Laughter Warming My Heart!

What a weekend…I had a terrible week but it was made ALLL better by the amazing time I had on a getoutoftown trip!

Here’s the rundown of the week:
Sunday-Snow dump..they said 8 inches, but I think that’s a bit modest
Monday-shoveled and had some tough conversations
Tuesday-my car got backed into…GRRRRR!!! The moron did $1600 worth of damage to my door.
Wednesday-had some shopping issues and argued with the moron’s insurance company who is paying for the fixing of the car
Thursday-picked up the rental
Friday-RAN AWAY!

On Friday, 5 of us (Shantelle, Krissy, Becca, Burke, and myself) got out of town and headed for Bismarck. We stayed with a past DYP member Dave but enjoyed some of the downtown scene before crashing. We had dinner at the Blarney Stone and drinks at the Peacock.

Saturday morning, we got up at a decent time and took off for Grand Forks for the UND SIOUX GAME! I love hockey! Talk about luck when we walked into our SUITE, where we got to enjoy the game in style! The game was great, UND won 5-2. From there we went to Joe Blacks, a great little bar. This was a NDYP event, where Grand Forks hosted all the networks to come visit. They were awesome hosts and great to visit with. We are hoping to visit more about opportunities to partner.

The best part was all the laughter and fun. The five of us filled a car but also made sure there was great conversation and a ton of laughs! This was so what I needed and I can’t believe how lucky I am to have great friends and make memories.

“Winter must be cold for those with no warm memories.” –From the movie An Affair to Remember

Hot Gumbo Is Way Better Than Cold Weather!

Groundhogs are dumb! Where’s this spring he proclaimed. I just don’t know if I can ever trust a varmint again. Saturday night’s 8 inch dump of snow was disheartening and depressing. There were parts were the snowblower wasn’t tall enough to take out the drifts. The only part that was good was the previous warm weather had allowed for me to put the snow somewhere.

After recuperating from “whatever” I had, I played catch up at work. We presented the NDYP Best Place to Intern award to a local Dickinson Young Professionals Sponsor, Ebeltoft . Sickler . Lawyers. We had a nice turnout from both of their firm and our YP network. I also have been working on the details to bring Patrick Atkinson, from the God’s Child Project, out to Dickinson to speak. That will happen in March.

On Saturday, before the blizzard attack, I went to the Gumbo cook-off with Becca as my date. We went for a couple reasons, something new to do AND also to see if DYP wanted to do something like that next year. We realize that it will take some money, maybe a sponsor but it would be great to do as a team. There were a couple great ones…and then there weren’t some good one. The place was PACKED!! We’ll see about next year.

I’m so looking forward to a well needed trip out of town….for a variety of reasons. Can it be Friday yet?

"One of the very nicest things about life is the way we must regularly stop whatever it is we are doing and devote our attention to eating." -Luciano Pavarotti and William Wright, Pavarotti, My Own Story

And the Groundhog said: Let there be Sping!

Dear Weather- I see we have reached a light agreement. Thank you for sending warmth and sunlight as a reconciliation for the crap you made me endure for the past couple months. OR maybe it’s not you and you are really influenced by a groundhog! Either way, I can put up with the melting! The driveway has emerged again…I don’t think I’ve really seen it since November. I’m not saying all of it’s there but a good 60%!

Work has been crazy lately! We’ve been working to rebuild the Masterminds program…if you’d like to see more info, check out the February issue of the City Magazine. It’s a business/networking group for women that own their own businesses. We had a great turn out the beginning of the month. They are really a curious bunch that is willing to share and learn from each other! Other things that have been happening include a trip to the legislative hall…one to host a NDYP social with the legislators and one to take the Leadership Dickinson students there. I was glad that they were so close together, it allowed me to have some nice carry-over for the students.

I’ve also been surrounding myself with good friends. We had a girls-night this month, we met to play games but after sampling Mama Rosina’s cheesecake…we got distracted by good conversation! Scott came down to visit me again but because of the Anti-super bowl party plans, he couldn’t stay long. The girls had previously decided to hunker down and take in some movies and hot toddies(and NOT watch the football game)! Aubrey and Becca did decide to take on the driveway before we settled in…I was amazed at the “damage” they did to the snow! What good friends!

This past weekend I took a quick trip home to attend the God’s Child Dream Maker’s Ball. It was a great event to raise awareness and funds for the God’s Child Project. It was amazing to see photos from the Guatemala project…it took me right back there. The best part of going was that Mom and Grace also attended! It was fun to share something that was a big deal to me with them…and they are always a riot…I’m so blessed with good family.

The only down spot was that I got really sick on Sunday night/Monday morning. I don’t know what happened but I’m still working up my strength. I’m not a good sick person but despite my illness, I had a nice Valentine’s Day snuggled up with two kitties! It was Lola’s “anniversary” date with me and TonyDanza was so comfortable under the covers that he snored! It made me giggle a bit!

“The difference between friends and pets is that friends we allow into our company, pets we allow into our solitude.” –Robert Brault