the great city of minneapolis

earlier this week i went on my first ever business trip, to the great city of minneapolis. it was for a technical writing conference. here are some things i learned:

1. minneapolis is pretty cool. i mean i only got a small taste of it because i had no car and no tour guide, but i thought the city was pretty nice and the trails all along the mississippi riverfront were AWESOME. i had so much fun running along them every morning for some reason. sometimes here at home i dread running outside because it's so much more work for me than treadmill running, but minneapolis trails are nice. i love being on the water.

2. minneapolis shuts down at 7 pm, every day. except i wasn't there on a friday or saturday night, so maybe they don't shut down at 7 on those days. but all of the other days, all of the stores and cafes and everything close at 7! what are you supposed to do then???

3. i love cities where you can get everywhere by foot. i walked and ran 1 billion miles and i just really, really prefer to explore new places that way. i went to loring park, the spoon and cherry sculpture thing, cafe brenda (delicious vegetarian cuisine, since i'm maybe a vegetarina now??? HAHA - vegetarina. that's a girl vegetarian.), the mississippi riverfront, several other parks, target (apparently, minneapolis is the home of my favorite megastore, target. who knew? i visited it several times. target is one of the only places that is open until the late, great hour of 9 pm), a little hint of "eat street", the stone arch bridge, nicollet island, hell's kitchen, and back and forth 5000000 times from the minneapolis hilton to the minneapolis convention center.

4. people in minneapolis are more fashionable than people in spokane. at least girls my age are. their shoes are 44889 times better. i need to learn to dress like a young minneapolis professional.

5. the mall of america is LAME! i took the light rail there. it actually was not entirely, entirely lame, but i thought, for some reason, that it would be much, much bigger than it actually is. i expected to get lost in the mall and not be able to find my way out (that is why i wrote down the entrance name and nearby stores on the back of my light rail ticket when i first got there. i was scared.)

overall, i think my first business trip was a success. i was kind of nervous for it. but everything went great until it was time to return to spokane. first, my flight was delayed, which i didn't know until i got to the airport. then, i fell asleep on the flight and woke up feeling very, very queasy. i was afraid that if i got up i would faint and throw up in the aisle of the plane, because i have had that happen once before, so i toughed it out and remained seated, in a very miserable position, until we finally landed. i put my head down most of the time and COULD NOT stop thinking about the grilled vegetable sandwich, featuring eggplant, that i had had for dinner. i couldn't get it out of my head, and it was seriously grossing me out. finally we got off the plane, and i was going to hurry to the bathroom when i realized i probably wouldn't make it that far and so i ended up very glamorously throwing up in a garbage can right behind the ticket counter as people deplaned. here's a fact: people don't care when you get sick in public. i was throwing up. no one cared. they just walked by. one man saw my stuff scattered all around me and asked if i was just "organizing myself". i said, no, i had just gotten airsick. he said ok and walked away. WHY did he want to help me if i was just "organizing myself", but not it i were sick?? people are weird. on our way home i had to have brad pull over so i could very glamorously throw up on the side of the road. a man walking by stopped to say, "too much fun at the party??" then he laughed and walked away. thanks a lot.