Hmmm....

I decided that someone needs to have a wedding soon (*coughBrianacough*) so we can all get together for a grand celebration. I promise to bring a nice gift!
eh? eh??

Best Advice for 20Somethings

I'm in love with this article...seriously some great advice.
Let's LIVE A LITTLE while it's still socially acceptable...

tickle the kiwis...

TICKLE

The NYC Contingent Grows By 1

So this is going to be a brief (but action-packed!!) update. I finished my gig at Carleton at the end of April and while I was über pleased to be done with it, in the end it was a more rewarding experience than I'd anticipated. If any of you want advice on how to get into selective undergrad programs, just let me know.

Since then I went to my mom's graduation from grad school and have been hanging out at home for a week. It's been nice to help my dad and chill with my grandpa (who starts every conversation with a perplexed question about South America...he's real adorable) but now I'm on to another step. And that step will take place in...

New York! I put a lot of thought into it and decided that it's where most of the jobs I'm finding are located and it also has the greatest concentration of friends here in the US. So I'm flying out tomorrow to follow up on some job applications, hit the pavement to find more opportunities, and start networking with alums/other contacts. I have a summer sublet with a really chill (read: stoner) NYU law student in E. Williamsburg and I'm just looking forward to another new start in a stimulating place.

And that's my update. I'll definitely have more anecdotes from Carleton (and soon, NYC) to share with you all when I see you. Hope you're all doing great, talk with you soon!

Best Quote Ever

Andrew: "He's making sweet walrus love to that guitar." [in reference to the base guitarist in the band at the bar we were at who had the FUNNIEST facial expressions]

This was later followed by " I hope to God that's not his O face".

#good times

california por una mas ano...

por/para?

anyway, i'm staying on the west coast for another yearrrrr. i'll leave emandal on sept. 5 and start work in watsonville on the 6th! this new dig is 30 min from santa cruz, an hour from big sur, and four miles from ze closest beach. i'm doing another year with AmeriCorps, this time helping out at a charter middle school. we'll see how it goes! just wanted to drop the line in case any of you were thinking about heading westward, tambien!

Half-marathon: check!

Hey y'all - I just finished my first half-marathon! To be completely honest, I had to take a few power walk breaks after mile 9, but I was happy I made it that far. Thus, my time was a very modest 2:19:21, a little over 10 min/mile. Everyone who finished the race got a medal and (what I most craved!) a sticker that simply says 13.1. I can't wait to put it on my car! Now I'm exhausted and eating eating eating drinking. Hope y'all are well:)

Sparkling Innovation

Hey Guys - I wanted to update you on my life...




So I just got promoted, which means I'm "rotating," as they call it, to a new department. I'm now going to be working on the "Sparkling Innovation" team.




Still learning what this means, but basically, I do short term innovation of all carbonated soft drinks. So I get to develop new products (everything from what flavor goes into it to what the brand message is to how the packaging looks, etc). I get to work with our Consumer Insights team to look at research on what consumers want and what type of product would fill that want. I even get to work with the Supply Chain team to figure out how the product should be priced and what the marketing plan should be before we hand it off to the brand team.

Though I'm super sad to leave the sports team (probably the coolest job I will have ever had, not to mention it was basically a FRAT of coworkers I went drinking with at different sporting events), I'm incredibly excited for this new role. It's going to be a lot of creative thinking full of brainstorms and consumer focus groups (people watching at its finest behind a two way mirror = AWESOME).

This move also came at the perfect time...they announced it at the Sports Party last Thursday...so I ended my sports rotation drinking with all of our sports partners. Let's just say my night ended with a crazy ride on the Sports Bus (read: crazy party bus with a full bar, leather couches, tvs, and a killer sound system) that included much dancing and debauchery. They also totally asked me to play DJ on the bus (briana, you would have been so proud of how I got my 40-year-old coworkers singing along to Richman and I'm On A Boat).

I'm learning more about what I will be working on next week, but I won't really be able to update you (pretty sure all the projects are top secret...HOW COOL IS THAT?).

Also, my mom said I got this job because I'm both sparkling and innovative (God knows she's told my whole home town this). She clearly doesn't know my sarcastic, whiny side, but I do have to admit, I'm psyched to have such a cool and happy sounding title on my new business cards. :)

ZE SPREENG

Frrrriends. The farm just started groovin' this week (in term of tripling its human population and the cessation of 10-days' continuous rain)! Folks have moved in and studying (re: lesson planning) has started. I start teaching Waldorf (imagination/fairy-driven schools) and Montessori (child-centric, pragmatic schools) students at the top of May...so I'm working on cramming in some stellar local environmental/natural history knowledge. If you come visit this summer (highly recommended), I should be able to teach you anything you wish...or effectively use a dichotomous key or a scat/print tracking guide to deduce the answer.

A few things I've learned:

• False Spanish Moss is especially false because it is not moss, but a lichen. Also called Old Man's Beard for obvious physical reasons.
• Douglas Fir Trees are not true fir trees, partly due to how their cones grow and some other reasons I have yet to learn. Their needles taste strongly of lemon.
• Madrones can be remembered as "refrigerator" trees because they frequently have exposed smooth bark that is always cool to the touch even in summer.

I've got a lot more to learn. These training days are partly composed of lesson planning and partly composed of gardening, trail maintenance, hiking, cleaning, and cooking (today: flour tortillas...which are incredibly easy! 3 c flour, 1/2 tsp baking powder, 3 tbs shortening, 1/3-1/4 c butter (?), 1 and 1/4 tsp sea salt (less is using table salt), and 3/4 c warm water). We ate them today for supper. So far, I've only made one very small social flub. Apparently people consider exaggerated stories as "lies," something I probably ought to have taken seriously by now. In this case, I extrapolated on a brief 5k by saying that I'd actually run 10 miles (starting at 8 p.m.) and run into the illegal immigrant cartels that are starting to set up for their season 'round the mountain. I didn't realize that people might actually believe this. Whoops.

Anyway, I also used the German accent. I've definitely made one friend off it...she laughed pretty hard. Others sort of were uncertain as to what to do. You can probably guess the two phrases I divulged. It seems like an extraordinarily long time since I've talked any of you, really, and I worry a little bit, now working with people in their mid-to-late 20s who don't appear to have a lot of contact or connection with their college friends. I'm going to try to write more letters to you! That seems to be the primary way I've been keeping in touch with the Cape Codders. But two years since we've actually hung out for longer than a day...and the gap keeps growing. Perhaps in a few years? More importantly, I need to replenish my database of stories to tell. (Place winking emoticon here.) In terms of socially acceptable behavior/first encounters, I've come a long way since Cape, which means there are hardly any good awkward stories to tell! Hmm. A sign of growth?

Tomorrow we're having a "progressive" dinner (re: tapas and alcohol) with the whole staff. Maybe more stories to come after that? I'll keep you posted.

Harry Potter the Musical

So I just discovered this...did you guys know that the oh so hot blaine from glee wrote and starred in a harry potter musical at university of michigan??? I think I'm in love...

I hope they recruit this guy for glee...

I may be a Disney nerd, but THIS can't be described as anything other than fantastic...

Spring Awakening

It's been way easy keeping nostalgia and rose-tinted reflection at bay thus far in my stint at Carleton. This is primarily because being friendless and 24 in Northfield is so utterly boring and stagnant that romanticizing the place would require seriously conscious effort on my part.

THAT SAID, today was the start of spring term and I have to say I got a little misty-eyed (jk, but definitely a less dramatic version of "misty-eyed") seeing people frolic. Even though the temperature was still in the 30's (fuck you Minnesota) campus was full of people studying t-shirted in the sun and running in twos and threes. Most beautiful though was the game of frisbee on the Chapel lawn accompanied by what could only have been mixed drinks in nalgenes. I stopped and watched for a while in fond recollection.

All of that is to say that life is returning to Carleton and while it doesn't tug at my heartstrings in an "I want to go to there" kind of way, it definitely makes me miss and appreciate you pals. Hopefully I'll be able to play drunk frisbee/bocce ball (in matching polos, Andrew) with you again soon!

Utter terror.

Hahahahahahahaha!

Joining the masses?

Yeah, so I randomly got a job through a temp agency.

Starting tomorrow at 9:45 AM I'm working for Wells Fargo. I'm at one of their main offices...doing adminstrative/customer service type work? Not entirely clear what all my duties will entail yet. But its 40 hrs a week! 10-7pm. Just a 3 month assignment, so not too stressful with the commitment.

I'm just focusing on getting money in the bank. Well, that is what I'm repeating to myself as I try to envision a closet filled with "business casual" attire.

I currently own 1 pair of dress pants and 2 dress shirts. lol.

Have I mentioned I hate dress pants? SO UNCOMFORTABLE. And I'm someone who lives in skinny jeans--the tighter the better. I just hate that stiff crunchy dressy feeling! Just like prison shackles chaining you to the corporate ladder.

If I ever find myself the CEO of a company, I'm making the dress code "Look Awesome and Fashionable"

I'm thinking of applying for a job with Google. New York office perhaps? Amy I'm looking at you! :]

Mardi Gras Checklist:

1. Go to brunch with Bacchus Club (elite group who organizes and pays for an entire parade, one of about 12 parades)
1.1 drink copious amounts of free mimosas: it's going to be a long day.
2. Send off the parade and kiss up to old men to give us beads before they leave
2.1 Cry out desperately for a small stuffed crawfish. Success.
3. Attend Bacchus Ball wearing Jersey cotton floor length dresses while everyone else was at Miss America because we were invited at the last minute. Shame in dresswear lasted as long as our sobriety. Get hit on by the only young man at the table culminating in an "escape" later as he bemoans my absence to HIS PARENTS who are also sitting at our table. Are you 22 or 12? wtf. Parade come through convention center where ball is and we [the crowd] get all the leftover beads. Mass competition to get beads ensues. Our small contingent ends up with 80lbs!
4. Go to "Brennan's" for brunch. Notice the silverware is real silver. Notice the cheapest item is a $36 three-course meal. Immediately leave while adult in group fakes sickness.
4. Eat beignets. EAT MORE BEIGNETS!!! Too many.
5. Nap.
6. Eat oysters because it IS New Orleans. Ewww, still don't like. (Shrimp Po-boys rule!!!)
7. Secretly get into the Roosevelt Hotel (Waldorf0-Astoria) masterpiece of a bar for New Orleans classic drink, the Sazerac. Nate, you would have loved it. 1 hour to drink that whiskey because it was that good.
8. Bourbon Street
8.1 Too sober. Wayyyyyyyyyy to sober.
8.2 Find "Hand Grenades" - sketchy green drink served in bottle that looks like a hand-grenade. No idea of contents, suspect Midori and Everclear. After 1.5 of these, ready to hit the street.
8.3 See man with beads on balcony; make eye-contact; proceed to begin removing clothing items; notice someone is filming; give both people the finger. Find success at other balconies with no camera present - yay beads!!!!
8.4 Become power hungry: NEED TO GET ON A BALCONY AND HAVE POWER TO THROW BEADS!!!
8.5 Avoid cover at bar with half-naked girls dancing below and make it to balcony. Proceed to make friends with cute boy from CA. Throw beads. SUCCESS - Get a man to expose himself!
8.6 Surprise kiss attractive CA boy before turning on heal and marching out of bar with friends
9. Sleeeeeep zzzzzzzzzzz

Toff

rip

New York Holidays

So one of my favorite things about new york is the holidays created solely for drinking.

For example...
The Day Before Thanksgiving
The NYC Marathon (drinking while other people work hard...LOVE IT)
AND St. Patrick's Day

Now you may think St. Patrick's Day exists as a drinking holiday pretty much everywhere, but in new york, it's the entire month of march. It starts tomorrow in Hoboken, NJ with bars opening around 7am...and continues every saturday (all day saturday) all march. I'm headed to hoboken tomorrow...I'll let you know how the festivities go.

On a real holiday note, my neighbor is having a Mardi Gras party tomorrow night. Apparently there's going to be a cake with a baby in it...and whoever finds the baby has good luck for a year. When I heard this, I instantly thought of ryeon...how have we never made a baby cake???

I give a f*ck about an Oxford comma . . .

Running on a platform inspired by Vampire Weekend, I just became the new Editor in Chief of the Southeastern Environmental Law Journal. Booooooyaaaaaaaaa!!! I love the feeling of responsibility before it actually kicks in:)

I have since arrived in the lush "Heart of Mendocino County" and the "Gateway to the Redwoods." The town itself reminds me of a much longer Division Street, replete with odd shops and more general stores. Instead of pizza joints, they have healthy fast food. Instead of college students, you have farmers and dreadlocks (rarely in combination). On Sunday, I embarked on the 30-45 minute drive (45 for me) to get inner tubes for my deflated bike tires. To make my trek more worthwhile, I checked out the Used Book store, which has shelves that reach the ceiling and narrow aisles. I had hoped for a used Infinite Jest so I can stop making excuses, but instead found a copy of ZZ Packer's short stories ("Brownies" is good), but was too cheap to purchase it just yet. Finally, my trip culminated at the toy store, where I bought a baby's board book as a gift for one of the family members, who's due to be induced Thursday...re: this baby's going to be close to 10-12 lbs. I bought him a book on cookies.

BUT the beauty of my life exists on the farm.

After winding up and down narrow dirt roads, you end up on a rich patch of land where goats, ostriches, cows, llamas, sheep, chickens, cats and dogs roam about. The property extends for 1,000 acres, something I still have trouble fathoming, given my upbringing on a half an acre. Best comparison: a Carleton Arb plus some. I only work W-F, which has given me three days of ample time to settle in. My room is the one featured on the other side of the trellis in the photo.

Today, I spent my day hiking in the mountains and wandering by the river. I'm trying to get myself to READ and MEMORIZE a field guide to Western trees. Apparently, a twig and branchlet are not the same, something I'd scarcely ever contemplated before now...not monumental, but a start! (FYI: a twig is the end portion of a branch, whereas a branchlet encompasses all the other portions.)

I've been spoiled on the food as well. Tonight, a full spread of Indian food made from scratch--dal, chicken makhani, palak paneer, naan, and raita (yogurt-cucumber dish). You know, just whipping this up in 90 mins. somehow conjuring up double laminated chocolate croissants in the mean time. (Laminated=folding the butter into the dough; unsure what "double" adds...) We concluded with a chocolate cream pie that my housemate made (re: Gourmet cookbook, where every recipe req. 500 ingredients) and whipped cream (a garnish that frequently accompanies foods here).

Needless to say, I'm relatively content. I'm a little shy still, given my vast lack of skills in this type of environment. But we played three rounds of Bananagrams after dinner (I learned the value of "Qi"), and they find my attention to event details humorous (e.g. we may compete in a team spelling bee this weekend. I recommended designing shirts for the team to entice businesses to sponsor us.) So while I cannot distinguish dog breeds, divine the uses of amaranth (besides its similarity to those dot-like sprinkles when roasted), bake gourmet foods, identify trees (beyond evergreen vs. non-evergreens...in the winter), or efficiently chop kindling, I imagine that by the end of the summer I'll be a pro. At least, this is what I hope to attain. I can perhaps forgo the dog breeds. I'm only glad that Carolyn and Andrew asked me for a wedge of lime last year, so at least I'm solid on that front.

Moving to Chicago!

Andrew has been accepted at the University of Illinois at Chicago- we'll be there August 1st!

Start planning your visits now :)

For all you literature geeks...

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-NKXNThJ610

When we are all reunited we are doing this dance...

Missing Y'all

Ok, so I've come to realize I really miss all of you. Phone dates every couple months is not cutting it (if caro and andrew weren't here, I think I'd be in serious withdrawl from awesome people). SO WHEN'S OUR NEXT BIG REUNION GOING TO BE??? I have some ideas...

OPTION 1: I think it would be really fun to go to the carolinas to visit katie and lauren. If it's warm, we could go to beaches and go camping and all sorts of things (katie/lauren...ideas?).

OPTION 2: We could have a minnesota reunion. Reminisce about good times in good ol' northfield with nate, maybe spend some time at briana's and leah's, and we could even road trip to my cabin in canada for some crazy fun this summer.

OPTION 3: Let's travel somewhere. I feel like we're finally at an age where we can go on vacation ( I feel so grown up)...let's go somewhere cheap that none of us have been (iceland?) and make no plans for the trip, just go and have fun.






THOUGHTS?

OTHER IDEAS?

Reflections on Life at Huntington...

When I most miss living in Huntington with Amy and Leah: when I have to go to a "Hipster Party" and have NO IDEA how to dress myself because when I put random things on, they don't go together...somehow hipsters manage to look "put-together" while being conspicuously unput-togehter. I just look...silly. Leah, I know you would know EXACTLY what to wear. Sigh...

'Member when you went as BSC for Halloween?

Here's a hilarious guess at what the Baby-Sitters Clubbers are up to these days...

HEY THIS IS WHERE I LIVE

http://www.colbertnation.com/the-colbert-report-videos/371414/january-18-2011/the-word---disintegration

this is THE WORD on Wake County (it's currently all the rage locally---it's a nice crossroads of T-P'ers, NAACP, and Board of ED)

Yeah, North Carolina! You rock it.

PS I STILL DUNNO HOW TO UPLOAD WEB CLIPS.

This is what we need to survive winter...

The Colbert Report	Mon - Thurs 11:30pm / 10:30c
Coma Cozy
www.colbertnation.com
Colbert Report Full Episodes Political Humor & Satire Blog Video Archive

Haven't laughed this hard in a long time. :]

Need a laugh?

Look at this

Hehehe.

An update...

Hey friends! Hope you all had a wonderful Holiday/New Year. :]
Thought I'd post a list of a few life updates...click the photos to make them larger!

1. My job at Foss went really well this past session. I received a ton of positive comments on my parent evaluations. Including some parents who said I was the best instructor they have ever had and that they wished there were more instructors like me! Not bad for my first year! I think I have mastered the art of teaching nervous 3 to 4 year olds. Pretty proud of that, not gonna lie.

2. Winter here has SUCKED. I am really tired of SNOWMAGEDDON. Fortunately, it hasn't snowed more than a couple inches in the last few weeks. But that first bad 24 inch snowfall really sucked. As in a 7 minute commute taking 2 hours, getting stuck in the snow 5 times, losing all electricity/heat to our house for 3 days, and shoveling unending amounts of snow. haha. Here's a picture:

3. Attended my first Ugly Xmas Sweater party! Did you know ragstock was charging $15-$20 for their used ugly sweaters?? For real, those sweaters didn't cost that much in like 1982 before they were taken out of some dead old lady's closet or buried underneath the 75 cats she hoarded. Luckily I found a kids one that fit me so I only had to pay $7.50

4. I have spent inordinate amounts of money this winter. Black Friday/Cyber Monday really got me. Oops. No buying things for a while.

5. My dad and I have become obsessed with "The Dog Whisperer" on National Geographic channel. Seriously, Cesar Millan deserves a regular national broadcast like Barack Obama where he shares his expertise...he would save thousands of dogs around the country from being euthanized. He's also inspired me into fully believing I can have the perfect dog, and I'm someone who has never really liked dogs. This leads me to my next point...

6. Once I get A. a full time job, B. a car, C. my own place, I am going to get D. a Bichon Frise. I have been doing research for months and I think this breed of dog will suit my lifestyle perfectly. I can't wait! They are cute, even tempered, friendly, low energy, FLUFFY, and they don't shed! Look!:

7. For fun I opened an account with Model Mayhem, a networking type site for models/photographers/make up artists/designers/etc. You have to be approved by like the board of the site or whatever. Anyway, hours into my approval I had a bunch of messages and friend requests from photographers wanting to do photo shoots with me. (including one who offered $40/hr) lol. Cool, but honestly....I think I'm too afraid of serial killers to go do any of this on my own. So we'll see.

8. The Vikings were SO depressing this season. I had to celebrate when The Saints lost to the Seahawks this weekend! hahahaha. They lost to a team with a losing season. Revenge is sweet.

That's all I can remember for now. I miss you all. Like, A LOT A LOT A LOT. Its getting to the point where I feel like just kidnapping you all and bringing you back home to MN. Better watch out.

Group Brainstorm

Look, I don't know about you, but I'm getting frustrated, a flowery word, which borderlines discombobulated, undirected, impotent misanthropy, a term that will hopefully be taken lightly but not to the extent to which your eyes drift to the world above. You know I've been "into" environmental--apocalypse-driven--shtuff, things on the web that I glean off Google News and of course, friends. That doesn't particularly lead to amazing revelations on a happy humanity. Then in the life apart from the computer, I serve calorically-saturated, whip-creamed-nonfat/full-fat syrupy drinks to either very skinny, well-dressed consumers or very large, distinctly dressed consumers or other mall workers funneling their mall wages back into the mall. Couple this with scanning the follow-up blogs on nationally-ranked newspapers, the kind that are open to the reader, that are positively overrun with inappropriate punctuation, poor grammar and misspelled words, totally gagging on their very strong, mostly abysmal, and overall (I'm striving against pretentiousness here) uneducated (unthinking is more correct) remarks which inevitably disintegrate wholly into name-calling and religion invoking, utterly fallacious comments and you have this current entry, which perhaps could be seen as a rant, but I personally see "rants" in themselves as temporal and generally self-serving. Which this easily could be.

As you might notice, life after Arizona (timely! sort of) has been less than thrilling/mood-enhancing and I take this fact as well as the typified spoiled only child does (no offense intended to the only children here. you are not typical. and also i don't think anyone reading this is an only child). This has led to much internal negotiating and reflections based on the words of cynical narrators/writers (the pomo ones, at least). Thus, in this maelstrom which involves an increasingly inward spiral of conversations and a brief stint in delusional, technological schemes via hermitage as well as infrequent intellectual, actually significant external conversations and a respiration system that croaks out self-induced ennui and worldly pessimism, the following vices and "real" inquiries of thought have loosely converged:

(not in order of importance, please note)

vice 1) baseless political divisiveness (which i am a definite, self-proclaimed advocate OF and a thing that i'm very incrementally trying to change as I see it to be an infuriating reason as to why the government/general national population suck/s so much, militarily, politically, economically, racially, religiously, educationally, environmentally, socially, and intellectually. (not technologically---idea-crush here). But on second thought, if it weren't reps v. dems. t-ps as the easy public scapegoat, it'd probably more realistically be something else...)

"r"iot 2) the next step? this is where I almost always fail. despite the american studies degree which rather than leading to many potential solutions and in turn hope has led much more to a burdened conscience, cold aloofness, partially hardened apathy, and totally impotent fantasies. so my question is WHAT NEXT? the speculative fiction writers say the world will spiral into violence (plus four), ruled by corporations (plus 5), crumble into environmental disrepair (also plus 5), and/or burst with technological advances (plus two). the news reports seem to favor this with all their doomsday freakouts. and of course others say nuffin's rong, y'all, keep pollutin/keep shootin'/keep doing ya thaaaang

"r"iot 3) Are we eventually going to become people content in our jobs, taking joy in the small pleasures like baked bread and chicks hatching and ipads with 483957293475901gb and infinitely fast wireless and chatting with our good ol' friends and remembering nostalgically and looking out our windows at something green and maybe a sky austerely blue and think that this is it? And feel detached and chuckle and shake our heads at the sad, overdone, emotionally-touching aka manipulating things the news discloses and think then too, what is it that we can do and at that moment feel okay that the answer is nothing?

vice 4) I'm worried that I'm setting a life path that makes #3 possible.

I think that i'm just severely overwhelmed by the factious American voices that are all essentially clobbering one another and of course astounded by the middle and upper classes who are doing essentially nothing but half-living, mostly ignoring and wholeheartedly blaming (which I also can probably claim a part in this conspiratorial selfishness) and then also sorta pissed at the lower classes for un-pc reasons.

***sorry for the overwrought sentences. dfw does them so much better. and without reaching SAT/GRE words/synonyms.

My Life: The List

So as some of you know, since I've been back in the US things have been a bit of a whirlwind (punctuated by long stretches of complete lethargy). But during those times of chaos, wooee! I'm not going to do the "here's the last 2 months of my life in 10 paragraphs" thing. Instead, I'm opting for the "here's the last 2 months of my life in a list of events" thing.

Returned to US to realize that yes, this hemisphere is as cold as I remember; went through the cultural equivalent of a joint electro-shock therapy/lobotomy procedure; Thanksgiving; taught hilarious Spanish lessons to middle schoolers; answered inappropriate questions from middle schoolers regarding Spanish words for private parts and repeatedly corrected the pronunciation of the color negro; underwent knee surgery to stop my kneecap from falling out of place all the time, TAKE THAT KNEECAP!; became proficient on crutches; watched True Blood (disappointing); watched pirated movies from Bolivia (not disappointing); took painkillers (also not disappointing); watched television; stayed immobile for day-long stretches; started physical therapy with a disappointingly unattractive/married therapist; looked for jobs; received temporary admissions counselor position at Carleton out of the blue; accepted position; drove to MN in the BLIZZARD OF THE CENTURY; blown into ditch by said blizzard; spent NYE sober; moved to Northfield; saw lots of people I thought had been neatly left in the past; started job.

And now you're caught up to today! It's way surreal being back in Nofo but my job's going to be sweet and only lasts until April, 30th. I get to read applications and give info sessions and am solely responsible for accepted students days. AND, today I got my work laptop which is a real beauty with an extra screen so I can run lots of applications at once. It's like the future.

Also, some new things on Division: A pan-asian restaurant! A bubble tea place! A health food restaurant! A women's consignment store! A for-sale sign in the window of Tiny's!

That's it. Hopefully I have hilarious tales to report on my "Return to Carleton" experience soon. Happy New Year y'all!