Back to Business

I'm so glad I returned to work during a short work week, because even with Friday off, it felt like a full work week. I had a talk with my current Sr. Buyer about all the reporting changes that have occurred recently and she tried to be encouraging. She told me that everyone has anxiety about moving to a new area, even at her level, but that's the least of my worries. Here's where having a Consulting background helps - I'm used to the constant changes. I'm more concerned with how my business aligns with the other departments that are in my new buyership. I will find out soon enough.
I finally booked my flight to LA for next weekend. I'm going out there to visit my good friend Crystal. We're going to see the Beyonce concert on Saturday and we're hitting up the Melting Pot right before the concert (you have no idea how much I am looking forward to that - Crystal is one of the few people I know who can appreciate the Melting Pot for the yummy deliciousness that it is, as much as me!).
Thursday night I went out with one of the MBA summer interns after work. We went to Uptown and had food and drinks at the Independent then stopped into Drink for a short while since I had mentioned that I had heard of it but never been. The music at Drink was ok but it was packed with a lot of drunk folk. Yesterday I went strawberry picking with a few Buyers that were in my starting class (and one token General Mills employee who supposedly interned in Minneapolis the same summer as me but I don't remember her). Yeah, I know. Strawberry picking? Random. But it was actually fun. It took us about 30 minutes to drive to the orchard, and only about 15 minutes to pick more than enough strawberries (I ended up with over 3 lbs). Total cost: $5 and change. Not bad. Of course then I was thinking "what the heck am I going to do with all these strawberries"? Afterward we went across the street and had strawberry sundaes at the orchard store and bakery. They had some yummy looking pastries but after the sundae I couldn't handle anything else. After strawberry picking, I decided to find some recipes to put the fruit to good use. I landed on strawberry shortcake, strawberry salad, strawberry/banana muffins, strawberry/banana milkshakes and strawberry margaritas (don't worry I'm not making all these at once, lol). I also decided to freeze some strawberries for when I make smoothies. So then of course I ran out to the supermarket to buy a few ingredients that I didn't have. I invited the intern to come with me. We went to Rainbow, then she wanted to check out this boutique across the street. Of course I had never been there since I rarely shop for clothes in Uptown (or in Minnesota in general - I prefer to shop online or when I go back to NY, although I hit up the MOA, Ridgedale mall, and some of the shops downtown on occasion). The boutique was actually nice (I think I want to own a boutique one day) and had some really cute clothes and accessories at reasonable prices. So I'll probably go back when I'm actually looking to shop. We hit up Kowalskis - another supermarket - on the way back. I was trying to find some Entenmanns pound cake for my shortcake (I know you didn't think I was making that from scratch! I will attempt the muffins from scratch though). I was out of luck though so I ended up having to get that sponge cake stuff (not quite the same). I had been hoping to go out last night but I wasn't feeling too well so I stayed in. A friend texted me about going to the Taste of Minnesota today but then I didn't hear from her all morning and when I did she had just woke up. So we nixed the Taste and we're going to try to catch the fireworks tonight. Well enough for now - I'm about to go find something to eat and bum out some more before tonight. I hope you're all having a wonderful 4th of July!