Bartender, Gimme A Beer

Those would have been the words I would have said if the airport bar hadn't called last call as I was walking up to the counter. One of the great things about being of age is that you can be tipsy plus on a flight if you want to. I am flying the red eye back to Minneapolis and I wanted a chemical helper in my attempt to get any sleep on this flight. The drinks at the bar for sure would have been cheaper than the five dollars I will have to pay on the flight for a little bottle that wouldn't get my little brothers buzzed. It is a matter of public safety that I get a little sleep on this flight because I am gonna be driving myself home tomorrow morning from the airport. I don't want to be cracked out on lack of sleep and taking the 35W which is best likened to a series of sharp turns coupled with potholes that could double as in ground pools. 

I had a blast being home these past five days. Of course the weather was a much appreciated change from the bitter cold I am returning to. I was able to spend time with my family, go out with my brother, and see a bunch of movies. While the amount of time since I had seen my family last wasn't all that much longer than when I was in school, it was different this time. The time I have spent in Minneapolis has been so different from my time in school, I feel more cut off from my family. There is a greater sense of permanence in Minneapolis than there was in Madison. I have my own apartment, I will be registering my vehicle in the state of Minnesota, and hopefully becoming a member of the service industry soon after getting back. This is a level of reality that never existed in Madison and it is scary. 

I saw some great movies over this trip. I love the fact that during my time in Minneapolis I have seen a total of one movie and during my five day stay in Vegas I saw three. On Christmas Day, my dad, Jordan, and I saw Milk. That was quite the experience to say the least. I got uncomfortable when I saw Old School with my dad and there were boobies shaken all over the place, the idea of sitting next to my dad while Sean Penn and James Franco go at it did not sit well with me. I didn't realize until now the humor in the fact that I saw a movie about a gay rights activist's life on the day Jesus was supposedly born. Something tells me the social justice Jesus would be cool with it while the born again Jesus would damn me to hell all the while secretly wishing he had seen it too. It was a pretty darn good movie, definitely one that I will need to see again to truly decide my thoughts on it. The movie I have no problems rating is The Curious Case of Benjamin Button. This movie was absolutely amazing! It is crazy long (almost 3 hours) but everyone in it is phenomenal. My brother said that it cemented his rule of seeing anything with Brad Pitt in it. In my mind Brad Pitt has definitely moved from just an attractive actor to an attractive actor who has an amazing talent. Also, Cate Blanchett is both stunning and great in the film. I will definitely be buying this movie when it comes out.

I am glad that I stayed in Vegas for as long as I did because it has recharged my batteries. I am ready to get back to Minneapolis and get things in order. While it has been great to sit on my couch and lounge around, I need to get out in the city and meet people. I mean I just watched the premier of The City on MTV tonight and if Whitney Port was able to find a BFF and an aussie boyfriend who might not be ready to settle down than I should be able to do it as well. Hell I am ahead of her I got friends, although to be honest they don't seem nearly as interested in my life as Erin is of Whitney's. If these first two episodes are any indicator of the season then the producers are trying to remove all the silent staring from The Hills with methamphetamine induced speed talking. It is going to be a great season.

Humble Pie

So I think that I need to eat a large piece of humble pie. I just got home from picking up the lady who is the caretaker of our building from work. On Monday she came to my door and asked me if I would be so kind as to pick her up from work on Wednesday night. She said that the person who usually picked her up was unavailable for some reason so she had to find a new ride home. I was fairly caught off guard but I agreed to pick her up because Tis The Season and it would have been a pretty asshole thing to say no to her since I didn't have anything going on anyway. I wasn't so much worried about the hassle of picking her up but more so about the potentially awkward drive home. To my pleasant surprise, the drive home was actually quite enjoyable and I think I owe her an apology.

See, when I first met Leslie, the caretaker, I immediately seized on certain characteristics and then made assumptions about who she was. She is rather small in stature and has a raspy voice which makes her somewhat difficult to understand. To be honest I wasn't all that sure what I was agreeing to on Monday until the conversation was almost over. Due to this communication issue, I made the assumption that she was a little slow if not slightly touched in the head. Well it looks like I need to reassess how I look at other people and not make judgements until I get to know them. During our drive home I found out that Leslie graduated college with a degree in early childhood education and worked as a preschool teacher for something like 35 years. In 2006 her license was revoked, all she said was that she told off her employers and was subsequently fired. Due to being at that job for so long, she said she never really learned how to use computers so she had a rude awakening when she had to apply for jobs. 

Also during the drive we talked about the people who live in the building and I was even able to find out more about my building crush: First Floor Guy. Turns out he is from Germany and is only here for about a year. Any who, after riding with Leslie I learned that I could use a lesson or two about reserving judgement and not making assumptions. While rough around the edges at the beginning, Leslie is a sweet lady who proved me wrong.

Sleep is For Suckers

So right now I am sitting in a coffee shop near my apartment about to work on finishing my Statements of Purpose for grad school. Over the last three days I have already written 4 and I just have two more schools. I am hoping that it won't be too hard to punch out these last two but there may be a wrench in my mental gears; I got 3 hours of sleep last night. I kid you not, I think I finally fell asleep around 6 and I got up at 9. I swear I have had the worst insomnia for the past six months. To make a long story short, I dread going to bed because when I do, I lay there thinking about all the shit I have to do and I start freaking out about things. Usually I can silence this riot inside my head by repeating my mantra of, "I may have all these things to do but I can't do anything about them now so just let it go." Unfortunately this is harder to do when all I can think about is getting into (or not getting into) grad school. The rest of my applications are due a week from today and I am so looking forward to letting go of this part of the process. Once I turn them in they will not be my problem anymore, it will be in the hands of the admissions committee. But that puts a whole other panic to trying to fall asleep. Obviously I really want to go to grad school and I think I would be majorly bummed out if I didn't get in anywhere. I am applying to 8 schools and that is seen as on the lean side among people applying to clinical psychology programs.

In other news, I finally found a cute guy in my building! I think that he lives on the first floor and he has dirty blonde hair and some good looking scruff on his face. I met him when our caretaker, Leslie, buzzed all of our doors at 9 in the morning on Saturday because we had to move our cars from the lot so that it could be plowed. I didn't have one of those snow brushes at the time so I brought down a towel to brush off enough snow so that I could drive without killing anyone. As I was cleaning my car, first floor guy asked if I wanted to borrow his brush. I said sure so I took it from him as he drove his car over to the church parking lot next to our building. I cleaned my car and drove over to the lot and parked next to him. We then walked back to our building and said goodbye to each other. So yeah, we are going to be getting married pretty soon. I will get the announcements out as soon as possible.

I am heading home on the day of Baby Jesus' birth. I'm definitely looking forward to seeing my dad and brothers. Also, the weather will be a nice respite from the frigid winter that has taken over Minneapolis. I went to this thing called Holidazzle, its a parade of floats with varying themes covered in lights, with the girls this weekend and I am pretty sure I experienced the beginning stages of hypothermia. At one point I went inside the building we were standing next to so that I could warm up and I took my shoes off so that my feet could warm quicker. My shoes felt like mini ice-boats on my feet. I don't know what compels Minnesotans to hold a parade in the middle of December, Scandinavian resolve?, pride?, but only here would an outdoor parade be attended by so many people. Oh and my favorite float was the one with a circus theme and there were little children dressed and acting like animals. So adorable!

I am pretty sure I would give a non-vital organ to be this tan again: 

It may  not look like much by that is pretty dark for me and I can just feel the color slipping away from my body. I am not a pretty pale either.

Oh I totally forgot! I was talking to my dad yesterday and he told me a story that made me super happy. He was outside playing catch with my little brother Kevin and a plane happened to fly over them. Kevin looked up at it and said, "You know, if Joel was on that plane then that would mean he would be home and that would make me happy." Isn't that the sweetest thing you have ever heard? I love kids, whatever pops into their head they say. There is no self-sensor with children which is practically unheard of in adults.