Part 15: Things I learned

Well, as with most experiences, I learned a few things from my summer staycation.

Lessons I learned:

1. Don't obsess over busyness. I think we are conditioned to think that we can only enjoy our lives when we are going, going, going, but it's not true. Some of the best moments of my vacation were the ones where I did mostly nothing.

2. Relax, and not necessarily in front of the television. Lie out on the beach, read a novel, take a nap. Those are the kinds of things that will rejuvenate you.

3. Make some plans. Having a list of things to accomplish, whether I actually got through all of them or not, gave me some purpose.

4. Spend time with friends. What better opportunity is there? Dinner, dancing, movies, baseball games, trips to the beach, walks around the lake...life is twice as fun with a friend.

5. Hang out by yourself. As great as your friends are, they won't be around all the time. Plus, if you're by yourself, you get to make all the decisions, so you can do whatever you want! It's also just good for you, and can be quite relaxing. The hotel, the theater performance, the museum, room service...I did all that stuff alone, and thoroughly enjoyed it.

6. Give yourself permission not to work. Most people's biggest regret isn't that they wish they'd spent more time working. And being a workaholic never decreased anyone's stress level. Relax, and set some boundaries on your work. I realized that I'll have about 15 hours on the clock to get my room ready and plan my lessons next week, so why do it at home? Home is for me time.

7. Rediscover your city. Even though you're not traveling, your city likely has attractions and places to see and be that you haven't experienced yet. Try something new! Even though I've lived here all my life (excluding college), I still managed to find a new museum, a new restaurant, new food at an old restaurant, a beach I'd never visited, books I'd never read, a hotel I'd never stayed in, etc. Finding new things in an old city is really fun.

Man, staycation rocks. I can't wait til my next one!

Thanks for reading!

Part 14: Drawing to a close

So after two very peaceful weeks, my staycation has come to an end. At the beginning, it seemed like I'd be stranded in the house forEVER with absolutely nothing to do while my brain slowly melted into mush. However, the actual results were much more encouraging.

Recap of random cool stuff I did:
- Dinner on the roof of Crave (where I challenged myself to overcome my fear of heights--not sure I succeeded)
- Dancing on the roof at Seven
- Spent a day at the beach
- Read a novel
- Spent two nights in a hotel
- Saw The Help at the movies
- Second annual trip to a Saints game
- Swanky downtown brunch
- Added two pages to my student scrapbook
- Watched seasons 1 and 2 of Royal Pains (woohoo)
- Figured out what was wrong with my freezer
- Almost fixed my freezer
- Dessert at a fancy restaurant
- Dessert an an un-fancy restaurant
- Bought new dresses
- Saw lots of friends
- Danced all night-twice!
- Revised a poem, which I may perform next month (if I decide to have some guts)

R E L A X E D like it was going out of style.

What a fabulous end to a fabulous summer!

Part 13: The Museum

Since there was no available exhibit at the Soap Factory, I decided to find a different museum to attend. I thought I'd go to the sculpture garden at the Walker, but I decided against it since I've been there several times. Instead, I went to the Bell Museum of Natural History, which has free admission on Sundays--yay!

I got there a little late cuz I was waiting on someone, so I kind of had a speed-visit to the museum. It was still interesting, though. I just wish I'd had more time to read all the placards. I think that I would probably rename it, though, based on what I saw: The Bell Museum of Lots of Animals.

This is a diorama. Can you believe it?

This is a gross-looking, blood-sucking fish.

A moose. A really big one.

Ram's horns, which are apparently really heavy and largely useless, except during mating season, when they are used to fight with other males over the females by head-butting them.

This is me and a fake moose.

And I learned that avoiding ticks avoids lyme disease, and that the bacteria that causes it was named after the guy who found it. How cool would it be to have a bacteria named after you? (Right? Right...it probably is if you're a scientist.)

Anyway, woohoo!


List update:
1.Clean the house
2.Eat at a swanky restaurant
3.Do something fun outdoors
4.Take a day trip to an iconic spot
5.Go to a hotel
6.Go shopping
7.Do an at-home spa
8.Read
9.Take lots of pictures!
10. High-low dessert adventure

I think I only made it through half of the adventure, since I couldn't find a low-end restaurant for dessert that I hadn't been to before. However, it was an excuse to eat lots of desserts, and I had some desserts I'd never tried before: Friday's strawberry shortcake, and Ciao Bella's limonetta bella. Wait, WAIT! I'd never been to the Icon theater, and I had milk chocolate with caramel there! That totally counts! Woohoo!

Part 12: Take me out to the crowd...

Despite my dislike of baseball (I find it incredibly dull), we have an annual tradition of attending a Saints game. I like the Saints better than the Twins because the Twins just play baseball. The Saints entertain you. Last year, it was Zombie Night, and there were zombies everywhere, and people singing and dancing, a pig in costume, lots of little mini contests and funny stuff like that. It was great. This year's theme was Winter in the Summer, so instead of zombies, there were people dressed in hats and scarves getting the crowd hype, and there was a snowball fight, and a pile of snow in the entrance. And of course there were all the random contests, and we had cheese curds and mini donuts.

Go team!

Part 11: A crafty morning

This morning a friend came into town from Oklahoma, and we met up at Archiver's. I worked on my student scrapbook--what cute kids I've had the past couple of years! Looking at my pictures makes me excited for the new school year. I wish I could post their pictures here.

After that, we headed to Baker's Square for brunch.

Apparently, pie is life. Or life is pie.

Part 10: Rhythm and Poetry

This actually happened two nights ago, but I'm just now putting up the pictures. After our day at the beach and my failed trip to the Soap Factory, I joined up with a friend and her friends for an open mic night in downtown at Elixir.

There were some great singers and poets and when the performances were done, they put on some throwback tracks and we danced the night away. It was fabulous!

I didn't get any pictures of myself, so hopefully they'll post them to their website or facebook page. What a fun night!

Part 9: Dinner and a movie

It's hard to believe my vacation staycation is almost over! It's been hard to keep from wanting to do work these past couple of days, knowing that work is creeping up on me so quickly.

Today, we went to the movies.

Review: It was okay. The reviews of it were pretty good, and it was your typical feel-good movie about racism (irony?), except without a resolution that actually solved anything. It's sweet that the book sold so many copies and the women had the courage to share their stories, but the only person that actually benefited from the book being published was its author, Skeeter. But the women who shared their stories got nothing. No one achieved equality, no one gained respect, no one was treated better...no positive outcome whatsoever for the black women who risked their jobs and possibly their lives to write the book. So what exactly makes this movie so good? I have no idea.

It wasn't terrible, it just wasn't really uplifting or inspiring or anything like that.

Anyway, after that, we walked around and found a couple of shops, including Love Culture (I think that's what it's called), where we discovered that we've got too many years, pounds and curves for all of the clothes. Then we stopped at Charming Charlie, where we found random accessories, like this one.

After that we had a delicious dinner at TGI Fridays, followed by this awesome dessert:

MMmmmmmmmmmmmmmm.

List update:
1.Clean the house
2.Eat at a swanky restaurant
3.Do something fun outdoors
4.Take a day trip to an iconic spot
5.Go to a hotel
6.Go shopping
7.Do an at-home spa
8.Read
9.Take lots of pictures!
10. High-low dessert adventure

I'm almost done!

Part 8: A day at the beach

I sadly checked out of my delightful hotel room this morning. What a great idea! I met some friends at the lake, and we spent a fabulous afternoon by the water.

We laid on the sand, hung out in the water, had lunch at the little seafood place, then stretched on the grass and soaked up some afternoon sun. We even got a cookies n cream flavored popsicle!

I tried heading to the Soap Factory to see the exhibit and the tour, but it was closed and the tour was yesterday.

Oops...maybe that's a good sign. When you lose track of the days, you are definitely relaxed.

Part 7: Extreme relaxation and more adventures!

I woke up in my hotel room this morning and was so relaxed, I didn't want to get up. So I called room service and had them deliver my breakfast. Breakfast in bed! You don't get that at home...unless of course, you make it yourself. But that defeats the purpose.

Here is my delicious french toast and apple juice.

Do French people really eat this stuff? If not, they are missing out.

Then I spent the whole day lounging around. It was LOVELY. Then I got a call from a friend, and we went shopping for dresses. I now have a fabulous first-day-of-school dress, which I am extremely excited to wear.

Then we started my High-Low Dessert Adventure. What is that, you ask? Well, I'll tell you. My cousin sent me on this fabulous adventure where my task is to find two restaurants with good desserts. One place has to be really expensive (high-end), and the other has to be really inexpensive (low-end). Both have to be places I've never been before. What a cool idea!

Tonight we did the high-end part of the challenge. We went to Ciao Bella for appetizers and dessert (VERY doable at pricey places if you want to save some cash.) We forgot to take pictures of our appetizers, because we were so hungry. In fact, we bit into our desserts before remembering to pull out the camera.

Here's limonetta bella:

and here's chocolate cheesecake with raspberry sauce.

Delicious!

Ciao!

Part 6: A quiet little French corner

Sunday: After quite a lovely night at Crave with some friends, we went to salsa night at Seven in downtown. We had a great time dancing on the roof!

Monday I was a bit disappointed to discover that the museum I wanted to visit is only open Thursday through Sunday, so I'm going there Thursday evening, then taking a sidewalk tour.

Meanwhile, I wanted to do the at-home spa and the hotel at the same time, so I checked in to Le Bourget. I got a pretty good rate, and it's a pretty nice room. It has a little living room area and the bed and living room are separated, which is cool.

I went to the gym, and then picked up Chinese for dinner on the way back. I LOVE Leann Chin, and the guy there was so nice, he gave me two appetizers for the price of one, just because! (Thanks, Lord!)

I've been catching up on Royal Pains (GREAT show!), and had to watch a few episodes before bed. I was going to do a facial, but I just wasn't in the mood. I am, however, considering getting a professional massage tomorrow.

I have to say, even though this isn't the nicest hotel in the world (you definitely get what you pay for), it is really nice to be able to eat, sleep and just relax without the sounds of stomping on my ceiling. (You wouldn't believe how loud walking is--until you hear someone doing it, constantly, right above your head.)

List update:
1.Clean the house
2.Eat at a swanky restaurant
3.Do something fun outdoors
4.Take a day trip to an iconic spot
5.Go to a hotel
6.Go shopping
7.Do an at-home spa
8.Read
9.Take lots of pictures!
10. High-low dessert adventure (my cousin's idea)

I didn't do the spa at home, but the mani-pedi counts, I think.

Part 5: A novel idea

Yes, the titular pun was intended. #8 on my list is read, and I decided I'd spend a relaxing afternoon doing just that. I am not a drinker, but I am a fan of bubbly things that come in pretty bottles, and I do have some pretty wine glasses that don't get much use, so I treated myself to a bit of bubbly.

I settled down on the couch with my lovely glass and the novel Remember Me? by Sophie Kinsella, the author of the Shopaholic series. I was in the mood for a quick read, and I got through this 400 pager in about 4 hours.

Review: This particular book is a pretty standard amnesia story. The protagonist, Lexi Smart, hits her head in a car crash, then gets amnesia that erases three years of her life, stalling her memory at the night before her father's funeral. She spends half of the story finding out who she has become (a hard-driving business woman who is thin, partly plastic, and married to a gorgeous, rich, annoying man). Then she discovers that she doesn't like the person she's become, and she spends the other half trying to fix her situation.

I like Sophie Kinsella's style. The thing about her books is that she's British, so there are random words I don't understand and my mental narrator reads with a British accent. My British accent isn't all that good, so I ended up alternating between Hugh Laurie, Kiera Knightley, and Julie Andrews. Very easy read, interesting, fun, good for summer. Good beach read, if I were on the beach. Maybe I'll add that one to my list...


The list so far:

1.Clean the house
2.Eat at a swanky restaurant
3.Do something fun outdoors
4.Take a day trip to an iconic spot
5.Go to a hotel
6.Go shopping
7.Do an at-home spa
8.Read
9.Take lots of pictures!

Off to dinner in downtown in an hour, and tomorrow is a museum!

Cheers!

Part 4: Beautification treatment

So tonight was wedding prep for a fabulous friend who I've known for the past 10 years and is getting married tomorrow (YAY!). We went to a salon to get mani-pedis together.

We chose purple to go with our shoes and jewelry. We sat in those cool massage chairs and got foot massages with all the exfoliation and the lotion and the hot stone massages and all, plus polish and designs. I now have lovely toes.

Then we got that gel polish on our nails, which is supposed to last two weeks, so we'll see if they are all talk or not. I got a french manicure but with sparkly polish in the base, which looks kind of cool. You can't see it in the pictures, but it's pretty neat in real life.

And of course, what would a mani-pedi be without other lovely ladies?

We all have lovely toes.

Cheers!