Minne weekend.

It has been a hectic couple of weeks!

This past Thursday I was leaving Portland to fly home to Pierre.  Well, the United flight was extremely delayed due to the incoming flight being late and bad weather in Denver (where my connection was).  When I was finally able to get off the plane I sprinted to gate A but it was too late, my flight with Great Lakes had already left.  So there I am, in the HUGE Denver airport, frustrated and super annoyed about missing my flight because I had absolutely no control over the situation.  I was able to get a room at the Double Tree by Hilton near the airport for a discounted rate.  It was a very nice hotel and the bed was super comfortable.  I was glad I had a great place to stay for the night.

My king size bed at the Double Tree by Hilton

Denver Airport Security check, yuck.

The walkway over to gate A

Friday morning I took the shuttle back to the airport and took the earliest flight to Pierre.  Unfortunately, I had absolutely NO time to go home and do laundry, or pack, or spend time with Pip because my flight from Denver landed at 11:53am and my flight from Pierre to Minne was at 12:17pm!  It was a long two days but I finally was able to make it to Minneapolis with no problem other than the fact I only had dirty clothes with me.  Thank goodness I was able to do laundry at my good friend, Katie's apartment.

Other than my hectic travels my weekend was fantastic!  It was nice to be able to sit down and paint my finger nails and drink wine with some of my closest girlfriends.  We all woke up Saturday morning and immediately started getting ready for our wine tour!  We rented a limo and the limo driver took us to two wineries, one boat cruise, and a place to stop and eat lunch.  Although it was a great time I was so ready to change into pj's and just lounge with all my girlfriends.  After much needed naps and more booze, we decided we wanted to go to Toby Keith's bar in St. Louis Park.  It was a pretty big bar and there was a live band playing.  It was crowded but us ladies made our way close to the stage to dance to a few good jams.  Saturday was such a great day.

First winery stop of the day!

Boat tour

Picture from the boat tour

On Sunday, a few of us decided to be super lazy and do absolutely nothing but watch Netflix until I needed to be taken to the airport to catch my flight back to Portland.  I didn't arrive to my hotel until about 9:45pm PST.  I unpacked everything, brushed my teeth, and fell asleep as soon as I closed my eyes.

It has been requested, those of us who are working onsite should work 7am-7pm this week.  Also, it has been requested that I come back the week after labor day for four more weeks and work Monday-Saturday 7am-7pm.  It is going to take a lot out of me but I'm going to try to plan a short weekend trip to Las Vegas in September sometime.  Due to the request of working onsite in Portland almost the entire month of September, I have decided on Labor Day weekend, I will drive to WI and drop off Pip with my mom until I'm able to be home to take care of her.  She needs more attention than what she is given right now from people coming to my apartment and "checking in" on her for a quick 10 minutes.  Pip is the kind of cat that needs a lot of attention and I believe taking her to live with my mom for a month or two will be the best option for her.

Since I will be traveling to WI this weekend, I get to see this cute face (see below) while I'm there and I CANNOT WAIT!  I miss my niece/god-daughter very, very much.  I can't wait to give her tons and tons of kisses!

Her smiles are so contagious :)

BUSY, busy.

I'm not going to bore you with how busy I have been with work in Portland.  Today I worked 10 hours.  It's a good thing I have been given an incentive for working overtime on this project.  Yesterday, Heidi and I decided to go on a little stroll near our hotel.  Here are a few pictures from our walk.

Senior pic!

A massive Pine tree.

Heidi and I had a lot of fun being a little touristy.

At another time, I'll find more time to go on and on about the project and people I've been working with at the Portland office.  The work load keeps piling up and there are only so many hours in a day.  Until then, CIAO!

CRAZY DAYS

This past week just flew by but thankfully I got everything I needed to get done before I left for Portland.

This weekend, was Crazy Days in Pierre.  The city blocked off the main street downtown and there was a street dance.  There were three bands playing through out the day.  The street dance was held to raise money to install lighting and to repave the historic downtown of Pierre.  It definitely could use a little updating if I do say so myself.  I ended up meeting some friends downtown and we had such a great time!  The last band that played was awesome.  They played a bunch of old school tunes that everybody knew and could dance too.  It was such a fun and late night.  I didn't end up getting to bed until about 1:30am and I needed to be at the airport by 7:30am to fly out to Portland.

It has definitely been a long and exhausting day of traveling.  I had a connecting flight in Denver and finally made it to Portland round 1pm (Pacific time).  Didn't end up getting to the hotel until about 3pm because there was a very long wait to get the rental car AND the I-84 WB was closed due to construction.  Had to take an alternate route but the scenic views were outstanding.  Well, I'm all unpacked and settled in for the week until I fly back to Pierre on Thursday.  Four more weeks of Sundays like today, oh joy.

Having a great time at Crazy Days!
From left to right: Kristin, Kayla, Katie, Heidi

It's time for me to catch some Z's!  Pictures of Portland to come!!!!

ONE YEAR AGO..

Today marks the day I moved into my first "on my own" apartment in Pierre, SD.  The year has flown by.  Looking back on the big moving day, all I can think about is how grateful I am that my mother and her friend came out here, with all of my personal things and my cat, to help me move in!  This also means I have been working for Eagle Creek for a little over a year.  Even though I have only been with Eagle Creek a short time I feel like I have gained a lot of knowledge of how a consulting company operates.  I have been on multiple projects, some good and some not so good.  I've worked with a bunch of different people around the office, again some good some not so good.

Currently I'm working on a project that is taking me to Portland, OR for FOUR weeks.  I leave this Sunday.  Not much notice because I've only found out this information a few days ago.  I'm excited to travel to Portland because it is such a beautiful city; tall buildings, amazing restaurants, short blocks, etc.  So much to do and so much to see!  The only reason I'm a little bummed about traveling for the ENTIRE month of August is because I'm missing the last few games of my summer volleyball league.  I'm also missing the first four nights of the coed softball season.  Don't get me wrong, I'm grateful to go out to Portland because I know most people aren't given the opportunity but I REALLY wish I didn't have to miss out on my social life in Pierre.

At the end of September, beginning of October, I will be helping out at the Grand Opera House with my second play of the year.  The play is called Boeing Boeing and it's a hilarious comedy!  I really wanted to audition but I knew I would be gone for four weeks in Oregon and felt it was unfair to audition if I knew I couldn't come to practice for the whole month of August.  I'm going to be backstage help and I will help paint and be crafty with the set.  The Director and co-Director are hilarious and I can't wait to help them out with the comedy show.  The first show I helped with this year was called The Fox on the Fairway.  Another comedy that made every audience laugh like crazy.

As you can see, I like to stay busy because I also work a second job at rue21.  Don't get me wrong though, I do love my down time at home.  Writing about down time, I'm enjoying a little of that right now and would like to enjoy more of it before I head to bed.

More to come!

The day I picked up the key to my apartment a few days before I moved in, July 2012.