"ABRE LA FREEKING VENTANA, DORA!"

Fun, fun, fun weekend! Lots of good stories to tell, so listen up!

Friday was a very, very long day. It started at 5:20AM. But the good news was soccer practice was awesome, I won a pasta dinner (with my team, of course!) and even the conditioning was "fun." I ate breakfast with some of the girls and then my roommate and I watched Dora the Explorer and Go Diego Go because apparently real TV doesn't start until later on Fridays. So we were watching Dora and all I could think of was the skit from SNL about Maraka and Mittens. And then when Go Diego Go started Diego was following around this animal he called "okapi" which looked like half zebra half antelope mix with a really long purple tongue. We thought Diego was lying to us. Then we learned that the Okapi is a real animal:

"The okapi (pronounced /oʊˈkɑːpiː/), Okapia johnstoni, is a giraffid artiodactyl mammal native to the Ituri Rainforest, located in the northeast of the Democratic Republic of the Congo, in Central Africa. Although the okapi bears striped markings reminiscent of the zebra, it is most closely related to the giraffe."

Then after dropping off scholarship materials, eating again and taking a long nap, the festivities began. It was Scorch's birthday on Friday and let me tell you, Dragons know how to party. We worked a station at his party that involved a large inflatable soccer ball, and all the mascots liked our station the best. After we were released from that we ate another 18" pizza at Spicy Pie and then headed to the 2 Minute Film Contest at the Fargo Film Festival. It was really, really funny! There were some really good short movies and it was well worth the $2 we paid to get in.

We then proceeded to have a dance party in the car. We decided that we needed to let some more dance energy out and were pleasantly reminded that school was hosting a Mardi Gras masquerade and we wanted to make a mask and dance our brains out. However, 11PM is too late to arrive to a school event and we were disappointed to find that all the masks were gone and the dance floor was more of a mosh pit (which sometimes is fun, but when you have dance moves like we do, being in close proximity to other people is a big no no). But luckily bingo started just as we were about to leave, and we grabbed some cards and played. And won. Between three of us there, we won seven times. My friend was there the entire time and won zero times. So I now have a Chuck Norris poster, a reusable coffee cup, a new set of Sharpies and a 3-pack of chic pocket-prong folders at my disposal.

And just when you thought our night would end, we were just beginning. Instead of going to bed, we went to my room and named our apartment for next year ("The Jungle" so we can make a huge sign that says "Welcome to the Jungle" and hang it in the front room), and I picked out my Mod Podge crafts for spring break:

This is what the crafting community calls an" IKEA hack-" going to IKEA, exploiting their cheap yet functional goods and making them so much better. Lamps covered in film. So simple and easy to make yet so stylish and awesome looking! Very excited to make these.

But instead, "THE JUNGLE" and in all animal prints. This way we're not obliged to put animal print anywhere else and our apartment doesn't turn into a real jungle.

And finally, this mirror. This one pictured sold at Anthropologie for $600. I think I could make it for less than $20. Does anyone want to challenge me on it? Hopefully I have time to try it over break!

Saturday was an equally exciting day. Got to sleep in, which was really nice. Then we tried something at the Wellness Center called "Body Pump." We thought, "Oh, we're soccer players. We lift all the time and run all the time, this will be no biggie." WRONG. COULDN'T HAVE BEEN WRONGER. OH MY GOSH MY WHOLE BODY STILL HURTS. It was so hard. We had no idea what to expect going in and we had no idea what kinds of things to grab and we put too much weight on for pretty much all the lifts and it was SO HARD. But we're going back because it was a super good workout.

Afterward, we went to Wal-Mart, bought glitter and food (for unrelated purposes, promise) and started on a night of Mexican food and crafts. We ate quesadillas, rice and beans and chips and salsa. It was delicious! We completely trashed the floor with craft things and had a blast. And to make the night better, we ate a whole diet cake. That's right, I used diet and cake together. It's true, we made a diet cake. For you non-believers, try this and become a believer: instead of making a cake from a box with all the eggs and oil and other things that usually go into a boxed cake mix, just use a can of diet pop. Just cake mix and diet pop. That's all. I promise that it'll taste delicious and it's good for you (as good as cake can be, anyway). Experiment with flavors. My personal favorite is white cake mix with some diet orange soda. Delicious. I can't stop saying that word. But seriously, it's good.

We took a break from our crafting to go a someone's house and play that Dance Central game on xBox Kinect. It. Is. So. Much. Fun. Like, seriously. You know that you look nothing like the people on the screen but you think you do because they tell you things like "Awesome job!" and "Flawless!" and give you high scores. And if you really got into it, I think it'd be a pretty good workout, too. Then we went back to crafting until all hours of the morning.

Today was a little slower paced. I slept in (again. I mean, twice in a weekend? What is this madness?) and went to our soccer banquet. We shared our favorite stories about the seniors and ate good food. We presented awards (I won freshman of the year, yippee!) and just had a good time being together again.

I then edited my movie for a couple hours (actually, first I slow motion slipped and fell into a large snow bank on the two inches of snow that had fallen over night. I got snow down my pants and all up in my business. And my purse was completely full. My life is awesome.) and it's turning out pretty good, not exactly how I wanted it, but for a first time, I'm not disappointed. Either tomorrow or Tuesday, I'll have it posted up here so you can see it.

And to cap the day off, we watched that "America's Next Great Restaurant." Although initially it didn't really catch my attention, after they announced that the winner would open a chain with restaurants in Los Angeles, New York and MINNEAPOLIS I decided I had to watch so we could go to it when it opens and act all famous and stuff. Don't ask me why I need an excuse to watch a TV show, but if anyone asks, that's it.

To end (remember, tomorrow's my long, long day) I'll put in a quote from one of the 2-Minute Films we saw. It was about Parkour and even though it was short, it was pretty cool, and this quote obviously caught my attention since I remember it all the way from Friday night:

"If you're afraid to fall, you'll fall because you're afraid."