The tale of two Minnesotans in Texas

I was born in Burnsville, MN and raised nestled in Midwestern-suburbia. I moved to Minneapolis when I went to college and throughout my undergraduate career, I lived in Honolulu and St. Paul. I absolutely loved living in St. Paul. Sure, my apartment was small and overpriced. We had an insane neighbor and terrible management. And we were the definition of broke early twenties-somethings. But, it was centrally located in the Twin Cities and our friends came over nearly every night.

After I graduated from college, Blake and I found ourselves at my aunt and uncle's house in Cambridge, MN. At first, I hated living there. I worked at the nursing home in town and I hated that, too. I was miserable. I had no idea what I was going to do next. I panicked constantly and had frequent melt-downs. I felt as if everything was going up in smoke. The night before Thanksgiving, I was hit from behind on 35W S at 55 mph. I subsequently hit the Honda Civic ahead of me. My airbags went off and I spun off into the ditch. It was terrifying. I spent my Thanksgiving in the hospital in a foam collar high on morphine.

Time for a mood lightener!

I actually went to work on Thanksgiving, even though I could barely move my neck. Ha ha ha. That reminds me of a time during my freshman year of college when I was so drunk my words were slurred and I tried to study biology because I suddenly worried about the exam I had two weeks from then... (Brittany, remember that?)
I walked into work at 6:30 AM and everyone looked at me like I was Martian.

"Erin, are you alright? You don't look like normal," my coworkers inquired.

"Not really, I was totaled my car last night. My air bags went off and now I can barely move my neck," I responded.

"What the hell are doing here?!?"

"Well, I didn't want to call the on-call on Thanksgiving."

I made it through an hour, then I burst into tears. My coworker Natasha gave me a hug and called the on-call.

Anyway, to sum things up: I was ten pounds overweight, depressed, and broke. I was miserable. So I started to exercise. And I started eating better and more consistently. I made some big changes in the way I relate to people and how I react to stressful situations. I was accepted to graduate school. Blake became a Master Certified Automotive Technician. Work became incredibly fun. I fell in love with my coworkers, who I miss dearly. I consider many of them true friends. Dare I say it but I am actually happy.

Back to the present, Texas is hot. Katherine and Suzanne, Joe's (my advisor) other grad students, are awesome. Blake and I had some drinks with them last weekend and it was fun. They loved our MN accents and our loooooong vowels. I feel like people look at me like I am a Martian. The air is hot and heavy. And I am white as a ghost. While walking to campus yesterday, I was sweating so much that my tank top was drenched in the back.

Blake started his job and it did not go well. The shop is not air-conditioned. He also worked 12 hours, another thing he is not used to.

What an adventure we have started.