today = not good day

It is a rainy, yucky day here in Winona. Only makes me want to crawl into bed and watch movies and read a good book. But no, where am I? In the library, procrastinating hard core and having a hard time getting myself motivated. I'm tired, worried about my dad who is in the hospital as we speak, and really not liking my back.

My back has been giving my problems the past 2 weeks. I'm afraid it means that the flu that I caught a few weeks ago is still in my system. I feel fine tho, minus being tired. No nausea. So lets just hope it stays that way. In the meantime, I just want to ripe out my shoulders and make the pain go away.

My dad is in the hospital. He went in yesterday and it looked like he was only going to stay overnight to be observed but they ended up admitting him after he complained about terrible stomach pain. He seemed fine today when I called him with no complaints about pain, just being tired. He has had 2 heart attacks before and numerous angina attacks so for him to be in the hospital is no longer a new thing to our family. Every Christmas he goes in. A few times he has been in the hospital on Christmas day itself. This year he got his hospital visit done the week before so he was actually around for xmas dinner. It is to the point that we expect it (the family) and his work and his friends. You would think the guy would take this hint and maybe quit smoking to help his chances of maybe staying alive long enough for my wedding but so far, no such luck. I think it is time to keep pressuring him to though. Or for the sake of our family, take his smoking outside. It is amazing how I can smell it on my clothes when go back to college even if I wasn't around him at all.

As far as school goes, I have 2 finals next week. Tuesday and Wednesday. Hopefully they will turn out okay. Then I get a break until the 18th when I start my 3-week summer class. During that time I will be playing softball in the cities Thursday nights and working weekends (close to 30 hours in 3 days). OH! And I have my dance show the week off between school. I'll be busy getting that show together even though I am only in 1 out of the 3 pieces. I do have a mini-solo tho! :)

Enough for now. Just want to get through this day and have tomorrow come. As always, I'll include a picture. This picture is from last May from our dance show. I was playing a character of a Janitor at a high school. I'm the one on the right. It was a tap piece with some hip-hop as well. Definitely one of my favorite dances ever :)

Luke Bryan

Last summer I got to meet Luke Bryan, and up and coming country artist who is one of my FAVORITE artists. In June I get to see another one of his concerts, this time at Country Splash in Somerset Wisconsin. AND I just found out he will be playing at the Cold Spring Brewery on July 25th so I will be taking full advantage of that! Here is our picture from last time :) Summer cannot come soon enough! Okay... back to my final assignments.

One more thing about the Bridge

On StarTribune.com, they had asked for readers comments about the 1-year anniversary of the bridge collapse. I decided to create a comment to send them. Here is a link to the entire article and below is what I wrote. In the paper, when they ran it, my quote was selected out to be displayed in a larger font. Pretty cool.

No bridge will be crossed again without remembering that day

With the one-year anniversary of the bridge collapse upon us, I am in disbelief on how quickly the time has passed. Not a day goes by when I don't think about that dreadful day. Every time that I pass over a bridge or go underneath one, I am reminded of how lucky I am to still have my life, and how scared I am to this day to go over any large bridge.

I was on a section of the bridge that did not collapse, only to be five cars away from the edge that did. To see that bridge fall in front of my own eyes is a sight I will never forget.

I know it was a day that changed many Minnesotans' lives, lives that are still being rebuilt. To know that the bridge is almost finished being rebuilt, only one year later, is remarkable to me. When the time comes for me to cross over it for the first time, I know that it will be very difficult, not only to me, but to many other Minnesotans.

Bridges can be rebuilt, but the lives that were lost will never be brought back. All I can hope is that we keep learning from this tragedy, keep making our lives safer and keep all of those affected in our thoughts and prayers still. Until we know that no bridge will ever fall down again, I will continue to be very fearful of any bridge I pass over.

TRISHA CRICHTON, RICHFIELD

http://www.startribune.com/local/26194774.html?location_refer=$urlTrackSectionName

35W Bridge

If you know me, you know my story about the 35W bridge collapse. If you don't know me, Here is the story:

The tragedy that happened in Minneapolis on August 1st, 2007 will be a day that will never be forgotten. So many people were affected in so many different ways. I would be one of those people. I was just seconds away from being on that bridge. Here is what I saw and my story... I was on my way home from work, about a half and hour later than I usually would. I entered onto 35W going south from the Johnson Street exit. Traffic was bumper to bumper and I merged in. Slowly I made my way, stopping and going. I had gone under the 4th Street bridge and then the University Ave bridge when something caught my eye. On the bridge, I saw the lamp posts swaying from one side to the other. I also saw the cars getting tossed around on the bridge. I thought to myself, "what the hell kind of construction are they doing on that bridge to be making it look like that. I don't want to get on the bridge if it is doing that." Before I could even figure out what it could be, the bridge was gone and the dust from the bridge started toward me and the other cars. I had turned off my car but quickly turned it back on so I could roll up my windows and hide from the dust. I grabbed my cell phone and called my mother, and tried to explain what happened. People around me were getting out of their cars as well and looking at what used to be a bridge. A man in a van 2 cars away from me was looking out his window and said, "Is the bridge really gone?" A man on a motorcycle went up to him and said, "yeah, it collapsed." People just had a stunned look on their face. They did not know what they should do now. I counted how many cars I was behind the person who was next to be on that bridge. I would have been the 5th car.THE 5th!!!!!!! I couldn't believe it. I was about 75 feet away from where the bridge broke off. I saw construction workers running away from the bridge. It was true, the bridge was gone. When I had first gotten onto the interstate, a man on a motorcycle let me in. I had watched him behind me for a while and then he went into the other lane later down. When we were getting closer and closer to the bridge, he was right next to me. When the bridge went down, he was probably the 2nd person in his lane who would have been next onto that bridge. I was so relieved to see that he wasn't on that bridge and was safe. The cars ahead of me turned around and went up the entrance ramp onto the University Ave bridge. I then turned onto the 10th Street bridge to try to cross when I decided to park my car and take a look. I was in disbelief. So many cars, seeing some in the water, some on top of each other, and some crushed by the beams above the bridge that display exits. I took pictures from my phone to show what it looked like right after it happened. During this whole time I was shaking. I was in shock and disbelief. Soon, the police came on the bridge that I was on and ordered us off. I then just wanted to get home and be away from bridges all together. To know that I was just seconds away from being on that bridge scares the hell out of me. Everything that afternoon was different. The mom I babysat for was late, we ended up talking longer than we usually would. I also had to stop and get gas and had to go into the store cause I was on the phone with my mom and was distracted from using my credit card at the pump. Having to go into the store to pay probably is what saved my life. It's weird to think that there were people on Johnson street ahead of me that would have been on that bridge. I really did have someone looking out for me that day.


Since the bridge has collapsed and been rebuilt, I haven't been able to get myself to go over it. The only time I have been close to being near it is when I go to Dinkytown. Instead of going over the bridge and getting off at University Ave. I choose to take the way I learned when the bridge was being rebuilt. On the year anniversary of the collapse, I was at Sneaky Pete's in Downtown Minneapolis. I was in the middle of the bar balling my eyes out when they played a tribute to the collapse. I felt stupid for crying but I had some good friends there at my side to help me through it. I know that I was a lucky one for not being on that bridge but it still seems to have the same impact as if I was.

On Wednesday night, I was getting told how to go home from the dome to these guy's house that my friend knew. Before I could figure out where we were, we were driving across University Ave bridge. The same bridge that I went up the on-ramp to get myself onto the 10th street bridge. I saw the BP gas station that I turned around in and I started getting tears in my eyes. It brought back too many painful memories.

Then, the following morning, I had the chance to drive over it. But as we came up to the turn, I couldn't get myself to do it. I know that the only way I will get across that bridge without crashing from tears in my eyes is if someone else is driving. I have a big fear of going over bridges and think about the 35W bridge every day. Wednesday was the closest I have been to that bridge and I wasn't even on it. I can't imagine how I will be when I am crossing over it the first time.

The photo included in this post is one that I found months later that shows well where I was. The X is where my car was, the star is the end of the bridge approx.

I'm back

So I haven't written since Wednesday and I figured it is probably a good idea to update on the past few days. So here I go. Warning, it will probably be long.

Wednesday's game was pretty much depressing. The good thing for me is I stopped watching after the score was 5-2. (that's the last score that I remember seeing) My friends and I polished off a liter of Rum before the game so my memory is kinda fuzzy. I did get to talk to an old friend of mine that I haven't actually had a decent conversation with in over 3 years at the game. It was nice to be able to talk to him again since he was such a good friend back in high school. I also saw a few more friends from high school wandering around the concourse which isn't a surprise since I grew up only 15 mins away from the Metrodome. When did we leave? I don't know remember. All I know is that we crammed 7 people in my car and made it to Dinkytown without getting pulled over (thank god). We ended up heading back to Winona the next morning bright and early and made it back in time for my 9:30 class.

I'm not even going to try to analyze the game. All I will say is that since the Twins decided not to give 100% towards the game, I didn't either. I also got told twice (once from my mom and once from my friend Drew) that I was not allowed to go to more Twins games (Drew said without him there too.) More on that later.

Thursday I came home after my dance class at 8:30pm. All I was looking forward to was having a gin and tonic. However, when I got home, half of my gin was drank and all my tonic water was gone. I was pissed off!! My roommate had her 18th birthday party that night at the house and so we had a lot of people over so I couldn't put up a fight. It would of been one thing if I would have gotten a call or a text asking if they could use my stuff, but no. They didn't even try. This only makes me more anxious to get out of this house! I also found out yesterday that the gallon of water that I had at the house was gone. I can't stand the water from the tap so I bring my own filtered water and it was gone. Again, not happy.

Friday was a GORGEOUS day out! After classes got done, I got lunch and sat outside where I take dance classes and tanned for a little bit. I was actually able to see a tan line! After I had my dance rehearsal, I went home before going out for Laura's 21st Birthday celebration (Laura was one of my roommates last year). I had listened to the Twins game on the radio on the drive home and was really upset when we gave up so many runs in the 7th inning I believe. Anyways, I started driving to the U of M when we started our rally. Right as I was about to pull onto the freeway, Jason Kubel hits the Grand Slam to have the Twins up by 2 runs and him complete the cycle. I was so excited and knew I was going to get a phone call from my mom, I pulled over on the on-ramp to find my phone. As I was searching, I ended up accidentally breaking the strap on my top! Luckily I had a spare shirt in my car to change into once I got to Dinkytown. Either way, I was too excited about the grand slam and eventually the win to care. I then made it to Dinkytown when a lot of the Twins fans were coming in so the energy at the bars was fun!

Saturday I worked all day, then went home and relaxed with my mom. I was in bed by 10:30pm and didn't care. I had to wake up at 4:50 the next morning to go to work. I worked till 11 and then went to the Twins game with some work people (Including Drew. Hence why I could go). This game was A LOT better than Wednesday. I actually watched the entire game and was able to pay attention to it. Shocking, I know. Perkins pitched a GREAT game and it was really nice to see a quality start from our pitching staff. As always, it was fun to watch Gomez get infield hits and beat out the throw. Harris has been ON FIRE lately and I hope he gets more playing time with the hot bat.

Sunday after I got home I started feeling like I crap. I ended up getting really sick by the end of the night and still didn't feel better the next day. I'm feeling better now (minus the fact that my stomach is upset right now) so I hope it isn't something super serious.

I have less than 2 weeks until finals!!! After finals are done, I have a week of no school, just dance rehearsals/shows. Then the next week I start my 3-week long class. Since I don't have a job, I'm guessing my days will be this: wake up, go to class, nap, go out downtown Winona, repeat. Ya, hard life right? :)

This week shouldn't be too bad for me. I get to spend my Friday night in Winona and that usually means great fun for me. More late probably from me. See ya!

Twins Game!

Today I get to go to the Twins game for the first time this season! Not only are we coming off a big win last night against the Blue Jays where we lost 10 straight to them, but Scott Baker is back on the mound for the Twins after being on the Disabled List. It should be a great game!

One of the most reoccurring themes throughout these games the first week or so has been our lack of ability to get runners home when they are in scoring position. It is really frustrating to have a runner on 3rd with no outs or one out and no one can bring home. I hope the Twins can find a way to not strike out so more and get those runs in that we need!

Here's a picture from Twinsfest with Justin Morenau. Let's hope he can hit one into the student section for me in Right field :)

last straw

So last night I was the first one home at my house. Because I had nothing else better to do, I went to bed early, say around 10:30pm. At 12 something, I was woken up by people coming into the house, namely my roommate and her boyfriend and they were being loud. Then the mom comes home and she was loud too. I obviously was there, since my car was there and my bedroom door was shut. But they still were really loud and it pissed me off that I was woken up. Needless to say, that settled my choice of moving out. I keep realizing how unhappy I have been all year and I think a big chunk of it has to deal with me living there. I am no where near the city (15 mins from campus driving) and I only have my room to call my own. It's too far to go there to make food and come back because I only waste gas that way. So then I am left buying meals in town. Needless to say, it's been a really expensive year buying food. And I think that it has to do with my weight gain so far too. The fact that I am not able to make food to eat and instead have to eat what other people make.

So basically I am beyond excited to go and find my own place to live where I will be able to make myself dinner and be able to shower after dance before going out downtown and be able to drink as much as I want because I don't have to drive anywhere. It will be so nice and I now cannot wait till June!

summer please

I've decided that I'm starting to get burnt out. School is wearing me down and all I want to do is go out and see as many Twins games as possible and hang out with my friends and make lots of money working. This is a picture that I took last year at my cabin one August evening. we have some of the best sunsets there.

I guess in the mean-time, it's back getting closer to summer by doing homework.

Last Night

So I hate to say it, but I was kind of a bad student last night. I had a test this morning and what did I decide to do? Go out to the bars of course. But I did study before hand so it's not like I didn't do that!

Anyways, I wanted to write about something that happened last night. I have a friend from high school that I have known for a while since we did graduate together and we worked together. At the beginning of this year, he told me that he likes me. I didn't know what to do with that information so I just disregarded it. At the beginning of this semester, I decided that it might be a good idea to see what it would be like bringing out friendship to another level. Well, it happened at the wrong time so I just let it go again. Then this past weekend, we hung out and things seemed to be going good but I found out that he still has stuff going on in his life that he needs to work out. So I told him that when he figures out what he wants, to talk to me and I will give him his space and wait to hear from him. Well, I walked into Brother's bar last night and I didn't see my friend there right away, but eventually I did. And it KILLED me not being able to go up to him to say hi. Instead, I stayed on the other side of the bar and just watched the distance between us. I didn't want to go up and talk to him since I told him I would give him his space and he needed to talk to me first. All I know is that this sucks.

Anyways, my only other complaint in life is that people like to complain about something that isn't true. I don't want to go into it too much because I get very worked up over it. But it basically consists of people bashing on twins players that haven't done anything wrong and have benefited our team in many ways. But they don't have any good supportive evidence to back up their claim. Maybe it's because I am a "scientist" and I feel like my claim should be supported with facts, but if you don't have good facts to back up your claim, just don't say anything at all.

I'm going back home to the cities for Easter tonight after dance. Then I am lucky enough to work all day Friday and Saturday. But thankfully I get Easter off. I'm hoping that this weekend I will be able to see some high school friends that I haven't been able to see for a while. Maybe even tonight!

Happy Easter to everyone who celebrates it!

Exciting News for me!

If you didn't know, I live at a place that doesn't have cable, internet or basic cable for that matter. So finding times to watch Twins games are pretty impossible unless I want to go to the bar or bribe a friend to watch the game at his/her house. So today, I was able to talk my mom into buying me the Gameday Audio package off MLB.com so I can at least listen to the games all year long! That will help me out a TON! Way excited.

Another big thing that is going on with my life is the fact that I will be staying at college an extra semester. Kinda sucks but I think it is for the best. Part of the reason is because I don't want to have to cram 22 credits next semester. Another being I might not pass some classes that I need this semester. So now I am on the apartment hunt and am excited to be moving out of my house in the middle of no where come the end of May. AND I won't have to live with psycho crazy mother all next year.

Okay, I have a Twins game to listen to in 40 mins and a test tomorrow with homework due in another. Probably should start being productive.

opening day remarks

Last night as I sat at a bar stool at the end of the bar with a twins game on in front of me and the UNC/MICH game to the left of that, I was in heaven. I had my two favorite sports on with two of my favorite teams (I am a Tar Heels fan). I'm sure I looked a little strange because for a while, I was sitting all alone with only twins fans till the NCAA game started. Once the Twins game got a little bit more interesting, I got a little bit louder and got talking to the other twins players and bartenders. Finally my friends joined me and we made plans to go to the Twins game next Wednesday. I'm hella excited.

Last night, we got out-pitched. We could NOT produce runs when he had runners in scoring position. It was very disappointing. I have my best and worse players from last night as follows:

Worst: Cuddy. And I love cuddy so this breaks my heart. But he couldn't get a darn run in to save his life when there was runners on base. Instead he looked like a young Torii Hunter going after a slider way out of the strike zone. I know that he doesn't have good numbers against Hernandez but I was hoping he could change that. Yes he did get a single but still should of produced better.

Best: Redmond. When I saw him get hit with the bat, I gasped. It looked pretty bad. I knew that Redmond was used to getting banged up a lot but he usually can work through it since he only has to play one game a week. However, we NEED him. And i was really impressed when he led off the next inning with a typical red-dog double. It really showed us his leadership in the clubhouse. I was really excited then when Nick Punto hit a single after that too.

I was surprised at Casilla's defense this game. It looked like to me that he should of had two balls that fell for base hits. I hope that he can step it up because he is a great 2B and can save us a lot of hits with his range.

I was happy to see Crede playing smoothly at 3B. He had a lot of balls hit to him and he didn't seem to have problems with fielding the ball and his bat. Now we just have to wait around for his offense to spark.

All in all, I was disappointed with the game, but at the same time, still insightful for the upcoming season. We have Blackburn pitching tonight and it should be a good match-up. Hopefully our offense will get something started and we can still take this first series at the metrodome.

Opening Day

Today is a great day to be a baseball fan. After months and months of waiting, the great season of baseball comes back. Many people think that 162 games just gets to be too long but I think it isn't long enough. I love every part of baseball season. I personally cannot wait till June when I will be back in the Cities so I can go to many games, especially Wednesdays when I can go with one person and see about 15 people that I know once I get to the game. Plus it costs me only $4 bucks and dollar dome dogs. Cannot get better than that!

I'm saddened that I will not be able to attend tonight's opener, the last at the Metrodome. Money for me right now is very tight and school rules my life. However, I am currently planning on going to a bar to watch the game. It will be on FSN here in Winona (or so I have checked) and that will allow me to watch the UNC and Michigan game tonight as well. I really hope UNC takes all because they have deserved it for the past 4 years. But mostly, I will be watching the game. However right now it looks like it will just be me sitting alone so I gotta find a buddy to go with.

Side note: I have seen a lot of people wearing Twins clothing. I personally am just wearing my hat and spring training zip-up. Tomorrow I am wearing my Mauer jersey just to piss-off the Sox fans in my Circuits class. I already made fun of one them since the Sox won't be playing tonight due to the weather. Lets just hope we win tonight so I can brag about something.

My weekend was pretty uneventful. I had a good time Friday in Winona. Then I had to go to a meeting all day on campus for Orientation Leader Training. However, this was my third time doing this so now it is just old news and not as exciting as it should be. Luckily, I got to leave for 1.5 hours to go to dance rehearsal. Then I had to drive to the cities. My mom made an excellent dinner that included steak, twice baked potatoes and green beans. It was amazing. Then Sunday I worked till 3:45, had another great dinner of Ribs and then relaxed and watched One Tree Hill with my mom. I got her hooked now and it makes me happy.

I have a short week here at school. They give us Good Friday off so I will be back home Thursday night. I am really excited to see my family once again. It feels too long since I have seen some of them and there has been good news since Christmas. My cousin Emily found out that she will be having another boy in August.

Well, here is a toast to hope that the Twins can get a W tonight. We got a good chance with LIriano pitching. I cannot wait till 7:10 tonight! GO TWINS!

Central Air

Ever since I was born, our house has never had central air. Instead, we had the air conditioners that you put in the window. We only had two of them, one for the living room that was supposed to cool the entire first floor, and one in my parents room, on the first floor because my dad can't sleep in anything warmer than 60 degrees. More background history: During high school and before, I lived upstairs, where there was no air condition whatsoever. Some nights when it was really hot, I would sleep downstairs on the couch but most nights I braved it out. Now, since college, my brother has my old room since it is bigger and I have his on the first floor. Last year, he got an air conditioning unit for his room so now the upstairs was cool. My parents still had theirs and the living room had theirs. The only room that wasn't cooled off then was my room. This sucked major. Especially now when I am used to sleeping in <60 degree weather at school. But then, some good news came about.

I had forgotten all about the MAC decision that certain areas around the airport would get X amount of money for central air/windows/doors. Turns out, our house will get about $14000. My parents were going back and forth on windows or central air/new doors. If you can imagine, I was rooting for central air because I wanted it in my room! Well, my parents went to a meeting last night and it turns out we will be getting the central air. Mostly because we will probably end up getting a new furnace and circuit breaker at no extra cost since the central air will need those to operate correctly. Therefore, I will get to sleep in a cool room in my house in my own bed for the first time this summer! I cannot wait!

short, but hopefully sweet

My professor is going off on a tangent again, just writing down his notes that he has already given to us, but now on the board. Like that will make it all better... any who.

my life right now = boring. so I won't write about it because you might fall asleep.

Instead, I'll write about the Twins. We had some major news today. Our starting pitcher, Scott Baker, is on the 15-day DL. This means that Fransisco Liriano will now be the opening day pitcher against the Mariners. This then leaves the Twins without an 5th-day pitcher. Some see it being our knuckleball pitcher, Dickey. Some see it as Humber, who has played well in AAA as a starter there. Either way, it will make our defense have to play extra awesome to back them up.

Coundown till opening day keeps getting shorter and shorter, and we still have no word on who will be our bench players for the season. In my opinon, I would really like to see Harris and Tolbert be on the bench. They provide a lot of flexiblity for our infield and Tolbert has shown that he can play some outfield too. Buscher wasn't in today's line-up where you might of seen him (Cuddy played for Morneau who was out with a sore back. Buscher is one that is known to be able to cover first base but was selected not to today.) Could this mean a possible trade?? It would be great to get some bullpen help with a trade from Buscher. Guess the waiting game continues.

Reports have showed that Mauer has been playing catch. Haven't heard if he has tried to run yet; guess we'll have to hear about that later. Mauer has said that he hasn't had any pain with the throwing, so let's hope this new medication is really working and that he will be back in the line-up not long after we go north.

Class is done... write more probably later. Thank god tomorrow is Friday!