So, today was not the best day ever.  I have definately had better.  I slept in late.  Which was nice.  I talked to Emma on the phone, and it was great to catch up.  This weekend, I have to go home for my brother's confirmation.  So ladida, here I am, driving home, and BAM.  My radio starts going fuzzy.  Alright, I'm out of the cities, it will do that at a point.  So, I reach to change the station, and I notice nothing is lit up.  Funny.  I look at my dash.  The airbag sign is on...ummm?  I start getting slightly worried.  I turn my radio all the way off.  Then, my speedometer freaks out and drops about 60mph in a split second, without me doing a thing.  Alright, so I pull off the road.  In the process, my car dies.  This all took, no kidding, about 5 seconds total.  My car is totally dead.  Will not turn over whatsoever.   Call my mom, and she comes to get me.  We call a tow truck to tow it to Owatonna.  Cost- $144.  Hmm, perhaps I should not have bought all those concert tickets recently. 

SO, In happy news, I am going to 3 concerts in the next three weeks (which now, I probably can't really afford, but oh well).  This coming Monday- Indigo Girls with Laura.  Next Friday (i think friday...)- OK Go with Emily and Mike.  The next Monday (and the one I am most excited about)- JONNY LANG with Emily.  So, I am really excited.  Live music=awesome, and my life has been really incredibly boring lately, so hopefully those concerts will make me feel cool.

In random news, living under the rock that I do, I just learned YESTERDAY that Mark Wahlberg is Marky Mark.  As in Marky Mark and the Funky Bunch.  How did I NOT know this?  Not only that, but he is Donnie's brother.  Donnie from NKOTB.  HOLY CRAP.  I knew I liked him for some reason.  He is the awesomest character ever in I Heart Hukabees.  I used to call my athletic training group in football the Funky Bunch, and our boss was Pauly Paul.  It was slightly funny, trust me. 

I went to Marie Antoinette yesterday.  Great movie.  Watch it.  Sofia Copolla rocks.  Very nice film.

Football.  Is.  Over.  WHEEEEEEEEEEEEEEE!  Which means I am bored out of my mind at work for the next couple weeks, but also quite relieved.  Winter will be chaotic at best, but at least there is gymnastics! 

Don't forget to fall back tonight.  Good times.  Considering that I live under a rock, its pretty sad, but I am pretty sure I would not have been aware that today was daylight savings if I was not at home and my mother didn't walk into the room and turn the clock back.  How does everybody else get notified of this stuff???

thats enough rambling.  I'm done.  Ijou desu.

The exciting life of Jill

Laura is over.  We (Laura) made strawberry daiquiris.  She is the queen of making fabulous drinks and deserves many awards.  She also splattered some on the ceiling.  We are currently listening to the band Dogs Die in Hot Cars.  They are super awesome. 

I took a nap today.  That was nice.

Laura thinks this is like ghost writer (or as she would say, Ghost Busters) when I type on the computer. 

I have a very exciting life!

The pizza I made is done.

stuff

So, I haven't updated in weeks, and even Laura has updated, so I guess its about time. 

I would say that my favorite recent event is that my friend Laura has returned from being in the Peace Corps in Georgia!  Its really nice to get together and hang out with someone you have known for a really long time.  And, she is full of stories and very interesting, as she has been in Geoegia for a while.  We also joined an orchestra together, and we are stand partners again!  Just like 7th grade! 

The orchestra seems fun.  The director seems like a cool guy.  The pieces we are working on are cool.  My old violin teacher is in it.  It meets once a week, on Sunday nights, so thats PERFECT for my schedule.  So yay for getting myself involved in something besides work and sleeping.  The bad part about the orchestra is that it meets in a northern suburb.  I live in a southern suburb.  I knew it was northern, but not THAT far north.  Its like 45 minutes away!  Holy crap!  I was late for the first rehearsal (I also got a bit lost, as usual) and that was embarassing, but I will get over it.

Work is going okay.  I am still fretting a lot over hours.  As in I need more more more.  I don't know what I am gonna do next week when I can only forsee about 20 hours when I need AT LEAST 32.  I still wish I had better relationships with the coaches, but the fall sports are ending now anyways, so oh well.  Both soccers are done.  All I have right now is volleyball and football.  Volleyball is the only one with a decent record this year.  Our football team won one game, but at least it was homecoming. 

I have been doing some cooking lately which makes me happy.  If anyone has any good recipes for any NON-SNACK FOODS, that would be fantastic. 

A couple weekends ago, I went down to Gustavus!  I actually went twice in one week!  Once for the very good Nobel Concert, and once for homecoming.  During homecoming, Emily, Emilie, Stef and I all went to eat at Yu's, which is still knock-my-socks-off delicious.  Then Emily and I wandered the campus feeling nostalgic, then we went and hung out with Erika.  Then we went to Patricks where I saw a lot of people I haven't seen a while.  So that part was fun!  I wish I was back in school.  Without the stress.  I like learning.  And not being in the real world, paying rent, just accuring loan after loan. 

What else...my friend Beth and I are on a search for the best fries in the twin cities.  If anyone has any suggestions, let me know.  Tomorrow, we are going to Barbettes in uptown.  Which, according to some magazine, has the best fries.  Lets see if they pass our test...

New Life in the City

So, I obviously haven't updated in forever.  I will keep the main part of the update short, as many of you who have harassed for details have gotten them in other means.  But, anyways, that job in the cities- I got them to make it full time, or at least enough hours to get benefits, so I took it.  Its hourly, which isn't always fun and sometimes I have to scramble for hours, but so far its going pretty well.  I get my first paycheck Friday!  I work at a high school in the suburbs as an athletic trainer, and since its all after school sports stuff, I usually don't work until 2pm.  Which is strange.  I get other hours here and there at random events around the cities and by going to sports medicine conferences at the butt crack of dawn twice a week.  Overall, I really like the kids I deal with.  People are friendly to me, and it makes my job easy.  I am kinda dissapointed in the lack of communication that I have with the coaches, but I reached out to them and they didn't really respond, so I guess its not really my fault.  Things are falling into place and the job isn't as stressful as it was at first.  I still feel a bit weird because I took the year away from athletic training in Japan and everything isn't quite as fresh in my mind as I want it to be.  I could talk more about my job, but that would be boring, so in another post down the road!

In other news, I also moved to that suburb.  I am living with Emily, one of my old college roommates.  Things are going well so far, and we really like our nice, clean, newly remodled apartment.  I'm not much of a city person and I don't particularily like having the busy roads nearby and the lack of natural stuff around, but its about as good a location as I could ask for in this area.  I have found a nature preserve to go jogging in, so thats nice.  And I am just a few minutes from Mall of America, Ikea, and the airport.  Which is fantastic for anyone who wants to visit!

I feel like my social life and crazy adventures have really died down since returning to Minnesota.  But, I'm working on that!  Last weekend I made myself be social, and I went out with Emily and her friends to a bar in St. Paul.  Sat. we went to the mall and did some shopping and Emilie came over for dinner.  Sunday I went to the Renaissance Festival with my dad and brother- my brother and I didn't care for it too much...not really our thing, but good to go see it once.  Then I went out to the Mongolian BBQ down the road with Tom.  So, it was a good, workless weekend!  Now its time to plot some crazy adventures.  My job hours usually don't allow for full weekend adventures, but who says I can't have day adventures???  Any fellow land-locked pirates out there needing an adventure???

Home Again

Hi kids!  I'm back home in Minnesota right now.  Oh, joy!  Its been a bit weird so far.  But, lets back up the bus.

I spent a week in the Tokyo area with my mom and sister.  I won't bore you with all the details, but it was a fun week.  Yet, kinda stressful as I had to do ALL the navigating (which is not one of my strong points).  We did and saw a lot of things, but I think my favorite part was going back to visit my host families with them.  (Has it really been SIX YEARS since I left to be an exchange student?!)  It was my favorite part mostly because then my host sister did all the work as far as decisions and navigating went, which was nice.  I made it home without a terrorist attack, although airport security is now kind of out of control.  Seriously.  If this stuff continues, someday we will have to fly naked with no possessions whatsoever.  Mark my word.

Being back has been a little strange.  My sleep schedule is still off.  It is 6:30am, and I have been awake for over an hour.  Yippee!  But I like mornings.  They are so quiet and peaceful.  Also, I have not been totally binge eating like I thought I would.  Infact, rather the opposite.  I find myself to simply be not hungry most of the time.  For my first 2 days, I pretty much ate nothing but pizza, and that was fantastic.  I still have yet to do things like eat Mexican food and stuff again, which I really should get around to.  Its fair week here in Owatonna, and I am being anti-social and avoiding it.  I have been freaking out (probably unneccesarily) about getting a job.  I've been frantically applying depsite the fact that I really want a few weeks off to get settled.  I was offered a job last night a a high school in the burbs, but as it is not full time and therefore no benefits, I probably won't be able to take it unless something to go along with it comes up.  It would be really nice to live in Minneapolis though.  We will see what happens. 

I am working on making a flickr site to put up all my pictures of Japan.  I should be getting them up soon.  When I do, I will post a link so you can check them out.  Sweet.  Time for breakfast!