Currently, I am working at my new, second, very part-time job. How is it that I can be at work and blog at the same time, you might ask? Because I work at a kiosk. In a mall. Selling jewelry. Not the most taxing or exciting work. Plus, I have a nifty iPad at my disposal and I am working that, if not the whole jewelry biz.

I keep coming up with things to add to my list (my list of things to do before leaving Minneapolis/before Minnesota falls into a sinkhole) and of course I don't write them down, so can't remember what they were. One thing was brought to my attention with the announcement of single game Twins' tickets going on sale - baseball! Baseball season is right around the corner and I hope to make it to a handful of Twins' games, at the very least, and by god, if I do nothing else this summer, I will go to a Saints' game. So help me.

Pittsburgh it is?

So, I had an interview last week for a placement with the library at the School of Engineering at UPitt... a placement where I'd get 3 credits a term for 10 hours/week work.  Or so I thought.  I got the official offer on Thursday and it's not only a salaried position (which isn't going to be a ton of money, obviously, for 10 hours a week) but I'll actually be getting 6 credits.  6 credits per term.  Which adds up to 18 credits.  The degree requires 36 credits total.  Do the math with me, people.  Let's break it down.  Divide 36 by 18 and what do you get?  2.  Half of my credits.  Paid for.  By working 10 hours a week.  I think my decision is made.

It looks like I'm going to be leaving Minneapolis in about six months since I got accepted to UPitt and Drexel, two of the grad schools I applied for.  Both are out of state and while I love Minnesota and everything I have here, I've known for a while that I want to make a change.  The change isn't necessarily going to be Permanent and Forever, but I want to try living someplace new and what better time and way to do that than tie it all up with going back to school? It seems awfully drastic when put that way and not a little bit insane: not only making a big change and starting graduate school but also moving to a new city and state to do so...  what can I say?  I live for adventure!  I don't, actually, but I am really excited and completely scared, all at the same time.  I don't even know where I'm going yet.

All that aside, I've decided that I want to fill the next six months with as much Minnesota fun as I can stand.  Seriously.  I want to be so full of fun that I come perilously close to bursting.  I want to spend time with friends, like, all of them, and visit all the Twin Cities things I keep saying that I'll see someday.  I want to do all the things I already love, like walking around Calhoun and Uptown or being with friends anywhere and laughing a lot.  But I also want to do the things I always think I should do more of or really, all the things I think I should do at all, like going to the Swedish Institute or the Witches' Hat or going canoeing on the lakes or riding my damn bike.

It seems so silly to say it like that because I'm not going away and never coming back and Minnesota will certainly not be going anywhere anytime soon.  And ultimately I'd like to wind up back here, if not immediately following a grad program, sometime not too long after.  But what if all my friends leave during the time I'm gone?  What if grad school ages me ten years and I move back and am incapable of having fun?  What if Minnesota falls into a sink hole?  I must take advantage of all the amazing stuff on offer here in the event one of these things happen.

So, what did I do, to make sure that if one of these things happen, I will have the fullest and most complete Minnesota experience before I leave?  What do I ever do?  I made a list, of course - a list of things I'd like to do (some for the first time, some not) before moving:

Swedish Institute, Hennepin County History Museum, brunch at Forepaugh's, Adult Spelling Bee at 331 Club, canoeing the Lakes, bowling at Bryant Lake Bowl, eat outside, the Grand Cafe, Minnehaha Falls, Witches' Hat, camping, Unique Thrift (seriously, why haven't I been there?), J.J. Hill House, movies in Loring Park, Mill City Museum, ice skating at the Depot, breakfast at Victor's, sledding! (if it snows again, which it will), Art in Bloom, spend more time in St. Paul, spend time with friends, friends, and more friends.  

This list is not complete or comprehensive.  I will most certainly be adding things as they come to me or are suggested to me.  This is my statement of intent, however.  I will see people and do things and laugh and when I leave at the end of the summer, I'll be glowing with so many vibrant memories of Minnesota that the new people I meet will wonder why they don't live here.

As for the Classics Challenge, I started A Tale of Two Cities, got about 30 pages in, and got distracted by Norwegian Wood by Murakami and then Mad Men season three.  I'm still trying.

Back to the Classics Challenge 2011

I'm going to do this reading challenge: Sarah Reads Too Much: Back to the Classics Challenge 2011. I don't have problems finding enough reading material or reading classics but I think it gives a nice shape to the first half of my reading year.

Here are the goals to complete and what I'm thinking of for each of them:

1. A Banned Book (The Handmaid's Tale by Margaret Atwood)
2. A Book With a Wartime Setting (All Quiet on the Western Front by Eric Maria Remarque)
3. A Pulitzer Prize (Fiction) Winner or Runner Up (There are so many to choose from so I think I'll hold off for a while)
4. A Children's/Young Adult Classic (The Outsiders by S.E. Hinton)
5. 19th Century Classic (A Tale of Two Cities by Charles Dickens.. because I have it already)
6. 20th Century Classic (Henderson the Rain King by Saul Bellow.. also because I have it already)
7. A Book you think should be considered a 21st century classic (This is one is more difficult because how am I supposed to know I consider it a 21st century classic until I read it? Any suggestions?)
8. Re-Read a Book from High School/College Classes (I'm thinking Invisible Man by Ralph Ellison or Catcher in the Rye by Salinger)

Any recommendations for the Pulitzer Prize winner or the 21st century classic?

Autumn

Yesterday I found the most perfect fall street to drive down - Garfield Ave. between 38th and 42nd Streets in South Minneapolis.  It's lined with the kind of maple trees whose leaves turn that golden yellow, and front yards, cars parked on the street, and the street itself were carpeted and golden.  Leaves kept falling, too, as I drove down the street on my way home.  It was lovely.

Autumn has always been my favorite season and usually I like summer a whole lot, as well, but this year it was a relief to say goodbye to it.  I read a poem by Rilke called "Autumn Day," the first line of which is: "Lord: it is time.  The summer was immense."  And that pretty much sums it up for me right there.  Lord, it's time for summer to be done! Wrap it up!  Summer is always so full, so hard to ignore, so exhausting.  There's lots of movement and sun, which is great, but it never feels like there's enough time for everything in the summer.  Everything is so immediate.  Autumn is much slower, more introspective.  It's not quite so vast or overwhelming as summer but not as cocooned in itself as winter, either.  The sun is still shining, the weather is still gorgeous, but things are settling down.  Tempers cool.  Life acquires a steadier rhythm.  We start the process of putting things to bed for a few months.  It's like you can put things on hold for a little while and come back to them when you're ready.  And I love that feeling.