Jillian Michaels+ work out= The original pancake house!

      With the new year, came the strong desire to finally get fit! With my roommate leaving in a month to vacation to Florida to meet a very special boy, we decided that it was time we kick out butts into gear and start working out! Being that we have very busy schedules, it was decided that doing a daily work out video was going to be the best way for us to work out, enter Jillian Michaels. Jillian has a 30 day shred video in which each segment is just 20 minutes. 20 minutes seemed feasible for both of us so we began the 30 day shred. I am proud to say that I am on day 5 of the 30 day shred and loving it. With this great feeling of accomplishment for actually completing 4 days of this difficult video I decided that we should reward ourselves by going out for breakfast. Being that we live in Richfield, I decided that the Original Pancake house would be a perfect place to go. When we entered the lobby of the restaurant we noticed that 10 people were already waiting for seating, we thought the wait might be 10-15 minutes but after checking in with the hostess we were assured that it would just be a few minutes. All 10 people in front of us were seated quite promptly and we continued to wait while more and more people flooded the lobby. Each time a group would check in with the hostess they were told "It will just be a few minutes". This made my roommate Kathryn and I chuckle, because eventually there were 17 other people waiting with us in the lobby waiting to be seated, and each one was told "it will just be a few minutes". Really?? We couldn't understand why the hostess didn't just tell people their wait time would be about 10 minutes, rather she gives every customer false hope that their wait time would be just a few minutes.
     
       With the Original Pancake house being located near the galleria in Edina, one would assume that most of the people in this restaurant would be rich, retired people. Our experience with the customers in this restaurant was quite to the contrary of this assumption. Although everyone in this restaurant was well over the age of 30, the people we encountered were very interesting. Upon entering the restaurant we were seated in the lobby near a bunch of 70+ year old women. The one we enjoyed the most had shrimp colored hair. We overheard her talking to her friends about the fashion these days. She said, "Fashion really hasn't changed much in past years, only boots are different." When I turned to look at who was saying this comment, it was then I realized that she had shrimp and white colored hair and she was wearing a bright neon pink windbreaker! She's right, fashion hasn't changed!

    
   The rest of our experience at the Original Pancake house included an odd couple that appeared to be on a first date, who talked about how weird giraffe's look, and a table of 8-10 Grandma's. While Kathryn and I ate our breakfast of, apple crepes, pigs in blankets, and the most delectable hot chocolate I've EVER had, we observed the grandma's sitting and conversing at the table furthest away from us. They were all so cute. One had her hair in a tight bun (which we decided would be Kathryn when she gets old), and the rest had short bobs. Their conversation traveled from medical procedures that they had, MRI's, EKG's, CAT scans, to different medical conditions, and finally to their grandchildren. It was so sweet to see these grandma's all getting together to have breakfast together. It made me wonder, how long they had been friends..... a few months? a few years? since grade school? Their conversation just flowed and they seemed to have the best time.

I sure hope that by the time I'm 80 years old, I still have close friendships with those around me today.