For the last 3 days, my life has been packing, unpacking, packing some more, unpacking, trying to find counterspace amidst all of the junk I piled up, unpacking, yelling at people for getting the white couch dirty, packing, unpacking more, etc.
And then… it happened.
ACCCHHHOOOOO!
And do you know what that means? It means it’s the worst part of my year. IT’S ALLERGY SEASON.
UUUUGGGGGHGHHHHHHHHHLSDKFHWOEIRW;FHNVSDL;D9PRTUF
I seriously hate this time of year. I even hate it more than spring. It’s too bad too since my birthday is coming up (I turn the big 2-3 on September 7th). I whine and I complain every year to anyone that will listen… and in no way does that imply that they WANT to listen… but I’ve never actually gotten tested to find out exactly what I’m allergic to. People always ask. I never have an answer. Perhaps I should start making things up?
But, you know… I never saw the point in finding out exactly what is bothering me. It comes up every year around the same time, so it has to be something nature-y. If it’s nature-y, it’s going to get all up in my business no matter what I do. It is totally unavoidable. I suppose I could move to a place where whatever I’m allergic to doesn’t exist, but I like where I live right now and I don’t want to move.
I also hate taking drugs to handle my allergies. Even the “non-groggy” stuff makes me groggy. I have actually taken a few allergy medicines in the past that didn’t cause me to become groggy and angry, but apparently those side effects don’t exist because the medication just doesn’t work. My unhappiness continues.
My eyes itch right now.
I used to think it was the Lilac tree in my parents’ backyard that got me. Around this time of year it would be blooming and the smell of lilacs would be EVERYWHERE. Every time I took a step out the back door, the smell was overpowering. Eventually the tree came down and I cheered with joy thinking that I wouldn’t suffer from the crappy allergies in the fall, but… wouldn’t you know it… the allergies continued. And even though my allergies aren’t caused my lilac trees, I still have a very negative association with the smell. I can’t stand the lilac scent to this very day because, deep down inside of me, I still blame lilacs for my allergies. I know it’s stupid, but I just can’t shake that “I hate lilacs” feeling. There’s a random fun-fact for you.
I don’t really know where I was going with this. I think I just wanted to complain.
Like any good twenty-two year old, I’m going to be running around the various pubs in downtown Minneapolis this evening.
Typically, I am not a real bar person — especially on holidays like today. I find them to be overcrowded, reeking of beer, and way too loud. In fact, I am not a huge fan of going out in general. I am more of a homebody, content with an evening with my couch. Or if I do step out, I enjoy long walks on the beach, hand in hand with a nice candlelit dinner at the end.
Actually, that beach and candlelit dinner thing has never happened. But I really wish it would. (*COUGH*… Dan reads this and hopefully he’ll take the hint… *COUGH*)
I’ve been called “lame” a countless number of times because of my unwillingness to go out drinking too many nights in a row. Don’t get me wrong — I spent a few years loving drinking more than your average adult (but on par with your average college student). I had my phase of night after night drunken debauchery. I’ve spent my evenings — and sometimes mornings — with the toilet, clinging to it for dear life because the world was spinning so violently around me. I have made my fair share of poor, alcohol induced, decisions. And although I know that a night out drinking post-college doesn’t mean I need to get totally wasted and crawl my way home, I still relate nights out drinking with those awful stomach aches I get from those really tasty fruity drinks. And I still don’t really like the taste of beer. And while sitting at a table with my friends and having a good time is great fun once in awhile, I’m still more of an introvert and I need time to myself. Or else I get crabby. And not many people like me when I’m crabby.
And I know that my mom is going to read the above paragraph and be disgusted that her daughter was an alcoholic for two years of her life. SORRY MOM!!
But since moving to Minnesota, those fun nights out have been few and far between. My couch is starting to cave in my specific seating spot. It’s like it’s telling me I spend too much time there. Or maybe that I’m getting fat. Either way, it means I need to get my ass elsewhere.
And so, people of the internet, if you are in downtown Minneapolis wandering around yelling random names at random people, give “Heather” a shout. Maybe I’ll hear you. I’ll run up to you, give you a big hug, and then we can drink way too many beers, shout at one another until our voices leave us, make new friends we won’t remember once we’re sober, and yak in the street when all is said and done. Because I haven’t done this in a long time, and dammit, I’m going to do it right.
I’ve tried to steer clear from ranting and raving on this blog. It hasn’t really been a conscious effort on my part, there have just been other people that I have been able to talk to before drafting anything to share. Today there is no such luck. I have no one to complain to right now, and I really need to complain.
I took Prandtl to our local dog park today because if I don’t let her run outside once in awhile, she’ll take it out on my studio apartment. She’ll run into walls, run into me, and tackle my poor 12 year old cat, Lucy. She’ll bark at anything that moves. She’ll bounce around until I pay attention to her… and then she’ll bounce around at me. And if I don’t pay attention to her when she’s in these squirrely moods, she’ll run up behind me full speed, take a big leap that puts her head shoulder level, and nip at a bit of my shirt as she flies by. In a nutshell, she is annoying unless she gets enough exercise. And I’m sure that’s true with any dog — I just happen to have one of those “high energy” types.
Anytime we’re outdoors (or indoors when she’s not amped up on excess energy), she behaves perfectly. Her recall is fantastic, and she’ll stop on a dime if I call her to come back to me. If she’s playing chase with another dog and she runs too far away, she will stop in the middle of the game if I call her. The best part is she typically won’t wander too far away from me in the first place. I don’t have to keep an eye on her because she keeps an eye on me.
And let me make this very clear: It Took Training To Get Her That Way.
So today when I took Prandtl to the dog park to play, she found a poodle to run around with. They played chase for awhile, and then a pitbull joined in the fun. At this point I got a little uncomfortable because my dog is usually the fastest and therefore the one being chased, and because she’s so small the bigger dogs (like the pitbull and poodle) tend to run her over. But her tail was still wagging and she still had a stupid, happy look on her face so I let it go.
Fast forward to a few minutes later, and the pitbull and poodle are barking directly into her face and nipping at her. They’re running around her like they’re going to attack her or something, and when she tries to run away they chase her, trample her, and bite at her. Prandtl tries to sit on the ground to tell them she doesn’t want to play, but they bark and nip. And every dog is baring their teeth and poor Prandtl is letting out little high pitched barks and doing her best to defend herself because she’s not much of a fighter.
When it comes to dogs playing too rough, I do my best to get Prandtl out of the situation. I will walk away from the owners of the dogs, call her over, and the other dogs’ respective owners will do the same. All of the dogs will be seperated, and everyone is happy. But today’s dogs were not well trained and did not listen to their owners, so suddenly there were two dogs that were getting more and more aggressive towards mine, and all kinds of people yelling out names that weren’t really having any kind of effect. I would call Prandtl’s name, but that would cause her to run for me which would just make things worse – she was just chased, trampled, and bitten some more.
Prandtl somehow got to me, and I grabbed her collar and sat her down. The other owners came running over to grab their dogs, but they couldn’t grab a hold of them so I just kind of sat there… hoping to God I wouldn’t get bitten… while nobody else could get control over their animals. And while I admit that putting my hand on Prandtl’s collar was probably a stupid move from a safety standpoint, I didn’t know what else to do. Nobody else seemed to be doing anything.
Anyway, this whole situation probably lasted about 5 minutes. We seperated our dogs and went to different parts of the dog park. Prandtl and I ended up running into the poodle again, and they played fine for awhile. I was hoping that it was the pitbull that escalated the first “situation”, but next thing I know the poodle is harassing my dog again. Since it was only one dog instead of two this time and I was already very cautious regarding that dog, I got that situation under control very quickly, but the woman still couldn’t get her dog to listen or get it onto a leash. And so I put Prandtl on her leash and left the dog park because I didn’t want to deal with another poorly trained dog. Then we went home.
I was okay with the dogs picking on Prandtl. It happens, they are dogs, and I expect it to occur once in awhile at a dog park. But what drives me crazy is when people bring dogs to the dog park that they don’t have under control. Every dog park in this area has a requirement stating that dogs must have a reliable recall, and it’s for reasons like this. This whole thing could have been avoided very easily, but instead I almost got my arm bit off by a pitbull.
The part that really has me fuming is that I have put in the time to have a well behaved dog. Prandtl did nothing wrong at the dog park and she did exactly as I told her. She came when I called her and sat when I told her to sit. And yet we were the ones that had to leave. I basically punished my dog for being obedient while the other dogs are being rewarded for disobedience. It’s a terrible cycle that I don’t really know how to stop. I need to take care of my dog, and letting her stay there in a potentially dangerous situation is not taking care of her. I certainly told the woman that she should think about not returning to a dog park with a dog that isn’t under her control, but she just gave me some “She’s usually not like this” excuse. And I wanted to slap her.
Anyway, sorry for this long, frantically written post.
But the worst part is that even if I were to go to a different dog park, people still bring disobedient dogs. There’s not much else I can do outside of buying a house with a huge yard for Prandtl to play in… but I don’t really have $100,000 laying around.
There’s too much snow, there’s too much cold, there are too many clouds, and there’s too much responsibility here in Minnesota. I’ve got the winter blues, so to make myself feel better I am skipping town on Friday and headed to Waikiki Beach in Hawaii – the place where dreams come true. And those dreams consist of a fabulous tan and all of the seafood I can eat (or afford).
So while I’m super excited and thinking about this trip literally every moment that my eyes are open, there is one problem: the absence of what I lovingly refer to as a “beach bod”. You know what I’m talking about – one of those perfectly toned bodies, with the rippling abs and the bronzey, glowy skin that look AMAZING on the beach. While I had planned to have mine by April or May (anybody that knows me in real life should be rolling their eyes right now), I didn’t even consider that I would be going somewhere in the beginning of February. That means that my midsection is still toting around one of those little kid inflatable circle floats with the hole in the middle (I would have said tire, but I’m not that out of shape – THANK YOU JANUARY RESOLUTIONS!).
When someone that knows nothing about proper fitness and healthy eating (what’s a calorie?) is faced with achieving a “beach bod” in two days, we start freaking out. So I did what any fitness and health ignorant person does in these situations: ask their smart friends. All of my friends’ opinions were peppered with words like “sodium” and “merciless workouts” and “cut out the carbs to lose water weight”, so I decided that while their opinions are probably very valid, I didn’t really like any of them. Carbs are my favorite food group! Salt is delicious! Nothing tastes good without butter! Working out too long is booooring! As far as I am concerned, I have the following options:
Stop eating all together. What better way to lose weight than reduce my food intake to zero.
Continue to eat, but reduce my food choices to celery, carefully selected families of lettuce, one granola bar, and chocolate covered raisins because I will never give those up. Ever.
6 hour workouts every day up until I am sitting on the plane to Hawaii(which hopefully I get on… because if I have to sleep in an airport again, I will go berserk).
New swimsuit - goodbye bikini, hello oversized shirt and shorts.
Avoid the beach at all costs and basically waste my trip to paradise.
Forget about going to Hawaii and go snowboarding instead. Snowboarding is a workout and allows for some big, puffy clothes.
Flaunt it, baby!
And I considered each of them carefully.
Gosh, I love eating… but I could try to give it up for a few days… but I can’t do try because I only have two days until I’m embarassing myself… Oh! You know… maybe I could commit myself to nonstop workouts… but then I’ll be so tired when I get there that all I will want to do is sleep… and I’ll be sore… and then I can’t force Dan to climb up Diamond Head with me… and I can’t wait because he is going to be so pissed when he finds out that we are taking a trek through nature… why am I dating a guy that doesn’t like nature?… at least he doesn’t like chocolate covered raisins so then I can eat all of them.. and I don’t really like celery or lettuce so then that diet would only consist of the chocolate covered raisins… and that doesn’t really sound so bad come to think of it… but then I get sick if I eat too many… although if I stayed here I could eat everything and go snowboarding since a little flubber is good for warmth, right?… BUT I HATE THE COLD… jesus… and I already bought a swimsuit so I don’t want to return it… although I guess I don’t really like it so I could return it without crying for too long… but I want to get a tan so wearing a shirt and shorts doesn’t really work for that… unless I wanted one of those sweet farmer’s tans… and I actually really hate those because they take forever to get rid of… my feet still have tan lines from the flip flops I never stop wearing in the summer.. I wonder if my feet with get sunburned?… I remember one time Bim got her feet sunburnt and I laughed at her.. I wonder if she’d do the same to me… she would… especially since I laughed at her when she fell out of a tree that one time… hmm.. I miss Bim.. but anyway there’s no way I would miss out on the beach in Hawaii.. and no way I would go in a shirt and shorts… and no way I would stop eating.. and no way I would eat only chocolate covered raisins… and no way I would work out all day every day… and no way I would avoid the beach.. and no way I would stay here and go snowboarding…
So that leaves me to rock what all of that candy, deep fried food, lack of vegetables, and butter soaked delicious gave me.
Every year, the Pioneer Press has an event in Saint Paul. It is called The Saint Paul Winter Carnival Treasure Hunt, and people here take it very seriously.
I didn’t learn about this event until last night, but ever since I have been obsessed. A medallion is hidden somewhere in Ramsey County, and every day the Pioneer Press releases a clue to find it. Clue number eight will be released tonight at midnight, and by about the 12th clue the newspaper basically tells you where it is. The winner recieves $10,000.00!!!!!!!
The night before my drunken state, I found myself sleeping in the Atlanta airport. And by sleeping, I mean laying awake on uncomfortable benches while the night staff ran vacuums and yelled at each other the entire time.
The greatest thing about working at an airline is, hands down, the flight benefits. Last night I called my mom asking if she would like me to come visit her this weekend. She got really excited, said yes, and I am now lined up to leave Minneapolis tomorrow at 4pm and get back here on Saturday around 8pm. And I can still make it to my hair appointment on Sunday at 2:30.
Thanks to my monthly resolutions, I was motivated to get started learning how to snowboard. We went today and Charlie met me and Dan at a place called Hyland Hills, which is only about 14 miles away from where we live.
My very first time snowboarding was about two years ago, and I fell constantly. My body was sore for days, and it hurt to stand, sit, lay down, and just.. generally.. move. Today, on my second attempt at snowboarding, I actually noticed a massive improvement! I still fell a lot, and my falls were probably just as bad, but I was able to go down the entire hill on my heels very easily. My falling occured as I tried to advance in my skills (ie attempting to do anything on my toes or go down the hill sideways like a normal snowboarder).
Below are a few of my pictures from the day:
In my opinion, this snowboarding lesson counts as a workout as well. Despite the high being 13 degrees, I was sweating like crazy. Additionally, my body is really sore and I honestly don’t think I will be able to make it to the gym and complete a workout without crying for at least a few days. Every time I fell, I fell hard.
Snowboarding and skiing are expensive hobbies, and because I don’t own any equipment, I have to rent. Our rentals cost about $25. The lift tickets were $27. In order to learn how to snowboard, I might have to say goodbye to meeting the financial goals I had called out on my monthly resolutions list. However, I do think it is too early to throw in the towel, so we will see where the month takes me.
When I was in high school, I remember my new years at home more than the new years celebrations I joined when I actually went out. One year I promised my mom I would stay at home with her, and then she went to bed. I bought my friend Donald legos that year (but hadn’t given them to him yet) and so I built lego people to sit on the couch with me. Honestly, I think that is the most memorable new years eve I have ever had. Weird? Yes. Unique and memorable for all the wrong reasons? Also yes.
Another year, after my family and I watched the ball drop on tv, we went outside and banged on pots and pans. My stepdad told me that was a tradition he grew up with in New York. I thought we were going to get arrested for disturbing the peace or something.
I am remembering details of other new years celebrations the more I think about it, but not enough to mention here. I have had a lot of fun with friends over the years, but it’s funny how those boring nights in the comfort of my own home are what stick out in my memory.
This year, I thought about scheduling a trip to Las Vegas. How amazing would it be to fly in to Las Vegas on New Years Eve, have the time of my life, and fly back immediately after on the morning of New Years. Unfortunately, the flights are looking pretty full and I don’t think I will be able to schedule it successfully since I am required to fly standby. Plus, I don’t really want to spend the money to board Prandtl for the weekend (she’s not cheap). Also, lets be honest, I probably wouldn’t remember much of my visit there… for the obvious reasons.
So instead it looks like Dan and I will be staying in the Twin Cities. This year, Brit’s Pub is having a New Years party! I am honestly really excited – apparently Brit’s Pub is ” kind of a big deal” around here and are known for their World Cup celebrations as well as the sweet lawn bowling on the roof. Even though it’s too cold to go outside on the roof, I plan on dancing, meeting some strangers, and having the time of my life. But I am sure that while I’m out running around downtown, I will be kind of missing a quiet night at home.
If you don't go after what you want, you'll never have it. If you don't ask, the answer is always no. If you don't step forward, you're always in the same place.
