Delayed gratification is better anyway

S and I got to celebrate our anniversary on Friday after I met with my professor. We took the River Road to Dinkytown and ate at the Loring Pasta Bar. I had seafood spaghetti and S had orzo with asparagus and artichokes. We had tiramisu for dessert, and oh, it was fabulous. We got to hear a bit of jazz, too, as the band started playing as we were finishing up our drinks. It was a great time, and we just got to talk and have fun. Plus, the food was super yummy! I want to go back sometime soon, maybe with my cousin Simon and his wife Eve, as Eve mentioned Simon hasn't been there. Are you up for that sometime in December, Simon? A photojournal of the night:

First, I gave S my present to him before we left for the cities. I got him two mugs made in Japan, so we can have matchy mugs when we drink our coffee. He liked them and seemed impressed that they are really Japanese!



Next, S thought I looked cute while driving. Maybe that's why he tags along with me so often when I have meetings and classes in St. Paul?



S at the restaurant, enjoying his Irish coffee, which was more Irish than coffee, if ya know what I mean. The servers kept topping him up with coffee, though, so that was great.



Me looking dreamy. S took a bunch of these.



The guitarist took a while to set up, and S wanted to snap a photo of his gear for his cousin Nate. They were a good jazz combo.

Increased dependency on foreign oil

The last two trips to the cities I've made have involved terrible traffic, a missed a college friend's wedding, more than two hours in the car one way, and being able to read four pages of an article for class while driving less than 5mph.

I really don't like driving this much when gas is at the prices that it is, and when anyone complains to me that gas prices are high and all they do is drive to work each work, I want to remind them that during the Reagan administration, gas prices were even higher than this, relative to the value of the dollar, and that I drive to freaking St. Paul twice a week to go to class for a whole three hours.

Anyway, clearly I'm venting. I like the cities, I really do, and one of the goals of going to school is to be able to move someplace else, perhaps the cities or elsewhere. It's just kind of hard, going back and forth, living at home, working not enough hours to support myself independently, and feeling productive.

Or, you can just hold on really tight

Last Thursday, S and I headed to the cities to meet up with a few of his Alaska trail crew cohorts and some old college friends. It was a good time spent at the Happy Gnome and Mickey's Diner and the Seward Cafe and Tony Roma's at the Mall of America. Let's just say it was a lot of sitting around in restaurants hearing the stories of how S was nearly killed twice (once by moose, once by dead trees) and how he's now looking for a job he might actually like. I'm glad I got to meet and re-meet some of S's friends and spend time with them, eat lots of yummy food, and the game of Trivial Pursuit we played was an excellent match-up.

Today I head back to St. Paul for the start of my next graduate class. This time, it's reference, and I'm expecting a lot of homework and time dedicated to reading and studying. S and I have been working on getting to bed at more decent hours, or at least having me in bed at a somewhat more reasonable time each night, so that has helped my sense of sanity/reality. I hope that I can dedicate at least one of my days off to homework and not procrastinate. I know I can do it, and I know S will help me and support me however he can.

And of course it's another beautiful day

Yesterday, S went with me to the cities, and hung out while I was in class (hours and hours and hours spent on Library of Congress Subject Headings—ai yi yi) and then we went out for pizza at Carbone's and then to IKEA. Anytime we saw something that was red, S said, "This is Beth's" fill-in-the-blank. This is a picture of S in "my" kitchen.

We headed back to St. Cloud and hung out with his best friend James for a while, which was great. I knew James in high school, and while I never really knew him that well, I thought he was interesting in the same way I thought S was interesting. Last night, James was explaining a bunch of different things, like how he wants to create a 'zine which he wants to call "The Winking Loon," and it would be "a collection of essays and poetry and political pieces by Minnesota, um, poeple." He always paused for the easiest word in the sentence, as though he was going to choose a more refined word, but "thing" would do just as well.

Right now, I'm working on my subject heading homework, and I can't figure out what to put for "France during the reign of Louis XIV"—would it be "Louis XIV, King of France, 1693-1715--France" or "France—-Reign of Louis XIV, King of France, 1693-1715" or something entirely different? I'm at a loss, so I'm dorking around in the Library of Congress subject headings and will probably go to another source at some point here, or possibly take the professor's advice, if exhausting all other options doesn't work, "Cry, then call a friend."

We were in love

Seeing José González and Zero 7 on Friday night was pretty fun. Andrea and I had dinner with Alyssa Knese and Michael Byrne at Leeann Chin where conversation was mostly about Ethnic Wal-Mart which is on University Avenue. After we ate, we dropped Alyssa off and the three of us music snobs went to the show at the Fine Line. Michael, who is the DJ and king of new music among us, kept comparing the show to when he saw Lil' Wayne with Alyssa. I was all, "Why do you keep talking about Lil' Wayne? This is nothing like seeing Lil' Wayne." And he was like, "I only go to raves or DJs, so my only comparison to a real concert is when I saw Lil' Wayne." Criminy.

We all agreed that Zero 7 should have played more old stuff, like "In the Waiting Line," instead of so much new stuff which is okay, but not nearly as chill as their first album. Anyway. José was awesome, and the reworkings of his songs with Zero 7 were pretty sweet. I keep listening to "Veneer" and Michael found a live version of his cover of Massive Attack's "Teardrop," which is lovely.

Staying with Katie Jorgensen was awesome. It worked out really well, even though Andrea and Katie were both sick. We went to Axel's Bonfire for dinner last night after they picked me up from my class, and then got coffee and dessert at Cafe Latte and looked at stuff at J. Crew and Pottery Barn on Grand Ave. Katie is such a sweetheart and I had a really good time even though I vastly overestimated the size of my own stomach.

My first class went well, some familiar faces from my first class were there, which made me feel infinitely more comfortable. It doesn't seem like cataloging will be all that complex to understand. Professor Humeston went over the tools that we will use for our assignments, and her attitude was pretty much like, students make this more complicated than they need to. There is a tool for every task, you just have to know where to look. Cataloger's Desktop is going to be my good buddy for the next three months.

Other good news: S should be home in around 36 days. I am so desperate to see him.

I should really get out of the house today

Yesterday, Andrea and I, along with two of our friends from work, went to the Minneapolis Institute of Arts to see everything, but especially the Alexander Calder exhibit. It was super fun hanging out with the girls, having Chinese food, watching "Calder's Circus" and then heading to Uptown for a little shopping at Everyday People and Urban Outfitters.

I think our next "field trip" may be a day at IKEA, since neither of them have been there before. We went to the Science Museum a few weeks ago, which was excellent, and these fun day trips to the cities are made more interesting in getting to know our coworkers who are so cool.

Unfortunately, it's 3:15 and my sister and Alex, my pseudo-little brother, are still sleeping. It's annoying because I've had to hang out upstairs and be quiet in my own house so as not to wake them. Gah. Plus it's Andrea's birthday, but that doesn't seem to matter to her. Been upstairs watching "A Year at Windsor Castle" and reading. A lazy Friday.

Irrational fears

When I drive through the tunnels in Minneapolis/St. Paul, I always feel somewhat claustrophobic and nervous, like I'm going to crash and die like Princess Diana. It plays into my major irrational fear: being buried alive.

I text messaged S and asked, "What's your greatest irrational fear?" because otherwise he might answer something like, "Failure" and isn't that everybody's major fear?

He called me later and said, "My greatest fear is that the world will end before I can marry you."

Somehow I don't think the world will end anytime soon.

Water cool and cleansing

Went down to Minneapolis to hang out with Eve yesterday. We had lunch with her friend Sarah at Uptown Diner, then went to the wedding florist appointment with the Flower Guys. Roses will be in abundance, red and white, should be lovely. Eve was kind of nervous about the whole floral decision process, but Will Fee was really enjoyable and helpful. I would suggest him to anyone in the twin cities who's looking for a florist, and I'm not even planning a wedding. He had good advice and is extremely reasonable for price since they get the flowers wholesale from South America and... I really don't care about wedding flowers, so this paragraph is now completed.

After we got back to Eve's apartment, we took a walk around Lake of the Isles, and it was a wonderfully beautiful and warm day. I hightailed it over to St. Paul around 5 for my class, discussed the history of libraries, non-U.S. Tomorrow's class will be history of U.S. libraries, including Andrew Carnegie's contributions. I need to get some reading done on that subject.

S is now in Anchorage for a little while, so that has been nice. Have a couple rolls of film to pick up for him, hoping for some photos of him in the bunch.