Cinderelly, Cinderelly...

Last night at this time, I was playing Cinderella. Not the get swept of your feet by Prince Charming bit, but the slaving away over ridiculous cleaning under the eyes of an unrelenting overseer part. BU decided that, as a favor to its student groups, it would give groups an opportunity to clean Agannis Arena after events in exchange for money for the group. Being the poor, desperate dance group we are, we took the bait and spent our Monday night/early Tuesday morning sweeping, mopping, and picking up trash after the Killers concert. $650 dollars later, my body still hurts.

We actually went through every single row to pick up recyclables and trash. Then a lucky few of us "got" to go to the compacter, where we tossed individual bags of trash inside, only to go back upstairs to mop the rows. Funny story, I've never actually mopped before. (Thanks, Swifer). Those things are heavy. And messy. And entirely counterproductive. But slightly amusing only in the sense that we had quite a few laughs after we broke the mop machine... my first time mopping was entirely unsuccessful.

What started out as fun with Oreos and a trash bag became four hours of terrible unpleasantries. Let me tell you, when it turns 2 AM, I am not a happy camper. Nor are half the people on the team. And walking back a mile and a half at 3 AM, just glorious! But really, people are disgusting - they leave everything on the ground to be picked up by someone else. Gross. Thanks, Killers - your fans rock. At least we didn't have to clean up the 60 pounds of confetti.

Addicted

I'm pretty sure I have some sort of disease. I actually can't say no to shopping, to buying anything I see that's pretty enough to have its own spot in my already overflowing closet (which, at school, I actually share with my two roommates). There is a price bit - if it's too expensive, it's not coming home with me. Usually. But I can't resist a good deal. Sure, it would be cheaper - free, even! - if I just didn't buy it. But somehow that just doesn't do it for me.

Enter: the Premium Outlets at Albertville. A little less than 30 miles outside of Minneapolis, this massive compound probably provides all of Albertville's economic stimulus and is, for me, half heaven and half dangerous, twisty spiral of dark spending. Alicia and I made the trek out today, both of our first time, and oh, it was wonderful! It was enormous - so big that we actually had to move the car three times and drive across another road to experience the whole thing. And four and a half hours later, having forgotten that neither of us had eaten yet, we escaped with lighter wallets and heavy shopping bags. Or, really, just a lot of bags. Major successes at Banana Republic, Gap, Coach and BCBG. I've now added to my wardrobe: two sweaters, two cardigans, two tops, a skirt, a dress, capris and a wristlet. Life is wonderful... and it's really a good thing that Albertville's so far (in Minnesota anything further than 20 minutes is a schlep and not worth going to), 'cause I'd spend way too much money. That, and there really is nothing there besides the outlets. And an alien restaurant. Really.