I bought a suit!
I am still having a hard time believing that I really did it. I went out and bought a suit! A real business suit! For interviews. I never, ever thought that I would but I am now the proud (?) owner of a black suit with teeny tiny pink pinstripes running through it. With pants. Impressive huh? Although I don't have any shoes to wear with it yet. But hey it is a suit! And it was on sale. Even better. So as for job leads, nothing yet. I should be getting my Michigan certification maybe by April and I am not quite 100% sure what I will do yet. I have ideas so I will let you know as soon as I figure them out. Who knows when that will be though.
Talk About Random...
So I did something random this weekend. But first of all I will explain. My brother just got off his reserve duty in CA so he drove up early Saturday morning. I mean early...he got here at 4am. Later Saturday we headed across the state to Kalamazoo where two of our cousins live, Katie in college and the Krista working for the Department of Environmental Quality. Anyway on the way over Krista called and asked if we wanted to go to a concert in South Bend. Some guy. We said sure why not. When we got there Krista said we would leave in about an hour and it was about an hour and a half away. Chris and I both kind of looked at each other. When we agreed we thought it was a concert on the Western Michigan campus or at a bar in town. Plus neither one of us know the area so we had no idea where we could go. It ended up with us getting in a car with 4 other people plus Krista, Chris and I and going to Indiana. Yeah...Indiana. South Bend, Indiana to the campus of Notre Dame. I will be honest here. I had no idea where Notre Dame was although I did know it was somewhere in the midwest. So to end up there was a surprise to say the least. We went to an on campus bar called Legends of Notre Dame and listened to this band called Stephen Kellogg and the Sixers play. Let me just say that I was extremely impressed. I went with pretty low expectations but these guys played well, sounded great, and really knew how to work a crowd. Since it was such a small concert we were able to stay up at the stage the whole time and it felt like we really were intereacting with the band. They came out on the floor to play a song and one of them ran around the audience dancing without a shirt. Plus they had great stage presence. So there you go, a new random band if anyone is interested in checking them out. I dont know anything about them except that they put on a great show. But I am a new fan. The people that we went with were true groupies because this was the third concert by this band they had been to in eight days. Anyway their cd is pretty good, mellow music. Okay random adventure right? Well the next day Chris and I drove down to Lake Michigan to a town called St. Joseph. My uncle is working for a nuclear power plant there and is in the process of building a house so that his wife can move up from Iowa. It is supposed to be finished in April. This is what you would call an executive home. 5,000 square feet with 5 bedrooms, a theatre room, two kitchens, and a wine cellar and wine tasting room. It is impressive. It is right by Lake Michigan with a private beach for the neighborhood. Apparently Lake Michigan is the one that is best to sit on the beach and swim. Hopefully I will find out this summer when it is hot outside. They certainly have plenty of room for company. Can you tell that I enjoyed myself this weekend? I wish that I could make it last longer but now we are back to the long week.
A small collection of musings
1. I went to another Michigan State girls basketball game and I was amazed at how the band controlled the crowd. When the band played, people clapped and cheered. Certain songs and people got up and danced and did all sorts of hand motions. It wasnt the cheerleaders leading the crowd, it was all about the band.
2. My brother has been in San Francisco the last two weeks. My aunt and I were talking about CA and it just hit me that I cant just drive there anymore. I cant just drive to CA or WA or MT or any western states! Isnt is strange how things can just hit you suddenly and mean something when they really arent that big of a deal?
3. I think that every state uses the same saying. I heard it today on the news. "If you dont like the weather in __________, just wait 5 minutes." I know that I have heard it for Montana and Idaho and today the weatherman said it about Michigan.
4. No I dont drink the well water here.
5. Something is wrong with me because I have been eating small amounts of chocolate. Maybe a half a candy bar every once in a while. Must be that time of year?
6. I am getting better driving a stick shift but I am afraid that I will always be one of those drivers that gives you whiplash. I drove my aunt's car the other day and it was so much easier! I think that my car is harder to drive.
7. For the first time in my life, I went out in public in sweat pants and snow boots. Not just normal hang out sweats but dirty, wet ones because I shoveled my way out the door and then got in my car. When I got to town I really felt like a country bumpkin. You know the kind of ladies who have frizzy hair and dirty boots and red flannel. Thank goodness I wasnt wearing any flannel.
My cousin Matt
So being that it is the week of love I thought I should talk about my cousin Matt. I think that he is a pretty good catch for someone so I want to throw this information out there. Okay first, he is a year older than I am, exactly. We share our birthdays. He is a fourth grade teacher, and I have seen him at work, he is good and passionate about what he is doing. He owns a house and 2 vehicles. He is joiining a church right now, Lutheran but that is still good. I know some pretty pentacostal Lutherans. I think that he is pretty cute and he is really nice and funny. "A great personality." :) You know that whole bit. So what do you think? Did I sell him to anyone? Oh I forgot the best part...You would be related to me!!
Michigan State
Today I went to a Michigan State University girl's basketball game. Talk about impressive. First of all, I went with the background of the ISU girls games. Not quite the same thing. In fact, the stadium had over nine thousand people watching! Yeah 9,ooo! I don't know how many times the men's teams (of any sport) can get that many fans out at ISU. They played Wisconsin and it was a really good game. They were down by 13 at the beginning of the second half but came back right at the end to win by 4. The were fun to watch. I had a blast watching the crowd though because they really got into it too. I don't think that I have ever been to a game where the crowd is that noisy. They had all sorts of sayings and things going on that my aunt explained to me. The marching band is always fun to watch with all of there dancing and movement too. I know that ISU can't even compete with a school the size of Michigan State. It was fun to see a real supportive crowd especially for a girl's team. But watch out, the crowd is full of superfans. I even had to borrow a Michigan State sweatshirt from my aunt in order to go to the game. And most of the crowd was wearing a State shirt of some sort. So I have to go buy myself one this week so that I can go again to a game on Thursday.
Snow Day!
My aunt had a snow day yesterday so she and I got to hang out together. We brought my cousin lunch at his school so that I could see his classroom. We also went to Kohl's to look at their clothes. I think that we have really missed out not having a Kohl's nearby because I was really impressed with what they had and the prices. Not that I should be spending any money. But I did anyway. Here are a couple pictures of where I live.
This is the awful rutted dirt road leading to the house.
This is the front of the house.
This is looking off the back deck.
My aunt and uncle own 5 acres including that barn but they let the neighbor use the land and barn for her horses.
Downtown Detroit
As I am sure everyone knows by now, the Superbowl is in Detroit this year. So the town has had all sorts of activities this week. The downtown is shut down to traffic and is like one huge street fair. A drunken street party. Lots of Pittsburg fans have come up because they aren't that far away. So my "cousin" Bill is very into sports of pretty much any kind. He called me up and invited me to go downtown to see all of the sights. I was thinking, yeah right like I care about the Superbowl. But then I thought, "Hey why not? You are just going to sit at home alone if you don't go so at least you will get out of the house for a few hours. Besides it could be a lot of fun and you have never been to downtown Detroit, except the airport. Plus at least I can say that I saw some of the activity for a Superbowl once." So there was my little pep-talk to myself. And I decided to go. What a sight it was too. Tons of heated tents full of stages for bands to play, new cars coming out, food, arts and crafts, an indoor beach volleyball court, an indoor surf wave, and tons of people. There was also ice sculptures of all of the football teams logos, an ice skating rink, and all sorts of sound and video equipment. Bill had been through everything on Thursday night so he took us around to all of the sights. There were tons of people there but for the most part the crowds were really friendly. Very drunk, but friendly. We wandered the streets for a few hours, had dinner at a Thai restaurant, and then checked out the bars in a place called "Greek Town". I thought that all of the Grecian Key fans should come out here and we could go check that place out together. I am trying to remember some of the more colorful things that I saw. We saw several girls dressed in very short skirts and heels trying to walk around in the snow. I also saw a man with a girl thrown over his shoulder. She was completely passed out. We watched the guy performing on the Blues stage for a while but I can't remembr his name. I was impressed with the downtown area too. You hear all these bad stories about the area and how dirty it is but the city really worked hard to clean it up and there were cops all over the place for crowd control. It felt reasonably safe and everyone that I saw was having a really good time. It was chilly but not too bad until around 9 pm. Then it started to snow pretty good. And kept getting harder. Turns out there was a winter storm warning for Detroit. The picture is of me walking through downtown when we were trying to find the car to leave. The front of my jeans was soaking wet and my shoes were soaked through. We got 6 inches in just a few hours.
Yeah it was freezing!
So as you watched the Superbowl today you could see the places that I got to walk through everytime that the cameras panned outside and showed the buildings and the activities. It was very neat and that is probably as close to a Superbowl as I will ever get. I even found myself sort of interested in the game this year. I hope that isn't from spending too much time with Bill.
Cell Phone Success!
Here is a story about my cell phone. One of the times that I was lost I realized that my cell phone battery was almost dead and I didn't have a way to charge it. A very smart person convinced me that buying a car charger might be a good idea since I may be commuting or something. So I headed out to a Best Buy and purchased a car charger for $22. Not too bad considering that someday it might just save me from eternal lost-ness. The very next day I was getting out of my car and apparently trying to hold on to way too much stuff and of course the thing that slipped out of my hands was my cell phone. It clattered to the pavement and sort of made a sick, I'm dying noise. Now I have dropped my phone many times and it shows. It looks beat up but this time really did it in. The hinge completely broke and the other one was cracking. I tried squeezing it back together and even tried to glue it when I got home but couldn't get it. So I thought maybe I could just deal with it. But when I opened it it would make a horrible crack noise and sort of move around. And when it was open it was floppy and moved around. So I took it in to a Verizon store expecting them to tell me touch luck spend mucho dollars and buy a new phone. When I was talking to the guy I was trying to explain that I wasn't from around here. Unfortunately for me, some people out here have an accent and I could not understand the man at all. My cousin was standing behind me laughing because he was not understanding me either. Anyway, I think out of frustration and pity, the man asked me for my address here and said that he would send a new phone to the house. For no charge! I must have looked pretty pathetic. Today I took the phone in expecting to pay $10 to get my phone book transferred and when the guy did it he said that I was all set and I didn't need to pay for it. I don't know what is going on with that because it seems that cell phone places know just how to get your money and there I was with a new phone and a phonebook transfer for free. I must look helpless or poor or something to these people. Anyway, I just wanted to let you know that there is hope for others who have broken their phone. You never know until you ask, right?
