organic stinks... literally

Just came back from lab, and I stink like acetone and 1,4-dimethoxybenzene... yesss... I do have to be thankful that I wasn't at the hood when my lab partners accidentally sprayed concentrated HCl all over, especially since I was wearing my one article of Hollister clothing at the time.

Family weekend, alas, is over. I really enjoyed having my parents come up, regardless of how stressed I might have been trying to get things prepared (like, uh, doing laundry, making my bed, cleaning the room, getting football tickets, etc. etc.). I know some kids think that the best part of college is getting away from their parents... which may be true, in some situations... but really, we need our parents. (Got that, Steph?)

Mmmm... I'm looking at the tag from those roasted bavarian almonds we had at the football game... soooo good...

Okay, so I promised an update on the Mpls trip. Leaving GF was a little crazy, considering I was rushing around last minute trying to print off maps (which it turns out that we didn't even need... grr...). The ride up was pretty uneventful, considering I spent the whole time trying to tune out Heidi and another girl's conversation on D&D, cats, their own teen angst, and the color purple. Yeah.

Caspian Bistro was amazing!! After an entire month of bland North Dakotan cuisine, I was fully ready for an overdose of sodium, Greek olives, hummus, carvings from a compressed meat wheel (a.k.a. gyro meat), and (how could I forget??) baklava. Uhhh... so wonderful...

The Guthrie was also very cool, although I could barely stay awake for the show (haha, and that happened last year on the mpls trip, too). Sunday morning we got a chance to return to walk around the Walker Art Institute, which was also really interesting... Like canvases of the imprints of naked female bodies covered in blue paint... huge crystal chandeliers netted and suspended by thin wire strings (which we took pictures of while we laid beneath them... so awesome)... an entire exhibit on the self-portraits of this one guy throughout his life... Interesting stuff.

But of course, we must cover nightlife in Minneapolis as well ;) Neer gave me a call earlier on Saturday to let me know we were invited to come over to his apartment... but what he didn't know was that I'd be bringing about 15 people he didn't know ... :) (Umm... not to mention the fact that I barely knew a lot of the people who came along with me)... And... all the electricity we had running to the music system ended up killing the circuit breaker for a good half hour... I was really worried at first, because I thought the police had turned off our power so we would quiet down, but apparently that's impossible. Silly "small-town girl" me.

Anyways. It was a fantastic night, and when Neer's roomies finally kicked us out at 1:30, we headed over to BK for some french-fried goodness. Yeah, that's right; things are actually open past 11 there!! Whoa!!

On the way back, our van had the chance to hit up the Albertville Outlets... ahh, the greatness of Aeropostale sales... I got a pair of long shorts for $3, two sweaters for $6.50 each, and a thermal henley set for $13... (sigh)

And since Faith and I got back late from shopping, everyone forced me to sit in the back seat, squished in with 3 other people... silver lining? Yeah, I didn't have to listen to weird convos for the remaining 4 hours back. Cons? A couple of bruised ribs, a lump on my head from falling asleep repeatedly against the window, and slight asfixiation due to insufficient oxygen... but heck, think of the alternatives... ;)