Yes, I'm still Alive...

I've had a busy and fun filled (truly!!!) week. Nick came on Monday, and I've had a wonderful time. :) He's just left today (how sad); but it's amazing how time flies... grrrr... he had to go home wayyy too soon. Well, that's in my humble opinion.

Right, then... here's a rundown of my lovely, spectacular, unforgettable week. Well, okay -- first off, my weekend was a bit hectic; I had to work, and aside from that, I spent it writing up a report and making a speech for my favorite class - yes, Pyschology, and doing some yardwork. My task was writing on the different opinions regarding sexual orientations, give all the veiws from an OBJECTIVE point of veiw... in other words, give all the opinions regarding this topic, but don't offend anyone. Totally fun. I got the whole thing written up and was very proud of getting it done on time, but my mother disapproved of how I wrote it and had her own suggestions for how it should be written from a different point of view. I really didn't care; it was done, and that was that. I still had a load of food to cook, grocery shopping to do, yardwork, and cleaning. My house is one of those homes that no matter how much you dust and mop and sweep, and pick up, its always a mess.

Monday

However, on Monday, I managed to survive my speech and hand in my paper, although I had the misfortune of looking at one of my classmates (Travis) during my group member Lance's speech (it was a group project), and good ol' Travis was laughing shamelessly, so I suddenly wanted to laugh, and I failed miserably at keeping my composure. What was Lance's topic? Homosexuality among the animal kingdom, and at the inopportune moment I was overcome with mirth, he was talking about gay giraffes. Shame on you, Travis, for laughing, and giving me a sure docking of points. Oh well, according to my teacher, I won't be able to keep the "A" I got in my last class anyway, as her expectations are so much "higher" than my last Psych teacher's were.

After class, I managed to get the shopping done, and finish up most of the housework. I had just finished making my pies when I realized I hadn't cleaned the fishtank, so I had to run and do that, and the connecting hose didn't want to fasten tightly to the sink faucet; it was stripped, so after spraying the walls (they got a second cleaning), I managed to get it connected to a different faucet (without the stripped connector).

Fish surviving the latest tank invasion, and the pies being done, Becky and Delton arrived and we set out for a jolly road trip to pick up Nick from the train station in the cities. Alas, the yahoo instructions were totally crap and we got quite lost - in the cities, on a 4 lane highway. We FINALLY found the station, and THEN I got nervous...

What if he thought I was ugly, or even hideous? What if he took one look at me and got back on the train?! What if he hated me? Then I decided my hair was stupid. Delton told me I had something in my teeth (there was NOT anything in my teeth... grrrr), and laughed when I checked. Okay, he did stuff like that about a million times; I only checked once.

Finally, he arrived, and I ran up to meet him, and then like a moron, I just stood there. I couldn't remember how to say hi, or anything. He tried to give me a hug, and I couldn't remember how to hug, either, so I probably looked like an akward marionette trying to give someone a hug. Had I been him, that would have been my cue to panic and think about getting back on the train... Well, anyway, my shy/speechless/stupid phase only lasted for about two minutes, thankfully, and I managed to babble incessantly for a good part of the rest of the trip. We went to Denny's at around 11:30 p.m. and had a proper late night meal - breakfast. :P

Tuesday

Somehow, I thought it would be a bright idea to have a cookout on Tuesday afternoon, so he could meet all my friends. Well, cookouts mean work, and lots of people mean... lots of work. I was running about all morning preparing food, and then was delayed because everyone wanted breakfast, and my parents seemed to be content with the idea that since it was my company, it was my job to cook. My mom thought she was "helping"; she kept doling out liberal amounts of tips and suggestions for me. Why are moms like that? I should mention that for some reason, I had decided that some "quick" dinner rolls would be lovely to have for the B-B-Q, and decided to whip those up, but it took longer, because of breakfast, and then there were other things to make after the rolls, and the morning was just gone, and the people were set to arrive in about an hour, when Becky and her mom came and saved the day (I'm afraid with all my cooking and rushing about, I had totally neglected Nick). Anyway, Becky's mom kicked me out of the kitchen and told me not to waste time cooking, but to spend it with Nick. She then asked me what had to be done and refused to let me help. Becky's mom is awesome. :D

Of course, I had made enough food to feed a small country and we had tons of left-overs. My friends (most of them) got to meet Nick, and they think he's awesome too. :D Then I had to go to my last hunter's safety class (don't laugh!!!!). I couldn't get out of it; in order to graduate, I had to show up and listen to the game warden tell us to always wear orange and to be sure to do many things that I can't remember the half of now. But I'm afraid I bored Nick by dragging him along, but he said he was fine. Oh well, I got a very cool (not) orange hat out of the deal. :P The class ended at 9:45, and we were both too tired to do anything, so hung out at my house. My mother saw how tired I was and offered to help out with whatever I needed, so I took her up on her offer and asked her to make corn chowder for a picnic we were gonna have on Thursday. She said she'd make it up Wedsneday night, so we could just heat it up and go on Thursday, since she worked Thurs. morning. Yay, some more time with Nick!!!

Wednesday

Wednesday, we went to Green Bay, and saw the Packer Stadium, and toured the Packer Hall of Fame. For some STUPID reason that I can't fathom, I got all emotional seeing it all and got teary eyed. He's gonna think I'm such a sappy flake. :P Nick, of course, being the die-hard Browns fan, decided to wear his Browns jersy to the Packer stadium, so everyone would know his true loyalties... lol. We spent an outrageous amount on some games in the arcade, but I think I managed to beat him at a game of air hockey, so it was worth it (we won't mention that that next game he totally annihilated me; I think I got 0 points). :P My sister lives in the area, so we stopped at her place for supper (which was great fun seeing her and the family), but didn't get out of there til like 8pm or something, and we had a 4 hour drive ahead of us, so that was a fun ride home. Nick was more tired than I was, but he kept awake because he was afraid I'd fall asleep, I think, and so he kept me awake. If he hadn't been there, I don't think I'd have made it home, I was that tired. I drank loads of Mt. Dew, though, so it helped somewhat. When I got home, I discovered that there was NO corn chowder, and of course, being the calm person that I am, I panicked. :P But my mom got up at 1am and decided to chop onions and potatoes and make corn chowder. My dad, who had been sleeping soundly, heard her chopping the onions downstairs and yelled, "I got it, just a minute, I'll be right down!!!" (he thought someone was at the door, I had to convince him it was mom on a midnight cooking spree). But I was soooo glad mum was making corn chowder after all; it meant I could sleep in!!!!

Thursday

Thursday, was when we relaxed, right? Well, that's what your HOPING to read, but nope... we went on yet another adventure. :P I thought it would be fun to meet my friend Molly in Duluth and tour Split Rock Lighthouse and see Gooseberry Falls, and have a quaint little picnic. I thought, as cold as it was, that this corn chowder would be just the thing to bring along. So after being lazier than I should have been, I rolled out of bed, and went to get ready for the picnic. When I opened the refridgerator to heat up the chowder, I found... neatly labled tupperware containers of onions, celery, potatoes and bacon, all ready to throw in the pot (which takes about 45 mins. to cook). Aughhhhhhhh, I had misunderstood!!! I panicked again - by this time, I'm sure Nick thought I was a total spas-o, but I threw everything in the pot, and then stupidly decided that since I had four burners, why not cook breakfast??? Martha Stewart made it look easy, of course I could do it, no problem. Right. Nicks bacon was slightly burnt on the edges, I think his "sunny side up" egg was more "runny side up" than anything (not to mention that the cook was anything but sunny), but he insisted that it tasted wonderful. I really don't deserve this guy; he's wonderful! :)

Then, I went to make the sandwhiches and realized we were out of ham, so had to run to the store and buy ham to finish my sandwhiches. That mission a success, all I had left to do throw the finished chowder in thermoses, whip up some hot cocoa, and go. Well, sort of... I had forgotten to turn the burner off, so when Nick accidentally spilt the excess chowder onto the stove trying to put it away for me (what a sweetheart), it prompty cooked onto the surface and made a nice mess. Still not realizing that I had the dang burner on, I got a sponge and tried to wipe it off. I didn't get the chowder off, but I did manage to scald my hand nicely with the now very hot sponge. I think disaster kind of follows me... I can't seem to make a day go smoothly; so far this week I'd laughed during a group presentation (in front of the most critical teacher ever), was rendered speechless upon meeting Nick, then to add further insult, I burnt his breakfast, and then of course I burnt my hand. :P Oh well... But all this fun stuff takes time, and by now, even Nick was worried and told me to just forget the hot chocolate, it was too hot for it; and to just go. But being the stubborn mule that I am, I made the hot choolate, and decided to be wicked and leave the dishes. Okay, now it is 11 am, and we are supposed to meet Molly at 1pm... the drive is approx 2.5 hrs (going the speed limit). I swear, half the excitement of that day was just getting out of the house!!!

We made it to Duluth by 5 mins. past 1 (no, you do NOT need to know how fast I went), and met Molly in Canal Park. Being by the lake, it WAS cold, and the hot chocolate and corn chowder was as lovely as we girls had thought it would be. After pigging out, we headed off for Gooseberry Falls, where I paid a ridiculous amount of money for some (very cool) salt and pepper shakers at the gift shop (they were bears!), and then we headed off to see the Falls.

The Falls were awesome - great big boulders jutting out of the hillside, with water crashing down, and although the water was low this time of year, you could see its path, and how trees were growing right out of the rock, with the roots haning on tenaciously right on the side of the cliff wall. It was really gorgeous. Of course since there were rocks, and I had to climb them, so I went to a really high point and then waved at everyone, which was great fun, watching Nick and Molly walking around looking for me, till I hollered and waved. the found me, and took a snapshot, because of course, it made a fun photo, but then... I realized I had to get down. It's much easier going up than down, and I did a Stallone cliffhanger thing on the way down. It's a good thing I didn't fall; it was a good 30 feet. But it was fun, I love climbing rock (you'll hear more about this rather stupid affinity for rocks later). Strangely enough, I managed not to fall crashing screaming into the rocks, but yet when I was running down the stairs to meet up with Molly and Nick again, I almost tripped and fell. Grrrr!

After we left Gooseberry Falls, we headed for Split Rock lighthouse, only to find that they closed in about ten minutes, and the great exciting tour was $8. Were we going to pay $8 for ten minutes? Nope, we weren't, so we snuck down a nature trail, took some lovely shots, and raced back to the car. Nick was not interested in the lighthouse, and told us to go ahead while he waited in the car. On the way back to the car, as Molly and I were racing down the trail, a root came out of nowhere and tripped me and I flew about ten feet and rolled another 5 and then lay on my back wondering what had happened. I had leaves in my hair, in the hood of my sweatshirt, and my jeans were covered in dirt. I had to limp the rest of the way back to the car like a wounded prize-fighter, but by the time we got to the wayside to take more pics, I was quite recovered.

We girls had the bright idea to eat at this "cool" Indian restaraunt (East Indian), that was in Duluth, and although Nick didn't share our excitement, he went along with it. How many times to you get to eat authentic Indian cusine at a little restaraunt? Apparently, the chances are slim... we should have known there was a bit of a problem with the "authenticity" of the place when we saw beef on the menu. What, what??? Hindus don't eat beef!!!! But we figured, hey, its America, maybe anything goes here. To make a long story short, the food wasn't that exotic, it was like paying $15 for a plate of fried chicken. Thank you very much, I'll fry it myself and it will taste better! But the place was kind of cool, little beaded candle holders and mosiacs on the walls, and elephants and rugs, it was very cool.
But all in all, it was a great day, I had tons of fun, and I'm pretty sure Nick did, despite my poor choice in fine dining. :P Alas, when I got back, my dirty dishes met me at the door, clamoring loudly to be washed, and so I did a much delayed cleaning up of the kitchen. But it worked out fine, because by the time Nick got out of the shower, the dishes were done, the floor sweeped and mopped, and I had checked my email. I then informed him that we could sleep in on Friday, because all we had to do was pack and go, and he of course couldn't resist teasing me that we'd be late yet again, because I'd go find some cooking to do. At this point, I was just amazed that I was still thinking coherently; I was pretty tired. Cooking? Yeah right...

Friday

So Friday rolls around, and we manage to get out of the house about when we wanted to (yay!!), and get to the mall. Right, now all we have to do is meet 6 people we haven't met yet (a bunch of us that chatted online together decided to meet at the Mall of America). Well, Nick had met Denise, so we at least knew what one person looked like. :) Sounds easy, right? Well, we sat for about 15 minutes before we finally realized that Nancy was already there (before us!), and had been waiting. Then another guy showed up, and after a few more minutes the rest of the gang showed up. Pretty good for never having met (in person) before - we all found each other. :D

Camp Snoopy is a total tourist trap, and the people that run it are totally unashamed of that fact. The cost of things is atrocious, but people go, because its an indoor amusement park. hehehe... I even fell victim. They had a climbing wall at Camp Snoopy... Cool, I thought, I can climb, it looks like fun. Well, in the first place its a fiberglass wall. God did not make rocks out of fiberglass, they are not even remotely of the same texture. Yes, one can climb a fiberglass wall, but it is alot harder than it looks. The wall of fame becaue my little wall of shame... i didn't exactly make it to the top, I tried the "difficult" one, before I decided after a few hopless attempts that my pride couldn't be injured anymore, then I tried the "intermediate" one. Well.... I got about 2/3rds of the way up before my arms gave up, but the great fiberglass wall doesn't exacly let you lean on the wall to catch your breath. So there, I am, perched on this wall, like a desparate cat burglar, and then my arms gave out and I let go and rode the safety harness down to the bottom. My arms were screaming in protest, and for the rest of the day, they refused to forgive me. So my illusions of being a great climber were shattered (and I lost $5, or I should say Nick did). Like I said, its a tourist trap. Do you think I learned my lesson? Nooooo - I decided to do the "haunted house"! Was it even remotely haunted? No, although the fact that the scare factor WAS so lame - that kind of scared me. It was called ghost blasters, and you had to shoot the ghosts that popped up. Well, I made like 250 points, which impressed ME, til Suz reported that she was well into the thousands range. Dang, girl!!!! Anyway, we were pretty snooped out, but Nick saw the arcade so we spend some more of his money in there, lol, you can get alot of tokens for $10!!!! :P We fought dinosaurs in a virtual reality Jurassic Park game, rode in the tt races on the Isle of Man (and were both killed), and did some other fun games. Ha, I could NOT help it, I saw a Star Wars games and had to play it -- I managed to kill a few Storm Troopers before being blasted to smithereens by a ... Imperial something. Anyway, I lost, before I even had a chance to weild a light saber. As Yoda would say, A good Jedi I am not.

We ate at the rainforst cafe, which is loaded with tropical fishtanks, the ceiling is done up in fake vines and plants and there are little waterfalls in the room; its gorgeous! Then there was a fake alligator, and I stuck my hand in its (rubber) teeth, and he "cruched down, so Nick got a good pic of that. :P However, there's a price to pay for cool pics; my hair got all wet as I was hanging over edge of pool doing the "caught by the gator" pose.

But we had a great time; after eating, Jilly and her family went home, and we went back to the hotel and hung out with Denise, Suz, Marisol, Nancy, Becky, Delton, and Diana. Hmmm... I think that was everyone (including me and Nick). Well, I should say we EVENTUALLY got to the hotel... We got a little lost on the way, and Nick was trying to give me yahoo directions (which were WRONG!!!!), and, topped with confusing Minnesota road signs, we went about 10 miles out of the way, but since we got lost on that exact same route picking Nick up (yes, we are bad), we knew how to get to the hotel then, because we remembered what we'd done last time. If that makes any sense. Poor Nick, I think I got a bit cranky at the point when we were still lost; he was telling me how to drive, and I was tired, and even I didn't know where I was going, I still thought I could figure out what to do... oh well, we sorted it out.

But we did find the place, and headed for the pools. Finally, some relaxation!!! Suz was dared to push me in the pool and did, but I thought it was Diana, so she got off the hook. :P

Speaking of Diana, Delton and Becky and I teased her mercilessly because she had leopard print pajamas. We called her the wild thing. :P Hehehe... she threatened to kick my butt if I didn't stop teasing her, but Becky told her that it wasn't likely since she didn't eat meat any more and wouldn't have any strength. The poor girl didn't know who's butt to kick after that. Oh well, she's pretty worn out from the weekend, along with the rest of us... I think it will be a bit before she kicks anything. Me... I need about a year to recover - well, til Christmas is good, til I go to England. :)

By the way, Nick, if you are reading this... I never panic. I just focus alot of energy on one thing, sometimes. heh... :P