I'm midway through my first round of law school finals, so obviously I'm procrastinating the studying that I desperately need to start for my hellish Contracts class.

I'm so unbelievably excited about this: I found an apartment. Ben and I decided to move in together a couple of months ago, but we were going to wait until he had a job and we had saved up a bit of money. He got a job at US Bank and has been there for a couple of weeks. Prior to this we had been just casually looking at places that we saw on Craigslist. We went to one that was right in the area we were looking for, the rent was $950 and it was kind of perfect. We both want to live in a house rather than a large corporate complex. The apartments that I lived in with Gus and Leslie were super nice, but at the same time they lacked the kind of charm that you find in older apartments, which both Ben and I like.

Anyway, the first apartment had everything that we were looking for; utilities were included in the rent and there was a parking spot in a garage in the back. The only problem was that Ben didn't have a job yet, so we didn't go for it. Since he got a job we've looked at a few other places, through this process I've discovered what Minneapolis has in common with Madison: lots of shitty apartments. Anyway, we were all set to sign on one place that I liked but wasn't 100% comfortable with, when I saw another ad. This one wasn't one that Ben could make it to, so I went with my dad. The place is absolutely perfect. Unlike most older apartments, the bathroom and the kitchen are really nice because the landlady remodeled them about 4 years ago. The bedrooms are both painted a really pretty green, and have large closets in them. There's a closet in the hallway for linens, and another one that is like a crawlspace. And! there is a foyer area with a coat closet and a huge front porch. I am so excited!!! Ben hasn't seen it yet, but we've been approved after our apps, and we're going to see it tomorrow. If Ben likes it at that point we're going to sign.

It seems kind of lame, but I feel like after we move into this apartment living in Minneapolis is actually going to commence. It's felt like a super-extended Christmas break this entire time, or alternatively as though I'm in high school again. We'll finally be around people our own age, in a really cool area, and by some great bars. I am so excited!

I'm so terrible at dealing with change. Law school so far has been an interesting experience. The reading is insane. It's so funny that despite spending months and months knowing that this was going to be difficult and knowing the level of commitment I would need to input I'm still moderately surprised by everything. It seriously takes 3 hours to read 20 pages. I don't recall the last time I've felt so inefficient. I'm sure that I'll get faster as the semester progresses, but I wish that I could hit the ground running to feel like I'm getting more out of everything. On the bright side, everything I'm reading is really interesting. I especially like my Contracts reading because I can find ways that it relates to what I learned working at the credit union.

It's hard to make friends here. Everyone sits in the same place in class and doesn't really talk, and then after class everyone is immersed in studying and preparing for the next class. To be perfectly honest, I don't want to participate in the types of conversations I know I could begin with those around me. I hate small talk more than most things; I'd rather talk to you about how to stave off a zombie invasion than talk to you about where you're from and what you're doing.

I am really, really, really glad that Ben is here, even though last week I didn't have that much time for him after classes started. I didn't see him for two days, then went to pick him up at his brother's house and found him with his right arm in a makeshift sling. (!) That day he had gone biking with his brother and the front tire on his bike came off and he subsequently broke his elbow. Being quite stubborn and currently lacking in medical insurance he insisted on going out instead of going to the ER. We had a GREAT dinner at the Longfellow Grill and later went to Grumpy's in NE Mpls to meet Sarah. After that we went to a cocktail party at her brother's house where there was another guy with a cast on his wrist. One of the people there turned to Ben and said, "let me guess, the front wheel of your tire came off," because that's exactly what happened to the other guy. CRAZY. Conclusion: bikes are dangerous. I took Ben to the ER on Saturday when his arm didn't get better and he had limited range of motion and he had a fractured radius. We spent 4 hours there and he walked out with some percoset.

The rest of the party was really fun. David (Sarah and Becca's brother) was making fancy cocktails including one called an "Old Sage" that had grapefruit juice, gin, lemon juice and a bunch of awesomeness in it. The best one was a red drink that had a sugared rim on it that had cranberry juice, vodka and limoncello in it. AMAZING. I ended up meeting a girl that just graduated from William Mitchell who gave me a lot of advice and her email, which will probably come in useful in the near future.

I do wish that I had someone to talk to during the day at class though. I'm sure it's really really boring for Ben to have to hear all about law school all the time and have no real experience from which to relate or advise me from. Hopefully this will develop as time passes. It's so easy to forget how I made friends in the past when I enter into a new experience.

It has been awhile (http://dewdrop862.livejournal.com/39307.html), and it is time I updated my laminated list of top five most attractive males. Especially since Heath Ledger passed on:

1. Jemaine Clement - It's business time. Yes, please.


2. Jason Segel - Please sing "Lady" by Styx to me. Now.


3. Will Sheff - You got a degree in English from Macalester. And you're hot. Let's go to the Crystal Corner Bar together.


4. Jake Gyllenhaal - You can stay on my list. You were already there and you will stay, painfully attractive.


5. Jason Dohring - you are Sasha Baron Cohen who was really only there because I couldn't think of anyone else.

This weekend I went to my friend Andrea's wedding. I met Andrea when my family moved to Eagan in 1991. I was really upset about having to uproot myself from all my friends in St. Paul and I was sitting outside and Andrea came across the street and starting talking to me and we were instantly friends. She didn't have any friends in the neighborhood before I moved in and obviously neither did I. Over the years through elementary school and some of middle school we hung out ALL THE TIME. I remember doing everything from playing on a swingset to playing video games with Andrea. We carpooled all of my freshman year of high school until she finally ended up going away to college and I didn't hear from her much after that. We lost touch even more when I went to college. I'm so happy to see her happy and successful and in love. She's probably the friend that I've had the longest, despite losing touch, and it's probably the closest thing I have to having a sister get married. Tear!!! :)

I am going to be a bridesmaid in my friend Jamie's wedding. It's going to be AWESOME; and furthermore this is the dress that I will be wearing!!!





Hawt! As some of you may know, I love mermaid style dresses. I'm really excited to wear this dress!!!

The other girls that are in the wedding party are really fun as well; we went out in Oshkosh this weekend and had a good ass time. I drank too many gin and tonics...but then woke up to Jamie's mom's lemon poppyseed muffins. Mmmm, lemon poppyseed.

So I'm going to Wausau this weekend with Gus to learn how to ski. This should be pretty interesting. Hopefully I won't break myself all over the hill. It will be nice to see Gus's family again. They're pretty cool and it's funny to see a group of people that look like Gus. I especially like Gus's dad because he constantly makes fun of Gus and tells stories about Gus as a kid.

The Echo had a bunch of irresistible choices for me this week. Tuesday's special was the Chicago Style Hot Dog. Wednesday had a "Cuban Sandwich," and Thursday was the opening of Capital Brewery's Blonde Doppelbock. Unfortunately my blonde doppelbock time was crowded by a bunch of d-bags that were around for the basketball game. D-bags. I do look forward to replacing my usual Berghoff w/ the doppelbock. Sweetness.

Destiney on Rock of Love quite possibly has the most annoying voice I have ever heard in my entire life. It almost...almost makes me want to not watch Rock of Love anymore. That and there is an "e" at the end of her name. Why do people change the spelling of shit? That's so fucking dumb. Do you really think that it makes you more of an individual spectacular snowflake because your name has an extra e or an i or something else fucking stupid like that? Rawr!

Things that are good about having the flu: narcotic cough syrup.
Things that are bad about having the flu: having the flu.

I went cross county skiing tonight despite the fact that everyone told me I was nuts for doing it. It was not so bad, I like it when there aren't any people around and it feels like I'm in the middle of nowhere. It was a little icy, but totally worth going. When I got back in the car when I was done however, I realized how cold it was outside:

Yes, that is my face encrusted in ice. My hat is black, completely black. Awesome.

Star Jones has a very round head. I would be really disappointed if I lost a shit ton of weight and my head still looked like a basketball.

Don't you just want to grab her head and throw it around? I do.

8 days to go and counting...

I think Gus chooses his Christmas presents by what he wants as opposed to what he thinks others want. Just wait. You'll see if you got a gift from him.

SEASONED GREENBEANS TO EVERYONE!!!

This is seriously the funniest thing that I've ever seen. Thanks to riney for exposing me to that. I need to hire that kid and have him shred my documents.

So I got a brand spankin new car. The Integra, aka Eileen, has been laid to rest and I now drive a fancy TSX. YEEEAHHH! It's snowing like freaking crazy right now. I had an unfortunate wardrobe choice of slip on high heels this morning w/ a skirt and I forgot to transfer my snow brush into my TSX so wiping the foot of snow off my car knee deep naked skin in snow was a tad unpleasant. Snow=1, Lauren=0.

Last night I went out w/ some work people who defined my management style as "bossy yelling," but in a good way. I'm going to have to assign them some homework...

Tonight I look forward to trudging through the snow in Gus's truck (thank god for the truck...) and being fed by Heather. Mmmm....free food.

Today I woke up and what I found in the mirror was not to be confused with messy hair, no way, it was a work of art. It would be a crime to not share ( this with the world: )

My vacation is over. :(

One of the more positive results of the weekend was the $400 Michael Kors suit that I got for $90 at Marshalls. It was a very clandestine event, I turned a corner, saw this random suit jacket and was like "Oooh...that looks Lauren-licious," tried the jacket on and had it fit perfectly, expected to not pick up a bottom that would fit and match also, and the only other bottom that was left happened to also fit perfectly. Yay! Outfit for job interview at rock bottom price with designer look: check!

Oh, and by the way I reserve the right to overuse commas to the point of absolute chaos.

Yesterday Heather, Chelsea, Biggie and I all went to Devil's Lake. I made the unfortunate realization that laying around on the couch for an entire month does not magically equate to uber-hiking ability. I'm going to have to start working out for the trip that Leslie and I have planned in July to Yosemite/Yellowstone or otherwise. Today Gus and I are going to go to the Nat/Serf and I will be labeled a domestic partner for the purpose of working out. Serf + Lauren = not making a fool out of myself whilst hiking.

Woot!

I'm going to start writing in this again. Get ready, here is comeS!!!!!!!!!!

Leslie is in town for the weekend and I have a 4.5 day vacation. VACATION! I've woken Gus up the past few days by pinning him down and yelling VACATION!!! into his face. He doesn't seem to like it so much, but I'm sure that if I just keep doing it eventually he will get used to the idea. We went to Brat Fest yesterday, which if you're not from Madison, is this huge festival devoted to sausage. A "Sausage Fest" if you will. So of course, considering who my boyfriend is, I was require to go to this. It was okay, there was a weird band that claimed to be "funk-ay" and the lead singer was perpetually convulsing and making weird faces. Apparently he had the rhythm in his bones and it could not be contained. I hope that I don't have rhythm in me like that because I generally like to look cool, whether that desire actually pans out or not.

I got a call yesterday from my coworker that my boss was promoted, which leaves the branch manager position at W Wash open. I called the VP of HR and told her that I want that job and she said that she was hoping I would say as much, so it sounds like there's a pretty good chance of me getting the job of the big boss lady. I will of course demand to be called as much at all times, so all of you should start practicing saying "Hey big boss lady" whenever talking to me henceforth. I'm very excited about this...wish me luck.

We went out with the Lueck brothers, Heather and her friend Audra and Leslie last night. We spent a good portion of our night sitting around on the terrace, which was something that I haven't done for quite awhile. It was very nice outside and we all ended up partaking in a lot of beverages. Later we headed over to the Plaza where we ran into Shelby Grote. The night of course ended in the consumption of Ian's pizza, so I'd have to label it as a successful night excursion overall.

I've had a fairly eventful past two weekends. The Farmer's Market in Madison started and Gus and I went both weekends. Gus likes it because they have tons of sausages and cheeses that he hasn't tried yet. Last week for Sausage Monday we got ostrich sausage, red wine Italian sausage and smoked sausages. The ostrich ones were the best. This week we got onion ostrich sausages. We've also introduced gorgonzola stuffed burgers (the recipe was ironically obtained from Shape magazine...) into the mix, which are a huge hit. I digress.

We've bought and filled 8 containers for flowers on the porch. Here's the link for the pictures (sorry I'm too lazy to look up the LJ quick command) http://smg.photobucket.com/albums/v510/dewdrop624/?action=view¤t=1177970145.pbw. You'll notice one of them is Gus in a broken chair. Yes. He broke that. (dissolves into hysterical laughter)

Gus just revealed that the reason he is becoming a psychologist is because of Dr. Jason Seaver from Growing Pains. What a fucking loser. Hopefully this means at some point we get to live with Leonardo DiCaprio.