Sometimes I Wonder..

..why oh why do I live on this icy tundra known as the midwest..complete with freezing temperatures, snowstorms, icy roads and all of the goodness that comes along with winter? Many people have been shocked to learn that I grew up in Southern California and chose to leave the beaches and palm trees (and traffic and fake, bubblelike existence) of Orange County and the hills and trolleys (and parking tix and smashed in windows) of SF behind to move to Minneapolis with El Jefe, who grew up here, in 2004.

I just sent out an evite for a holiday cocktail party we're throwing next week and was reminded of about 85 reasons why I love living in Minneapolis: my amazing friends. Its kind of ridiculous that I just invited 85 people who I consider close friends over to our loft..and definitely could have invited more but chose not to for various reasons..some of them due to unfortunate break-ups and crumbling friendships within the groups, which always makes me sad because I always want to invite everyone to everything and don't "defriend" my true friends. But some people do.

Anyhoo, if I sent out an evite for a party in Cali, I'd have about 15 people to invite, if I combined everyone I know in NoCal and SoCal. So I feel very lucky to have so many incredible friends in this city, all of whom are smart, hilarious, successful and mighty attractive. For Jefe's birthday in early December we got a group of close friends together for cocktails and small plates at Bradstreet Crafthouse in the Graves 601 and then went over to see Zero 7 at Epic where we had a VIP booth overlooking the stage. Here are a couple of pics:

 

 

 

This weekend was another busy one where we got to see a lot of great friends - one group Friday night at an amazing penthouse downtown for a Patron party one of my closest girl friends won as a contest for being the Hostess with the Mostess. While I couldn't join in the tequila fun, I still had a blast with everyone and was pretty happy about the new off shoulder French Connection holiday shirt I found for the occasion on sale at Macy's earlier in the day. Don't have photos from that one yet but I'm sure there will be some amazing ones.

Saturday we got to hang with a whole other group of super fun friends at an annual Ugly Sweater Party where people get pretty creative with their outfits. I take way better pics when I have a few drinks in me so my current sober status leaves my photography skills severely lacking, unfortunately. Jeff and I found some heinous apparel at Ragstock - I loved his ladies vest, and my sweater's bottom snowman button was missing, which allowed for full viewing of the baby bump I am proudly sporting these days.

 

 

 

So, in conclusion..the cold and snow can get depressing sometimes but I am happy to put up with it when I have so many amazing people around to hang out with all the time - I truly love my friends here and they are the reason I love living in Minnesota. We could go sit on the beach by ourselves every night in Cali and never be chilly, but that would just be boring.