In 2010 I ... turned 27.

Ah! Closer to 30 than ever before. I don't even know what to think about this. It's a scary thought, honestly. So to calm my nerves, I'm making a list of things to look forward to in my 27th year.

• Lisa's bachelorette weekend in Okoboji (July 16-18)
• Bastille Day at Barbette (July 18)
• Adam's wedding (July 23)
  
• The birth of Jessie's baby boy, Felix (July 24, hopefully!)
• Shooting Erin's wedding (July 24)
• The return of Music & Movies @ Loring (August 3)
  
• Sheila's return visit to Mpls (August 6)
  
• Labor Day weekend at the cabin with Nikki & Erin (September 3-6)
  
• Lisa's wedding (September 11)
  
• Columbus Day weekend visiting Sheila in Boston (October 8-11)
  

Okay, so that just covers off on the major, upcoming scheduled stuff. I'm certain there will also be:

• More boating
• Another tubing trip on Canon River
  
• Countless outdoor happy hours
  
• Many, many more shows (The Swell Season in July, possibly The National in August, Broken Social Scene in October, etc.)
  
• Several more bike rides
  

What else? What am I forgetting, friends? Help ease the elderly pain with thoughts of fun activities for the year!

In 2010 I ... promoted an outdoor concert

I really enjoy working in public/media relations. It's sort of competitive to see just how much coverage you can secure for a client, and it's really fun when you have something that sells itself as well as the annual Basilica Block Party. So for the 6th consecutive year, I spent months promoting the heck out of this fundraiser of a concert, which wrapped this weekend.

The two-day affair takes an incredible amount of dedication from countless people, a vast majority of whom, like me, volunteer their time. For me, it's a great way to stay connected to local media contacts, keep my pitching skills sharp and gain event experience. But it truly is a ton of work, so I roped in the PR-savvy Brooke to assist. After the way she unflinchingly handled the tattoo supporting role, I knew she'd have no problems with the block party.

So pitch we did, landing more than 35 segments in two days. Observe:

Co-chair Drew with Holly Wagner of WCCO-4

Co-chair Maggie with M.A. Rosko of FOX-9

Battle of the Bands winner hunter(HERO) with FOX-9 and KSTP-5

Fr. Bauer with KARE-11

A dreamy PR dream - all local TV stations reporting live on-site

Of course this doesn't factor in the weeks of pre-event coverage, or print and radio mentions, but TV coverage the days of the event seem to really impact event promotion, which equates to ticket sales. The ultimate gift for all of this work was Saturday night's sell-out crowd of 15,000.

Beyond all that, the media team managed to have quite a bit of fun, too:

Maggie, Brooke and Sally ... working hard or hardly working?

Drew, Maggie, Sally and Brooke recovering from a very early wake-up call

Crusin' in cart #6! Carts totally trump walkie-talkies.

Don't mess with the media/all-access passes. Thanks for the photo booth, Vita.mn!

Why we do it.

Thanks is in order to the entire media team, including B, Maggie, Drew, Sally, Angie, Jess, Hayley and of course Meghan and Emily.

25,000 people showed up to see Weezer, Spoon, Barenaked Ladies, The Avett Brothers (the best show of the weekend), V.V. Brown (amazing!), Ingrid Michaelson, Guster .... the list goes on. And I was lucky enough to be a part of it.

In 2010 I ... hit up the Farmer's Market

For the first time this year I finally made a Farmer's Market appearance, thanks to a nudge from my parents. It was too hot to spend a considerable amount of time there, but we did manage to snag a bunch of great things, including the purchase of what appeared to be the world's largest hanging plant for their backyard. (Seriously, while I waited for them to pay, no less than 3 separate groups of shoppers made comments along the lines of "Where would anyone put something so huge?" and "Have you ever seen such a gigantic plant?")

I was clamoring for some fresh flowers for my place, and after stalking out all the vendors, came back to my first swoon-worthy find:



These unbelievable snapdragons are the most gorgeous deep purple/red color, and at just $5 for 30+ stems, couldn't be beat for value at the entire market.


(And in Finley Family tradition, I had to sneak in a favorite snack, too!) Days later the snaps are still holding strong, even in this ridiculous humidity, and things just feel a bit livelier in the condo with something alive indoors. Visiting the market was a great reminder that not even a mile from my house I can pick up mint for 1/5 the grocery store price, flowers at 50+% off any store, and that kettle corn always tastes better when it's been made the same day.

In 2010 I ... was surprised!

I hate surprises. If I know about a surprise, like when someone says "I have a surprise for you," I do everything in my power to figure it out in advance. Maybe (probably) it's a control thing. Surprises just makes me downright nervous.

So I was doubly surprised when Morgan and Jennie planned a surprise dinner party for me (surprise 1) and that I really, truly enjoyed the surprise (2!). J invited me to a seemingly casual dinner to include M & Eli, and I had been looking forward to the low-key evening for days. M harassed me about cooking ideas (I crave, he cooks) until I suggested Italian, specifically gnocchi. (I know, I know ... no easy task.)

Late as usual, I almost fell over entering J & E's house to see Alex, Beth and Eric shouting "Surprise!" I was seriously confused for a solid minute as to who the surprise was for. Ha. While I didn't have a camera on me, I hope a few shots from others (before a smattering of Violet's carrots ended up all over my shirt) surface soon. And I can't speak for all, but I grossly over-indulged in M's delicious antipasto, A's scrumptious salad, J & E's incredible manicotti (recipe, please!), M's handmade gnocchi, and B & E's awesome cookies. But, the pièces de résistance was undoubtedly my gift:

So, so delicious.

Thank you doesn't even begin to cover it, as so much more than thanks is due to a group who could ease my mind about the impending birthday. But in lieu of a better sentiment, thank you so very, very much.

In 2010 I ... met Lucia Mae

Yep. Another baby. Hard to fathom, but true! And Lucia Mae is a total cutie. (Embarrassingly, she already has more hair than I've been able to drum up in nearly 27 years.)

I showed up at Emily & Erik's house, paparazzi-style, last week to meet Miss L and shoot these:







Aren't those yawns adorable? If only I looked that cute when yawning after 5 or less hours of sleep ...

In 2010 I ... road tripped, cabin style.

There's something about a road trip with friends you've never road tripped with before. The excitement of getting out of town builds, you cram into the car and hurry up to go do nothing. What's not to like? So that's exactly what Jennie, Eli, Alex, Morgan and I did to join a huge gang that progressively gathered throughout the past weekend in Alexandria for Jake's 30th birthday celebration. We did in fact do a whole lot of nothing. Observe:

Thanks for taking pics, Senor Kamin

While we weren't doing that, the group was swimming, warming up in the homemade sauna, playing badminton and kubb, drinking keg beer, playing card/dice games, and lounging by the bonfire.

Me, Patty & Megan taking care of some serious gossip bench business

In typical cabin style, the weather was mildly crappy on Saturday and stunningly beautiful for the drive home on Sunday. But that didn't stop us from having a fantastic nothing-filled weekend I'm already prepared to repeat anytime.

In 2010 I ... saw Mates of State (& Free Energy)

I love Mates of State. There's something about a husband-wife duo that travel on a tour bus with their kids and nanny (who works the merch table) that just makes me ... well, jealous.

Hayley, Jess, Roxie, Tom and I met up with a posse of showing-going friends at Acadia for delicious beverages (blackberry porter, yum!) before the Mates show at the 400 Bar.

Mates in action

Opening was Free Energy, who I'd not yet seen live and really enjoyed. (Bands that smile make me smile. I can't help it.)

And this is a perfect summer tune, one I have a feeling I'll be listening to often with the windows down in the Mini.

While it was sweatier than I'd ever prefer, it's the price that must be paid for great shows at small bars. Not the first, and certainly not the last.