Exploring the Pretty City

My friend Casey and I decided to do some photo adventuring for Ari's blog, so we went into Minneapolis with a goal of exploring the city on $20 or less. It's amazing how much you can see for so little.

We took the light rail into the city and stopped at the Guthrie, because neither of us had been there before. We spoke to a friendly receptionist and made our way to the 9th floor for some spectacular views of Minneapolis. This observation area is open until midnight almost every day. I would love to go back at night!

From there we went to the Mill City Museum and the Stone Arch Bridge for some more awesome views, here are a few pictures:

We had every intention of stumbling across a great and inexpensive cafe for lunch, but soon after we left the bridge our stomachs started talking to us and quickly we became desperate to fill our stomachs with anything... We stopped off and got some mall food and continued our walk. Nicollet mall was pretty slow and it began to get cold out so we hopped back on the lightrail and started heading south. Our last stop was Minehaha falls. Casey got most of the good pictures from the afternoon and we hope to make an album of them soon so that you can see more of what we did. All in all, it was a fun day of exploring our awesome city!

Spanish and Fiestas

So I did not get the chance to attend Prof’s show on Friday night as I was hoping too, however I did have a very awesome, but overwhelming, night. My cousin, Bea, is from Spain and is currently living here in St. Paul working at Adam’s school. Adam’s is an immersion school and her role is to teach the students all in Spanish. There are several student teachers in this school from all over the world and Bea threw her first international party since being in the US. (She’s been here since the end of Aug – It’s about time!) This party included amazing food that everyone brought representing their own countries! We had people from Spain, Mexico, Puerto Rico, Argentina and the US in the house on Friday night and lots of amazing food! The night was filled with loud music and loud voices, all in Spanish of course! I felt like I was right at home, back in Spain with my family, surrounded by so much yelling in Spanish that my brain felt like mush by the end of the night. Here’s a pic of some of the amazing new friends I had the chance to meet on Friday. (My cousin is to my right.)

We finished the night off in the traditional American way of going out to a bar. We went to The Wild Onion in St. Paul. This trip there was actually the 1^st time I’ve ever been there, and sure enough, we ran into tons of people I went to high school with! St. Paul sure feels like a small town sometimes! Overall the evening was a ton of fun and I would definitely recommend checking out The Wild Onion if you’re looking for a bar with a dance floor, a good DJ and a great vibe!

Oxfam International

My good friend Megan is taking an event planning course at Stout, and their final banquet is this afternoon. I think her class chose a great cause for their final project... they are putting on a fundraiser for Oxfam International, which is an agency that provides relief to those that are dealing with food insecurity throughout the world. Many of them have less than a dollar a day to live on, and are very malnourished because of it. The goal set by the class is to raise $1,500 which is enough money to build a school in an impoverished nation (it's crazy how such a small amount of money can go so far).

This week we had presenters in almost all of my classes that explained Oxfam's purpose. They showed a few tear-jerking videos that finally convinced me to donate. (I can sacrifice one drink at the bar this weekend in order to feed a starving child in a poor nation)

As far as I know, her class has not yet reached their goal, but there are still a few hours left for those who are apt to procrastinate!

Here's the poster:

If you would like to donate a small amount to Oxfam International, please click here. Every little bit helps! It's amazing how far they can stretch your dollar.

Pedal to the Metal ... the breaks that is

I was driving tonight close to the Uptown area, specifically at the Lyn-Lake exchange when I quick pulled over and jumped out of my car to snap this picture. I had to park illegally and dodge the super sketchy guy standing on the corner asking for cigarettes (I’ve been smoke-free for a year and a half), then climb a snow bank to get a decent shot, but it was worth it! Honestly, how could a giant picture of Prof’s face starring you down not make you want to take a closer look?? So I have a confession, listening to Prof is totally a guilty pleasure of mine! I was actually driving back from La Crosse, WI late last night and I stopped at a gas station and had a 5 minute discussion about Prof’s music with the guy working behind the counter because he was listening to Prof from his phone! Prof is all over the map currently with The Lookout Tour and I am very glad I saw this poster and didn’t miss his Minneapolis show! It’s been way too long since I’ve been to one! I’ve got a few things already on the schedule for Friday night, including an international fiesta my cousin is hosting where I’ll be forced to speak Spanish all night (¡oh my gatos!) … but my plans may have just changed (after the international food anyway! Yum!). Not only is Prof performing what I can only imagine to be an incredible, high energy, wild show, but it’s at a great venue as well, The Fine Line Music Café. If you haven’t had the chance to see Prof live or even get into The Fine Line, I would highly recommend it!

Prof is very intense but super goofy in his music. This poster depicts Prof perfectly. More to come on this if I make it out to the show! (crossing my fingers!)

America's Favorite Jackass

Last Thursday night I was awoken by a frantic call from my sister that went something like this, (all caps are necessary because she was talking so loudly that one would think I had my phone on speaker....) "OH MY GOD LISA, WHAT ARE YOU DOING SATURDAY NIGHT?! WELL CANCEL YOUR PLANS BECAUSE STEVE-O IS COMING TO THE COMEDY CLUB AND HE ASKED MY BOYFRIEND TO DO A STUNT WITH HIM ON STAGE!!!!". I suppose this requires a bit of a back story. My sister's boyfriend, Steve (which makes things even more confusing for this story's sake) works as an AV/host/security/doorman for Rick Bronson's House of Comedy at the Mall of America. Steve-O was scheduled to perform stand up last weekend, and he requested that one of the staff members help him with a stunt on stage, so they chose Steve. The stunt was blowing fire off of Steve-O's head in front of the audience. After a few practice rounds, both Steve and Steve-O were feeling pretty comfortable to perform the stunt on stage. Of course when it came down to the actual performance, things went slightly awry and Steve ended up setting Steve-O's neck on fire (don't worry, this made things even more awesome in Steve-O's eyes). The following afternoon, Steve-O went to promote his comedy stint on the radio, and proceeded to tell the story about the uncontainable flame in a public place, which didn't go over very well with the fire marshal. Unfortunately, Steve's 15 minutes of fame were cut short by this "dick sucking cock face" (Steve-O's words, not mine) and he was not able to perform the stunt in any of the following shows for the weekend.

Steve was still able to score us some tickets for the Saturday night show. My sister and I were pretty excited.

  Little post cards for the show

 The venue, sorry the pictures are blurry! But it's a lot bigger inside than it looks from the entrance.

This was my first time going to the comedy club...I'm not the biggest fan of stand up, but I sure as hell am a fan of Jackass and Steve-O so I was pretty excited to be there!

His show was overall very funny. Of course it was perverted, inappropriate, and disgusting at times, but what do you expect? It's Steve-O! He told jokes about the glory days of Jackass, his intervention, sobriety, and of course many sexual encounters. This was not a show for those that get offended easily. He concluded the show with a few stunts, from gymnastic moves to balancing a butcher's knife on his nose to squeezing fresh lemon juice straight into his eyes. His attitude was very humble and he kept repeating "thank you so much for giving me a chance at stand up comedy, hopefully this goes better than my rap career". The coolest part was that he hung out after the show outside of the club to sign autographs and take pictures, despite the fact that he had a 7:30 AM flight back to LAX. What a guy....

 This guy was willing to pay my sister to take pictures of him and Steve-O. We told him no payment was necessary, he was a little too excited about it. But I included the pictures on here so that you can see that those ridiculous tattoos are in fact very real.

 Yay! Me & Steve-O

 Steve + Steve-O, BFF's. Maybe they'll have better luck with stunts next time he is in town.

Some more pictures from the outside of the club!

"Due Date"

UW-Stout makes a big effort to encourage "non alcohol related activities" on the weekends for students that choose not to participate in the common interest of going to bars and house parties. One night, my two friends and I didn't really feel like sacrificing all of our cash to drunken shenanigans and killer next-day headaches, so we decided to go watch the movie BDP (Blue Devil Productions) was playing this weekend. The event was advertised in various places around campus via posters such as this one. I think the design is overall very appealing to students, usually people steal them around campus and hang them up in their room because BDP posters are so well done.

The event was held in "Applied Arts 210" which is the biggest lecture hall on campus. I think it can fit 200 people if I am remembering correctly. I only got one picture. In my 3.5 years at Stout, this is the first on-campus movie I have attended. There were a lot more people there than I expected! Also, the movie was pretty funny. More funny than The Hangover in my opinion. The best part about it was that it was free to students and the public.

5th Annual Hospitality Career Conference

This is an event that is designed to help hospitality students (such as myself) make connections with potential employers. It is a very valuable event for those of us that are graduating in the near future.

I didn't take any pictures at the event because I was more focused on dropping off my resume, but I will try to describe it as best I can. Essentially, each employer got an equal space for their booth, and they were allowed to decorate it with back drops and promotional items from their restaurant, resort, club, or cruise line. Some were definitely more appealing than others, such as the Town and Country Club of St. Paul vs. Aramark food service company. I was able to drop off my resume with three or four different companies, so I found the overall experience worthwhile. The only negative aspect of the whole thing was that it was SO hot in the banquet hall. Employers and students were all very uncomfortable because of the temperature, which also was distracting when it came to holding pertinent conversations.

This event was advertised highly in all hospitality based courses, mostly by word-of-month. This is the only advertisement I could find for the conference, and as you can see, it's only a "save the date" postcard that is usually sent to prospective employers. I found that the design was pretty appealing, but it lacked a lot of important information such as time, place, etc. (as you can see, i had to hand write the location of the event).

Bustle Optional...

This is one event I missed... and thus I know there is a god.

The James J. Hill house is the standard Sunday afternoon add-on when you are truly bored.  To be sure, Jimmy the Train Baron built one big shack.  This small-planetary-moon structure is massive.  Even as old as it is... it still manages to put-to-shame some of the modern day monsters built on Lake Minnetonka.  I digress.

This was billed as a romantic Valentine's Day event allowing tourists to learn about turn-of-the-century romance and weddings.  It ended with a "relaxation" seminar.  Yes I realize that makes little sense.  I mean if it ended in some sort of group-sex thing-- I'd poke my eyes out, but at least it would have been thematic.

"... would have been" is the important point here.  I missed it... but... if you made it to this event, please comment here.  I would like to know how "romantic" the overall event was... and was there any discussion about yester-year contraception so close to the cathedral.

I was doing fine up to the 28th floor...

If you're not doing anything on Saturday, Feb. 26th, you can "fight for air climb" in the Accenture Tower in downtown Minneapolis.  As a fund-raising project for the American Lung Association, the Accenture Tower event is one of many such events across the nation to bring attention to lung disease while raising money to help cure the same.

Now I will be busy that day video recoding some lacrosse games, but I am sure that this will be a fun and exhausting event.  Plus, as Clint Eastwood once uttered in his Dirty Harry character, "a man has got to know his limitations."  For me, that would be about six floors.

For many people, this will provide the opportunity to travel thru a big building using the an area that is generally off-limits except for fire drills.  Venturing in the stairwells 24 hours prior to or after the actual event and getting caught by building security would probably land you on some terror-watch list.

I know one person that will be at this event and I hope to get a report from her.

For more information, go here:

http://www.lungusa.org/donate/events/fight-for-air-climb/event-listings/minnesota/