Sin Cities, Warren, and Friends

What a week it has been!! I spent Sunday and Monday with the parents in Okoboji. The weather was horrible, but we made the best of things and had a great time, including a rowdy game of miniature golf (my mother can drop some swear words geez)! It is amazing to me the amount of money that is up at Okoboji. The lakefront homes are outrageously oversized and expensive!!! My parents have a place about two blocks off of the lake and it is nice enough, but the lake homes.....out of control I tell ya!! I returned to Cedar Falls on Tuesday and then off to the Sin Cities aka Minneapolis/St. Paul to visit two of my college besties, Stephen Sporer (Blanche) and Todd Slack (Rose). I hope you got those Drop Dead Gorgeous and Golden Girls references!!

Todd, Stephen, and I have been friends for many years dating all the way back to marching band camp at UNI and yes, things really do happen at band camp!! Good times.. Needless to say, when friendships run this deep, everyone knows everything about everyone!! The fourth person in this group is Peter Adamson who lives in New York City. Stephen and I ran up north of the city to visit our friends Brett and David who have recently bought a house in the burbs. The house was beautiful and we had a great visit! Next stop was the Chatterbox in St. Paul to eat and meet Todd and his roomate Lynn. Little did we know it was kareoke night at the Chatterbox. We ordered our drinks and were soon distracted by bad, out of tune, or as they say on American Idol "pitchy" singing. However, in Minnesota people applaud loudly for bad singing, and even cheer! We were soon mesmorized by a certain singer performing Lady Gaga's Bad Romance complete with Gaga-esque choreography. This was the type of person that our group would usually attract into our space FYI. Later in the evening Gaga actually approached our table and introduced himself to me as Warren and we hit it off. While Warren and I were chatting he shared with me his id and I soon discovered that he was a ripe 22 years old. This is always a comical topic in our group of friends as I seem to attract the younger generation (mostly they approach me for the record and does this make me a cougar??!) As Warren and I were chatting, everyone else at the table had what I would call the church giggles. I assumed that the laughter was just because of the age thing, but it got much juicier!! The giggling was actually due to the fact that Stephen had been chatting earlier with Warren on Grinder and neither one of them recognized the other!! Grinder is a phone app that allows you to check in and see who else is close to you in proximity. It also allows you to chat, etc.. What's more interesting is that Stephen didn't realize that Warren was at our table, until Lynn pointed out that the picture on Grinder and the person at our table were indeed one and the same!! I was over the giggling and called everyone out and then the Grinder details came out which left an awkward silence at the table. There were so many classic elements at work during this encounter. The young caller comes over to me. I get all the attention and not my friend (we both like attention!), and the online chitter chatter (which my friend is famous for!) Needless to say, Todd and Lynn were still laughing! Warren and I stepped outside for a bit to break the silence. According to Warren, he was intimidated by our table and wasn't going to approach at all. His plan was to hand me a beverage napkin with his name, number, and note that simply said "text me". I told him if he was bold enough to try that Gaga performance, why on earth would he be scared of our table!!

The Minnesota trip continued with a trip up to Duluth with Stephen and then back to the Cities for one more night out! Oh, and by the way we saw the movie Eat Pray Love with Julia Roberts! Great movie about life and love.. Go see it if you get a chance! Oh, and I also had the chance to run over to the University of St. Thomas and see the Orff share for the teacher training courses. It was so awesome to see my teachers and see what the Orff students created during their two weeks! I finished my Twin Cities time with a night out at Toast wine bar where Todd works and then the Saloon.

Back in Cedar Falls on Saturday and off to a bbq with good friends from Cedar Falls. I've decided that when people ask me what year I graduated from CF (I graduated from Humboldt High School, Go Wildcats!!), I'm just going to say I was the foreign exchange student, maybe from Finland?.. Anyway, the bbq was awesome with lots of food, beverages, and children!! Just what we teachers need right before school starts! I did, however, hold my first baby! I'll be honest, I'm not about babies and certainly don't hold them! I have to say, holding that little Milo was great and he was so wonderful!! Maybe I'll adopt one from Africa like Brad & Angelina or Madonna!? Hmmm?? Food for thought..

I'd like to close with some final thoughts. First of all, I'm irritated that Rachel was voted out of the Big Brother house. As annoying as she was with her hair extensions, bad outfits, and ridiculous laugh; she did bring a great amount of drama to the show. Rachel, you'll be missed. Next, I can't get enough of the Kardashian drama! I so enjoy Kourtney's lazy boyfriend Scott, and then there's Kris, the mom and those sunglasses!! Good thing the new season starts this week! I will also openly admit that I have to watch Jersey Shore. It's so tragic on so many levels, but also so juicy!! Go get em Snooki!! More blogging to come, but until then teacher friends good luck with the start of the school year!! Tootles