Birthday Success

Here are a few pictures from my birthday bash on Friday. I've now lived half a century...boy I feel old :( It will be interesting to see what 25 has in store for me, as you just never can tell what can happen. 24 gave me new responsabilities, success, new friends and fun times with old friends, unbelieveable happiness, a new puppy, heartache, learning to love the single life again, a twilight addiction, stress, grief, unforgetable memories, and love....lots of love :)

Happy Thanksgiving

Happy Turkey day! It's now Black Friday and I am sitting at my desk at work...feeling sorry for myself that I have to work! Pretty much it's just the principle to have us at work, there's not a whole lot of selling you can do when no one is at work...I've done some calls today-all voicemails...e-mails-all I get is their auto response saying they are out of the office. :( I wanted to hit up a few black friday deals, but having to work in the morning and having a birthday party tonight, it just wasn't in the cards. My dad and brother made out big though...a new tv, 2 blue ray players, GPS, Ipod dock....and hopefully I can get a lap top!

Thanksgiving was a great relaxing, stuffing day! I think my stomach was mad at me this morning for eating so much, I felt so sick!

Well I hope you all had a great Thanksgiving...back to work...blah.

New Moon

I'm seeing New Moon tonight with some girlfriends...I can hardly stand the wait. My obsession with Twilight I believe will pick up again after this movie. Edward, be mine ;)

My girlfriends are nerds, we planned a whole night of it, bought our tickets a few days ago, going to an early showing so we can go to dinner afterwards and talk about the movie, haha! Who knew a book for teens would be such a hit!

PS-Look how yummy this picture looks!

Madness I tell you!

And the hatred for T-moblie continues...

I call my sister last night on the way home from the Timberwolves game (which by the way, my brother gets put on the kiss cam-with a couple behind him and me and my roommate in front of him, and all I can think of is gross, please be aiming for the couple behind him)-anyways, I call her and a girl picks up and says hello, so I say "hello" and she says "hello, this is Mia Ping". So I think it's some of her friends being dumb and answering her phone for her, so I hang up. I then proceed to call my mom and ask her where my sister is. She says "she's in her room" (it's about 10pm) and I tell her there's no way she's in there, because her friends are playing jokes on me, meanwhile, my sister beeps in on my mom and I's conversation, and says to me "Jenni, what the heck!?!?" and I go "no, what the heck to you, why did Mia Ping answer your phone and talk chinese to me???" She says a chinese guy answered my phone and was talking chinese to her. WHAT???? Again, my dislike for T-mobile. Get your cell phone air waves right, when I call someone I want to talk to them, not Mia Ping.

Interesting to say the least, then I wake up to my roommates dog having diarrea all over my room, the dogs breaking glass downstairs, and Tucker munching on Tinsel (I don't know why that's tastey). It was a chaotic morning as I tried to rush out the door to my morning meeting....not the right way to start off a day! I hope tonight gets better! A little happy hour with a girlfriend, then home to watch grey's and private practice....and throw in there cleaning my carpet..oh joy!

Randomness

Is Randomness even a word?? I have no idea, I say a lot of things that probably aren't proper english. I swear though, how are you supposed to retain everything you learn in grade school, not possible. Well maybe not possible in just me...whoops! haha.

Anyways, this will be a random post. Last night Julie and I got our Christmas tree. I'm not a fan of fake Christmas trees, so until I can no longer handle it, I will get a real one! I just love the smell and look of a real Christmas tree, it doesn't really feel like Christmas to me unless I have one! I grew up getting real Christmas trees, so I think it stems from that. The way you are brought up really reflects how you associate things when you are older. Like when I see flocked Christmas trees or wreaths, I always think of Christmas growing up at my Grandma and Grandpa Ellsons or I had a tasting the other day for work and my co-worker was having her client try lefsa (because they wanted it for their wedding) and I thought and then proceeded to explain, how we eat it every Christmas my Grandma Johnsons.

It's funny how smells trigger memories too. While Julie and I were shopping at Menards for our tree last night, we stopped by the candels and she pulled out a lavender candle for me to smell and she said "this smells like a grandma's bathroom", and she was so right! It smelled exactly like my grandparents bathroom! If you really look around you, there are all sorts of things that can trigger certain memories...I can't imagine not having these, the memories are what make up your life story.

Back to the tree, so we picked out a fabulous tree got it to my car, and tied it on top of the roof (with no help, might I add). It was actually kind of annoying, no menards worker would help us, you would think they would see us struggling and help a little. They just kind of stood and snickered...not very good customer service! We got it decorated (with led lights might I add, saving lots of money!), and now it looks like Christmas exploded in our house. Now I'm just waiting for one of the dogs to think they are outside and pee on it...since they've both never seen a Christmas tree before, they've been very curious. I actually found Tucker behind it this morning and when I yelled at him, he came running out with his ball in his mouth (apprently the ball had rolled under the tree). He loves to roll balls with his nose and chase after them, it's so cute!

Anyways, there's my ADD post today-off to an event I have at Orchestra Hall and then it's off to the Timberwolves game, compliments of my brother!

Here's a cute quote I found-so true:

"What the heart knows today, the head will understand tomorrow"

Christmas is in the air

Christmas is almost here....well kind of. I guess we still need to get through Thanksgiving, but it still feels close! This weekend was fun, I went to an Around the World Party, thrown by my co-worker on Saturday night. Everyone had to bring something from a different country. I went with my friend Robyn, she was in charge of the beverages and I needed to make the dish. I can pretty much only make pasta or mexican, so I chose Enchiladas. I thought there might be a lot of mexican dishes, but there really weren't. We had the best fondue (both chocolate and cheese, yummy), empanadas, cheeses from all over. There were a few things that I wasn't sure what they were so I took them and ate them...big mistake. I got the urge to throw up when I was told what they were...Ox tail soup (I thought it was just beef stew), and blood sausage. Nasty...it's made with the blood...there should have been a red flag that went up in my head when the sausage was a dark maroon color.....ick, I'm a little grossed just writing this! It was a good experince though and a good time!

I'm really excited because I've gotten most of my Christmas shopping done. I made a few trips to the mall this weekend and am almost done. They were having some good sales on Christmas decorations, so I bought a few new items (yes, I am an impulsive shopper, I see something I like and I buy it-A store owner's dream)..haha. I really want to put all my Christmas stuff out now, which I might tackle tonight with some Christmas present wrapping. I helped my mom and sister put the tree up in their house, so now I'm ready for mine!

Hope you all had a good weekend....Go VIKES :)

Head Spinning

I had a mildly crazy moment this weekend. I was taking care of 3 dogs this weekend in my little condo. There was a point when all 3 dogs were running around the house, seriously going crazy, barking at each other and I think in doggy terms, playing, but it looked like a mad house. I have a feeling I looked like I had a zoo in my place this weekend. When I'd take the dogs out I'd have to do it seperately. So I'd go in, get one and come out, then go back in get the next and go out and so on. My neighbors across the street kept seeing me come out with a different dog...haha, I'm sure it as a bit hilarious! I used to think I wanted to be the dog lady and have many dogs, but after this weekend I think I'll just stick with the one. Wow, I have a whole new respect for people with children...how to you manage that many at one time! Good luck to John and Kate + 8...whew!

The weekend was fun....gorgeous weather! In Minnesota you never know what you are gonna get. I think it was almost 60 degrees...a heat wave! I was actaully taking the dogs out in shorts and a tank top....turned into one of those crazy seasonal Minnesotans. Friday night a few friends got together to hang out, it was a lot of fun, since I really hadn't seen anyone in a long time. Saturday my mom came over and helped me deep clean my house. It was in such need of it! It was such a relief when it was all done...now I need to work on maintaining that!

Sunday Mon and I went to the Chocolate Extravaganza. I had extra tickets from work, so I knew she would love to go. She loves chocolate and wine just about as much as me! We grabbed some dinner afterwards, it was a fun day!

I'm trying not to go crazy this year and put all my Christmas decorations up too early, but I'm so excited......just wait, just wait, just wait.....Hopefully I'll hold out to Thanksgiving....time to start christmas shopping :)

A Glitch in the System

I've always had a few issues with T-Moblie, but nothing too serious. Until they had a MAJOR glitch in their system last night.Let me give you the setting to where this story begins. I'm about to get off work (I was at a meeting in a far away land (Edina), and I'm trying to get home so that my family and I can go to dinner for my brother's 21st birthday and it's raining so traffic is awful. Well, in true Matthew fashion, he didn't decide where to go to dinner until he's in the car and on the way.

So the story goes.....

I'm in the car trying to get home and call my sister to see where we are going to dinner, maybe I can just meet them there, since I'm running late. As I'm talking to her my dad starts talking in the background saying he wants me to call his phone (this is a key point in the story, because had I stayed on the line with my sister, the whole debacle of dinner would not have happened).

Side Note: my mind was a little crazy at the time as well because I was in the car with my friend, Robyn, sitting in not moving traffic, and I had to go to the bathroom so bad, I was going crazy, so some details could be a bit hazy.

Anyways, I hang up with my sister and immediately try calling my dad, it is at this time that the glitch in T-Moblie's system occurs. It rings 4 times and then there is just a busy signal. So I call my mom, same thing, call my sister, same thing and my brother...you get the picture, having us all on the same plan does no good. Texting doesn't work either. So I don't know what to do because I don't know where we are going, I drive to my brothers place, thinking they'll be there, then to my house, and my family is not there, I think maybe I missed them in transit, so I go back to my brothers. Finally after 30 min of continuous calling, and driving, I decide just to go home and hope my family is smart enough to just go to my place and wait. I make it back and they were sitting in their car right outside my door!

Apparently, my dad being the very, very patient man that he is, was just going to leave and go to dinner because everyone but me was there and no one could get ahold of me. Cool, thanks Dad.

Anyways, we finally make our way to the Wild Onion, where we have a grand old time. A few appetizers, entrees and drinks (I put a few shots on my dad's tab to welcome Matt to 21 year old life), and life was Grand.

Priceless

Pictorial of my Halloween night in Reverse Order:

And this is how the story goes.....

Let me just say I had somewhat of an eventful Halloween. I went to a Halloween party that my friend Robyn and her boyfriend were having, which was a little bit of a drive from my house. So I got dressed in my fire fighter costume (pictured above), got all dolled up and and headed over to my friend Natalie's house. I left my car there and headed over to the party with them. It was a blast, they had a DJ, a Martini Ice Luge, Appetizers, Kegs, Wine, and lot's of scary decorations. Anyways, we leave around 12:30am and head back. By the time we get back to Natalie's house, my feet are killing from my, rather high boots, so I take them off and decide to drive home in just my fish net stockings.

I start driving and am about 10 min into my drive when I hear a rather large noise, which I think is the car next to me back firing, when I smell burning rubber...Yep, my front driver side tire blew, not only just went flat, but blew in 2 places. I quick pull over to the side of the road, get out of my car to check the damage out and realize it's 1am and I'm standing on the side of a major highway in a, let's just say rather revealing fire fighter costume..looking like I'm selling myself. Not a good night to get a flat tire. So I get in and call my dad, who's half out of it from taking a sleeping pill, and Natalie, who says she's going to come out with her boyfriend Michael and rescue me. So I make the executive decision to take the nearest exit and park in the Home Depot parking lot and wait (I figured I was a sitting duck on the side of the road to have a cop come get me, especially what I was wearing). So I had only had a few drinks that night, I was definitly fine to drive home, but you never know!

Michael and Natalie get there and we get out and start the process of getting my spare tire on, in the mean time I'm FREEZING, standing in the costume, so I find a bag of clothes in my trunk I was taking to the Salvation Army and put on some pants and flip flops over my fish net tights (yea forget the sexy firefighter, now I looked homeless). We get the spare on and realize that the spare tire is flat. Awesome. It's now about 2am and I have 2 flat tires. So we decide to take the tire off, bring it to a gas station and see if we can fill it up enough to get home. As we drive to find one, we realize we're in a not so nice area, the gas stations have bars over the doors and windows.....only in the story of my Halloween night would something like this happen.

Finally we get the tire on my car, and I start my venture home. A drive that would normally have taken me 30 min took me about 50 because I can only drive 45mph on my spare. So not only am I in a fire fighter costume turned homeless person, I'm now getting dirty looks by people speeding by me because I'm going to slow. Honestly, I must have looked like a complete drunk fool, as a normal drunk driver would over compensate their drunkness by trying to drive so in the speed limit that they were driving slow. Nope, just me with a flat, no big deal cops, please look past the costume and realize I just want to get home!

I finally made it home, in one piece, spare tire, costume, spare clothes and all and got it fixed the next morning! Quite an adventure though. So if you ever see a stranded scantily clad fire fighter standing on the side of the road, don't automatically thing-hooker, please think of it as maybe a very regular, nice girl, having a bout of bad luck, just trying to get home from a fun Halloween night, just in need of a little help from the testosterone ones!

All in all, it was a great weekend...one for the memory books! Bring it on world!