Thursday, July 14, 2016

Happy Barfday, Murica.

This post is a little bit delayed in the posting, but I started it on the weekend of the fourth. Everybody's favorite weekend of the year!! Or, you know, not. But it is reaaallly beautiful this time of year, and it's nice that most people don't have to work and stuff. Ya know? So that's something.

I happened to have Sunday completely free from both jobs, which doesn't happen very often. In fact, it's the last time I'll have a full day off while I live in Minnesota (which admittedly is only for the rest of this month. But whatever). Most of the Johnson crew left town for the weekend, so I only worked at the coffee shop in the mornings of Thursday and Friday and then worked the Farmer's Market on Saturday. On Monday I headed to the Johnson's for a while, but again had the majority of the day free.



It was a lovely weekend. I spent my afternoon on Thursday resting and having some down time after a sort of crazy week. Then I went out for drinks with a whole crew from the coffeeshop. I stayed out later than I should have, and ended up taking a long nap Friday after I got done working. Then I enjoyed some time in the sun and got a burger and shake with my friend Annie. I was going to try to make it to The Princess Bride which was playing outdoor at a park, but when I got there sooooo many people were there that I didn't feel like dealing with it. I ended up hanging out with Kendra while she did paperwork at a cafe instead.


 On Saturday I worked the Northeast Farmer's Market. The weekend before had been about 95° and extremely humid (it was "feels like 102°" at one point that I saw) which was truly awful, but this weekend it was absolutely beautiful out. It was the perfect temperature for standing outside all morning. My friend Kay and I both dressed patriotically for it which lots of middle-aged ladies appreciated. Afterward I made my way to one of Minneapolis' many lakes and sat beachside for a few hours, enjoying what was left of the sunshine and reading a book (I'm up to 84 so far this year. It's early July. I'm on track to read over 150 total this year!).





That night I got all fancied up and dragged Kendra out to a restaurant called Eat Street Social, which was realllly cool and also had delicious foods. I got a cocktail called "The Kind of Carrot Flowers" mostly just because I love a song of the same name, but it was really really tasty, so all is well that ends well. After we ate, Kendra made us play bananagrams. At the kinda fancy restaurant we were at. And she was also loud and rambunctious (if you've ever met Kendra, this is not surprising). At one point I said, "Kendra, they're going to kick us out. He's going to kick us out." and nodded at one of the waitstaff guys who was walking by at that moment, who then proceeded to turn back toward us and say, "We're not gonna kick you out. We're literally never going to kick you out. There's nobody else in here and you're keeping the place lively." Cool, man. Thanks for the assist.




On Sunday I got to wake up without an alarm-- WOO HOOOO! I made my way to a neighborhood of Minneapolis called the North Loop which is like the warehouse district of the city and has all sorts of cool stores and restaurants in it these days. I got some coffee at the newest branch of Spyhouse, a local coffee shop (the new branch has been open since August, I just hadn't made it there yet) and then walked over to meet up with my friend-bosses, Rachel and Gretchen, for brunch at the Bachelor Farmer Cafe. That place is so beautiful.



After that, I poked around a bit in the North Loop neighborhood, ducked into a shop I really like called the Foundry Home Goods. It's full of really beautiful...home goods. I once bought my mom a dishtowel for Christmas from there. It was the only thing I could afford.





On Monday, I got to sleep in and get up without an alarm again!!! PRAISE THE MAKER. Then I dressed in a festive fourth outfit and took myself out to breakfast. At noon. Oh well. (Side note: The "festive" outfit I was was a plain blue tank top and the red with white polka dots skirt I wore on Christmas day. Yes, I wore the same skirt outside on both Christmas and the Fourth of July and wasn't cold on either day. Admittedly, on Christmas I wore a long sleeved sweater and boots, and on the fourth I wore a tank top and sandals, but STILL. It's kind of ridiculous.) Then I picked my friend Sarah up from the airport, headed to work for a few hours, hung out with Sarah and Kendra for a while, and watched some fireworks over the Mississippi with Sarah.

All in all, it was a pretty successful Fourth of July weekend. I hope all of you had an enjoyable time as well.