I’m back!<\/p>\n
I had to stop in before I traipsed off to Wisconsin again. This week has been fairly uneventful, but that’s not going to stop me from being wordy about it.<\/p>\nMonday, I did some reading (it’s a rare and lovely novelty nowadays), coffeeshop-hopping, and then ended the night with Cindi and Bill at Lyle’s, parked in front of the Twins game on the projection-TV, which caused Cin to wonder, “Why are those guys staring at us?” Well, the giant floating head of Joe Mauer, of course.<\/p>\nTuesday, I was meeting Stephanie and Wendy at the Mall (celebrating its 14th birthday right now, just FYI), and this will demonstrate the level of obsession I have with the book I was reading: I intentionally went out there early, got coffee, and curled up in a giant purple velvet chair at Starbucks. At the Mall of America. Willingly. That’s how much I couldn’t put it down.<\/p>\nWhen they arrived, I shopped and managed to have the most painless shopping spree of all time. I tried on three things and they were all perfect, I found my 3day pants (seriously, try walking 60 miles in a pair of socks or pants or even underwear and then reconsider whether you should’ve been more picky about your choice of clothing; it’s more important than you’d think), and then escaped the mall just in time to see the most amazing sunset, the kind that makes you nearly crash your car 16 times over because you can’t stop gawking at it.<\/p>\nYesterday, I spent a good portion of the day enraged at work, did a very successful installation at 4:30, and then dashed out in the painful heat-and-humidity to meet Cindi at the News Room, a restaurant I never thought I’d like, but do. A lot. We had cocktails and cheese porn and then scurried across the street to the Local (we were being encouraged to go to Kieran’s instead, but unfortunately the nearer Irishmen won out) to await Stephanie and the show. We were sitting at the bar having a fascinating conversation about nuns, when I realized that I was being bumped-into repeatedly by a dude in a suit and bowtie, there chillin’ with his other lawyerly pals; once Stephanie arrived, we headed to a little table-hideout in the back, safe from the perils associated with the legal set.<\/p>\nAround eight, we headed over to the State Theatre to see Muse. I’m pretty sure I haven’t been inside that building since I left there a few years ago, and it was a bizarre kind of trip to be back in a place I spent six years of my life. Even the carpet was all-too-memorable. Add to that the fact that I ran into an old coworker within two minutes of arriving, and my nerves were jangled; I was really happy to see him, though, and got his number so we can keep in touch.<\/p>\nNow, until recently, the Muse show I saw at Quest was the BEST SHOW I’D EVER SEEN, and therefore I had high expectations. I was bummed when I found out it was in the theatre, because, you know? Seats. I’ve decided that in order for a show to be truly great, it should not have seats. They just get in the way. Anyway, their performance was excellent, even higher-energy than the last time I saw them. But the crowd was mostly 20-year-olds wearing skinny jeans and gay-boy hair (even the girls), the kind of kids that are scared to death to be caught doing things like dancing or having fun. A good .05% of us in the crowd managed to rock our asses off regardless, stupid chairs and all.<\/p>\nOn the way out, I ran into another girl I knew from my morning coffeeshop, and this reminded me that based on the evidence of many many recent encounters, it’s safe to assume what I’ve always felt in the past, though perhaps not so substantially as I have lately: there’s someone I know everywhere I go. This is one of those crazy notions that’s going to devolve into me as an old lady, considering all of humanity my pal. Eh. Could be a hell of a lot worse, yes?<\/p>\nAfterwards, we rushed over to join the crew at Luce for Triviasco. Our four-person team from last time had multiplied into fourteen, which had to be broken up into three teams. I didn’t even play trivia, due to the fact that I have little to contribute in the way of current events and pop culture, but I make up for it in talking to strangers, playing stupid pranks, and encouraging people to do terribly untasty shots. Despite the fact that our plans for a trivia superpower hadn’t materialized, the team made up of Bill, Wendy, Sean, and Christine even won!<\/p>\nAfter trivia, I had second thoughts about not accepting a ride back to my car, which was parked near work. No matter how fast you rush past Schiek’s<\/a> at 12:30am, it’s nowhere fast enough.<\/p>\nToday I was awakened by a call from work, but otherwise the day went swimmingly and I am achieving Professional Crystal Reports Developer status, a title which will never, ever see the front page of my resume, because I hate it possibly even more than Sharepoint. However, almost all the reports are done, and when they are complete, I think I will probably deserve a vacation. This evening, I packed my swanky Alaskan overnight bag (as I’m leaving from work tomorrow), and then went to Urban Bean to finish my book, because I cannot possibly do anything not-in-public except sleep, apparently. So, yeah! The book, by the way, is Into the Wild<\/a> (please note my new vox site: yeah, I know). It made my heart hurt a little to read it, and it sucks trying not to cry at the coffeeshop, especially since the boy has decided we’re BFF now that I’ve been there twice recently, and therefore likes to come chat while I’m reading.<\/p>\nI keep wondering if Alaska just haunts me so much because it’s recent, and that will fade, or if it’s somehow different. I still get that teeth-clenching feeling about Prague sometimes, too. But there are a few places that draw out my romantic wander-longings far more than others, and I’ve realized they all share that thing that fascinates and scares me. Alaska, New Mexico, Montana, the Mojave Desert. Interesting.<\/p>\nOK, ’tis time for me to make with the sleeping. Good night!I’m back! I had to stop in before I traipsed off to Wisconsin again. This week has been fairly uneventful, but that’s not going to stop me from being wordy about it. Monday, I did some reading (it’s a rare and lovely novelty nowadays), coffeeshop-hopping, and then ended the night with Cindi and Bill at …read more<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_is_tweetstorm":false,"jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":false,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","enabled":false}}},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-303","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/po9qt-4T","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/queenofsubtle.com\/cm\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/303","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/queenofsubtle.com\/cm\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/queenofsubtle.com\/cm\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/queenofsubtle.com\/cm\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/queenofsubtle.com\/cm\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=303"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"http:\/\/queenofsubtle.com\/cm\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/303\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/queenofsubtle.com\/cm\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=303"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/queenofsubtle.com\/cm\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=303"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/queenofsubtle.com\/cm\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=303"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}