FootLoose!

On Wednesday May 12th I had the privilege to see the very popular musical, Footloose!
Ben Bakken played Ren McCormack. He was very enthusiastic and made me want to get up and dance with him! He had so much energy and spunk, you could tell he was the “cool kid” in town. He had some great moves and an amazing voice! Zoe Pappas played Ariel Moore. At first glance she looks like the perfect church going girl and preacher’s daughter, but later on showed her bad ass, no rules, kind of girl. She made you want to break all the rules and just let loose. Ben and Zoe are the perfect rebel couple.

The rest of the cast was amazing! Everyone was so lively and energetic! Their dance skills were out of this world. It really brought you back to the 1980s. The music was electrifying! I wish I could have stayed and watched it all over again. It made me laugh, it made me cry, and is made me want to be foot loose!!

New Vikings Stadium?!

As many Minnesotans’ know, the Vikings are trying to get their own stadium instead of using the Metradome as their home base. According to the Star Tribune http://www.startribune.com/politics/92871514.html?elr=KArksUUUoDEy3LGDiO7aiU, that bill came to a stop on May 5th. There is still a possibility that this bill will be opened up again. I think that this is stupid!

Why would we want to spend millions of dollars on a stadium for our home football team? I believe it is because we had one great season with a new player, Bret Farve, and now suddenly we “deserve” a new stadium. This funding is going to come straight out of our pockets and half of us Minnesotans won’t ever get a chance to go to a game. The state will raise taxes on us and they won’t have to even bat an eyelash. In two years, when Bret Farve is gone and we go to a loosing team once again, no one will want to bother going to that new stadium anyways. We just spent loads of money on Twins stadium that we sure didn’t need. Games have been cancelled because of rain in the new stadium that wouldn’t have been cancelled if they were still in the Metradome. The Metradome is a great place for the Vikings, if we are going to be spending millions of tax payers dollars, it should be on the important stuff like education or transportation, diffidently not on Minnesota sports!

Economic Crisis!

As most of us know, the United States has been facing some great economic difficulty. It has affected almost everyone I know, but I think it hit the hardest on my neighbors. About two years ago they had opened their own Tex Mex restaurant. They had amazing food and great service, but that was not their problem. Because the couple had both quit their jobs in order to run their new business they were a little stretched on money. Their restaurant was doing good enough to support itself, but unfortunately not a mortgage, two cars, one child, and all the other things that go along with life. About a year after opening Senor Peppers they were given the boot on their restaurant. Not long after that, they were then foreclosed on their home, across the street from me. The family then picked up their life and moved back to Texas in order to start over and we have not heard from them since.
Although there is a lot of hardship going on in this country right now, I do believe that people are making the best of what they have. In times like these I think we all figure out what is really important in life.

City Blog

In my town, Saint Michael, many people have been looking forward to a new community center. Our current one is very old. It use to be a high school, then it turned into a pre-school, and now it is a daycare and “community center”, but it isn’t very sophisticated. We have now finally started construction on a new community center after much waiting and planning. This new center is going to be the home for a library, senior center, and city hall. The great thing about this is that there will be many places to hold meetings and the library will be triple the size of our original library. Another pro to this new community center is its location. Because it is one of the only buildings on a lot of property, is it gives the city the ability to expand in the future, if needed. The city decided to join all of these facilities into one to reduce costs on parking lots, lobbies, and restrooms. This is a very smart idea because all of these facilities can share all of those amenities.

Saint Michael has been saving for over ten years to be able to fund this project and now they are finally starting. The city hired a local contractor who will also turn around and hire local subcontractors. This really goes to show how dedicated the city of Saint Michael is to keeping everything in the community. As I was talking to people in my town one of the active members in the city council, Nate Allen, commented “although this is an expensive project, we are getting so much help from surrounding cities and we are going to be able to benefit so much from this building, that is was well worth the wait and well worth the expenses.”.

Blogging

Blogging. A lot of people have no idea what that word means, let alone how to do it. To me, blogging is a way to get your opinion out into the open. It is the freedom to write (well actually type) what you want, when you want. That may be the most challenging part about writing a blog. There is so much to say, that you just might not know where to start. That is defiantly one of the more challenging parts for me. Another difficult thing for me, when it comes to blogging, is organization. For as long as I have been in school, you are always suppose to write your writing assignments in MLA format, but that is not the case when it comes to blogging. To me, blogging is more of a free write, with little structure. Although that may be one of the more challenging things for me, it is something that I love about it! As I said before, blogging is a way to get your opinion out. Once you get going on something you care about and start typing away, there is no stopping for me! The mind is always overflowing with ideas and thoughts, and once that door is open you can just let it all spill out into your writing and nothing is more energizing then than.