A huge dose of Minnesota.

Today I crossed the line. Today I may have become a Minnesotan. I was awoken this morning by the buzzing of my cell phone. It was my good friend Dot. "We're going sledding. You in?" Heck yeah I was! I had never been sledding and I knew it was something everyone kept saying I had to do. There was only one problem: I didn't have all of the necessary clothes to have as much fun as possible.

It turns out we had to stop by Target to try and buy a sled. We decided to look for the things that I was missing. I already owned a pair of snowboarding pants, so I was almost set in the "below the waste" department. What I didn't have was a waterproof jacket and snow boots. We've been living in MN for two months now and I have gotten by pretty a-okay with just my Converse. Today was the day that I wouldn't. And get this: none of the stores that we visited had boots. None of them! But I did find a great jacket at Target for only $25 so at least I was set in that department.

By the end of our sledding fun, my hands and feet were FROZEN. It turns out I needed waterproof gloves as well. What did I think of sledding? For the most part it was awesome. It's a little bit painful on the ol' tail bone, but a little extra padding in the sled would help with that. I was wearing three pairs of pants and I still hit a few painful bumps. Oh, and for whatever reason I didn't bring my scarf today so my beard was quite icy by the time we were finished.

Next came the hot drinks to thaw out our frozen toes. Mint hot chocolate, yum!

Now, at this point we had two options. One was to go home and play video games. The other was to finally get me some hockey skates so we could hit the ice. Guess what we did? $43 later, I had a NEW pair of hockey skates. Add on some $20 boots and I'm set for the next round of sledding!

We went to two different ice skating rinks, but because it was Sunday the lights had been turned off early. Psh, lights. Who needs lights? We hit that ice in the dark and shredded it up for a good two hours. It was awesome! That was the first time I have ever ice skated outside, let alone played ice hockey. Growing up in California, the only ice skating I ever did was at the local mall with my Grandpa, and that was only a couple times as a wee child. As for hockey, I spent a few middle-school years playing roller hockey with friends. It's definitely not the same as being out on the ice. I'm already looking forward to round two!

So there you have it. A big ol' slap to the face from Minnesota. Wham, bam, thank you, ma'am!