Tom Sawyer for an evening

I finally got to go kayaking this past Friday with Seatasea and it was fantastic! I loved every second of it and I don't want to wait until April for the next opportunity. Ryan has already blogged about this same trip that he went on in August, so I'll just add highlights from my experience.

I ended up trying out a Dirigo by Old Town and it suited me pretty well. I have never kayaked before this trip, so it took a little bit to get used to the paddle stroke that we were shown. It was very different from the dig and pull method used in canoing, but once I got going, my kayak was easy to maneuver. The current wasn't very strong, so if you wanted to go anywhere you HAD to paddle; no speed floating like you can in a canoe.

The whole trip was quite nice and the new people I met added to the excitement. There were two other girls about my age, but they pretty much stayed together, so I had fun paddling between everyone else and talking to new people. The river was just the right size to socialize with everyone or paddle off to one of the sides and explore by yourself.

One other tidbit is that Seatasea will be selling the boats that they use for these trips at a discount starting November 1st. One of the owners will be fixing any that have lost screws or various other wear and tear items before they sell them, so it could be a great opportunity to invest in a kayak... and then let me borrow it until I get my own!

Props

Yay for ISU ballroom this year! I'm so proud :). We've now had 110 people in one beginner lesson and have been featured in the Des Moines Register, a Des Moines radio station, and in Visions, the ISU alumni magazine! It's like a fantastic epidemic of dancing, the only problem being that we're running out of space to hold everyone. Our Wednesday lessons have moved to one of the Forker gyms, and last week we had 4 rows of people on both the girls and guys side. It would be awesome if we could buy or build a building for us, but unfortunately we don't have that kind of money. Maybe the solution to that problem is to get a corporate sponsor! If only it were that easy... It would also be cool if we could create "virtual space" so we would always have enough room no matter how many people came. Maybe the people working with the C6 could give us a hand with this idea.

DINKs

I can breathe clearly now! I think I'm back to life and I'm glad because I have a busy week coming up. It's E-Week and that means I get to promote ISU, promote myself, and dance at the end of the week!

This weekend was also busy and fantastic! My best (girl) friend, Wendy, and I have known each other for about 21 years now and no matter how far away we live or how long it has been since we last saw each other, we somehow manage to pick up right where we left off and have a great time. She came down Friday night and indulged me in a late night college dinner at Perkins while we caught up on a few things. Saturday we perused Main Street and found the new chocolate shop. Then we met up with Liz for pizza at Old Chicago, yes Ames actually has a new restaurant! After stuffing ourselves, we headed to C.Y. Stephens for an awesome performance of Miss Saigon. It was a pretty heavy story, but at least I didn't pass out like at Rent; stupid hospital stuff. To round the evening off we watched Napoleon Dynamite and Strictly Ballroom at Liz's and apparently Napoleon is much funnier with alcohol... Then I discovered that Liz's boyfriend plays Warcrack too so we geeked out a bit while Wendy and Liz probably sat and made fun of us. To end the night we introduced Wendy to Mitch. Oh Mitch you make my abs strong from laughter! There's a new exercise idea: aerobic laughter. It would be similar to the pole dancing and striptease lessons on the west coast.

One of my favorite new "terms" I picked up this weekend was DINKs: Dual Income No Kids. Leave it up to Wendy to use some fancy word to describe her and Brad's married life. Now I need to get in gear so I'm still sane by the end of the week. I wouldn't want to scare the other kayakers on Friday. And speaking of this, anyone who is going to be in CR, or even IC, Friday afternoon should let me know so I can say hi and keep myself out of trouble before I float down the river.

Squawk squawk, tastes like chicken

Well it looks like the best bird won on Saturday! The Iowa/ISU game will probably be the only football game I make it to this year, but it definitely feels good to graduate after one more win against the dark side. And now that the game was so awesome, I have to say that the tailgating party was not as fun. I spent the majority of my time being a bouncer and a human body shield to prevent random people from snatching the food and drinks. Nothing too exciting happened besides being challenged to fight with some drunk guy from Iowa or UNI (he couldn't remember). I guess rushing the field was fun until we tried to leave the stadium, and yet again the goal posts stood strong against the people determined to topple them. It was worth the free ticket and $3 bottled water, but now it will be nothing more than a line on my resume of life... and something to brag about to all of the Iowa fans for the next year!

Warm Fuzzies

Yay! I ran into one of my mentees from years back and he made my day. He said that Keith and I were his favorite TAs of all time! What a nice little ego boost. I also ran into the learning community lab instructor from my first and second years, so it was a nice little walk down memory lane. Now I just need to get a Beat Iowa shirt to wear tomorrow and have my advisor officially tell me that I can graduate, and my day will be complete. I'm also debating on getting another plant from the Horticulture Club's plant sale, but I don't know if that would be breaking my "no more plants until I graduate" deal with Keith or not...

Long time, no blog

Ok, so in theory this will break the blog stalemate that has been going on, i.e. post something to entertain me! And as a warning, this is going to be a random blog to procrastinate going to bed. First of all, everyone needs to dig out their cardinal and gold this week to support the only game I half pay attention to. Yes, I am actually going to the ISU/Iowa match du football americain, but only because my brother is giving me his ticket. The best part about the football season is that I get to help out with the College of Engineering tailgate. Yay for schmoozing with awesome old people. Ok, so they aren't all old, but I haven't graduated yet, so I can still call them old.

Next... Jason, you were right. I do need you guys around to remind me when to drink water. I think random reminders throughout the day would be good so that I don't become dust, especially since I've been good and have kept to my goal of trying to bulk up and I have yet again that I do indeed need water :) So far the bulking is still not happening, but I think that McDonalds needs to play a bigger role in my routine for that to happen. I have, however, gotten back up to 450 crunchy stomach things and 30 push ups (yes army, not girlie) per week which is half way back to my old high school sports days. I don't think I'm quite to the ass kicking level, but I can safely say that I am more in shape than most of my major. I guess that's not saying much, but I can still smile about it.

Ok, last thing for the early morning. I finally saw Mr. and Mrs. Smith and while some of the fight scenes are cheesy, I thoroughly enjoyed it. I won't ruin it for anyone who hasn't seen it yet, but I think that Brad Pitt's last line is my favorite. Go watch it again if you don't remember!

Life is like a box of chocolates. Take little nibbles and if you don't like it, try something different. You're bound to find something you do like.