Blackout

So my town made national news today! I guess the storm that hit us yesterday really left its mark. 30,000 people without power (including myself) as power lines hang like vines over the fallen trees.
Yep, it was a day like anyother in Michigan: unpredictable weather. It was kind of cloudy and dreary, nothing new, so my two bros, my mom, and myself decided to go out and see a movie. My mom and bro #1 saw Pirates 4, bro #2 and I saw Kung Fu Panda 2 (we already saw Pirates 4, ehhhh it was okay...). KFP2 wasn't half bad, not too long, just 1hr and 1/2. It had it's laughs, not bad really. Anywho, the movies get done around 1600. I'm driving back home and my mom tells me that she needs to go pick something up for work at Big Lots, so I drop the boys off at home and my mom and I head off to the store. Weather is still blah, nothing out of the ordinary. As we get out of the car, I hear a radio saying we're in a Weather Alert. I'm thinking "Oh it must be like a flood warning, the Kalamazoo River is getting really high and it looks like it's going to rain again, so that's probably what it was." Yep, totally wrong. My mom says "No, it's probably like a tornado warning or something." I'm like whatevah, let's just get this shopping done so we don't get stuck in either, though I have always wanted to see a tornado, I just think that would be the most awesome thing EVER! So yep, she get's her items and goes to checkout, when suddenly, the tornado sirens go off!!!!!! My mom looks over at me and I roll my eyes as I already expect what she's going to say "Told ya so, tornado!"
The cashier quickly checks us out and the store manager announces to the customers that they may either leave or get into the center of the store. My mom and I high tail it outta there to the car. "I'm driving" my mother says. "Ah come on mom, it can't be that bad, I'll be fine driving." She snatches the keys from me before I can protest anymore. "I've driven through this kinda weather before, you don't know what you're about to buckle up for." Yeah right mom I mumble in my head and strap in the passenger seat. We pull out of the Big Lots parking lot and head home, it's like a 5 minute drive, not bad. I'm looking out the window for any funnel cloud and spot 2 that could be a potential. I crack a smile Ooooooo I hope I get to see one!!! My mom races on home. In the sky, you see a dark grey blanket just over Battle Creek, it's the strangest thing. Then, all of a sudden WHOOOOSH! Rain fall by the tons, but in the strangest fashion. It's almost like we hit a curtain of rain and then instead of it continually pouring down, it came down in like sheets or curtains, flapping in the wind. You could see each individual curtain of rain hanging from the clouds. It was amazing. My mom takes a hard right to the bridge, hoping to beat the brutal storm home. We peak over the bridge only to see a fireworks display of sparks shooting out of a electrical pole.
"It's okay if it keeps raining like this, that means the tornado hasn't hit yet." My mom reassures me, only to be followed by an abrupt halt in rain. We both looks at each other. "Oh Shi-!" Thunder is pounding, lightening is flashing. My mother pulls the car in 5th gear, with 3 more blocks to go. The rain unexpectedly starts up again. We both breathe. We hit a red light. Seconds pass and then suddenly the red light starts blinking and then POOF, it's gone, lights out. "Well, I guess I can go." My mom shifts the car in first and guns it on home. Almost there, almost there. Trees tops are nearly touching the ground as the violent winds commands them to bow. I pray that our car isn't the next one to kiss the ground. One more block to go. We hit an intersection, can't see if any cars are coming, the wind and rain and pounding so violently. My mom trudges the car on through, almost there, the driveway is up ahead, just gotta pull in. My mom brakes the car to a stop. Where the heck is the driveway!?!?! You couldn't see Rudolf's red nose even if it was right in front of the car window, the wind and rain we thrashing that violently, it was almost as if it was a blizzard. We sit in the street idly for what seemed like seconds and pull in the driveway the instant we catch a glimpse of it. "Ready? One, two..... THREE!" We jump out of the car and race into the house, only to become completely drenched from just the little distance.
A few more minutes pass, and the storm's over. I walk outside onto the front lawn, only to fine half of a tree that's in our backyard to be lying in our front yard, entangled in the power line. All went dark.
Power is out for us and a lot of people I come to find. I wander across the street to help an elderly neighbor out. She's terrified by what happened, and I help give her comfort by offering to go to the store with her to get a lighter so that she may make some tea on her gas stove. We travel out, heading on the highway at a blazing 35MPH (I was afraid for my life). I look around only to see trees fallen everywhere. Thank goodness the highway was backed up and already going at a leisurely pace, since it was down to one lane because fallen trees restricted it to, so the whole 35MPH wasn't as terrifying, but there were moments when I felt, this is the end for me. She learned how to make a Michigan Left that day, all the while cutting other cars off the road. Yes, it was an experience for both of us. We reach the store and I find the appropriate lighter for her to use. Only one dollar. She's in awe. "One dollar?!" Yep, one dollar. We go to checkout, and it rings up at $1.06. What does she do? Pulls out her checkbook. yeah.... I ask her, "You don't have one dollar you can use to pay?" She asks me, "What? Do you have to pay a dollar to use the checkbook?" The cashier and I hold an expression as if we had just hit palm to head. We both explain to her that it is just 1 dollar and 6 cents. Not $106 dollars. "What? Oh my goodness, just one dollar?" Yes, one dollar, just like the first time I told you haha. So she pulls out her neatly folded one dollar bills and pays the cashier, with cash, and we finally are off. Okay, this time, we are NOT taking the highway back, just back roads. I want to live another day. We pull out of the store and she begins to explain to me the route she takes to get here. It's a back road, thank god! We head off, and trees are just down left and right, people are racing around with chain saws trying to clear roads. Residents are standing in the road conducting traffic. It's a mess. Through all of this the elderly woman explains to me how to maneuver around a nonworking stoplight. "You see, you have to stop and wait for people to go, because you just don't know what they're going to do, you just never know. So just wait till it's time you think it's good to go (which seemed like never with her, she seriously would let EVERYONE go and people behind us would start honking and then she'd start going off on a tangent about why people honk)" I nod and agree, all the while wanting to jump out of the car and help these people clear these trees out. But, I gotta get this lady home. We've been told to go this way and that, and she's just completely discombobulated with where she is. I know exactly where we are and we come to find out that all the back roads are blocked off with downed power lines and fallen trees, so the only way back to the city is.... the highway. Crap. Well, we head back to the highway, do another amazing Michigan Left, and head off, burning rubber at 35MPH. We reached the city and approach some nonworking stop lights. She again starts to explain to me what to do. Only her explanation and actually doing this time don't match up. She says to you have to stop, which is true, but what she would actually do is just follow right behind the person in front of her, and not right behind either, she just wouldn't stop at the light, she would just, well, go. Thank goodness people were on high alert and would stop. I counted down how many more downed stop lights to go, and people, I've never been so happy in my life to be home. Through it all, she got a cup of tea. Amen.
That night I was able to entertain my brothers with making a fort and paying some jams with the violin and guitar, my bro #1 blaring on the sax, and my bro #2 going with the harmonica. It was a lot of fun. They at first didn't know what they were going to do without electricity. I give a huff and have flashbacks of my childhood when playing outside was the thing to do.
Ahh well, the electricty is back on now, so it's all good. But that was my adventure of the crazy storm that hit on May 29th 2011. It turns out that it wasn't actually a tornado, but Straight-Line Winds, which are also called Hurricanes of the Prairie. Wow I wrote a lot. So moral of the story, always be the one to drive when going out with an elderly person, it's for the best.

Peace
~annie

Bipolar weather...

So for one week it'll be high 80's, pushing 90, I'll be sweating my bootie off, and then the next week??? high of the 50's, cold, raining, super windy, and oh! no SUNSHINE! gahhhh i hate going days on end without seeing that flaming ball of mass high in the sky warming my freezing core to a normal degree for summer. it's been 3 or 4 days (the days just start rolling into one in the summertime, can't really keep anything straight... hehe) since the sun has been hiding, wait no, not hiding, since the clouds have been standing in front of the sun! Clouds, I love you, seriously, if I could be anything in nature, it would be a cloud, preferably a cumulonimbus, but anyway, I love you clouds, but COME ON! let my skin get some color here! and it's nice to get some vitamin D once in a while.
So as mother nature has been going through her roller coaster of emotions outside, I've been hunkered down indoors working on my first item with my BabyDoll costume: the charms for her 1911 pistol. I looked on ebay, and they're going for like 75 bucks, and I'm not in any position to fork over 75 bucks for 5 tiny charms that no one may notice. So, as I was getting ready for bed a couple days ago, a lightbulb went off! Why not make the charms myself, not out of clay, but.... TAPE! yep yep, I'm making them out of tape, masking tape. So far so good, I've made 3 out of the 5:
Skull - ✔
Baby Bottle - ✔
Hourglass - ✔
Bunny - X
Bear - X
Just finished painting the skull completely, pretty much done with the baby bottle's paint, and now I'm painting up the hourglass and putting together the bunny. I'm using masking tape and tooth picks with the bunny (and a bit of elmer's glue, I'm hoping my padre was able to pick up some super glue today so I can be sure the bunny's arms and legs are not gonna fall off, that would be bad...)
So yeah, I'm starting off on a small item but, it's one of the few things where I have all the materials at my disposal. I still need to get the fabric and pattern for the top, fabric for the skirt, gotta find some T-strap Mary Jane heels, gotta buy some leather to make my pistol and clip holster, dye my hair wicked blonde, and my friend from canada is offering me her real katana to use for my costume so I gotta figure out a way on how it could get here... hmmm... so yeah, a TON to go, and I didn't even fully outline everything... so yeah, lot's to go, and I still haven't recieved my Insanity Workout DVD's yet, grrrrr... but I'm hoping I'll get them next week.
So yep, that's me so far. Went running a few days ago, sucked the bag, but kept up and ran a total for 4.5miles! :DDD yup, so alrighty, I'll let ya loose to get back to your summer.
PEACE

~Annie

Nail biting

I've finally gulped the courage to look up my grades. now, I wasn't expecting anything horrible, but I still always get butterflies before I look at my final grades :P hehe it's like, I'm just worried to see that maybe all that hard work didn't pay off... I know, I know, a lot of people hate me for this, but anything short of an A, I'm not jumping for joy for. :/ that's just how I roll, I always aim for an A and when I see anything short of that, I'm just upset because I know I could have gotten better. So well, I finally looked at my final grades for this semester and.... 4.0!!!! woot woot! thank god :P effort paid off!! and I cannot wait for next semester to begin! I'm taking a serial killer topics class and I'm like beyond excited for that class to begin! so yeah, so far soo good this summer :)

Up next, start Insanity Workout, begin my BabyDoll costume from Sucker Punch for Chicago Comic Con, and make some dough :P ye-yah! I'll update you soon on how everything falls together :)

-Peace-
~Annie

I'm FREEEEEEE....Free Fall'n

Yo dudes, so last week was, *JAWs Theme song* FINALS WEEK!!! :OOOOO Yeah, it was a bit brutal, especially when you're taking 19 credits, running track, AND have AFROTC ontop of that. But, actually, running can be taken out of the picture, temporarily. Yeah... a couple weeks ago at the Hillsdale meet, I ran the steeple,  and had an incident...

The gun goes off, and we head off, against Div. 1 chicas, like Notre Dame and MSU and stuff, yeah it was intense. So my adrenaline is pumping and I'm booking it, staying with the pack. The 1st 200m was a bit fast, but I'm keeping up, feeling good. Breathing is is perfect sync, arms are pumping. legs are pounding through the first barrier jump. I land, a bit off balance, but I quickly get my footing and pick up speed again. Jump number 2, smooth landing, I got this. Third jump coming up, gotta get it... wait can't see the barrier... too many people in front of me, oh crap, JUMP! Down. Roll. Get up Annie! GET UP! The next laps were all ketchup. My mind gave up by the forth lap, I should just drop out. I'm too afraid to hurdle the barriers, so it's step up, step down. Time keeps piling up, Water Pit. Am I gonna make it? Push up, push out, push up, push out Annie. SPLASH! Not enough push out. So tired. Step up, step down. Come on Annie, just finish, only a few more laps to go, it can't get any worse than this. Breathing getting heavier, everything becomes a blur. What's that? tap tap tap. Steps, rushed steps coming from behind me. Breathing, on a different beat than me. It's competition. Gotta go Annie, GO! Step up, step down. Shoot. ZOOM a mass appears in front of me. I Step up and step down as she soars over them. Too afraid. Don't want to eat the track again... Last water pit jump, keep up behind her Annie, come on, come on. Remember push up, push OUT! really push out. Am I gonna make it though? So tired. Legs quivering... is it adrenalin or exhaustion? Alrighty, here goes nothing. Push up! Yes, I made it. Now push out. My mind screams out of agony and hope that maybe I'll make it. Soo tired. I see the water coming. Feet make impact. SPLASH! The crowd doesn't even express their known Ooooos, maybe out of sympathy as they watch a lifeless mass kneel in the water, hoping her knees have the strength the get up. Come on Annie, one more jump. one more freaken jump! She's just up there, you can catch her Annie, come on! I part the sea and trudge through the pain and focus on that last barrier. One final Step UP, Step DOWN! YES! I'm free, go go go!! All you freaken got Annie, every last bit of energy you have, finish! Almost, no. I didn't catch her. But now... I can rest. Horrible time as it flashed across my face. 14 minutes. Whatever. I finished. My body wobbles to the field and my legs crumble from beneath me and my hands hit the soil. Breathe, breathe. Foreign hands grab me. Breathe, breathe. Help me up. My legs scream demanding an answer as to why I put them through this torture. My left arm starts to give way. Help me up. On my legs finally. Wet and exhausted steeple chase runners pat me on the back as they chug their cup of water. I cradle my left arm. Pain starts to explode within it. I move it slightly and I bite my bottom lip to keep from crying out. "You probably broke it." my coach chuckles at me. I laugh, out of fear and disbelief, "No it isn't." I replay the race in my head over again. That third jump. What happened? Jump, hurdle. My trail leg catches, not enough air. I hit the track as if a sniper shoots me. I brace my fall by landing on my left arm and roll back onto my feet to continue the race. Yeah, it was a bad time, and I fell, twice. So, today wasn't my day.

I call home and tell my mom about what happened, and she immediately comes to pick me up to get my arm checked out. I continue to say in my head, it's only a sprain, it's only a sprain. X-rays are taken and the doctor comes to the room, and my body goes numb from the words that spill out of his mouth. "Fracture." A waterfall of tears roll off the cliffs of my eyelids. What about field training this summer? I'm supposed to ship out in a few weeks. The doctor shakes his head, hopeless. It's going to need much more time than that to heal properly. My throat chokes and my face drowns in a sea of tears. A nurse comes in to wrap my arm in a temporary cast and reassures me everything will be alright. She was nice. I travel back to Trine University and inform my AFROTC Captains what happened and the words I get back devastate me. I call my mother up, frantic. "My life is over." Field Training will be a no go for me this summer. My mother races down from home to pick me up. I replay everything over in my head. How could this all happen? I should have foresaw this and never have ran that race. We see a specialist, and again I hope good news will be foretold. I tell him of my issue with AFROTC and he tells me that a cast won't be needed, but 2 weeks in the sling and then just regular movements after that, but no exercise on it for 6 weeks.

So long story short, I fractured my Left radial head, and may be able to go Field Training this summer later on, or else I'll have to go next summer. :/ Yeah, sucks big time.

But ya know, I'm home now, finals are over and summer is gonna begin. Just gotta take it day by day. Hopefully this will fix up soon, so that I can start exercising! My right arm is just pumped because I've been doing everything with it haha so I gotta balance it off soon so I don't end up with a weak left arm and just ripped right arm :P hehe
Alrighty dudes, Peace Out, I'll keep you updated this summer!

~Annie