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!