Update from the Arctic

In case you haven't been keeping up with the Minneapolis news reports (and why would you, since you most likely live somewhere much warmer...and who cares what's going on in the rest of the country?), me and my Minneapolis folks over here havebeen dealing with extreme cold temperatures. Thursday of last week was supposedly the coldest day in the past five years (temperatures with wind chill were somewhere around negative 35 is what I'm told...I don't know for sure since I don't check the temperature anymore). I just remember a high of negative 5 degrees. And then Friday, the high was negative 8 degrees. So, that's what I'm working with over here. It's pretty depressing but I refuse to let it get the best of me! Despite the insane cold on Thursday, I actually went out Thursday after work. A very good friend of mine here was laid off the day before, so I went to take part in her "crappy hour" and try to cheer her up. I didn't get home until almost 11pm which is rare for me, especially on a weeknight, but I know if I got laid off, I'd want friends to come cheer me up and help me forget about it (at least until the bills start rolling in). Earlier in the week, I went out to the YPOTC (Young Professionals of the Twin Cities) monthly happy hour. I was supposed to just stop in for 15 minutes (I wasn't feeling well most of the day but I had told a friend I'd stop by and say hi). Of course, I ended up staying there for over 2 hours. First I ran into a friend from Medtronic and we chatted for a little bit, then I ran into some Target folks that I hadn't caught up with in a while, and then some more Target folk showed up, and the next thing you know, it's 2 hours later and I'm still there. The good news is that one of my friends is getting us tickets to see the Timberwolves play Detroit later this month (can we say Allen Iverson???) - I can't even explain how excited I am. I also went out last night with some friends from Medtronic. They had gotten free tickets to a play and invited me (good looking out!). The play was actually really good - it's called Pure Confidence, and it's about a black slave who was a jockey in the 1800's and was trying to buy his freedom. It had a great story, and the cast was really good. Some of the language (lots of "N" word references, and even a line about sending folks back to Africa) would have been fighting words in any other context but were appropriate given the setting of the play. Afterwards, we went out to eat at a place in Uptown called Chino Latino, which I had heard of numerous times but never actually been to. It was a good choice. It was crowded as all can be and they told us the wait was an hour to an hour and a half when we got there, but it didn't turn out to be that long. And the food was excellent! We got tapas and shared them, and I had fried chocolate ice cream for dessert (heavenly!!!)...just thinking about it makes me smile. I didn't get home until about 1am so needless to say I slept in this morning. Today, I went to the Women's Expo at the convention center which turned out to be a pleasant surprise. The last event I went to at the convention center (the chocolate extravaganza) was a little bit of a disappointment, but the Women's Expo was excellent. The lead sponsor was Whole Foods, which had an entire section with food demonstrations, product sampling, and giveaways. I sampled their own brand trail mix, pita chips, and some type of soy rice crackers (not my thing but they weren't repulsive...and not to mention free). I also sampled some of their chocolate (of course), and smoothies, and took a few Luna bars that they were giving away as well. They had a cherry chocolate that was just heavenly. There were lots of vendors there, as well as cooking demonstrations, personal health and wellness workshops, and lots of free massages. Nintendo DS had a booth where you could sit and play the DS, while getting a massage by a professional. They had women come introduce the DS and basically their pitch was to show you that the DS is not just for kids. They let you play some of the more adult or women oriented games. The lady that was helping me walked me through the Personal Trainer Cooking game and I was impressed. It's like a portable cookbook - and it walks you through making recipes, and is voice activated in case you have messy hands. I just bought a Wii so I'm not about to go out and buy a DS but my sister has one, so maybe I'll buy a few games and swipe hers when she comes visit me next month (yes, there are people who love me enough to come visit me in the arctic cold!!) I stayed at the expo for about 2 hours, which is about how long it took me to get through everything including the demos and all. I bought some facial cleanser from a Mary Kay consultant, and some all natural lip gloss from another vendor. Otherwise, I didn't spend much outside of the $10 admission. It's been snowing all day, but luckily for me, the convention center is about two blocks away, and I can get there by the skyway which I can access through the hotel next door to my building. Anyway, that's what's new with me in a nutshell. I have a lot to do tonight so I'm off for now. Later!