OK So I know that summer-blogging is going quite badly. I apologize.

Updates (and I know I never finished talking about Senior Week, which I wanted to, cause I never got to luau night and how much fun that was, or the actual graduation day) shall commence now:

DULUTH continued:
Paul and I went up north to Duluth to watch Grandma's Marathon last weekend (June 19) and we camped overnight in Michelle's sister's backyard. Turns out that a kid that used to work at Irish Indeed with me lives in the same house, so that was a "small-world" occurence. We drove up after work with Jude, and on our way up (I slept most of the way especially as, sitting in the back seat, I couldn't hear the radio or their conversations, so I was bored) we were super-hungry so we stopped at this Chinese all-you-can-eat buffet in Cloquet, about 15 minutes outside of Duluth. (A Kerry campaign stop in the next couple weeks, in fact.) Wow that was good. I ate SOOOO much, but it was probably good for the restaurant because we got there nearer to closing time so we were the last customers and we helped clean out their food for the night. Cause Paul and Jude can each eat at least twice as much as me, and I ate many plates-full.

So that night we got in just in time to set up our tent before it got too dark, and then Michelle went to bed. We stayed up a while with Ben and Marye in this house though, since it was only around 10. This house was pretty much my picture of what college was supposed to be like, and man my picture is gross. It is this huge house that they pay almost no rent on when split between 8 people, and it could be a really really nice house only it's a party house so it's completely trashed (and apparently it had been 'cleaned' for our arrival). (We were camping outside not for lack of space but because Michelle had warned us off sleeping inside the house.) That night I had not anticipated it, but it got down around freezing overnight and my thin sleeping bag did little to fend that off. I tried sleeping in the same bag as Paul but we didnt fit. I tried curling up to him and a couple of times he would be nice and help warm me up but then he would fall asleep and shove me away. So....I didn't sleep hardly at all that night. That didn't bode well for the next day, when we had to be up early and watching the races. We first watched the end of the elite half-marathon because they had a friend in it. Then we drove to mile (7? 9?) of the real marathon and watched the first runners and waited for Michelle, and cheered her on. We did that a few more times, driving a couple miles up and then watching for her and cheering. It was very fun. Every time I got in the car I would be knocked right out though, too bad. Around mile 17 Paul jumped in to help carry Michelle through some tough miles, then jumped back out before the end so she could finish it on her own, which she did, as mentioned before, with a good time of 3:47 (correction to earlier time posted). Yay Michelle!

MISSING CAT continued/update:
So my cat went missing at the very beginning of June, and we didn't hear anything about her until 5 days later, when we found a "found cat" sign at the convenience store. Turns out some people had seen her by our house and assumed she was lost or abandoned (because you NEVER see cats outside, now do you?), picked her up and took her home to their house in Crystal, MN (a further-away suburb). At least they put up signs, but...seriously. Just picking up a cat and taking it? How about at least knocking on a door or two and asking if it belongs to someone? I guess my mom and them got in a fight about it, so they refused to drive it back into the city (well not that that had to be expected of them, but they said they'd rather call animal control, so my mom had to drive out and get it).

Then, last sunday (June 20), we saw my cat, wearing a collar, that night. Did not see her again. Missing for an entire week!! I figured she was injured and went off to heal or someone stole her again. But then, last night Paul's dad was driving him and me back to his apartment when Paul said, "isn't that your cat?" and I looked and there she was, walking down the sidewalk!! I jumped out of the car and walked after her and finally had to reach down and grab her by the tail so she couldn't get away...but she didn't even bite me or anything for that, just looked lost and confused. I took her in the car and we drove back to my house, and she was so calm, usually she can't stand cars. Inside we fed her and she went to bed basically and she's been sleeping just about ever since. I think we're going to have to get her a real collar, not just the safety collars she's been wearing, cause she takes those off too easily. And it's impossible to keep her in the house, even if we tried she'd escape all the time because people are always going in and out. But I'm very glad she's home, my poor sleepy little kitty. We found her totally out of her territory, she shouldn't have been that far away. So who knows what happened to her during that week?

JOB continued
I have this job now for the Democratic National Committee. I am a field manager, which means I am responsible for 3-5 people a day and we go out and street-canvass (fundraise) for the democrats. Then we come back to the office and do lots of paperwork. Some days it is really fun, like when we went to the opening night of Fahrenheit 9-11 at a sold-out theater in a really liberal, rich neighborhood. Other times it really sucks, like when we go to snotty conservative suburbs. But the people I work with are pretty much all really cool, mostly about college-age or so. Plus Chris Hill just started working there on Friday (most of you won't know who he is, he is a funny friend of mine from high school).

I have millions of stories from work which I will probably blog a lot about if I get into a more regular blogging schedule. For now I will just tell about what happened yesterday:

Yesterday was the last day of the Pride Festival in Minneapolis...I had suggested this festival as a good spot to go canvass at and I had been begging for weeks to get to take a team there, so I was given a good day and good hours for it. People were asked to volunteer to march in the parade before the festival, which sounded fun but I opted not to do it cause I really just wanted to sleep in. So I didn't have to start canvassing til noon, which meant I had to be at the office around 11:15 or so. Unfortunately when I woke up it was rainy, which doesn't bode well for outdoor festivals, but I figured people would go anyways. I got to the office shortly before 11 and to my dismay found a note saying "Mary- the office is locked, here's your clipboard." Ummm....what the hell am I supposed to do? Here I am, stranded (Paul dropped me off and left; there's virtually ALWAYS someone in the office) in the rain...no way to get to the location in Minneapolis (I don't know which buses to take or which are even running on Sunday!) or to get home. I end up walking a block to the nearest payphone in an Arby's and spending $5 trying to reach people. I called Paul a million times, called my parents, called two of my sisters, called the office.....no one would pick up. Spent the better part of an hour doing this then decided to finally just quit and leave (it was just about time to be at turf, gah). I walked all the way back to Paul's apartment in the rain and was cold and wet, so when I got there (he and his roommate were out at the grand opening of the light-rail line trying that out) I just thanked god i had keys and jumped in a hot shower.

Even though there was nothing else I could do (didn't have phone numbers of anyone at the office, etc), I still felt really guilty about it. I ended up mid-afternoon going over to Paul's parents and helping set up for Kim's graduation barbeque and thinking how pissed the directors were going to be at me. But the party was fun and later we found my kitty so the day ended up good.

Today I talked to one of the directors at the office and pretty much just explained what i just did, that there was absolutely nothing more I could have done, and they actually ended up apologizing to me. Yay. But it sucks still cause I wanted to go to the festival, plus I missed out on a whole day's pay (plus the commission I would have earned yesterday, which probably would have been some good cash).

OK this updates post is long enough for now.