Whirlwind....

My first official trip home has come to an end. I’m feeling rather conflicted about the whole deal….I’m so happy I got to see my amazing friends and family, but I’m happy to be going home. It truly was a wonderful weekend. I appreciate my time to myself more than most, and unfortunately on this trip, I had little to none most of the time. Not that I’m complaining in the least, but it’ll be nice to get back into my groove until the next time I trek back to Minneapolis.

I’ll recap the family reunion portion in a separate entry – this will be Wednesday, Sunday and Monday.

I knew I didn’t want to do anything to extravagant on Wednesday night….travel makes me crabby to begin with, and doing it on little to no sleep makes it worse. My friend Rob was kind enough to give me a ride to the airport at 5:30 in the AM…mad props to you – thank you.

I landed around 3 and sister picked me up. A quick shopping trip was in order as I am quickly running out of tank tops in NOLA. If I’d stay out of truck pools with them, I probably wouldn’t go through them so quickly. I hate shopping anyway, and I really see no need to pay tax on clothing, so we swung through Heartbreaker and I stocked up. Found a super cute skirt and a dress for this Saturday’s Red Dress Run. After that, she dropped me off at the hotel.

Trent was able to hook me up with a ridiculous suite at the W, gratis. Mucho thanks to you, man. The room was AMAZING. It was actually a “Wow” suite, and good lord was I wowed. I’m pretty sure it was bigger than my old apartment. I’m pretty sure it was bigger than my current apartment, actually. Anyhow, it was awesome. Ran a couple errands, showered and met up with Nicole for champagne. Well, prosecco, but whatever…

Catherine and Stephen picked us up for dinner, which was scheduled at Corner Table. It’s one of my absolute favorite restaurants in the city, though I’ve only eaten there twice. A friend of a friend joined us with his girlfriend and we ate and drank until our faces fell off. Amazing food and wonderful wine. Great company….all the things in life that make me unbelievably happy.

Thursday morning my sister’s fiancé picked me up and we went golfing with my dad and some of his friends. I haven’t played since I left MN, so I wasn’t sure how I’d do. I borrowed a set of clubs and somehow hit them straighter than I ever have in my life. If I could quit three-putting, I’d probably score pretty well! After golf, we headed down to Worthington for the major festivities.

Sunday I was dropped off at my mothers – it was her birthday and I was taking them out to dinner. We went to a new restaurant called Apertif and I wasn’t crazy about it. The food was ok, our server was ultra cheery, but it was missing something. It’s like it was trying to be Redstone without being Redstone. It was nothing special, and I likely wouldn’t return when I come back to town. Monday we got up and headed downtown. I stayed at my old hotel, and my cousin was coming down to cut and dye our hair. We had a nice lunch (the black bean burger at Northern Shores Grille is really good – though next time I’d get it with cheese), ran a couple errands and got our hairs did. Good solid family bonding time.

Monday night was happy hour with my friends…the only real opportunity to spend time with them over the weekend. It was a later night than I’m used to, and the debauchery will stay in the minds of those present. Suffice to say it was a great time, and a spectacular sendoff for me. My flight was oversold this morning, and I’m surprised I had the presence of mind to pull it together to give up my seat. I arrive two hours earlier and am 300 Southwest Airlines dollars richer. My suitcase will sadly not arrive with me, so I’ll have to trek back to the airport later, but I’ve got another flight up my sleeve…wherever will I go next?!

Some days you're a redhead, others you're a blonde.....

I was at a friends BBQ….Muscle Jay. I think it was his birthday, actually. Pig roast, lots of Coors light, sun, ladder golf, and best of all, amazing friends. Laughs abounded, birds were singing, and I was being given crap about my ugly feet. Feet are SUPPOSED to be ugly!!

We felt bad about the local bartender that had to work and couldn’t come join the festivities, so we made several trips back and forth to the bar to keep him company. After the third or fourth trip, three of us decided that we wanted to change up the venue completely. We settled on Uptown to grab another drink or two and crash at my place.

We all decided that none of us were in any shape to be driving (hooray good decision making!), so we called Dry Drivers. The location change to Uptown was also nice because it was the closest – saving us all cab money. Bald Man had driven, as had I, so the only decision left to make was which car to take. He wanted his with him and I, of course, wanted mine with me. We were going to be at my place, it was the thing to do!

After many minutes of back and forth, we finally settled on his car, but only because he agreed to let me smoke one cigarette on the way home. Dry Drivers is cool because they follow you home in your car, so that you have it in the morning. Seriously a great service.

Well, when we arrived at my place, I figured out the real reason I wanted to take my car with me. As will happen, people tend to not believe the drunk chick, or the young chick, or any chick for that matter. I can’t tell you how many times I’ve been right in life (I’ll give you a hint, it’s more than I’m wrong), and yet people still don’t trust my judgment. When it comes to boys I’ll concede that my judgment sucks (future post coming on that), but when it comes to life, I think I have a pretty good grasp of it and know what I’m doing. So just trust me dammit.

We’re getting ready to pay the guy when the light bulb goes off in my head. I have my car key, so I can get into it in the AM, but I don’t have my house keys. I don’t carry a purse, so I left the house keys in the car, and kept the car key with me. After much embarrassment and loads of apologies (along with an extra $40 in cab fare), we ended up back at Bri’s. Bald man gave me a ride back to my car in the am, and I crashed. In fairness, I was born a blonde…..