Hola Amigos,

 

I hope everyone has safely navigated the precarious months of June, July and August, especially given the ultra-dangerous Fourth of July [In what must have been an incredibly dull news cycle, the local Minneapolis news team broke a story about how fireworks were not properly labeled around what would happen, which could lead to injuries.  I feel like the effects of fireworks are pretty well understood by anyone who can read… they catch fire, they spark, they often blow up and sometimes they are propelled into the air.  While there are many different strategies to safely using fireworks, I am pretty sure I have established  a best practice where I light it and run away squealing like a 4 year old girl … so far, so safe].

 

So, let’s catch up on where we left off…

 

Nate’s Wedding!

First and foremost, it was a great wedding.  But where there is a will there is a way … to get in trouble.

 

Location, Location, Location – Nate and his wife picked a location in rural Minnesota where some eccentric bizillionaire has been placing the buildings he collects.  Yes, buildings!  For those of you who have been collecting shot glasses or silver spoons for the last decade, you should now feel totally one up’ed.  While it made for a interesting and well groomed setting in the middle of acres of corn and wheat, I couldn’t shake the constant feeling that we were on the seat of the Children of the Corn and any minute some creep child was going to crawl out of the fields.

 

Fashion Faux-Paux – Men’s Warehouse hates me and all of Nate’s groomsmen.  Of the five of us, they managed to bungle our orders in a uniquely special way (e.g., wrong tie, wrong suspenders)… going as far forgetting to send my outfit to Minnesota for the wedding, so it had to be overnighted.  In an especially quirky twist of fate, they opted to not sew buttons on the slacks for my suspenders.  While I was MORE than happy to avoid suspenders (which feel make pants feel like a self-induced wedgie) – luckily Nate’s future grandmother-in-law was there.  I don’t know how to say this other than, you don’t want to hear  a 90 year old woman ask you to take your pants off… ever.

 

Strike 4 of 7

After the dance got into full swing, Jack, Jenny, and I decided to explore the complex a bit.   To which we summarily managed to (unintentionally) break all the rules possible.

 

Strike 1: You are NOT allowed to pretend to be a lion and hide in the wheat field, stalking your prey.

 

Strike 2: You are NOT allowed to play make believe in the historical collector cars… even if you can sound like a real-life police siren.

 

Strike 3: You are NOT allowed to wander off to other parts of the complex to explore, even though it could be described as the magical garden from Beauty & the Beast (Jenny’s words, not mine)

 

Strike 4: You are NOT allowed to bring a half-drank bottle of Jack Daniels into the reception hall, even if you promise to not drink it.  This strike lead to some amazing dialogue:

 

Security: Seriously, what are you doing!?

Nick: Err… what?

Security: You CAN NOT bring that into here…

Nick: Err… why?

Security: It is against the law!

Nick: Err… is this another strike?  What are we up to now?

Security:  “You’re on strike four, but I like you so I’ll give you seven strikes”

 

Don’t worry everyone, I was able to smuggle it in by sticking the bottle in my shirt and pretending I was really fat – it was very convincing!

 

The Internship

It ended on a high note … only a few new observations and stories.

 

Deep Brain Stimulation sounds TERRIBLE!

First, I think my one and only value add will be helping them realize they need to rebrand the product I work on.  Those of you who forgot, I work in the Deep Brain Stimulation (DBS) – which is honestly the most terrifying and unappealing sounding name in the history of medicine.  The best example of an equivalent would be if called a pacemaker a “Heart Electrocuter.”   Who would want a pacemaker then?!

 

Job Offer … whoop, whoop!

I did trick Medtronic into giving me a job offer which is incredibly exciting.  It is part of their rotational program, so I get to try to compare a job in LA, with Miami, with Minneapolis… which as you can imagine is nearly impossible.  I’ve started the very long (excel-utilized) process of comparing these and we’ll see what I come up with  – in the meantime, I’ve decided to take on even MORE work during my first weeks of school and look at recruiting consulting again.  Nothing like being really stressed with even LESS time to do anything!

 

I’ll be in touch again soon!

Nick