pictures

I thought I'd post some pictures of the wedding, our honeymoon, and the kitties.


Wedding:




Honeymoon:

Vieux Quebec; Japanese Garden in Montreal


Our honeymoon took us to Quebec, Montreal, and then to Upstate NY to visit family.

Quebec was a bit of a disaster with cancelled flights, lost luggage, getting caught outside in storms, etc.) but we still had a lot of fun.




The Kittens:


Their names are Mitch and Ruby (Rue is the grey tabby, Mitch is the orange tabby) and we LOVE them. Right now, both are curled up with me on the couch purring.


Hope everyone else has had a wonderful fall! Love from Lauren, Jimmy, Mitch, and Ruby.

life in the city

Jimmy and I have been experimenting with cooking... tonight's dinner was Goliath: the pizza. We made a ricotta and portabella mushroom pizza (sauce and crust from scratch ala Lauren). Unfortunately, Goliath was over three inches thick and our stomachs were dwarfed in comparison. C'est la vie... tonight's my Friday night (I get Thurs night-Friday off before work at 8am on Saturday) so naturally we're watching Sex and the City. After a several month long addiction to Scrubs, one has to take a break. :) In a busy place like Minneapolis, it's nice to take a break sometimes and cuddle with your kittens.

Speaking of living in the city, one of my favorite things to do is ride the bus and people-watch. I've never lived in such a diverse place and I love being around (and occasionally talking to) all kinds of different people. It's wonderful to be able to hop on a bus, head to Uptown or downtown or wherever and not be chained to a car. We have lots left to explore, but it's way fun to be so much closer to everything.

back!

First entry as old married hag (I'm appropriating that one from my cousin Danielle, who I've now dubbed the "Head Hag"). w00000!

So, after a wonderful, amazing wedding with tons of people we love celebrating our life together, we embarked on what became sorta the honeymoon from hell. From lost luggage to smoky rooms to hours wandering lost to forgotten meals to getting caught outside in a severe storm to having our luggage lost for three and a half days to bickering constantly, it had its downs. Still, we managed to have a great time most of the time. My birthday in Montreal was esp. fun because we went to the botanical gardens and then took a cruise and then ate an ungodly expensive dinner (ok, that was actually a bit freaky -- BUT I got a birthday chocolate souffle out of it!). The best part of the trip was visiting family in NY. We had no luggage for most of it but it was wonderful to see everyone and to stay with cousins.

We got home and now it's been apartment time!!! Our lovely apartment in Linden Hills is finally coming together (the final coats of wax went onto the dining table, Qwest finally fixed our crossed phone lines and we were able to run lines throughout the apartment). It's been so nice to have a kitchen after many years of carrying a paper bag of ingredients to the hall kitchen! Actually one of the best parts has been going to class and heading home knowing my fabulous husband is there when I get back. Now we're excited to have friends come visit... hint hint!

less than two days!

So, it finally sunk in that Jimmy and I are getting married in less than two days! We were at St. Olaf practicing the vows and the entering and the exiting of everyone and I couldn't believe that here we were at the wedding rehearsal! We're actually going to be married in ... 40 hours! That's a big plate of crazy! I'm so excited to be with Jimmy in such an official and celebratory way but also I'll be ... married and that seems so strange after lots of fun being single (well, dating Jimmy but still living and galavanting as an independent, single girl). But on the other hand, marriage is this wonderful, meaningful, and hopeful commitment we get to make to each other in front of everyone we love. Yeah, it's taken me a while to get here, but I'm so excited.

Withdrawal and a love for all things St. Olaf and Chaska-related.

I am sitting in a Caribou Coffee store where I ought to be working on a graduate project (which sounds very important to say but in reality is very little fun at all) and listening to Maslanka 7 and going through pictures from the last year (of which there are pathetically few). In reality, I’m not writing much at the moment. Instead I’m feeling this huge rush of affection for the band, Rand (yes even Rand), the Norway trip, my wonderful friends from high school, everyone from St. Olaf and especially the amazing people I got to know well, environmental studies, sunlight, and pretty much every picture in my computer folder. I’m not sure what brought this all on, but I feel like perhaps I didn’t appreciate and drink in everything as much as I ought to have while everything was going on.

Listening to Maslanka brings back this longing to play in the band with a bitchin Buffet bass clarinet in my hands. I didn’t always enjoy waking up at 6am on tour (ok, never enjoyed the early mornings) but the concerts and the music and the friends! Concerts where people felt like their whole outlook on the world they lived in had been altered and where the people you loved made sure they found you and hugged you before going on. Music that permanently sinks into your being and the smallest beat gets you fingering the parts again (which for me is especially crazy since I am not the technical speedster my sectionmates are!) and feeling the chords. There’s Anna’s choral with the soprano clarinets and Jostein’s solo in movement two that lasts for only a few measures and still manages to leave me transformed every time I hear it. I feel like I could have had a much more profound devotion had I known then what I know now.

Then I saw this picture from Christmas break where Leah, Tracy, Justin, Wendy and I went to Applebee’s and caught up. Something about seeing their smiling faces helps me feel centered and loved and ready to get married. It was like I had come from this wonderful network of loving people who had been helping me get to this point all along even though I had no idea. And maybe even that I had helped them along, too.

Then there are pictures from interim. One little girl who was by far the most challenging person to me I met in the school and the most meaningful sits both crying and grinning in the same pictures on the day we left. I wasn’t sure that I could really do this teaching thing until I walked into the school every day for a month and occasionally wanted to beat my head against a wall and still woke up at 5am the next morning looking forward to being with the kids, helping them do something new, and cheering them on when they succeeded (because they always did).

Also there are the pictures of school friends. We’re in Mexico standing in front of a candy-colored Guanojuato, dressed up at the Mellby prom as different characters, in front of fjords, meeting on the paths of the campus, wearing insane costumes in the Rand front lounge (corsets x3), making feasts in the Ellingson lounge, and toasting marshmallows in Jennifer and Bridget’s room. It’s no wonder to me know that whenever I meet a St. Olaf graduate they light up and go into overdrive talking about the college. Everyone must feel this way to some extent about the place they devoted 4 years and many thousands of dollars to. How can you not love something that’s both destination and stepping stone to everything you will ever do for many millions of moments after you’ve left? Seeing Megan and Jennifer last night was like going back to St. Olaf only better because I realized that we all have many more years of friendships together.

And then there’s Jimmy. The pictures from my visit to Budapest are my favorites because it was in that week that we somehow went from being two kids who happened to be dating to two people who realized they couldn’t and wouldn’t live without one another. And here we are about to get married. It’s funny to think back to how mature and grown up I thought I’d feel when I’d found the person I was going to marry. Instead I feel fresh and young (perhaps too young but of course that’s what makes it romantic as opposed to feeling calculated if that makes sense) and that there’s so much more I have yet to figure out. I like it much better that way. My relationship is one area in which I definitely need to reflect and live in the moment more. Wonderful things pass me by and I’m only half-feeling them for one reason or another. For the next four weeks before and the many years after this wedding, I want to slow down (like the end of Maslanka 7 that I’m listening to now).

I might understand Swann’s Way better now because I realize what it’s like to have one small thing bring back a torrential flood of love and memory that you weren’t entirely aware of. So to everyone and everything, I’m heading back to my graduate essay but it has been infinitely more wonderful to think about all of you.

new apartment!

I'm moving to the Mellby of neighborhoods. Jimmy and I just applied to and put a deposit down on a 2 bedroom apartment in Lake Harriet Commons, which is at the corner of 44th St. and Chowen Ave. in the LINDEN HILLS neighborhood in Minneapolis. I write LINDEN HILLS in all caps simply because it is the Mellby of neighborhoods. It's community-oriented, safe, friendly, and has EVERYTHING from a Turtle Bread Company to a Co-op to a Farmer's Market to a beach to wonderful shopping within walking distance to express buses downtown and to the U. People move to this neighborhood for life, that's how good it is. Our buildings have people who've lived there for 25 years. It's on the edge of being a tad too pricey but with a corner apartment, utilities included, no parking or cat fees, and rennovated kitchen it is worth it. I found this lovely place in the Star Tribune and I'm so frickin' excited to move and to have all of you come visit us!

It was a really exciting day, one in which I felt like I was ready to get married and live with Jimmy in this wonderful place. I can't wait for the first foray into renting: I was such a dork that I made up 20 questionnaires for all the apartments to tour and brought a clipboard to interview the managers. The manager of our new apartment actually wondered if I was another caretaker coming to scope her out because I asked so many questions... haha. I guess Res Life will do that to you!

In other news, I'm joining the Foss Swim School corporation to teach this summer (probably very few lessons, alas, with the whole getting married thing) and into the fall hopefully at St. Louis Park. It's pretty exciting right now to know that I'll be able to walk to work soon... Right now I'm in the middle of the 40 hour training and blitz memorization period which is quite intense. They pay generously and it should be a lot of fun. Also, St. Thomas classes start next Tuesday and Thursday -- the buildings are immaculately amazing and everyone is wonderful. It's very expensive for me but I can't wait. Life is seeming pretty good right now. A bit hard to make ends meet but mostly just happy and very messy (referring to my tiny bedroom packed full of two room's worth of stuff -- ahhhhhh!). I'm trying to be present for all of the new changes and little moments where I catch myself enjoying work or wandering the skyways downtown with a huge grin or talking to new neighbors in the street. I was sad to leave St. Olaf, campus life, classes, and the SOB, but I am beginning to feel ready to move ahead into new and greater adventures.

YEA-YA

This will be short and terribly random but I just got ridiculously excited by the following citation from my senior research project:

Brandenburg, J. (2003). Looking for the Summer. Chanhassen, MN: NorthWord Press.

Whoever thought that some of the most amazing nature photography ever would be published by a company A HALF FRICKIN MILE FROM MY HOUSE! Maybe the brilliance will waft a bit west and hit me!! This has to be the first and only time I will ever get to cite Chanhassen right up there with NYC as a publisher's homebase. All I can say is BOOYAH!!!!!!!!!!!

ahh woodticks!

I just got back from Big Woods state park with environmental studies and realized a hitchhiker was making his way into my hair! I taped him them sliced him into many tick pieces but still.... shudder! Least favorite part of being outside, the whole parasite thing!

In other news, my room is blooming with flowers -- hydrangeas, cyclamen, African violets, and astromeria! I'm also reading The Secret Garden for Children's Lit. Coincidence? I think not. I have also decided that hefty amounts of landscaping in my future life will be well worth it if I can create a delightful garden. Prof. Allister told us about her sister who has one in her house! The possibilities!

What else? Oh, my senior research project hit a snag... I wanted to look at the arts in terms of how they influenced conservation of forests in MN, namely Sigurd Olson's writings and Jim Brandenburg's photography. My prof asked me how I plan to do this if I only have primary resources (i.e. their work) and I realized I had no real idea and had pretty much tapped the potential of the Hennepin County Library system. Blast. This, I have realized, is why professors have office hours (so frantic students can come in bearing 10 books and yell "help me!!!").

Ahhh. Time for some lemonade and window-opening and reading about "the Magic" in The Secret Garden. Perhaps before I leave campus I will make a secret garden out of some of the lilac bushes near Skoglund and live there at the exclusion of all other activities.

we find ourselves in April

To make a long update short,

I spent much of Spring Break cuddling with my cat, taking care of more wedding plans with either Jimmy or my mother, and hanging out with Amanda. There was less family discord than one might expect (though having an active occupation really helped me mentally stay sane during long hours in my little room). These conditions, while not relaxing, were a welcome change from the "omg, shit, I have so much damn work to do before class in 8...7...6...etc. hours!!!" so naturally when it came time to head back to school this afternoon, I wanted no part of it. Coming back here and trying to sit down and academically read a lot of tosh about forestry yielded similar results. I ended up looking at facebook for 20+ minutes instead. Sigh. I know that I ought to strike a balance between the crazy studying and the enjoying the last months on the Hill but damn is it hard! :)

me=hermione

It has come to my attention that I have now turned into Hermione Granger. This conclusion was reached after careful observation in the following areas:
1. classes where suddenly I have every assignment completed, over-written, and am annoyingly answering professors questions or pointing out minute passages that no one cares where they're printed. said profs I feel are tiring of my hand in the air and I am forcing myself to not anwer half the time.
2. social situations: again I find myself figuring out where conversations are going ahead of time, giving useless advice that nobody wants, and generally being an "insufferable know-it-all"
3. job: suddenly am much more sure of myself and out-spoken... this is a good thing in that I have stopped caring about being professional all the time and a bad in that my lack of silence can be detrimental to my health.
4. the number of names I have been called lately pretty much adds up to me being Hermione. I was always this sort of person but it hadn't come out to rear it's bushy-haired head lately and this last semester has caught me off-guard. back to usual, I guess.

In other news, I have not completely failed at ballroom dancing! I can foxtrot (sortof) and am learning the cha-cha. This weekend's tasks include teaching my hips to move in rhythm. I am ridiculously excited to go out with girls from the floor last year tomorrow night. The world seems right with them. We shall go out and be merry. I do have to leave in the middle to collect free hotel accomodations and shopping spree online with Jimmy but that is nothing compared to the prospect of fun and craziness. If tomorrow wasn't Friday already, I'd jump out my window.

new classes and the idea that the end is near

I'm on a high from reading my Children's Lit text and I realized the crucial thing my life is missing: fantasy! I am SO excited for this particular course that I'm giddy reading a textbook. I have a feeling that Children's Lit reading will be welcome respite from the rest of the semester... I mean, honestly, who can not love a class that has you read The Lion, The Witch, and The Wardrobe or Peter Pan????

The rest of the classes seem good: Human Sexuality will be facinating, Ballroom will be such a welcome bit of activity, and our Education class has SIX STUDENTS in it! That in and of itself is a nice change from the climbing class sizes at St. Olaf.

The one class I'm not sure about yet is my Environmental Studies Senior Seminar which is proving to be a crash course in Forestry and not having anything to do with what I studied in my track of the major. I almost wish I could have taken this earlier and instead have done a Campus Ecology as my capstone. The entire class has been biologically-oriented so far, which is disappointing because there's SO MUCH ELSE OUT THERE -- so many life-changing, beautiful, and inventive things to ponder in environmental studies that science alone falls short of. This seems such a sad way to end my fabulous major, but the texts and readings we have assigned are all scientific in nature. Informative? Yes. Facinating? Hopefully. Creative and challenging? Not so much. Sigh. If another week passes and we've still neglected an entire track in the ES major, I'll have to write an uncomfortable email to the prof begging that we talk about issues of Forestry in the larger cultural context or incorporate some art or something.

Ah well, one can't have everything. The idea that this is my last semester definitely hasn't sunk in. Tuesdays and Thursdays (children's lit, then ballroom, then human sexuality) are jolting me back to that reality, though. Being a student at St. Olaf is just so much fun! There are so many more adventures in store and I'm eager to move ahead in that respect, but why does the fun of liberal arts classes and running into friends and loving this particular place have to end? It will be difficult to let go of the Hill in a few months.

OH! Btw... I just looked at all the info on my profs using the new SIS and it made me feel surges of affection for each and everyone one of them.... I wanted to hug them and thank them for teaching me. AND! not every one of them had a PhD which is very empowering. Yay for school!