MN MSP MPLS MiniApple Minneapolis

I am in (surprisingly) sunny Minneapolis for the week. The highs are in the 50s and the lows are in the 20s and I don't even need to wear a scarf or gloves!!

So far it has been a pretty great trip. I got in on Sunday and got to have dinner with Annie. Then we went downtown for a concert of a couple local bands. It was really fun. The crowd cracked me up. not only where they a mix of hipsters and raggedy andy's (scruffy guys) but no matter what song was playing everyone stood mesmerized nodding their heads with the music. I totally made me think of the 60s and 70s will mellow, groovy music. If only the place had been hazy I would have thought for sure I was transported back in time (some of the people even had some old school haircuts and clothes).

Yesterday and today have been kind of mixed bags. my college fair visits are pretty productive but I have seen almost no students during my high school visits. Thank goodness I bought magazines at the airport. I have had some free time. Yesterday, I got to shop in downtown Edina, and there is an awesome jewelry story there called Fringe that has really cool and very pretty jewelry for under $40 bucks, I got a new necklace and a pair of earrings. Tonight after my fair I got to to to Ciao Bella, the restaurant near my hotel - best italian food I have every had - I eat there every time I am here.

Tomorrow I am going to Keys Cafe with Annie during her lunch break. She got a new job working for an organization that helps people pay their energy bills if they can't afford to do it. she says she gets paid to give people money. Sounds like a good deal to me! Keys is another favorite spot in town. they have cinnimon rolls the size of plates (before you ask dad, I am talking about dinner plates...ok maybe salad plates) and they are soooo good! Also some of the best french toast I have had. I am excited to try it for lunch.

I must come to Minneapolis a lot if I have favorite restaurants and stores already (and none of them are the Mall of America - MOA to the locals).

Three more days and then I fly home to Tempe, then get to go to Tucson on Saturday to see Greg and Tomoko and little ariana! And actually, I will get to see a lot of friends and family since my parents are throwing a bbq that day.

And both of my classes are over!! so this is overall a great week!

Decathlon Double or Nothing

So something really cool has happened for Decathlon! We have gotten an anonymous donor to create a challenge grant! Basically all you have to do is make a donation at http://azacadec.org/contribute.php and this donor will DOUBLE your donation!!!!

It is very exciting :)

Time to move

So it seems Brett has found us a new roommate. She moved out in October but has been paying rent since she is on the lease. Well, she found us a subletter and now everyone is moving rooms.

Just because she moved out doesn't mean she packed up all her stuff like a normal person would. So first we have to pack up Brett's room - then I am moving into her room and the new guy is moving into my old room.

Now, I know you must be asking yourself "Self, if Casey only has 4 months left on her lease why doesn't she just stay in her room and let the new guy have Brett's room?" Well, that may seem logical but here's the deal, when Brett first talked about moving out I told her I wanted her room because it is the biggest (and I was feeling ready for a change but couldn't actually move out) but because she was still paying rent she thought her stuff should stay where it was...If you could explain the logic to me let me know. And it also meant that when we did find a roommate (now) we would have to pack her stuff...I know! But the good news is that her stuff is going into a storage unit and then I will never have to worry about it again - anything in that unit will be hers and hers alone to take care of! So when it is actually time to move out there will be less stuff I have to deal with.

So now I have the opportunity to have the biggest room, and in the process can do some packing and cleaning of my own so when it really is time to move out I will have a lighter load.

I have lived in the same place for nearly 3 years and have some stuff in my room I haven't touched since I got here.

This isn't the most logical move, but it will get me ready for moving out completely which is a great thing!

Plus - now my portion of the utility bills will be lower!

I am so cool I am ice cold!

So I just found out I get to make 2 trips to Minneapolis this spring; my normal trip in mid-March and a shorter trip in 3 weeks!!! February 1st I have to go to MN for one evening event. It is basically a fly-in fly-out dealio but it is in negative temperatures there right now!!

Weather.com tells me the average high in Minneapolis around February 1st is 26 (the record high is 46) degrees. Good thing I asked for gloves for Christmas. I don't know if I have the rest of the outfit to deal with that weather though. At least I won't be there for a whole week.

Everyone needs a helper!

Tonight Castor decided I needed "help" wrapping Christmas presents. By "helping" I mean he played with ribbon (and ate some off the presents - sorry mom and dad!), attacked scissors and bows, and ate tissue paper.



But look at what a good job he did!



...on second thought maybe he is just looking for a snack.

Merry Christmas!

Give Back without Giving a Dime!

Help Arizona Academic Decathlon receive $25,000 - by voting (up to 20 times)!

I don't know if you have to have a facebook account - if so please pass this on to friends and family you know with an account.

Click the link below and search for Arizona Academic Decathlon

I'm Too Excited to go to Sleep!

I bought a car!!!!!!!!!!!!

After months of comparison shopping and narrowing down my options between a Honda Fit and a Nissan Versa...

I bought a 2010 Honda Fit Sport! (I cannot believe I own a brand new car!).

There was a lot of haggling with the interest rate and the payment, but this finally worked out to = me owning a brand new car!

This is me signing the paperwork


This is me getting the keys!



This is me with my car!


This is proof it was sold to me (it says Ms. C. Thomas on the top line)


This is me in the driver's seat!!!!


I look gooooood


Mom and Dad drove up from Tucson to celebrate! (That is my car salesman with them)


My best friend Michaela came to document everything - even the first drive!


Daylight pictures to come so you can see that beautiful blue color!

Fall Recruitment Trips!

Here are some photos from my Minneapolis and Salt Lake trips this last month.

Minneapolis!


Annie and me!


Mississippi River


Salt Lake City Fall Colors

Tyrone Wells part 2

Guess who saw Tyrone Wells in concert again?

This past Sunday my coworker (who I got hooked on Tyrone's music) and I went to Tyrone Wells' concert up in Scottsdale.

Remember him? - he serenaded me down in Tucson last time he performed in Arizona.

Anyhoodle, THIS time I remembered a camera!!



I got up to him and he asked if we had met before. I reminded him of the Tucson moment and he remembered and said it had been really fun (and since I am a crazed fan, I TOTALLY BELIEVE HIM, so don't tell me otherwise). He also said that song was going to be on his next album coming out in December! yay!


In other news a few of my coworkers and I tried to buy Garth Brooks tickets this weekend. It didn't work out, but since we know he is performing in Vegas for the next 5 years, I am sure we will get the opportunity.

Good ole' SLC

So I guess I should have updated a couple of weeks ago, but I just get so darn busy.

A week and a half ago (it wasn't longer than that?!) I flew to Salt Lake City to attend the same college fair I went to last year, only this time I made sure to spend the night so that I could get per diem (aka, my food paid for!).

The night I flew in I went to the Red Iguana. It was recommended to me by a SLC native and I had remembered that it was featured in an episode of Diners, Drive-Ins, and Dives on the Food Network. Well it is known for its mole sauce (no, not the rodent, the Mexican savory chocolate sauce). This will come as a shock but it turns out mole is not my favorite flavor. So I chose to go with the classic enchiladas. They were definitely worth the 50 minute wait to get in the door.

Then I found my hotel and got my room, I found an awesome deal and got a suite with a kitchen, fire place and master suite! The next day I got ready to use my GPS to get to a well known breakfast spot in town when the battery died! I probably would have panicked if I hadn't been so well prepared. I had printed out 3 maps before I left town. 1) from Red Iguana to my hotel 2)from the hotel to the college fair 3)from the African restaurant I planned to have dinner at, back to the airport.

I had to scratch going to the breakfast joint since now i had no way of knowing how to get there. I decided to drive to the school and found an IHOP near by. After the fair I had to figure out how to get from the school to the Africa Restaurant (yes, that is the actual name) to meet one of my high school friends for dinner. He attends BYU and oddly enough, did his mission in South Africa. In order to figure out which highway was going to get me up the the restaurant I had to piece together my maps like a puzzle to see where they overlapped (luckily they did!). But as usual my friend was running late and I had to cancel my plans in order to get back to the airport in time for my flight.

It was a pretty fun turn around trip. of course, I had to have little adventures!

Done!

Today was my last day of work in Minneapolis! I went to 5 different schools, and luckily wasn't RAINING! anymore, it was just misty (talk about 100% humidity) so I am hopeful that my flight will leave on time.

I spent my afternoon at the Mall of America, didn't really buy much but winded down and saw a movie, it was nice to kn longer be on a schedule.

I tomorrow I might go tour the U of M, we will see if I want to wake up early.


Edit: I just went to the UM website and the visit must be full because it can no longer be selected. Maybe next time.

rain rain...go away?

Today was RAINING! not rainy, RAINING! I drove on a highway in a torrential downpour! it was nearly a whiteout, it was like driving in a haboob but with water so the windshield was never easy to see out of. crazy. Oh yeah, and you can't just pull over and wait 10 minutes for it to pass - torrential rain for hours! It was scary and cool. Scary for not being able to see well, but cool because well, it is rain!

Luckily I am in the land of 10,000 lakes (now we know where the come from) so there is not actually much flooding. I didn't have to look for potential deep spots or flash floods as I drove. But it is supposed to be rainy (potentially RAINING!) through saturday - which could be ok or bad. Coincidently, Brett got laid over in Minneapolis tonight on her way to Des Moines, to visit her boyfriend at Drake, because of the rain so I hope that it lets up a little bit before my flight home on Saturday. I am ready to come home.

In other news the rest of the college fair went well, and I did not run out of any materials, although I did pretty much use up my contact cards so I am glad that I made copies of them to take to my high schools tomorrow.

Tonight was also my Sneak Preview event. that was fun! I got to do a 2 hour long presentation for students and parents (about 60 people total) with a powerpoint and dvd and everything. Even better, all the evaluations about the event were really positive. I also met a MN ASU alumni who was really nice and knows some of the same people I do.

Tomorrow is my last day (whew!) and I think I will head to the Mall of America afterwards. Do a little shopping and maybe see a movie and veg out. Anything to stay out of the rain :)

Just Keep Going and Going and Going...

Yesterday was much better than Monday! I went to a college fair with a steady stream of students at my table and then had high school visits with 20+ students.

Last night I met up with Annie McHale! She lives just south of downtown Minneapolis and showed me some of the local sights. We went to the Sculpture Gardens down by the Walker Musuem of Art and then drove around the chain of lakes in the middle of the city - standing water, crazy! Then we met up with some of her friends and had some pretty subpar mexican food, which I expected, but still wanted to experience to see how the midwest made mexican food. it was pretty bland, but the salsa was yummy.

Today started the national college fair at the convention center and after a weird first couple of days I got set up at the fair (350 colleges attending) and was ready for the first of the 3 sessions. Well I thought I was, but then an onslaught started! I went through 600 previews in the first of 3 sessions! I didn't have another 600 previews with me to get through the second and third sessions and started really worrying. Last year we went through 1200 previews total so I only planned for that many.

During the 4 hour break between sessions Annie came by to pick me up for lunch and we went back to my hotel to grab my last box of previews, and I tried to not to think about what I was going to do if I ran out of materials before my week was up!

Annie and I drove to the Northeast side of Minneapolis and walked across the Stone Arch Bridge over the Mississippi River! I have never been to the Mississippi and had totally forgotten that it starts in MN! There are pictures but I can't upload them until I get home.

I went back to the fair this evening when parents came with their students and it wasn't nearly as busy but there were better questions and longer conversations, and I did not go through my materials, thank goodness!

Tomorrow I should be fine, and may even get through the rest of the week in one piece!

It also was warmer the last couple of days - it was a whole 60 degrees!

Mini Apple

Try mini windy city! today was very windy (they projected gusts of 50 mph!) As I drove on the highways in my rented Hyundai Sonata a felt the wind pushing me as if I was pulling a trailer or something! Definitely thought of mom and dad and Don. Oh yeah and it is only in the 50s and frost could happen tonight. weird.

Overall today was very disappointing. I had 6 - count 'em 6! - high school visits today and never saw more than 4 students at a visit. One school didn't have anyone. I was hoping to clean up today! but now it is making me wonder if my visit letters actually got to the students - we mail letters to all the students we know have shown an interest to let them know we will be visiting, and that usually increases interest.

Then tonight I had a college fair that was only ok, and by ok I mean disappointing. They used their cafeteria tables, which are round, and were definitely not compatible with the rectangular table drape I have. No one could read the entire name of the school in just one look, they had to kind of circle the table. disaster. only about 50 previews got handed out when I was expecting at least 100.

No. 1 comment (as they walk by): Mom "oh, Arizona, I would come visit you there." mom and kid look at each other and smile at the absurdity of coming to Arizona.

Also my GPS is psycho. She (yes I use the female voice) told me to exit on a clover intersection between 2 highways, then to exit again (so go through 2 of the clover petal turns) then she said to "stay right" which I thought meant exit (3rd petal) which made her mad and I had to use the 4th petal exit to get to the exact same place I was when I originally needed to exit! So yeah, it was a comedy of errors - but the reason I needed to exit in the first place is because the GPS made me turn onto an Eastbound highway when She and I both knew I needed to go West, so then she literally made me do a u-turn (when not exiting at all would have made me go the correct way) which turned into a clover 4 way u-turn.

Awesome. My 7am college fair tomorrow better be better! I also have my top feeder school tomorrow (literally expecting about 30 students). if I have low numbers I will be convinced my letters didn't go out.

Time for bed.


PS: In an actually hilarious moment, I visited the high school with the counselor that wore the same outfit as me in the spring. She wore the exact same outfit again today! hahaha, She even remembered that I was the college rep that had that outfit but didn't think about it until she was at work. Luckily I had planned ahead and didn't bring that outfit as on option. And here I thought she wouldn't even remember the incident, too funny!

Moving up!

So I just spent the entire week in Tucson visiting high school after high school. Jen and I actually had a lot of fun together and she will be a great addition to the Tucson team.

When we came back we were told it was moving day. For the last month our boss has been saying that we would be moving out of our current office space into the main admissions space down the hall. for that entire month we had been trying to see which cubicle we would each get. I had had a great idea that Jen and I should get an office in the area that had two workstations in it and be the Tucson office. Well, it worked! my new mantra is if I really want something or believe in it I need to speak it into existence - so I told my boss weeks ago about my idea for the Tucson office and what do you know, Jen and I got it! So now I have a door...and a WINDOW!

The timing could have been better, you know either let us move next week or a month ago when we were supposed to, not the day we come back from an exhausting week in Tucson.

I can't really complain because it is fun to have an office and I love the window but it does make our office area really hot, so we have fans all over the room.

I also got my new glasses this friday! I have sunglasses that I can actually see out of - crazy! Pictures to come but I don't have my camera right now. My glasses actually look pretty much exactly like my old ones, why fix what's not broken?

Today I am off to the football game, there is a tailgate for everyone involved with the Obama program - free tix too!

My Goal in Life is to Replace My Soul With Coffee and Become Immortal

Title courtesy of typing "my goal is" into Google search. It is like my own magic 8 ball!

So This coming week will be my first complete week in Tucson, and my first time staying in a hotel in Tucson (weeeeeird!). I don't know if it is good or bad that I am already exhausted by the thought of this entire month! Travel season is in full swing.

Also, this weekend I am headed up to Cottonwood to help Margie and Dave move Grandma into their house. I am really glad Grandma decided to move, and happy to help! But weird to think that I won't be sleeping in my own bed for 7 consecutive nights. Like I said, travel season has started.

Life with the new coworkers is great! they are all my age! finally I am not the youngest by years, heck, I am not even the youngest anymore :) I had noticed that most of my college friends had graduated and moved away, so it is nice to have a new group of friends to come around, We have pretty much had a happy hour each of the last 3 weeks. (No word on it letting up either, haha). Some of us are looking at attending some concerts and football games together too!

Ooh, also, I am getting new glasses! a Laura Ashley pair that looks pretty much just like my current glasses (but my current frames would probably break if I had just tried to switch out lenses so the new ones are necessary) and a pair of prescription sunglasses! Coach sunglasses! Mom, don't worry about cost - I factored it into my flex account. It is like an early birthday present, I can't wait! Of course, they will come in while I am in Tucson, so I have to wait an extra long time for them. boo hiss.

silent auction

Tonight was the Decathlon fundraiser. It was pretty fun and there were about 30 different items to bid on as well as the opportunity to sponsor the medals and trophies. My coworker Nicole came with me and we bid on several items. I won a spa basket with a free facial. I also decided to sponsor the Ten-event medals for region III (good chance it will be my high school right?)

Overall I think it was an ok success. we definitely needed more people to show up, there were probably only about 30 people in attendance but for a first event it was pretty nice.

Today is also the end of the first week with a full staff at work. we have hired 5 new recruiters, and for the most part they are all really cool, and the best part is that about 3 of them are my age! So not only am I NOT the youngest anymore, but I have more people to relate to, I think we are all going to get along really well!

Happy Birthday Dad!

another year!

New People

So...remember when I was doing the work of two people and was singlehandedly responsible for a city of 1 million people? yeah, well not anymore! they hired a girl from Albuquerque (the Tucson of NM) who starts next week.

best part?! I got to pick which schools I kept and which schools she got :) she will have about 15 schools, and I will have about 20. much more doable!

I am so excited!!

Also, they ended up hiring someone for that scholars position I was interested in, but they are going to continue to include me in scholar events since now I am the only honors grad among my fellow recruiters.

Best of everything.

Proof

Just in case you didn't believe that i could have an organized closet and keep it that way for over a week. I took a picture!



It is unfortunate that you can't see my shoes very well because all 30 pairs are really cute. plus my tennis shoes - not cute but necessary!

(side note, I recently bought new running shoes because I started a work out routine. I can run 3/4 of a mile now! next week 1 mile!)