Bachelorette Weekend

I've been in a small lake town in Minnesota celebrating this girl who is getting married in less than a month! Be back soon.

Maeve's

Can we all just take a moment to thank the Yelp creators for making us more adventurous?

Thank you, it was nice that we did that.

I was given a few hours off from work one morning, and instead of being lazy and staying in bed, I yelped a new-to-me coffee shop. I settled on Maeve's in Northeast Minneapolis, mostly because it was rumored to have some pretty fantastic places to sit and hang out, along with delicious espresso.

It didn't disappoint. I wanted to journal, eat a pastry and caff up. And that is exactly what I did. I ordered a cafe miel, which was cinnamony and frothy, and that monster of a pastry, which is apparently an apple fritter. I'm pretty sure it was baked, not fried, but it was flaky and had frosting and really, that's all that matters.

I sat in a church pew, and stared at funky art, and wondered how they acquired all of the mirrors on the walls. A few people came in for a casual weekday morning breakfast, which made me jealous and wish I was an entrepreneur and could schedule meetings at fun new coffee shops just because that's what I wanted to do. (My entrepreneurial dreams tend to gloss over that whole entrepreneurs work their butts off thing. Instead I think of the coffee shops they could go to! The pastries they could try!)

Nevertheless, I'd definitely go back and I'm even more excited for the next new coffee shop adventure. There are so many sweet neighborhood cafes in Minneapolis, and I'm determined to hit as many as I can. Any suggestions for my next stop?

Thankful for:

*Having been a part of a fantastic group of people in tonight's Do Love Talk titled "How to Manifest your Boldest Dreams Into Reality" with Hey Amber Rae
*A roommate who will make me dinner on a night that I just can't.
*Staying in Minneapolis this past weekend. I needed it.
*People who can admit they don't know what to do next, but that they want to work to figure it out.
*A farmer's market within walking distance.
*A local coffee shop where I know the barista.
*Volunteers
*Students who inspire me
*Students who laugh at my bad jokes
*Being able to reach out to others. In this day and age, actually making a personal connection can be more than following someone on twitter. I really appreciate people who take the extra step to comment, email, etc.
*Trader Joe's trail mix. I'm still obsessed. 
*The fact that one of my best friends is coming back to the cities in just three days!

I've been working long days and feeling a bit stressed this week. This list (and the recent impulse purchase of this lotion) is my way of trying to remind myself that there is a lot to be thankful for and that sometimes, we just need to take a step back and calm down. Good night, everyone.

Just an interesting statistic about FourSquare.

In the summer, each degree the temperature rises correlates with a 2 percent increase in searches for ice cream and iced coffee.

From this NYT article. Fascinating, right?

Be The One Run

Lake Harriet

There are a couple of things I try to live by:
1) Work hard.
2) Be kind.
3) Eat real food.
4) If a friend asks you to do/support something, and you are able to, you really should.

My friend Sarah was a bone marrow donor a few years ago (read her incredible story here) and has been very involved in the Be the Match organization ever since. This May, she asked me to be on her team for the Be the One Run and, without really thinking about the fact that I don't run, I accepted.

You know, if your friends are passionate about something, and you have the capacity to be supportive, then you should do just that. So, for a few weeks, I laced up my tennis shoes, and tried to enjoy running. I was, admittedly, a little worried.

The week before the race I was fighting off a bad cold, so much so that the night before I drank as much orange juice as I could and slept instead of attending a bbq. But then race day came and it was beautiful. We were running along Lake Harriet in Minneapolis, which is serene and outdoorsy enough to make you forget you're in the city.

For the first half mile, I walked with a few friends. Since I had trained alone, I was not used to a big crowd of people surrounding me. Once the masses had cleared a bit, I took off. I ended up running the rest of the race! It was the first time I'd ever run a race that I had "trained" for and it was actually really fun. Another friend of mine was an announcer, so when I crossed the finish line, I even got a little shout out! And that was that, folks, I'd finished my first 5K.

Our team! Nickers, me, Sarah, Aly & her sister.

My second 5K of the year is coming up quickly, and I have to be honest, I haven't been running. I'm going to try to pick it up again in the coming weeks.


Have you been entered any races lately?

Breathing room.

This weekend was filled with good friends and bad TV. It included lounging around for the first time in weeks. There was a yard sale and a farmer's market trip. There was time to listen to words that put things into perspective and time to catch up with people I haven't seen in months. There was live music and an evening walk. It was all so helpful in reminding me why I do what I do. I needed to take a deep breath and refocus. I hope you all had a wonderful weekend.

Improvise.

No waves? Great! I'll use a tarp.

This is such a good reminder to get creative when we need to solve a problem.

Originally seen here.