Last night I had the strangest dream....

So, here's the dream I had last night. Some of you may appreciate it more than others. To give it some background, starting this week I will be working Wednesday mornings at our downtown branch. We have 4 branches in all, I work at our Lake Street branch normally.

So, I go to bed reminding myself, "Tomorrow I go DT first" because I always fear that I will forget. Here's the dream:So, I wake up on Wednesday morning and get ready for the day, thinking, "Go downtown. Go downtown." I leave my apartment and drive to the Lake Street office without another thought. I'm the first one there, so I open up the building and get things going.

Janet is the next to arrive. Janet is a very sweet, kind lady who is fun to talk to. She's been around our agency for years. She heads upstairs to her office. Minutes later, I remember something that I need to do upstairs and run up there, only to witness Janet burning down half of the 2nd floor.

I walk downstairs when my coworker, Annie, and my boss, Angie, come in the door with another supervisor. I pull the other supervisor aside to explain to her what's happened because she works upstairs and has authority up there. I'm explaining that part of the 2nd floor has been exploded/blown up. She wants to know who's responsible. I hesitate to tell her who's responsible. Annie comes up and knows exactly what's going on.She says, "You want to know who did it? Well, it would be the person that we refer to as 'Madonna'" Apparently Janet, a lovely, older woman, is now "Madonna". And she's responsible.

I'm helping to clean up all the mess when I look at the clock and realize it's 8:30am and I was supposed to be downtown at 8am. I rush out of the building and find myself in our Bloomington office. That's not the right place. I call downtown and someone else answers, so I know someone else is covering until I get there. I leave Bloomington and finally arrive downtown, only to ask, "So do I get mileage for all of the trips that I just made to different offices?"

It's Patriotic...!

Please do me the favor and navigate away from my blog momentarily. It is utterly important that you watch this video and learn about how to safely protect yourself and others from germs.

In a time when the swine flu is running rampant, this is crucial.

But honestly, maybe you just need a laugh in the midst of escalated crisis. Then you'll really appreciate the video!

and now for something completely different

1. What is your current obsession?
Just one? I can only pick one. Okay, Twilight. I'm addicted. Counting the minutes until my coworker finishes reading so that I can keep reading. Oh, and Gossip Girl.

2. What’s a good coffee place?
In my stomach where it belongs :)

3. Who was the last person that you hugged?
Mm, that's a good question. I think I hugged Amanda in church yesterday.

4. Do you nap a lot?
Not as much as I used to. I still do snag a nap every once in a while.


5. Tonight, what’s for dinner?
Hmm, just had some lovely tortillas with cheese, salsa, and black beans.

6. What was the last thing that you bought?
A plane ticket to Nashville for my birthday!

7. What is your favorite weather?
I love a perfectly gorgeous, sunny, 70-some degree weather day.

8. Tell us something about one blogger who you think will play this week?
Hmm, I dunno. I don't know who will play along, I am not a psychic.

9. If you were given a free house that was fully furnished, where in the world would you like it to be?
Right now? I'd like it to be in Minneapolis. But can I move it to other parts of the world if I decide to move?

10. Name three things that you could not live without.
Music, my family and friends (that counts as one!), distraction.

11. What would you like in your hands right now?
Who wrote this? Dirty, dirty minds.


12. What’s one of your guilty pleasures?
War with the Roses and Cheater's Club on KDWB.

13. What would you change or eliminate about yourself?
I need to stop being a canceller.

14. As a child, what type of career did you want?
I was going to be a teacher. I was going to rock out awesome bulletin boards and be one of those cool teachers you remembered learning from.

15. What are you missing right now?
The sun! What happened?!

16. What are you currently reading?
The Rescue by Nicholas Sparks (reread), waiting to read Twilight #3

17. What do you fear the most?
Being alone.

18. What’s the best movie that you’ve seen recently?
I've seen some bad ones lately. I really liked The Station Agent.

19. What’s your favorite book from the past year?
I refuse to choose.

20. Is there a comfort food from your childhood that you still enjoy?
Ketchup Sandwiches.

Gideon

Meet Gideon. Gideon and I were friends this week, Monday - Thursday. I dog sat/house sat for some friends from church and took care of their Weimeraner, Gideon.

Gideon loves to go for walks, where he pulls his walker forward. We went for a walk once until I learned that lesson. Gideon loves to play outside, chew on his bone, and jump on top of you. He was fond of smothering me.

It was a nice break to spend a few days in someone else's house, get some laundry done, and take care of a dog and have company around. If only my company didn't freak out about squirrels, cats, and children playing outside....

Home again, home again, jiggity jig.

Well, the weekend was a good one. Here we are on the way home from Easter dinner, which was spectactular. And the afternoon ended with my horrific Guitar Hero skills on the drums. But I love Guitar Hero nonetheless. I just kept pushing the foot pedal at the wrong time. Glad I could be there to entertain the fam.

Unfortunately, we did not turn right to stop at the Ice Cream Capital of the World, home to Blue Bunny ice cream. Guess I'll have to go to a Twins game to get some Blue Bunny instead.

And here we are all. From (L-R) Back: Me, Granddaddy, Granny, Heidi, Michael; Front: Billy, Anita, Dad, Mom. We all look pretty innocent, but they're all full of something crazy. This weekend was proof of where my craziness comes from. This side of the family!

Happy day after Easter to you all. Praise him, for He is Risen!

going home

Today I leave to go to Iowa, with Fields of Opportunities. And cows. Iowa's slogan used to be "You Make Me Smile." More and more Minnesota is starting to feel like home and Iowa is the place I go to visit parents, grandparents, etc.

I'll be in Iowa for the Easter weekend, but not before I make a stop in South Dakota to visit my "sister" for the evening. I imagine I'll get all the laughing I need in for the weekend when I see her. That is why I love her.

It's nice to go home every once in a while, although there are all sorts of things going on up here this weekend that I would have liked to be involved in. I guess you can't be everywhere at once.

So I pick family, friends, and a temperature about 2 degrees warmer than here.

find it, make it, do it.

Here in the Great White North (aka Minnesota), one of our news stations is WCCO. I was watching the other day and they had an ad for themselves. So, it was basically a montage of people doing things - playing in the park, working at a job, talking on the phone. The point of the ad was something to the effect of: Find what you love, make it your passion, do it passionately.

It struck me how much of a difference it can make in your life to be doing something that you enjoy or something you love. And while you can't always snap your fingers and do what you're passionate about, the little things make a big difference.

For me, I love Spanish. I would use it nonstop if I could. I am passionate about Spanish to the point where I watch all movies with Spanish subtitles, put my cell phone in Spanish, change the language on my e-mail account, and think/journal/pray in Spanish.

I've decided that means that I need to take the next step in "doing it passionately" (please don't distort that phrase into something else...) I'm not quite sure what that means yet, but it will mean something. Hold me to that.