Jonn Berg

Today is the day that Becca got her pin, which in nursing is like a diploma.

Her mom and dad and sister, along with Sister Judy (her dad’s cousin who is a nun) and SJ’s room mate, and her mom’s sister Janie and I took Becca to eat at Fabulous Fern’s in St Paul. I had New York strip steak and Becca had Top Sirloin or something like that. It was excellent food.

We went to the ceremony. There were 34 graduates, 10 before Becca. She walked up to the podium, got a flower and then met her mom in the middle of the stage to pin her lapel. It was nice to see and all of the graduates and they all looked eager to be done! There were a lot of little kids in the audience and it was pretty annoying when they all started fidgeting. I can’t fault them too much because it’s hard to stay still that long, but it was making everyone, including the instructors feel anxious or perturbed.

They had cake and punch after the ceremony and after the cake eating, Becca and I went back to my car and the two of us drove down to Hidden Falls Park in St Paul, just south of the Ford plant. It was about 9PM, so technically, it was closed, but we pulled into the observation point anyway. We got out and walked towards the edge of the bluff, looked at the stars and lights of the city and boom! I dropped down on my right knee and asked her to marry me. She got a little caught up and said yes!

I was not as nervous as I expected to be. She said it feels surreal. She called her mom as soon as we got back to the car. I felt like a hero!

So yeah, it’s official!

[*] In The First 10 minutes: 10 teaspoons of sugar hit your system. (100% of your recommended daily intake.) You don’t immediately vomit from the overwhelming sweetness because phosphoric acid cuts the flavor allowing you to keep it down.
[*] 20 minutes: Your blood sugar spikes, causing an insulin burst. Your liver responds to this by turning any sugar it can get its hands on into fat. (There’s plenty of that at this particular moment)
[*] 40 minutes: Caffeine absorption is complete. Your pupils dialate, your blood pressure rises, as a response your livers dumps more sugar into your bloodstream. The adenosine receptors in your brain are now blocked preventing drowsiness.
[*] 45 minutes: Your body ups your dopamine production stimulating the pleasure centers of your brain. This is physically the same way heroin works, by the way.
[*] >60 minutes: The phosphoric acid binds calcium, magnesium and zinc in your lower intestine, providing a further boost in metabolism. This is compounded by high doses of sugar and artificial sweeteners also increasing the urinary excretion of calcium.
[*] >60 Minutes: The caffeine’s diuretic properties come into play. (It makes you have to pee.) It is now assured that you’ll evacuate the bonded calcium, magnesium and zinc that was headed to your bones as well as sodium, electrolyte and water.
[*] >60 minutes: As the rave inside of you dies down you’ll start to have a sugar crash. You may become irritable and/or sluggish. You’ve also now, literally, pissed away all the water that was in the Coke. But not before infusing it with valuable nutrients your body could have used for things like even having the ability to hydrate your system or build strong bones and teeth.

This will all be followed by a caffeine crash in the next few hours. (As little as two if you’re a smoker.) But, hey, have another Coke, it’ll make you feel better.

Original Article Here.

Last Friday Becca and I received our Christmas present from my roommates Solly and Patrick, and our weekend roommate, Chris. It was tickets to go to see the Nutcracker at the State Theater in Minneapolis. We got dressed up a bit and went to eat at Buca Di Beppo’s, which by the way, means Joe’s basement. After dinner we made our way to Block E, parked and then wandered down to the Border’s cafe for some coffee.

Solly forgot the tickets in his car, so while Casey, Heather, Chris, Becca, and I waited in the bookstore, he ran to get them. Patrick and Roxie ended up parking somewhere else, so I don’t know where they were at this time. Solly eventually called us and said that the show starts in a few minutes and that we should run down there. We made our way down the street to the theater and went inside. I recognized the decorum and I think that I saw Stomp on that stage at sometime in the past. I can’t remember for sure though.

The stage curtain was decorated like an ornament and they had this see-through curtain that played with our depth perception. It was a cool effect, but it would have driven me nuts if they used it longer than they did. The performers did well with few exceptions. The little girl that was part of the Russian dance was the best by far though. She was doing flips and at one point she was down in the splits and the two guys picked her up, upside down by her legs and flipped her up, rightside-up, so that she was spread between their shoulders. It was very impressive.

We enjoyed the show. I am thankful for the tickets and the chance to go. Becca and I were talking a little later about how it was very good, but she didn’t like it quite as much as she had expected to. She decided that she doesn’t like the slowness of ballet and she much prefers the speed of something like Stomp or line dancing. I just say that at least we get to say that we have seen the Nutcracker in person, which by the way, today in 1892 was the world premiere at the Maryinsky Theater in St Petersbury, Russia.