Fun with Friends...lots of them!

It's weird how different life is now that I'm no longer in school. I know there's the thought that college is a giant party occasionally interupted with class... and there probably was some time like that for me when I was at Iowa. But being back in school the last year and half has been far from that. While I still was able to spend time with friends while in school, my mind was always on school. There was always a case to be reading or a paper to write and I missed having Sundays just to relax. Now that I'm free from school, I've felt more free to have fun. No guilt about homework.

So here's a quick recap of all my post-ISU fun this last month!

NYE
Due to icy weather, our NYE in Huxley ended up smaller than expected. However, it was still a fun night in! The night was filled with lots of catching up with good friends, way too much delicious food, the discovery of a mini-keg, a board game that can outlast monopoly and a good old fashioned sleepover! It was a great way to start off 2011! Pics curtesy of Liz...

Polly Day
I capped off my final week of unemployed freedom with a raodtrip with Jenny up to Winona, MN for Polly's birthday. We celebrated the 27th annual Polly Day starting with the Wheel of Meat. Apparently the Wheel of Meat is not an uncommon thing in small towns, but I had never heard of such a thing. For every drink that we purchased between 4 and 7, we recieved a raffle ticket. And then at 7:15 they drew tickets for random cuts of meat. (It used to be an actual wheel that you got to spin for a chance at bringing home some meat but the lottery rules changed or something and now it's just a raffle.) The birthday girl got lucky and ended up with 3 wins. Unfortunately the rest of us were not so lucky and the result of our raffle tickets was just a nice buzz. We spent the rest of the night at one of her favorite establishments. It was so fun to help Polly celebrate and to catch up with both her and Jenny!

Back to Work
I started my new job on Monday after Polly's bday! I was excited and nervous. I worked there this summer for an internship but a couple things were different ... my position is a brand new position, I don't have any formal education regarding Training & Development, and my manager from this summer left in the fall and I hadn't met the new manager yet. But all these things also make work interesting and exciting which is good too. My position is HR Training Generalist and my focus will be to identify skill gaps, coordinate with technical experts in the engineering group to develop training modules and then create a "roadmap" for employees to follow in order to advance their skills (and be more productive for the company). There's a lot to do with lots of unknowns but I know I'll learn a lot in the process.

High School Craziness
To celebrate being back to work, I was thrilled to hit up HH with Katie on Friday and we continued the party on Saturday night. I brought Jackie along and we met up with Katie & Kelly and their husbands. It was a crazy night but sooo much fun! I love how there's those people that even though you don't get to see very often, it's just like the time never has passed. Katie's my oldest friend - we met in preschool and continued to attend the same school all the way through college at Iowa. While Kelly didn't go to our elementary school I still met her during that time thanks to RE at Sacred Heart. It's always a blast when I get to hang out with them! Unfortunately I did have to pay for all that fun the next day though. oops! However, with no guilt about needing to do homework it was great to have a lazy sunday.  

Overnight Guests
And now we're caught up to the last few days. Renee & Matt came to visit for the weekend. They left their baby at home and were ready to let loose! By the time I got home from work on Friday they had already finished off a few drinks and the craziness just continued. Thanks to my long recovery the previous weekend, I was more than happy to be the DD on Friday. And boy was it hilarious being the sober one. We introduced them to the famous Flying Tomato pizza at Wig & Pen and then went over to Renee's brother's house. We made the long trek to West Glen but it was worth it. Lindsey and her bf were able to meet us out there, which was great! Saturday included recovery time as well as shopping time and then we went out to dinner at Ruby Tuesdays. I hadn't ever been there before and the nice atmosphere and food made it a great choice. We spent the evening a slightly more chill than Friday night :) and ended up back at our place. Brandon & Erin came over too.

 

Packers vs Bears
We're not really NFL fans but how could we not watch the playoff game tonight... especially because we got the opportunity to hang out with even more friends! Mary & Adam invited us over to their place and Baby Callen was really the center of attention! I think Liz/Page, Emily/Rob and Matt & I all did a great job of sharing though :) It was a great way to wrap up a fun weekend!