The Need to SCREAM!

I'd like to lobby for a scream room in the workplace. A sacred room where we won't be judged for screaming and swearing about our frustrations, for unleashing our bottled-up negative energy, for letting it all out.

Today, I needed a scream room. The morning started on the wrong note. I can't go into details; it's work related. I will say that it almost elicited a "You gotta be kidding me" reaction. I held back.

The day didn't get progressively worse. It just didn't get progressively better.

Since I didn't have a scream room, I complained to my sister over the phone. Then I ate a bag of peanut M&M's, skipped working out (which would have been the equivalent of a scream room) and went home for the evening.

156 Days to Go

This is a weird forum to be soliciting wedding advice, but I'm short on ideas (and short on post ideas). I've hassled my lady friends, and they have plenty of good suggestions.

But, on the rare occasion that I have more eyeballs than the usually two or four peeking at this site, I thought I'd throw the question out to my fellow bloggers and friends. Several heads are better than one, right?

Have you been to a wedding where the "guest book" was really cool? And I'm not looking for the typical guest book where guests just sign their names in a book and move on to the bar. Maybe a frame that everyone signed. Or something...different.

Feeling my age

I watched "Titanic" tonight, and napped for about a fourth of the movie. And I felt old.

I shouldn't have. I'm a very young 23. But I remembered seeing this movie 10 years ago in the theater. Three times. And I sobbed each time. Then I went out and bought the movie and watched it some more at home.

The movie was Kate and Leo's big blockbuster hit (I think). We have all come a long way.

For an audience of one

A certain person asked me to blog more often. But I have to admit that blogging often feels like I'm writing for an audience of one -- me. And that's no fun.

In order to generate comments (I hope), I'm posting a darn cute picture (from cuteoverload.com). The tactic hasn't worked so far, but as the saying goes, persistence pays off. (And the person who requested this post secretly loves Boston terriers -- oops, the secret is out!)

And I'd like to share a little gossip. I stood within three feet from Rita Pearlman yesterday. And I stood about eight feet away from Jane Fonda, Susan Sarandon, Sean Penn and Tim Robbins.

Seriously, I'm serious.

Broken Record

My mom told me tonight that I sound like a broken record. I told her that she was right and then blamed it on Ben. He was the one who started the record. He lured me to a pet shop on Saturday and encouraged me to hold a Boston terrier.

He should have known better...

Basically, I'm a dog lover. And whenever I talk about them, I turn into a 7-year-old who's begging her parents to give in and let her get one. Pretty please. I'll clean up after it. And yes, I'll take the dog outside to poop even when it's 10 below out.

The latest rant, however, got started when Ben and I went to a pet shop on Saturday. I'm not a fan of puppy shops. If I had lots of cash, I'd buy all the dogs and give them to loving owners. We had just gotten out of our marriage preparation class and we were in need of some good puppy affection.

The place smelled bad and it was packed with people willing to fork out thousands of dollars for a French bulldog. In the middle of a wall of cages, I saw a sleepy Boston terrier, pleading for love. I grew up with two Boston terriers as pets -- at separate times. We had Gizmo, the puppy who threw up all of the time, and Molly, the terror. I didn't want to hold him, knowing what it would lead to -- nonstop talk about a 3-month-old stranger that barked. But Ben encouraged it. He kept asking if I wanted to hold the baby Boston terrier.

I gave in, and now I'm a broken record. I've been searching the classifieds, looking for breeders in Minnesota (there's one near my hometown) and finding pictures in Google since Saturday.

I'm a hopeless dog lover.

Marriage Preparation: Is there such a thing?

Ben and I went to pre-cana class on Saturday. Basically, it's pre-marriage preparation for those who are getting married in the Catholic Church.

It was seven hours of lecture with 100 other couples. It was uncomfortable, physically. At times, the speaker was offensive. And I left with stronger opinions about the Catholic church than I had going into the class.

I had expected more, although I disagree with anyone who says you can prepare for marriage in two classes.

I attended Catholic school growing up. I went to Mass every Friday. As my colleague would say, I'm culturally Catholic. I want to be married in the same place I experienced baptism, my first Communion, reconciliation, confirmation. But I find the church's lack of openness to certain people and beliefs disconcerting.

Our next class is in two weeks. We'll be learning "life skills."

By the time we get married, we'll have more than 12 hours of class behind us. That doesn't include the counseling phone sessions Ben and I will have with our priest.

All of this gets us a nice discount on our marriage license and a pass (we hope) to get married in the Catholic church.

I'm thinking about putting together a first-person account of the next several months. Not what goes into planning. I'll leave that for the writers at The Knot Weddings magazine. I'm talking about the preparation. I think the title would go something like this. Getting Married: Satisfying the Church and State. Or something like that. A colleague suggested I write about these experiences and pitch a story at some point.

I will. But I'd like to get married first:)

Inside Iraq

I'm not sure how often you all pay attention to news blogs. Here is a one that is produced by Iraqi correspondents. It's chilling and worth reading, even if you only have time for one post. It contains perspectives of a few, but they're real and honest.

Full of questions, short on answers

My friend and I talked tonight about our plans to discuss what we need to know or what we need to know more about. That's just how weird I am. I already set an agenda for our next e-mails and chats.

I need to know more about a lot of things in 2007. The following list isn't meant to be some New Year's resolution. It's just my way of writing ideas on paper and holding myself a little bit more accountable.

And the list unfolds here...
--Foreign policy. That sounds vague, but it just gives you more insight into how much I don't know about foreign policy. I'm so ignorant that I don't have a specific period of history in mind.
--Personal finance. Real estate. I have more questions than answers. I want to be smarter about managing my money.
--Creative writing. I get bogged down by formulaic writing sometimes. I need a sexier vocabulary. I want to command more active verbs.
--Great journalists. I need inspiration once in awhile. Need I say more?

If you have any book suggestions to study the above subjects, let me know.

Musical Chairs

I met Ben's friend who recently moved to D.C. last week. We went to a restaurant/bar/book store. I picked the place -- I had been there twice before. According to history, the service is so-so. Sometimes the waiter or waitress shows up at the table more than once, sometimes not.

The service was extraordinarily bad this time. It wasn't so much that our waitress chose to ignore us throughout the evening. We moved from a table in the corner to one that was in the open. The reason? A small mouse scurried around our table. We thought the center of the room -- with so much activity -- would discourage the mouse. When our waitress asked why we had moved, we told her we wanted to get away from the mouse.

Her response?

"Oh yeah, we're trying to get rid of those."

Huh. If I wanted to dine with pests, I would have stayed home.

On the bright side, I thought we might get a discount or a free piece of pie out of it. No such luck.

What keeps me up at night

I don't know why I've been taking breaks from blogging for several days at a time lately. I feel like I have nothing really profound to say. Then again, I rarely post anything profound.

And lately, I'm not sure I would write anything coherent either. My mind has gone into overdrive on a million different issues, per usual, and I feel scatterbrained. The other night I couldn't fall asleep fast. I was thinking about Iraq. I was thinking about the United States' foreign policy. I was thinking about the president's decision to keep troops there longer and send those prepared to deploy faster.

This decision will affect the brother of my sister's boyfriend. He was scheduled for training sometime in March, I think, but training has been moved up to early February. I can't imagine what's going through his mind. I do know that he'll be on my mind and in my prayers.

More woes from the PP

I don't mean to post only doom and gloom today. But this, written by a veteran Pioneer Press reporter, moved me today. It reads like poetry.

The reporters become the reported on

Here's the tale of the Twin Cities' two premier newspapers, which were sold in the same year.

Shorts in January

As I went for a stroll in Chinatown yesterday, I noticed everyone -- but me -- thought summer replaced winter this year. The ladies showed some skin. The boys did, too.

It topped 70.

Today, thankfully, the weather gods have returned to their senses. It was in the low 50s. I still ran in shorts, but it was a chilly one. And they're forecasting low 40s as a high for Wednesday. Yes!

Anyway, this really ins't the point of my post. My point is to mark the fact that I've in here for more than seven months. I move back home in less than five months (for now). And in six months, I get hitched. Wohoo.

Cyrus says "hi"

This is the latest photo of Cyrus. He was daydreaming about Christmas presents.

From my inbox

My aunt Ann Marie sent this to me today. Given the fresh start the new year seems to bring, I thought this prayer might have added significance now.

St. Theresa's Prayer:

May today there be peace within. May you trust God that you are exactly where you are meant to be. May you not forget the infinite possibilities that are born of faith. May you use those gifts that you have received, and pass on the love that has been given to you.. May you be content knowing you are a child of God.... Let this presence settle into your bones, and allow your soul the freedom to sing, dance, praise and love. It is there for each and every one of us.

Family photo

Caption: Family photo full of holiday cheer (First row from L to R: Emily, me, Brooke, Grandma A.; Second row from L to R: Stef, Cassie, Haley, Andy).

Endangered Species

I apologize for the unplanned hiatus. I enjoyed the Christmas holiday, but returned to work on Wednesday and encountered some startling news -- my employer was sold.

McClatchy Co., which owns the Star Tribune, sold the newspaper to a private equity firm to help the bottem line. The Strib is the biggest paper in the McClatchy chain. Or, at least, it was.

Big picture: I wonder how a new private equity firm can handle running a newspaper. And as a journalist who cares about this "business," I wonder what this will mean not only for the Strib but other newspapers. If this provides further context, this is not my first experience working at a newspaper while it's being sold. This kind of stuff is happening more and more. Last fall I was a student/intern at the Pioneer Press, and the company that owned it -- Knight Ridder -- sold the PP to McClatchy.

Smaller picture: I, too, could be on the chopping block. I work in McClatchy's bureau as a regional correspondent/intern, but the Strib pays for the groceries. The sale is supposed to go through by the end of the first quarter. It means my extension through the end of May could be shortened -- I might not get to see the cherry blossoms afterall. There are also advocates pulling for me to stay on through the end of May, but they have no idea how or if that would be feasible. For now, everything is murky. I've grown accustomed to the unknown, but I've rarely liked it. When I get some answers, I'll let you all know.