What A Week!

What a busy couple of weeks I've had! I've been swimming in a sea of back-to-back meetings, deadlines, homework, dirty dishes, and piles of laundry. I haven't felt stressed out much since moving to Minnesota, but this week has been an exception. Middle of the last week was my breaking point, and I just gave up. I had a long list of things that needed to be done, and I decided not to do any of it. I came home, and ran a bath with homemade peppermint salts that a sweet friend made for me for Christmas, and I soaked in my tub for an hour and a half. Drain cool water, refill with hot water, lay down, repeat. Then I pulled out the peanut butter dark chocolate brownies I whipped up, and enjoyed those with a big glass of almond milk. I wrote in my journal, and I finally felt relaxed for the first time in two weeks.

I repeated that scenario again the very next day.

Friday I pulled the tape off of my leg, and let me tell you, that was quite a highlight. It created a super cool design in the bruise itself, and I'm pleased to report that I'm finally healing up. Slowly, but surely!

I knew after being a bit stressed that I was overdue for something fun, so Saturday I hit up the St.Paul winter carnival with a friend. It goes on for weeks, and there are various events associated with it. My particular attraction to this day was a torchlight parade and a fireworks display. It was at a charming little park in the middle of the city, and they had food and a live band playing. There was an area where the ice sculptures were, but because it's been unseasonably warm this year, many had melted and weren't identifiable anymore! When we rounded the corner we both started laughing and referred to them as "the ruins" for the remainder of the night. I did get a few cool pictures though.

The parade itself was fantastic. I heart parades, y'all. They make me seriously happy. It's such a mismatch of the most random things - businesses of all types, kings and queens from the babies to the elderly, animals, and we even had an Olympic bobsledder from Jamaica that walked in it. I love that everyone comes together and has a good time simply enjoying the company of others...little kids running around, people dancing and being silly, and the excuse to not worry about stuff, even if it's only for a couple of hours. I did learn a valuable lesson about Minnesota while I was out: OVERDRESS. I was so cold, and when we'd been outside for about an hour I could no longer feel my feet. People wore full on ski gear and snow boots, but I thought since there wasn't snow on the ground that I didn't need all of that. I.Was.Mistaken. Next time, snow or not, that I'm going to be standing outside I'm wearing a base layer AND my warm boots. I don't even care if it isn't cute. This is the freakin' arctic.

After the parade was done we watched an absolutely awesome fireworks display that happened over the river. It was so beautiful, and such a fun way to end the night! I feel pretty lucky that I'm living in a cool city with fun stuff to do all of the time. It definitely breaks up the monotony of the week!