Just Call Me Betty Crocker

I went to the Ordway to see Les Miserables last night. It was a great date with Tom, and I even sported makeup for the event! Knowing I didn't have waterproof makeup, I did my best not to cry. Things were getting pretty intense at the end, but THANKFULLY the tone-deaf woman next to me decided to start humming along, which distracted me enough to forget about the show and just glare at her for the last number.
We went to the Black Sea in St. Paul for dinner beforehand, which was excellent. I would say that Christo's in Minneapolis wins out on taste in this Mediterranean Food taste test, but the Black Sea gets the "best atmosphere" award. It's really quaint and cluttered.
Quick story: I'm the youngest worker in my Engineering group by 20 years and the only female, and the guys I work with try to give me the most outdated advice on relationships. First, they were absolutely serious when they said, "it's just as easy to fall in love with a rich person as it is a poor person," because then, I could quit my job, be a stay at home mom, and live comfortably. They told me I will completely understand my husband but he won't know a lick about my feelings. Oh, and here's the best part; they're giving me advice on how to put in time with the family in order to buy "kitchen passes" to do my own thing with my buddies, and they said, "yeah, you gotta make sure the wife... or whatever, is happy before you go off galavanting." I feel like I've warped into a different time zone when I talk to these guys! I just bite my lip and roll my eyes, like any upstanding woman (in the 1950's) would do...

Supermarket Savior

I did my normal Monday afternoon grocery shopping yesterday; I paid for my things and started to leave. As I was nearing the exit, the woman who was behind me in line booked after me and stopped me, exclaiming, “ma’am, you forgot this!” I was thinking, shoot, I dropped a glove, or I left my keys on the counter, or the bag boy was too afraid to touch the tampons so he left them unpacked. But instead, she held out 20 cents change that had been left on the counter. I thanked her (trying to hold back my laughter) and started taking it. Then I said, “wait, I paid with a credit card.” She said, "well, I'll donate it to the food shelf then!" What a gem!

Airplanes vs Exercise Equipment

Fixing airplanes is a pretty cool gig. I get to develop modifications to Boeing 757 jet planes, so when they're flying around, I can say "I'm preventing that door from departing the airplane mid-flight" or "I put that winglet on". Too bad my heart just isn't in this job. I'm not an aviation buff, I don't get goose bumps when a C130 takes off. I feel no ties to the airline.
Now, engineering as a whole doesn't fascinate me either. Eventually I'd like to be doing something completely different: teaching, med school, owning my own athletic gear store. The last item brings me to a prospective opportunity: fitness equipment design. It's still engineering, and to most people, airplanes are way cooler than fitness equipment. BUT, it deals with a lifestyle I'm much more into than aviation. I exercise a lot. I like to find new ways to exercise. I like to make it as easy as possible for other people to exercise. So combining that with my useful but not so fun engineering background, wouldn't designing fitness equipment be a good change for me? I look at it as a gateway job to doing other things in the fitness world (testing equipment, designing bike parts and other gear, becoming CEO of REI, etc.) Anyway, I think the application is going to be sent out...
In other news, my 2 year old nephew Will (see pic below; I'm holding him) is about the cutest kid ever. We're playing on the floor while watching the Super Bowl last night, and all of a sudden he yells "PILLOW FIGHT!" He runs to pick up a pillow nearly as big as he is, and the weight of the pillow takes him out, making him topple to the ground. That game was short lived...