Modernist

Things likely to be heard after camp:

Douchebaggery is an unforgivable sin.
I need to go grocery shopping.
Why is everything I own covered in cat hair?
Do I have to pick these people up from the airport? I no longer care if they walk.
Internalize that!
Got to get that POI done.
And you will faintly hear the scratching of letter writing.

And the winner for most random and unplanned nonsensical post goes to.....

Yeah, I'll just take my award and leave through the back door.

The Last of Speech Camp

Ah, the last night I have of speech camp. We still have tomorrow, but this is their last night on the Gustie campus, and I'm sure they are exhausted enough for their parents to take them back- let's face it, even my parents would take me back at this point. After camp all I do is sleep- or maybe all I want to do.

Be that as it may, speech camp is always worth it. For the laughs, the cries, the accomplishments, and the stories. SSI: like a champion.

http://vimeo.com/46599422

Check out the sweet Vid!  Carl and the Freshman worked hard (even with all the chaos and bumps in the road) and I think the product turned out pretty well.

That Story About Answering Phones

Thus begins the first day of the extension. With some grace, we managed to start a bit later, although I'm still attempting to convince Kris that my natural sleep schedule does not include the words "Meet in the Courtyard by 7:30." What a shame too. I could use the shut eye.

I will say that I am getting back on track with letter writing. Since this past week was one fraught with campers and no sleep, I felt I could not devote the necessary time to letters, so this week I'm responding to all of the things!

Oh, here's that story about the phone call.  My mother so kindly reminded me.

Remember Slam Camp? Well, since I picked everyone up from the airport, I had all of their phone numbers saved in my phone, including Kika's.

Fast forward. Last week (yes, the one before Speech Camp), I got a call from what I thought was Kika. My phone said Kika, and smart phones are really smart. So I answered in a Kika appropriate:

"HEY GURL HEY! Whachu do?"
"Hi, is Kelsey there?"
"Gurl! This is!"
"May I speak to Kelsey?"
"Yeah, spit it poet."
[Silence]

At this point I'm a little confused, because the Kika I know would have not only appreciated this greeting, but would have responded in kind. Too confused to continue, I began again:

"Are you still there?"
"May I speak to Kelsey?"
"Yes, this is she."
"Kelsey, this is Teri from GTS (Gustavus Technology Services)"
[Gulp]

Uh.......  WHAT??!?!! You mean to say that I just greeted GTS in a very non-GTS approved fashion? Woof. My Life. I would like to point out that I confirmed with Justin that my phone did, in fact, say Kika as the caller ID, and that I'm not just delusional.

After I finished my job related call with the now confirmed non-Kika caller, I set down my phone and looked panicked.  When Justin asked what happened, I responded with, "That was not who I assumed it to be..."

Since then I've done some digging and it turns out that the GTS number was saved under Kika's contact info. Strange, I'll admit, considering that I have texted her in the past... So let your lesson be learned, answer your phone only when you're sure. Or just don't answer your phone. Whatever works for you.

Pushing Them Out of the Nest

Woah, slow down crazy, slow down.

Tournament day. Boom. Now that it's over (and we're talking not the tournament that I'm competing at, but the little baby heart and souls that I've coached and worked with all week are throwing their newly found skills around in a room at the mercy of an unfamiliar audience and a scary person with the almighty pen. Terrified yet? It's like being crushed, without being told that you're being crushed.) Good news: My little GOAT pride didn't flinch. They did what they came to do, they laughed in the face of danger, and they want to come back next year. To this? I say I raise you a moderately less successful competitive day for this reaction. They laughed, they cried, and I think they learned something. (And the incredible people they met and the friends they made don't hurt either). So here we go, G! O! A! T! GOAT! Baaaaaaaaaaaaaaaa

As for my now somewhat mushy mental state: I think I've been staring at a computer screen with my mouth gaping open and my eyes crossed for 10 minutes before I realized I should type, or blog, or maybe just go to bed.

Remind me that I should tell you all about that time that I went to a judging certification for MN... Still pondering that one a little bit.

Proud Parents

Remember that time I watched 15 fantastic HIs tonight and was so proud of my little baby GOAT!

I do. It was great.

Get Free Poet (Just Kidding, Stay There)

Oh yes, it's a Gustie Poem.
Even though it's Thursday. I give my heart to you anon.
I wish with all my being to wake up
A new born
Speech critiquing super coach
And to let the people see how good they can be.
Sweat out the negatives at the Dive,
And choose instead, sweet dreams
On which ride the gusts of opportunity.
G.O.A.T.

Uh... you get the point... Sort of.

Better Believe I Dig Poetry!

Another.... And another...
Haikus never get old.

Blog views are down, mom
But practice takes lots of work
One on Ones begin.

Monday? Never Would Have Guessed That

Another poem for another day:

Short blog posts reflect
Pieces to be cut or found
Streets ahead, Pride 1.

Haiku for 148

Yet another SSI induced poem:

Last performances--
Bitter sweet. Library sesh:
Finding lit is hard.

Put Your Hands in the Air!

SPEECH CAMP!!!!!!!!!
Therefore I will be writing poetry- get with it.

There once was a pride at speech camp
Their name was renowned (like Lamp)
They brought all their stuff,
And moved to the bluff
And no, we don't need an amp.

THEMED THURSDAY: Are You Looking At Me?

THEMED THURSDAY (friday) GET PUMPED YA'LL!!!!

So SSI starts TOMORROW and in honor of such a memorable time, the theme for this week is "Fictionalized version of the meeting between Kelsey and Michelle. Must include the line, 'she's cross-eyed in both eyes.'"

Ready? Here we go.

I was sitting calmly in my room. Finally arrived at this infamous speech camp, and intensely curious if there were people that were both sane AND speech nerds. I knew the pickings were going to be slim, but provided that I put on my charming smile and winning personality and hope for the best. So sitting in this quad in Uhler hall, I waited. Suddenly, she burst through the door and into my life. Forever.

Now there are good and bad things to this bursting thing.  First of all, bursting is bad for blood pressure. It’s a pressure problem, and there’s just no fixing much of anything once it’s done been burst. The good thing is that you get there quickly and efficiently with maximum rubble. And this, my friends, is Michelle.

I think I should explain something key to the choice of burst. It’s not her fault. She’s cross-eye in both eyes. Both, it is not a repercussion of her actions that she’s cross-eyed in both eyes. But that she can’t help but move in a rambunctious manner through doors and walls because she is in fact, cross-eyed in both eyes. Does that make sense? I think it does? Ish. Anyway, she comes bursting into the room and I knew, in that very same moment that my life was about to significantly improve. There was only one problem. There can only be one mega diva here. This quad is just not big enough for the both of us.

Thus the most epic battle you’ll ever hear about occurred. I can say this confidently because you don’t “hear” about the Iliad or the Odyssey, you read it, because it’s assigned reading. So boom. And the battle of Isengard? Hogwarts? Yup, you read that too. And I’m going to give you the police report bullet points (kapow, did you catch that one? I didn’t know you could catch a speeding bullet.)

-Extensive burning in the surrounding areas due to fire throwing contest/fight

-Other trampled areas likely due to the extensive crowd heard by locals

-Quotations from spectators include, “Intense. I’ve never seen a pop off like that before.” “Looked dangerous, but it’s good to know where you stand with that.” “Wouldn’t want to get in the middle of that.” “Would have loved to get in the middle of that.” As you can see, there are mixed reports.

-Case left unresolved.

And because there’s no reason to get innocent bystanders, like Katlyn, involved in this act of aggression, I think it’s important to leave the details out. Because I’ve told you too much already. And the police report is still out there and I’m trying to be nice, and that’s a struggle for me so take advantage of it. The important point is that there was fire. And flame throwing. And I won.

But how hard is it to be a two-time cross-eyed chick with a bursting problem?

Themed Thursday...,,.

Themed Thursday? What's that? Hey Michelle, we should figure that out. So... Yeah.. We'll figure that out tomorrow.

"I Was Making a Lasagne! (For One)"

Singing duets with Justin Feit must be one of the best ways to pass a work day. Seriously. I think we could go on tour, but it would make Hannah Montana and Miley Cyrus break up for jealousy. We sat in the team room for about an hour stuffing name tags for SSI singing our creative loosely covered renditions of Flight of the Concords.  Good use of time? Absolutely. My only regret is that Cadi and Kris missed our version of "The Most Beautiful Girl" by about 35 seconds. So that's a bummer. But we enjoyed it, and art is really for the artist most of the time.

"I'm not crying... it's just the rain on my face"

It rained!  And other than standing around watching it pour for 45 minutes, we just admired the after affects of a good rain storm on both the heat and my hair. As the rain fell, my hair grew... just like the grass except exponential curls. Woe.  But that's ok, because it's closer to 70 than 100.  Winners. Except for the person sitting behind me in a theater... Then that sucks.

Remind me, I have an amusing story about answering phones and what you should learn about that.

When You Buy Lemons....

Validation at last!  Just kidding. I've been in a bake-y mood for about a week and finally caved (with the help of Mariecus telling me what to bake, sort of). I made lemon bars!  Delicious? Yes. Duh. But according to our other roommate, Lauren, they are the best thing I've made to date! How do you like that? After zesting a lemon and hand squeezing the necessary juice, I suppose the effort makes a bit of a difference. Or it's just that in this god-forsaken heat wave lemon was the only way to go. I mean, I love chocolate as much as the next person and their chocolate loving friend combined, but lemon bars just sound so cool and refreshing. It has nothing to do with the cup of sugar, or the effort, or the air conditioning. So lemon bars it was (not to say I didn't stock up on chocolate... just in case this baking crave continues).

Between the lemon bars and the super duper pasta I made (with lime juice, rosemary, and spinach) (hey dad, it only needed pine nuts, seriously!), I've been a busy chef.

And other than that, Kris, Justin, and I have been prepping for SSI on SATURDAY. Holy cheezewhiz. This is going to be a whirl. I think I'm either going to blink and it'll be over, or it'll feel like I'm watching the entire week pass from under water. The really slow motion scene in movies where everything is nostalgic and the sun is shining from up above, but nothing feels quite right? I'll let you know if that actually happens, but it's going to be amazing regardless. Holla!

So in anticipation for such a week, I'm going to attempt to get more sleep than usual. Wish me luck.

Am I a Poet?

rainbow
lemon
floss

These are the three words given to me by my lovely roommate, Mariecus in order to make this blog, apparently, fantastical. What should I do with them? That's an excellent question.

The good news is that we could do a little grammar lesson. Talk about the purpose of nouns and verbs, direct objects, and transitive verbs. But I'm afraid that with any amount of that, I would end up losing a lot of readership and the few friends I have collected over the last 20 years of my life. So I won't go there. (Though if you would like me to give you a itty-bitty English lesson, I'm all kinds of chalkboard.)

But instead, I will take a different tangent and talk a bit about poetry and the reflexivity of words-especially in music. So put an ear to this tune and see what you think of this. For reference sake, this is Kurt Elling (shameless plug: he's a Gustie with a Grammy-what up world?) and this song never fails to make me smile.

And I feel that Mariecus's list of words inspires the same kind of poetic interlude. 

Lemon rainbow floss,

Floss the lemon rainbow. 

Floss the lemon, rainbow-

Rainbows floss lemons.

Floss rainbow lemons. 

Floss! Rainbow lemon. 

And that is my post dedicated to Mariecus's random days. 

The Aftermath of Hours Behind a Computer

Ah, the day of the registration. My least favorite day of the week. Mostly because it involves such things as waiting impatiently for people you've clearly judged by their grammar on their registration form sent in prior to your meeting in person. Then there is the matter of perkiness and general manufactured joviality. See where this is going?

Anyway, Show Choir registration ran smoothly enough. No flips, flops, or other mishaps of somewhat disastrous proportions. And, it gears us up for the even more daunting afternoon of chaos that happens next Saturday.

Which reminds me. Next Friday begins the best week in all the summer: Speech Camp. And that may mean that I will be vague, aloof, and otherwise hard to bring back to the real world. So if you're expecting posts, expect skimpy ones at best. But trust me. The 15-18 hour days are going to be joy enough for this blogger.

The Road to Roommate

You know that feeling when you finish a fantastic book?
That happened today.

I haven't finished a book that I was so sad to put down in ages. But this morning I got to that point where I would stop to digest a certain line, just to make the last 20 pages last longer. What a great thing. If you haven't read The Road by Cormac Macarthy, do it now. Seriously. Sometimes it's hard to read just because there are a bajillion adjectives and things to think about, but it's honestly one of the greatest books I've read. And I'm an English major, so I get to have a real opinion.

Boom.

OH. And the love of my life, and by that I mean Bethany came to visit today! But actually, she's on campus all week helping with Show Choir Camp, so that's a very winning situation for me. I'm thrilled.

And I'm going to bed.

THEMED THURSDAY: The Avenged

THEMED THURSDAY (for real this time).  Here goes nothing. We're talking Villains this week. Big bad villains who are out to get you and your children. And let me tell you how I met some super villains yesterday.

So it goes like this. I walk into a room, doing what I do. Being who I'm supposed to be, in charge, and this looming figure walks up to me. Now, keep in mind that I'm approximately short. For those of you inclined to exactness, 5 feet and 4.5 inches to my name. My stature by no means confines my personality, or my confidence, however when this crooked, tall, figure strode toward me, I couldn't help but cower just slightly behind my kevlar name tag. And I knew her name. Lady Fickle. And she spoke:

"Hello, Kelsey."
"Hello, Lady Fickle."
"There's just something that I need you to do. I was wondering if you could put together a little slide show movie for the evening."
"I could throw about 50 pictures on a power point for you guys. But it will cost you." (note: this is not considered caving to the enemy. It's called luring them into a trap.)
"Don't worry about a price. It's taken care of. That'd be great. If you could meet us early to test it out later that'd be great." (I knew she was right. It was taken care of, but how else to deter her? Nothing came to mind.)
"I'll be there."

Was it a challenge? Was it going to turn my afternoon in to a throw down of global proportions?

Yes. Yes it was.

But the real question remained. How was I going to make a functional working power point with sound and over 50 slides by this afternoon? I knew this deadline was no joke. I could literally be dead on the line, or flat lining with no one to revive my corpse. This is a tragic scenario indeed. So my teleportation capable shoes carried me back to my studio (1, what hero doesn't have cool gadgets? 2, studio? bat cave? cool place for me to do my nifty work and be undetected by my adoring fans-you get it.) And there I quickly uploaded 700 pictures and as they were converting to a secure drive, I deftly placed them in a newly designed power point presentation. All the while decoding the ideal song to play behind the pictures that would count down the minutes for my escape as well as hopefully distract our super villain.

One hour later, and an attempted foiled plot to slow down my super computer, I walk back into the designated place. If this was West Side Story, it would be under the freeway. If this was Zoolander, it would be the convenient runway in the well known abandoned place down the street. If this was a spaghetti stain, this would be on the go because that's where Tide to go is intended to be: EVERYWHERE.

So I walk to the center of the room. She stands there in front of me with her goons behind her. I've come alone (maybe that was an oversight in my plan?) but here I am anyway. She meets me. I reach out my hand with the flash drive. She knows that one false move will be the end.

"This isn't what I wanted."
"Maybe not. But that. Is what you get."
"NOOOOOOOOOOOOOO"

And with that, I buzzed my way out of the now shattering floor and destruction that was radiating from the room I had just left. But I was free. No more worries, and now, she was someone else's villain to battle.

I had lived to right another villain another day.

A Pattern Has Formed for the Fridays

Ok. I know it's Thursday. And I know you like your Themes on Thursdays. After all, that makes sense, THemes, THursday-I get it. But here's the skinny. I had a hell of an afternoon, so much so that our dastardly plans for a mastermind of a Themed Thursday had been foiled. Thus, here I sit waiting impatiently for our impromptu Themed THfriday where the true meaning of a blog off will be shown to the WORLD!!!!!

I really tried to give you a lot of clues, but I'm sleepy, and this will keep you on the edge of your seats until the morn.

Dawn smells like......

Early mornings make me think of speech camp. I mean, I'm not an early bird by any stretch of the imagination, but something about walking around campus before 8 am signals speech camp.

Now the real question is, how in the world is my body going to justify getting up that early for over a week? Basically? I have no clue. Something about divine intervention and people yelling. That usually works. So here's to a few more weeks of non predawn alarm clocks.

You've Got Mail: The RomCom Minus the "Rom"

This shall be a blog post entirely dedicated to letter leader board updates! Are you ready?

Inbox this week:
Michelle (I know, seems like I'm always talking to her in some capacity. We Hufflepuffs do that)
Spaulding (2 in a week? Impressive)
Laura
Joe
Hannah
Kate Meade

Needless to say I need to get to writing!

So in total, that leaves:

Spaulding: 3
Michelle: 2
Hannah: 2
Joe: 2
Laura: 1
Ben: 1
Kate: 1

Special shout out to Kate Meade, she has kindly sent me an autographed copy of her book, and I'm stoked to read it. So, weekend task? I think so. I might have to finish my other book first, but I don't think she'll mind too much.

And over all, I feel like I've done pretty well in sending and receiving letters. Out of the 10 people I've sent letters to, I've received letters from 7 (granted, Kate sent the first letter so she was only counted in the received pile).

In addition to all of those things, I should mention that both my mother and my grandmother are good penpals. Grandma has been sending me all kinds of recipes that I have been trying and then posting suitably mouth watering pictures here-blame her not me.

So here's to using up all of my stationary so that I have to buy "interesting" ones from various St. Peter stores. Gonna have to work for it, I've got a lot of it here.

Go Play Outside

Hello there Blogosphere! Today's discussion: Playgrounds. Why? Because they're awesome and you know you want to go to one right this instant because being a 5 year old with no teeth never lasts long enough. I'm right, don't argue.

Mariecus and I took a little stroll through St. Peter on this fine evening and ended up (ok, intentionally walked to) a playground down the hill. There, in this oasis of memories (see what I did there, that was cool) we did all of the things we did during recess about 15 years ago. Mind blown yet? Well, almost all of the things, except for throwing playground pebbles at each other and attending shotgun recess weddings. That being said, we spun around on the carrousel, tried to touch the tops of the trees on the swings, collected static on the slides, played tic tac toe on the little rolley built in tic tac toe board, attempted the oddly wide set monkey bars, and even sat in the tire swing.

Ok, but here's the real deal. The Tire Swing (capitalized for emphasis and importance). This was my jam in elementary school (at least for a year.  I like to be a versatile playground participant). There I would be the master of the Tire Swing and the ride designer.  Everything from how high to push them, to how fast to spin them-custom order welcome.  But here in St. P, there's a problem. This Tire Swing is yellow.

Go ahead, when was the last time you saw a yellow Tire Swing? A hard, plastic, yellow Tire Swing.  It's kind of like sitting in one of those Fisher Price Flintstone cars when you're 15.  So instead of looking like this kid:

Cool, debonaire, getting all the dates.

You look like this kid:

Not quite comfortable but still trying to play it cool

and that turns into:

Just less appealing. 

And what I'm trying to say here is not that I'm got bigger from when I was 7, (which is only partially true. I'm still pretty short) but that there's something far more comfortable at any age about a real Tire Swing instead of the color coded alternative. Needless to say I was not twirling in memory cyclones of Tire Swing revelries.  I had to stick with the regular swings. 

Sunday Sundae Sunday!

Things that are good on Sunday (and also on sundaes):

1) Crepes with Nutella and bananas. It's an obvious delicious decision and I regret nothing.

2) Blueberry muffins fresh out of the oven in heart shapes. It's better for the world.

3) Judging by the last two things, food is good on Sunday. Good to know.

4) Chocolate.

Hufflepuffs Unite!!

Exciting point of the day (besides riding in a golf cart around the arb): Michelle is officially a Hufflepuff! Why I'd this important? Basically my life is no long some random shot in the dark! There are others like me. I want to know! Can you show me? I want to know about these strangers like me.

Down in my heart, I knew that I would connect with those in my house, but I never knew it would be this magical! At last, I know I'm not a freak or a failure. So come at me bro, I'm bringing Hufflepuff to the zombie apocalypse- we're obviously all going to be there.

Themed Thursday: PICK ME!

THEMED THURSDAY! THEMED THURSDAY! THEMED THURSDAY!

But Kelsey, it's Friday. We've been waiting for 48 hours for this moment and you can't even title your blog post right?

To that I say, I'm sorry. I'm doing my best to keep up with your demands, but sometimes I'm human, and that means I don't eat people--

What?  What was that? A segue to today's theme!?!?!?!
Yes, yes it was. And that means we need to start picking sides for the Zombie Apocalypse. And this my friends, is more important than dodgeball. So stand up straight and pay attention. This information could save your life. Sort of.

Rules: Pick 3 other people (besides yourself) living, dead, or fictional for your Zombie Apocalypse team. These are the people that know the rules- double tap, cardio, and other basic survival skills, like open fire cooking (and I don't mean cooking in the front lines, I mean over an open flame). Are you ready to face December 21st? Go.

1) Dexter Morgan: Crime fighting, crime killing individual with extensive knowledge of knife wielding and blood analysis. Other skills: being incredibly attractive. He's an ideal candidate for all of these reasons in addition to his witty monologues and scheming mentality.

2) My Uncle Kent: Damn good cook, tells bigger than life stories, has experience fixing things and tough guy problem solving, as well as being a general "I'm not dead yet, so I must be fine" sort of person. Always has a good story and that's pretty ideal when you spend the rest of your time avoiding/hunting zombies. 

3) Cadi: According to her facebook profile pic, she has experience shooting a gun, typically funny, has some good stories, and general absurdity. That means being able to talk to someone for hours to delay pure and utter boredom. After all, this is what we do on a regular basis when driving to and from places that are super far away. So boom.

And I would like to make a clarification: This is all based on the idea that I am secretly an elf who can run really fast, see really far (without glasses or binoculars), and has exceptional bow and arrow skills. I say this for 2 reasons: 1) Those are useful things in a Zombie Apocalypse and I don't have any of those skills now.  2) I just really want to be an elf. 

Ok, that's it for me. I'll probably blog about the remainder of my week(end) with Michelle in Duluth tomorrow or Sunday when I'm sitting all alone in my apartment making cupcakes out of my tears. 

Themed- Thursday-Friday?

In anticipation for the epic adventure that shall take place tomorrow, themes Thursday has been postponed. Enjoy and tune in then!

'Murrica Pie

Let me regale you with the adventurous day of Duluthyness.

Michelle and I woke up at a respectable time (and I mean as in my parents, not my peers would be impressed) and headed out for a scenic river drive and a festive nature hike (pretty neat). So around Gooseberry park we walk. Taking in the sights, making fun of the awkward family photos being captured in front of root beer waterfalls and general frivolity. After that exhausting trek, we make our way to Betty's Pies where we had lunch and ate pie. A stunning blackberry peach crumble for me- but the pie theme had only just begun. This is real life, and we need more pie. So a plan was developed that we have a fancy house dinner where everyone contributes something. Much like family dinner, but I've only known some of these people for 24 hours-I'm not sure if they're ready to adopt me. And Michelle and I, being the industrious Americans we are, needed to make apple pies. And I do say pieS because we are so focused on individuality that we made mini pies. So eight apples and 3 home made pie crusts later, we have 12 stunning examples of freedom.

And if you're wondering how you roll pie crust without wax paper or a rolling pin? Let me show you young Skywalker. You improvise!

And they are delicious. We are proud bakers and proud wearers of patriotic attire-minus the eagles. If I can't carry around a real bird, I don't want it on my shirt.

And that wraps it all up. Happy 4th, whether you believe in the country or just believe in the people who inhabit said country-have a good one.

Reunited and It's All So Right

Your world has just collided with something so epic, it can hardly be comprehended by the interwebs. That's right. The infamous Michelle, of Just a Chef's Daughter and I are inhabiting the same house. (who? what? why? HOW IS THIS POSSIBLE MY LIFE SUDDENLY MAKES SENSE!) Yes, I know. The world is a better place now that we have joined our magical decoder rings in a triumphant stance over the things that keep us apart. And the things you have to look forward too: Themed Thursday- actual face to face combat. This is the kind of battle they'll be talking about for centuries. Alamo-no-mo, this is what will be remembered.

But for now, I'll give you the nice little summary of my day.
I worked for the first half, getting things tied up and decent before we all left for our varying levels of adventure (me: exponential, Justin: optional, and Kris: Why is this adventure geared for a younger crowd?). Then I had lunch and packed over another episode of Mad Men, and then loaded up my vehicle (good girl Scarlet) and drove my merry way up to Duluth. Lovely? I think yes. Well, except for that part called the Twin Cities and traffic-that part was unlovely.

Upon arrival, Michelle gave me a quick tour and we immediately went out to pizza (artichoke hearts on a pizza? Good ideas) and galavanted around Downtown Duluth. Seeing things like the lift bridge and walking placidly along the shore of Lake Superior. (I'm told it's superior, but to what? I don't get it...) So despite the scorching heat and the dastardly humidity, we managed to make a good night of it-catching up on all of the stories and generally enjoying life.

Life now makes sense.

Real Words Don't Have the Proper Emphasis: WHWPOWEIHLKJFHD!!

This is going to be a post about how obsessed I am with Mad Men (Mariecus can attest to this-I've watched 9 episodes in 2 days), and HOW INCREDIBLY PUMPED I AM ABOUT VISITING MICHELLE TOMORROW.

Letter leader board update:
Michelle zooms a head with her second letter. That leaves the following:

Michelle: 2
Joe: 1
Ben: 1
Spaulding: 1
Hannah: 1

But this is anyone's game folks. So get to it! If I'm feeling nice, I'll write the freshman one later this week.

But more importantly: TOMORROW WHEN I GET TO SEE MICHELLE!  I need to pack before then, I did laundry for this occasion... That's a real friendship right there. Michelle informed me that even despite the floodings, Duluth is not a nudist colony... how peculiar. But if that's the trend, I guess that's it.

And that sums up my excitement-except not at all. This is beyond epic, and I'm psyched.

It's 4am and I'm Wide Awake Singing a Song

Good news: I survived.
Bad news: I'm exhausted.

So this morning at 3:55am my alarm goes off. It sounds a lot like a fire alarm, so it's pretty effective in making me jump out of bed. But just in case, I set an alarm for 4:00am, and 4:05am too. But I was up and at them at 3:55 and Justin and I made a quick coffee and donut run before making sure that the 4 last poets to the airport. And although they were sleepy, we made it out of there in plenty of time. The only tragic moment of the day was when my coffee cup failed me and proceeded to spill the black gold contents of the magic cup all over my lap-whilest driving. Basically the worst occurrence ever. Hot coffee everywhere and I'm wearing khaki shorts.  Boo that. But the worst of it is that I have lost precious amounts of coffee. Woe is me.

But we got there on time and said our tearful goodbyes. Then Justin and I boogied back home to get some sleep.  Well, actually, I was too awake to sleep right then, so I went for a little walk around the arb.  Wrote a little bit, napped a bit, and came back before it got too hot. And for a good chunk of the afternoon, I took a nap and have begun the 3rd season of Mad Men. So despite being far too early to wake up, I think today was pretty prime.