Surprise!

This past weekend, Matt's parents invited my parents to come up to Michigan to go fishing. My parents ended up flying down to Terre Haute to pick me up, and we all flew to Grand Haven. When we got to the airport, Matt and his parents were there to welcome us. Since there were 6 of us total, they drove 2 cars since they couldn't fit more than 5 in each car. Matt said that he and I would go get a table at the restaurant, and so he and I jumped in his car to head there.

Except he didn't head to the restaurant, he headed the other way. I, of course, was oblivious to this at first, but then we turned into a local park. Matt said that he wanted to just go on a walk since he had been driving all day. This was very believable since he currently works at GM and drives cars all day and he had driven another 2 hours to get there. When he got out of the car, he had a very suspicious look at his face. I checked his cargo pockets, but I couldn't tell anything. (Apparently, he had put his cell phone in the same pocket so I wouldn't see it).

We started walking around the park. I thought that maybe he was going to ask me, but we just kept walking. I had almost thought that I got all excited for nothing when he got down on one knee and asked me. I just jumped up and hugged him, and he asked whether I even looked at the ring. The ring is beautiful. He knew that I did not want a big diamond and wanted purple somewhere.
We then headed to the restaurant and showed the parents. Apparently, they had been betting on when it was going to happen. His dad won. We had a great weekend: went fishing, saw a parade, saw fireworks, and went on airplane rides. The parents got along really well. The date will be June 20, 2009.

Look at me...

I'm just as bad as any blogger. Not blogging since June 22! Sorry! I've been busy, believe it or not!


So, let's see. Biggest thing to happen was that Matt came and visited me for a week here! He took a week off work, and came up for the July 4th week.


On Saturday, we went to Caroline's grad party, and played 'little helpers'. We kept the food filled between games of cribbage. Afterwards, we went to Chino Latino's. It's the cutest restaurant ever! Its so popular that they don't even put the name outside on the street. It's in Uptown - the cool place to go in the twin cities. You choose a few large and a few small dishes to share at your table. They have both Asian enspired food and Mexican inspired food. We had ribs, Mongolian BBQ, make-your-own tacos, some yummy udon noodles, sticky rice, and other yummy food. Soo good! And it was so much fun with Matt, Caroline and Joe, and Caroline's twin Allison and her bf Ben.


On Sunday, we went to Lake Calhoun, a lake that's basically in the middle of the city. It's so busy there. They have two paths - one that's for slow trafic like walkers, and another for fast traffic like bikers and rollerbladers. I had my hoop lesson, which ended up being a private lesson, and Matt ran around the lake. Afterwards, we got a bit of dinner, and then went to rent kayaks. We discovered that Lake Calhoun is actually connected to many other small lakes that are connected, which is really nice for kayaking. We kayaked for like an hour, and then headed back to the apartment to change clothes. Then we went to Evan Almighty, which I thought was hilariously funny, though it could have used a better ending.


All week, I had to go to work, but I worked fewer hours so that we could go do something every night. On Monday, we drove around looking for a lake, but we couldn't find the right place, so we ended up walking around another lake instead, and then trying out DQ's new waffle bowls afterward. Yummy!


On Tuesday, we went to the Science Museum of Minnesota. We went to the special Pompeii exhibit, where they had a bunch of relics from the city because Mt. Vesuvias exploded, so it caught everything in action. They even had models of loaves of bread from it carbonizing. It was pretty awesome. Then we went to the omnitheater for Greece: Secrets of the Pass. The omnitheater was really cool, though, because it was like a large imax screen that folded in a bit around you, so you felt you were in the movie.

We were getting a bit hungry by then so we walked over to the Taste of Minnesota. I got some sweet potato fries (okay), and Matt got a bratwurst. For dessert, we got a fried Milky Way. I was kind of scared of it, but it was actually really good. It tasted like a warm breaded Milky Way with all the caramel melted.


Then we headed back to the museum to see the rest of the exhibits. They had so many hands-on exhibits that it was crazy. Engineers could get lost in this museum. They had quite a few physiologic things, and electric things, mechanical things, fluid things and weather things. I honestly think it would be a useful field trip for either Msys or Esys or Fluids. They had an air tunnel, some circuitry (Matt made a half wave rectifier), and pendulums. We played a while in a wave machine that made waves of different amplitudes and frequencies, and then you got to play with the ground curvature to see where the waves would break. It's interesting how all those things come into play.


Wednesday, I had off work, so we went to visit Caroline's lake for the 4th. We got to relax with Joe, Caroline, and Elaine out on the lake, and I got to go knee boarding again. Matt did really well a water skiing and got out of the water and everything. We had a nice dinner, and on the way back, Matt and I saw the biggest ball of twine! It's in one of the nearest small towns to where the lake is, so we decided to go see it. Then we headed back to the city, and we got back to my apartment in time to see a few fireworks shows. Matt took me up to the top of the parking garage, so we could see a few different shows all at once.



On Thursday, we went back to the lake that we were trying to find before. It had surreys, which are bikes attached so you can ride together. We ended up going on the deuce coop seen to the left. We went around Minnehaha falls, and went through the state park that's near there. It was a lot of fun, but Matt's legs were a little long for the steering bar.

Friday, I got off work, and we started the drive to Indiana. 9 1/2 hrs later, there were flashing lights behing Matt's car. He got a speeding ticket in Vermilliion county, a half an hour away from Terre Haute. $109 for going 19 over... We spent the night in TH, and in the morning, mom and dad picked us up in the Aztec and flew us to Tell City, the city for my cousin's wedding. We grabbed lunch there, and Sarah and I had a bit of time to hoop before it was time to get dressed. We went to the wedding. It was a catholic wedding and my whole family is protestant so it was funny when one side of the church kept doing things wrong. The Lord's prayer kept going on one side of the church for a bit...

After the wedding was the reception, and we had a cousin table, with all my cousins and their spouses except those in the wedding party. It was a fun table! We kept dinging our glasses so that Katie and Bernie had to kiss. It was a lot of fun. I have a feeling that any future wedding with the cousins present is going to involve lots of kissing on the bride and groom's part.
After the reception, Sarah and I hooped a bit, and then we went to bed. In the morning, we woke up early and flew to Terre Haute to drop off Matt. I only have 5 more weeks to make it through until I'll be back in Terre Haute, and not in a long distance relationship. This has been a year of long distance, and I can't wait until we're in the same place for 9 months!

Then my parents flew me up to Minneapolis so that I didn't have to take the shady bus. I got to talk to Shawna the whole way so that was good since she just moved to Alaska to live. Dad took us to Famous Dave's, which was super yummy. Then we went to the Mall of America, so they could see the rides and such and Legoland and Discovery store and such. Then we walked through Ikea so they could see that. Then they went back to the airport and I went back to my apartment.

See, like I said, BUSY. Sorry for writing so much. I like to blab. I miss everyone so muches!

Yay for casual Fridays!`

I like wearing jeans. It's nice the one day I get to wear them to work.

Sorry for not updating in a while. I get so annoyed when no one updates as is now, so I'm updating.

Internship stuff has been busy at work. On Tuesday, we had "Happy Hour" at a local bar, and I entered the darts competition. I had never played darts before. It's a lot of fun, and you don't even need to be good to be decent at playing. It's a very random game. I still lost out of my first bracket, but the person who won hadn't played before either which made me feel better.

After the competition was over, I kept playing darts with random people until the quarters ran out. $1.50 per game is expensive! Then I headed to the pool tables and joined a random guy. After a while, he had to leave so I asked around and ended up playing pool with the director of the R&D Group. There's some networking, there.

Wednesday, we had bowling after work. This time, I actually got something to drink so that I could relax a bit. They gave us two free drinks at both happy hour and bowling, isn't that nice? We had assigned lanes for bowling, and everyone in my lane hadn't played more than three times a piece. I was excited because I thought that that meant they wouldn't make me look stupid. I was definitely wrong - they got 2-3 times my score every game.

Yesterday, I had my cardio trail class after work. Normally, it's power-walking with obstacles in between, but yesterday, one of the people wanted to run so I ended up being very well worked out by the end. I still went and worked on the bike afterwards though because I wanted to read Harry Potter.

Btw, I think it's funny that me, my lil Brit, and my big Cline are all re-reading the Harry Potter books. I mentioned it to Caroline, and she started, and I saw on Brit's message last night that she's reading too. I heart my family!

Other things that are happening in my life - well, BMES nationals finally got back to me (2 months later). She said we couldn't be an 'active' club unless we have 10 national members by July 1st. To date, we only have 3. And she said there was a 5-7 processing time for applications. Don't you love that? She waited 2 months to get back to me, and now she gives me 5 days to get all my peeps signed up. I hate asking people to spend money, but if we want to keep the club up, we got to do what we have to do.

I should go to work now. I hope everyone's having a good summer! Today's bring your hoop to work day!

On the high end of the sine curve

Things are looking up. I got my car back on Wednesday, I got paid Friday morning, my shoes I ordered came in Friday afternoon, and my hair straightener came in yesterday. I finally feel that I'm not horribly poor, which is definitely a good feeling.

Wednesday night, we went to Stella's, a fish restaurant that's really nice. Our ID's get us 50% off there, which is good because they are really expensive. It was basically a really nice Red Lobster, and it was super yummy. If you like fish and you come and visit me around a Wednesday, I'll definitely take you there.

On Thursday, Caroline came and picked me up and we went to the mall to walk around. It was a good time. And we spent some time in a Barnes and Noble. I hadn't spent good time in a book store in a while. It's so great how you can get lost in all the books. We reserved Harry Potter and we're going to be there the night that the books come out!

Friday, I brought my hoop to work. They let me keep it in the back room of the fitness room. I couldn't wait all day to get off, so that I could play around. When I finally was able to, another girl from Rose was sitting there working out. It was really awkward to start hooping in front of her, but apparently, she was somewhat impressed. Then, another girl came in and she was working on ballet. It was kind of awkward in there--one girl hooping and another one doing ballet with country workout music playing in the background. I made some progress though, and I'm excited for my hooping lesson later tonight.

After hooping, I headed home and then decided to walk over to the Spaghetti Night that one of the interns had planned. It was a 2 mile walk, and it took a lot longer than I thought, but that's okay. It was a fun night. We had some yummy spaghetti and then some yummy desserts. Afterwards, we started to play games to keep ourselves occupied. Girls vs. Guys Taboo worked out in their favor, surprisingly. Then we went on to Cranium, where my team won. I guessed "Saved by the Bell" from someone's sherades. It was pretty crazy.

Then we went on to mafia. I was so tired at that point, but by chance, I got mafia again. And mafia won again, so now, I'll never have a chance in that game again. When you are playing with that many people, it's surprising when you get mafia twice in a row. I'm pretty sure that they'll always kill me off now, just to be safe...

Saturday was crafting and sending my jansport backpack off to the warranty department. I've had it for 7 years (and used it like every day), and it still works fine. However, one of the armbands has degraded. I've been wanting to send it in for years, but I always needed. Boston Scientific gave me a backpack, so I should be good for a couple of months. Yay for a lifetime guarantee!

Some of the interns got together again to hang out Saturday night as well. We were supposed to meet at 4, but 2 people didn't show up till 6, so we ended up watching "Team America" while we waited. It made fun of Rent! Sadness! We didn't make it all the way through, but gah, I don't really like stupid-funny movies. Once everyone got there, we went to the mall. We had an hour before the movie started so we bought our tickets and went to find a restaurant. After Ruby Tuesdays had a 1/2 hr wait, we decided we could live with the food court.

After dinner, we went to see Knocked Up. It was a pretty cute but true movie. I suggest it. Then we went to play mini golf. Somehow, I won. It was a crazy course, though; it was near impossible to get a hole-in-one on any of the courses. They all had like 3-4 turns, water obstacles, and gravel obstacles. A few times, we pitched it over the brick to jump the rest of the course for success.

I hope everyone's summers are going well!!

Randomness...

Yesterday at work was mostly intern events, so I didn't get much real work done, but oh well. The first part was a career panel, where people at BSC came and answered any questions we thought of. Basically, they said that BE bachelor's is worth nothing, and only if you get a Masters, they will even think about hiring you. They said "Master's is the new Bachelor's" for biomedical engineering. This pisses me off. We work so hard, and we learn just as much as the ME's, but they treat the BEs like crap. Apparently, this might be the theme at many companies, which means we basically have to go get our Masters to be able to get a position in the workforce. I'm tempted to tell all my BE friends to change majors...

Anywhos, the garage called yesterday! My car'll be ready this afternoon! Best of all, they can do the charge over the phone and leave the papers for me to sign! So, hopefully sometime tonight, I'll find a way to get over there so that I can pick up my car. I found out that I wouldn't have to walk 3 miles again to get there, so that's good news. I still haven't decided how I'm getting there yet. I might ask my carpool guy to drop me off over there, even though it's really not on the way.

My hair straightener broke. I dropped it, and I tried to fix it because it's worth $50 and is not something that should be thrown on the floor and given up on. I think I made it worse than it already was. Look at how good of an engineer I am! Maybe I should change majors... So, I've been stuck taking 2 showers a day - 1 in the evening because I've been sweating so much, and 1 in the morning so my hair will look nice (and wet) for the day.

It's been really hot here, like really hot. It just makes you not want to move or do anything. I know it's Minnesota and all up north, but gosh, it's been warm. I looked at the temperature the night before last when I was about to go to bed and it said it was 88! It should way not be that warm when I go to sleep at night.

Blah, off to work for the day...

kitty sitting and MOA fun

This weekend, I got to kitty sit for Caroline. She bought this cute little persian kitty and named him Einstein. He's got the cutest little blue eyes. I went in to aunty mode...

Isn't he so cute?? He's getting bigger by the day. Anyway, I got to spend the weekend with this adorable kitty. He's definitely in a kitty phase though, and he kept playing and attacking me, my foot, my hair, and whatever else he could find. Soooooo cute.

I also had a special someone come and visit me after driving 10 hours. Yes, he's crazy. So, I wasn't stuck in Caroline's apartment the whole time without a car. Instead, we went to the Mall of America and played in Lego World and the Discovery Store. It was a fabulous time.

And Sunday, I went to my first hooping lesson. Yes, like hula hooping except we do tricks. I already knew quite a few from my oldest sister, so she put me in the intermediate/advanced class. It was at a beautiful park--busy, but beautiful.

The weekend went way too quickly, and it's already Tuesday which means time to go to work.

Car continued

The total damages: $2720. Yuck! He said I needed to replace my headlight, grill, turn signal, hood, fender, air conditioning unit... (He said so many things that I couldn't keep up for writing them down.)

I couldn't pull that out of my pocket, so I called the insurance company. I know, I know, this way I'll be paying back for that wreck for the next two years, but I don't have the money right now. I've been living here for over 10 days, paid my rent etc., but I don't get paid at all until June 15, so it's not like I can afford to pay to get my car fixed. I spent the whole morning on Wednesday answering questions about the accident to the insurance people.

I was pretty stressed because I bought my car a year and a half ago for $3200, and $2700 is a big penny of that. They couldn't tell me whether it was totaled or not until they got an appraiser out there, so I had to wait for a whole day, worrying about losing my car. And she said that I needed to visit my car and take everything out of it in case that they render it a 'total loss'. I would need to shop and find a whole new car, which would suck!

I waited all morning today for that call. I even called them after lunch to make sure they hadn't forgot about me. I like my car, and I didn't want to say goodbye. Finally around 2ish, the garage called to tell me that the appraiser had been there and had accepted damages of $2850, and that my car was going to get fixed as soon as I gave them the okay. He said I would get new or alternate (meaning that they were made for another car, but they work for mine) parts to fix the damages.

I was so excited! I get my car back, next Friday!!! Yippee!!! I won't have to live in a city without a car much longer!