody was on Google or the phone. You had 10 or 20 minutes to call in an answer for the team, and they did about six questions an hour.

Jon got a question right away, so we were inspired. I claimed a computer and started poking around on Google and finally got the hang of it. I ended up getting four questions in the time we were there, so I was excited.

I was dying watching Wendy dozing off on the couch, then on the floor behind the couch. Apparently she went and slept on the bathroom floor for 15 minutes. You know what’s bizarre? Seeing Wendy quiet. Hahaha.

We bailed around 4:30 and drove back through the cancer fields of the Koch Refinery. I got to bed at 6am, and slept til almost noon on Sunday. Sleeping until noon on Sunday really sucks, because you’ve lost like half the day. But for trivia, it was fine. I’d love to do the whole 50 hours next year.

Sunday was satisfyingly quiet after a crazy week: I sat on my couch in the sun and worked on my knitting, and went shopping and to dinner. Afterwards, I did manage to get the first day done on my travel journal, but it’s slow-going. My main incentive is that some of the photos are great, although looking at them is like torture sometimes. If only I’d never have spent time in warm, palm-treed, oceany places, I wouldn’t crave them so much.

Last night, we went to see Seether and Shinedown at Myth. I know I’m old, but that rockstar fuck-everyone attitude is really, really old. The Shinedown guy was WAY into it. He told all the kids in the audience to go tell whoever it is that’s keeping them down (presumably everyone) to FUCK OFF!!!! (Cue five solid minutes of cheering.) And, you know? That’s actually not going to get you far in life, dude. Hahaha. Anyway! Seether was still pantswetting exciting, and we were up front, so that meant sweat-drenching and stomping and chaos, which I love. It’s such a beautiful, totally messed-up experience. It’s hard to explain.

When they did Heart-shaped Box, it occurred to me that there probably weren’t many of us there who had seen Nirvana live. Because hardly anyone there was OLD ENOUGH to have seen Nirvana live. I love all-ages shows.

OMG I’m going to see all the final five games (Hockey marathon)! OMG I want to book my Alaska trip! OMG I can’t believe I’m spending Valentine’s Day with Tom and Bertine and Christopher at .NET class!!

Awwwwwwww!
Jenni