I absolutely 100% love Halloween. I know many people who detest this holiday, but it’s my favorite. Of course, to have an awesome Halloween, you have to spend it with people who love the holiday as much as you do. This led me to go home and hang out with my family and one of my good friends for the entire weekend. Friday, I just stayed at home watching movies with my mom. Having a glass of wine and watching movies is a nice way to spend a night at home.

Saturday rolled around and I was already planning my Halloween night. I went down to my friend’s apartment. She’s currently attending the University of Minnesota and her apartment is essentially in the middle of everything. Dinkytown is right around the corner and we knew that’s where we wanted to be. After getting dinner at The Republic on Cedar Ave, we got changed into our costumes for Halloween. I ended up wearing this Spiderman corset that I borrowed for a second time from my friend. It was fun seeing everyone in costumes and having a great time after the Gopher game. I met some cool people including a guy dressed as someone from NASA, Chewbacca & Star Wars crew, and Step Brothers.

Overall it was a very fun adventure in a city I love. It was great to catch up with friends & family and it was necessary to relax this weekend. I will have to catch up on homework this entire week, but it was so worth it to have a much-needed break. Happy Belated Halloween everyone!

October is upon us and I couldn’t be happier. The weather is chilly, and I was able to wear boot socks and a scarf today. The leaves haven’t started changing, but they will soon. This weekend was amazing because one of my best friends came to see me. It’s been a while since I have been able to catch up with her and it was much needed. We also attended Oktoberfest in La Crosse, Wisconsin.

Attending Oktoberfest, I typically like lighter ale beer so I ended up purchasing Spotted Cow and Appleweizen beer. My friend purchased a darker ale beer that I actually enjoyed because usually, I’m not a dark ale kind of girl. One of my favorite moments was when my friend spilled beer all over her phone, oops. I couldn’t stop laughing for the rest of the day.

In the meantime, I’m planning a trip to the cities for Halloween because Halloween is my absolute favorite holiday and I need a reunion with my best friends. Now I need to start figuring out my costume because Halloween will be here before I know it.

Blogging is a newfound leisure activity that I distract myself with. Starting the Bizarre Brunette over a year ago, I really wanted to inspire people to adore themselves for who they are. It’s easily a struggle I deal with on a daily basis. I know that there is nothing I can do to change my geeky, weird, bizarre personality so it’s a journey of basic acceptance.

Presently, I have been writing various blog posts for different websites. Yesterday, I submitted my article to Twin Cities Geeks about weight lifting. Lifting weights has been amazing because I have been seeing the results. I can see how strong I have become and it’s awesome. I feel like a badass. Being able to write about fitness to inspire others just assures me to continue on in my major. Health and fitness is a career I really and truly belong in.

Besides writing fitness-based articles for Twin Cities Geek, I have also been volunteering for the Winona State University Blog. My first post is all about surviving anatomy and physiology which is one of the toughest classes to take at Winona. I’m so glad to be done, but I’m proud that I accomplished and passed both semesters of A&P with flying colors.

So right now I’m keeping up with this nerdy masterpiece, Twin Cities Geek and Winona State University blog. I also journal every other day so I can easily say I write a lot. I feel that my writing has grown and become much better the more practice I have. I really love writing this blog and I’m thankful that I have followers who enjoy reading it too. 🙂

Another Sunday has come and gone. I have been trying to take better-quality pictures for this post each week. Photos are a fun way to reflect on a past week. This post is pretty quick to put together so even if I become super busy, I can still update my blog. Here are my photos this week:

Captain America Door Decoration!

I live in off-campus/on-campus apartments owned by Winona State. My CA (community assistant pretty much the equivalent of an RA) made our building superhero-themed! I am on the floor with the Avengers theme and I talked to my CA and requested Captain America’s shield. She listened! It looks awesome and I’m pretty excited about it.

Roommate Note!

My roommate has an 8 AM so she is up really early! She left me this note on my whiteboard. I thought it was sweet.

White Board Doodles

This is the first year I put up a whiteboard outside my door. The boyfriend and my roommate are really taking advantage of it.

Astronomy Club!

The first meeting of the Astronomy club was on Wednesday. Usually, we have really small meetings, but this meeting was huge! Our VP (aka my best friend) took this wonderful picture!

Winona Area Humane Society

More than likely, I will have multiple pictures each week of cats. It’s going to happen.

Flirt the Cat

“Hi, I’m Flirt! I love to be petted and loved. If you aren’t paying attention to me, I bite your phone and your fingers until you pet me again 😛 “

The campus is booming and filled with life as the first week of classes is ensuing. Starting new classes is always an anxious time. You never know how hard the class material will be or how much time the class will demand. As always my greatest fear is not having enough time to devote to my classes. I’m really excited to share my new classes and what I hope to achieve from the material.

Advanced Fitness Programming:

This class makes me excited and anxious. The biggest project of this class is teaching a group fitness class. I’m really excited because teaching a group fitness class is a great opportunity and something I have never done before. Although I’m really nervous to tackle this project, I cannot wait for this project to be assigned. This class will also teach me how to better prepare fitness programs for different individuals. I’m going to learn so much from this class and I’m glad I’m enrolled.

Strength & Conditioning:

This course prepares students to take the Strength Training & Conditioning exam. If I take and pass the exam, I can be certified to be a Strength & Conditioning coach at a college or high school level. I may take this exam after the class, but who knows. I’m looking forward to this class because I have recently come to enjoy building up my strength. Muscular strength is an awesome goal for fitness to improve. I can now lift 20 lbs of dumbbells for my bicep curls and overhead triceps extensions. I really want to get up to thirty but that’s going to take a while. Anyway, this course will be difficult, but necessary for my major and my professional goals.

Program Planning

This class will be less intense than my other courses. The goal of this class is to design a program to help a problem on campus. This class will provide a lot of useful information about public health programs. I don’t think it really would relate to what I want to do with my major, but I will learn a lot from this course.

Global Nutrition

This class is actually a part of my nutrition minor. It will study nutrition and food habits across the globe. We will also have to present a recipe and a culture presentation at the end of the semester. I would say my knowledge is pretty limited when it comes to actual cultural cuisine. This class will hopefully give me new and healthy meals to prepare in college.

History of Rock & Roll

Gotta love those generals. This is the last general of my undergraduate college degree. It will fill my fine arts and music goal. This will probably be the class I don’t put a lot of effort into, but it still will be an interesting course.

These classes will be my entire life for the next couple of months. These classes will challenge me in new ways, but also allow me to advance in the health and fitness professional field. As of now, my first week of classes is going extremely well. I wish every freshman starting college this month luck in starting college. It’s time-consuming, and stressful but also a very rewarding experience.

It’s cloudy and storming here which is perfect for writing a personal blog post. As the school year is beginning, I contemplate the life lessons I learned through attending college. This acknowledges that friendship is a two-way street and it takes two people to maintain a friendship.

This is a simple statement yet it has taken a while to accept it. In my Freshman year, I met many people from various backgrounds and locations. Once I found someone I really clicked with, I would make time to see them. Getting coffee or studying is an easy way to get to know someone in school.  However, as time passed, I realized that I was the one putting in all the effort. Some friends never asked me how my day was or ask me to hang out. So when I decided to pull away from the friendship, the friendship ended. This always saddened me. I hate losing friends because I made fun memories with that person.

Throughout my college years at Winona, I’m glad to say that I have made some best friends here. However, as I’m becoming a Senior, I recognize some of my friendships slowly deteriorating. Maintaining my friendships is a priority in my life, so I would hope that I’m a priority in my friends’ lives as well.

When I think about what a best friend should be, I think of a couple characteristics. These include honesty, non-judgmental, trustworthiness, fun, memorable, and relaxation. A best friend shouldn’t require work. If you enjoy that person’s company, you should look forward to hanging out with them.

I think I’m a good friend. If something is wrong, I will listen to you talk. I will give advice to the best of my ability and I will always have your back. However, if I don’t feel validated or you don’t take the time for me, I will have no problem cutting you out of my life. It’s that simple.

Happy Friday! This is my second year attending the Internet Cat Video Festival! I attended last year in 2014 back when it was held at the Walker Art Center in Minneapolis. This year, it was held at the Minnesota St. Paul Saints Stadium.

Before the cat video festival, we went to eat at a really nice restaurant in Minneapolis called Republic. Since I’m 21 now, I ordered a lighter ale beer brewed locally. Lighter ales are easily my favorite. My sandwich was delicious! It was the turkey & brie sandwich and there was so much brie cheese! There were also these caramelized onions that were amazing too.

The cat video festival was incredibly fun! There were 13,000 people attending this year. It started at 8:30 and continued till 10. We ended up leaving a half hour early due to traffic. We wanted to get out of the rush but we still saw cats doing silly things.

If you’re interested in attending, I have a few tips to make this a smoother experience.

1. Get there really really early.

We were stuck in traffic for 30-45 minutes trying to get there. Parking was awful. Most parking ramps were full and spots on the street are nonexistent. Eventually, the boyfriend found a spot on a ramp that he could squeeze his car into. We also had to park farther away so it took about 10 minutes to walk. We got there with eight minutes to spare for the videos. It was cutting it really close. So, get there as early as you can. It opens at 6:30, so get there around then.

2. Don’t Drive!!

I really wish that we didn’t drive. It would be way more convenient to take the light rail. Sure, the light rail probably takes around 50-60 minutes to get to the place you need to be, but you can plan ahead for that. Plus there are many people flying to St. Paul for an event like this. If you are from the area, don’t drive and utilize public transportation

3. PICNIC or Go Out to Eat nearby

I absolutely loved Republic, but if you’re going to the cat festival, go to a restaurant nearby. We were only 20 minutes from the Saints stadium but it took double the time to get there due to traffic. If money is tight, bring a picnic and blankets to sit on the field and use up spare time.

Overall this event was worth the money. Tickets were only 10 bucks and I would not hesitate to come back again. The cat lady in me thought this festival was really cute. The boyfriend seemed to enjoy it too.

As the summer is coming to a close, I have been reflecting. I always try to learn things from new and past experiences. This summer, I have learned a lot about myself and what truly makes me happy.

1. Working is a necessity

When I’m in Winona, I only worked through the month of May at my on-campus job. Once June hit, I was currently unemployed until school starts. I wish I tried applying for different jobs. I realize how beneficial it is for me to have money for groceries and constant beauty necessities. As the summer is coming to a close, I realize that I don’t really have a lot of money right now. For next summer, working will be a number one priority because I love making my own money. It gives me independence.

2. Music Festivals aren’t really my thing

This summer, I went to Electric Forest. Although I didn’t publish a blog post about it, I had a really good time. It was an interesting experience. That being said, I don’t think music festivals are really my thing. Would I go back to the Forest? Probably not. It’s not that I hated my time there, it just wasn’t my cup of tea. This is what happens when we try new things. We could discover places that we really enjoy or find events that aren’t up to our alley. Electric Forest was one of them.

3. When Traveling plan for emergencies

So this goes back to Electric Forest. While we were there, my van shut off. Of course, me and my friend had my car towed. We had to stay in a hotel for an extra night plus a taxi cab ride to get my van. Overall it cost around 220 dollars which I didn’t plan for. It’s good when traveling to put money aside for emergencies. It sucks that it happened, but having my car break down and being stuck 10 hours away from home, put a lot of perspective on the situation.

4. Experiences > “stuff”

This statement demonstrates that I would rather spend money on experiences than “stuff”. I tend to spend a lot of my money on clothes. However, I know in the long run, it’s better to spend money on concert tickets or a trip or gas to get somewhere because I will remember that experience forever. I won’t remember the outfit I was wearing when I traveled (unless it’s in the pictures we took).

There were so many more memories that I made this summer. This summer was full of firsts. First summer in Winona, first road trip, and first convention other than CONvergence! It’s good to be young and to try new things. It helps to grow and mold the person you become.

Last Thursday was my 21st birthday. I’m really excited to be 21 because now I can do anything I want! My boyfriend came home with me and he had never been to the cities before. On my actual birthday, we went shopping! I bought a couple new books and video games. My boyfriend bought me this book that I really wanted to read. We went to Dreamers, a cool card shop by my house. Then we visited the Sculpture Garden. The Sculpture Garden is right along the Minneapolis skyline. Their most famous sculpture is the cherry on the spoon. It was the first place my boyfriend requested we go and see. After viewing the sculpture garden, my family & I had dinner at a restaurant by my house. My first legal drink was a Raspberry Martini. It was delicious! I ended my birthday by playing Arkham Horror with my brother and my boyfriend.

Besides my 21st, on our way home to Winona, we stopped by Lark Toys. Lark Toys is a toy museum. There are shelves with older toys and different themes. The toy store is really cool. There were puzzles & board games, hand-made wood-carved toys, puppets, outdoor toys, books, educational toys, and science-themed toys. There was ice cream, handmade fudge, and candy. There was also a hand-carved carousel. It was a really cool museum.

This weekend was an amazing time. My boyfriend seemed to have a good time too. I hope to be back in the city area for the Internet Cat Video Festival. This birthday was one of the best that I have had.