Twins!

I went to my first major league baseball game last week — the Minnesota Twins vs. the Pittsburgh Pirates. I went with two other inters, Nate the sports intern and Hayley the features intern. It was a lot of fun, despite knowing basically nothing about baseball. Both my friends were huge fans, though, which was good, because they could answer all my questions. I think we lost, which they say is bad because the Pirates were so bad... but honestly I have no idea and wouldn't really know a good baseball team from little league.
Uuumm that's pretty much all that has been happening to me lately. I've been hanging out with the other interns a lot – eating lunch and stuff. It's a good group of people. Everyone seems like they really enjoy what they do, despite THE NEWSPAPER INDUSTRY. It's like a black cloud hanging over our heads. You can feel it in the newsroom... everyone's a little on edge, a little worse for the wear since the last round of layoffs. Yikes.

p.s. more pictures on flickr

west/midwest/north/south

Today was Intern Day, where all the interns gathered in the newsroom to introduce ourselves and meet way too many of our co-workers to be able to actually remember anyone's name. Then after work we (the interns) went to a Japanese restaurant in Uptown to make more awkward conversation. Ah the joys of having a new job. Or, I guess, any kind of job.
One of the things we talked about for a while was how people classify the Midwest. I had never thought about it before, since most of the people I know are either from Indiana, Ohio, Michigan, the West, or random other places; but apparently "Midwest" is a kind of ambiguous term that means "the middle of the country" but applies to different states depending on where you grew up. Personally, "Midwest" means Illinois, Indiana, Ohio, Michigan, Iowa, Missouri and Kansas - but mostly Indiana, Illinois and Ohio. I always thought of these north parts as a kind of separate section - just the North. But I'm finding out that many people from Minnesota and Wisconsin also consider themselves Midwesterners. I'm not sure how I feel about that. "Midwest" to me means corn, tractors, hot weather, farms - country livin' or something like that. And I just don't connect those things with these northern states.
SOOOO that's what I learned today. I was going to draw a bunch of maps and stuff, but I'm getting old or something and am going to bed at 10:30. I guess that's what happens when you have a real person job...?
Meh. Goodnight.

today, we found a cat

Today I got home from work and there was a cat in our kitchen. I guess it is a neighbor's cat, and it just came in to hang out. It was a friendly cat, so we let it stay.
In other news, The Hangover is hilarious, mpls has some great bars, and I am enjoying my job. I think that's about it.
Oh! I bought a bike yesterday from a guy on Craigslist. It was $30 – I didn't want to spend much, since I'll only be here for the summer and I have no need (or want) to take it back to Indiana. It's an old 10-speed from like 1983, mens, but at least it works. It seems like everyone here has a bike, and actually uses it, so I gave in to peer pressure and bought one. Eventaully I'll ride it to work, when I'm more in shape and feel confidant that I won't die on the way across the bridge.
So that's what's happening now. I'm going to bed soon. It's like 9:30, but having a job and being a real person is tiring.

uploaded some photos

I started a new flickr set if you want to look at my photos. The ones I uploaded I took with my phone, so they're not the best quality, but they get the job done. I'm sure I'll eventually take my camera with me somewhere so you'll get to see some pictures in 7.2 megapixels.
Anyway.

minnesota: nice

I'm not sure if you've heard of it, but there's this thing people call Minnesota Nice. It refers to how amazingly friendly everyone from this state seems to be. I say seems because, as a friend pointed out, it must be a trap. As I have lived here, and as my roommate says, it's really called Minnesota Passive-Aggressive.
It's an interesting place.
Getting used to so much friendliness, especially after living in Indiana – the Mean Capital of the World — has taken some time, but I'm really starting to like it. For a while it was actually more stressful, trying to be cheerful all the time, but I've been here for about a week and I think it's actually rubbing off on me. I feel noticeably happier.

That could also be because I have an internship at the one newspaper I've wanted to work for since I learned about newspapers, living in a big old house with a fun roommate in a beautiful city for the summer.
I think that about sums it up. I love my internship so far (it's been four days). There are seven other interns, and all of them are extremely friendly. It's already turning into a great internship. I love where I live, in a neighborhood close to the University of Minnesota so it's got that college-y feel, and close to downtown so I don't have to drive too far to get to work. I adore Minneapolis. It's everything I've wanted in a city... without sounding too sappy, I could live here for a while. We'll see about the winters.