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

Full Speed Ahead!

Hey guys, quick post. It's a been a busy couple weeks, exams are less than a week away :O so it's been nonstop library! haha That means field training is coming up too!!!! goodness, it seems like it's so far away, but before I know it BAM! i'll be on the plane heading down to Alabama getting ready to be yelled at for 4 weeks :) can't wait! And I've been planning out a wicked sweet summer too, that's if I survive field training and come back in one piece :P I've got a 60 day Insanity Workout to do, running, a am gonna work on a costume for the Chicago Comic Con, yup ya read right, COMIC CON!! hahaha i'm so excited dudes! Last summer I didn't really have any "my" time since I was taking 2 summer classes and was doing an internship which was fun, but... it wasn't comic con :P so this summer, since field training is going on, I won't be doing any summer classes which is an win/lose situation. I don't get to worry about homework and studying this summer and finally get a break, but then, I also lose out on a summer to get ahead, or to keep on pace :/ When you're double majoring and have ROTC to worry about, trying to get all my necessary classes in are not impossible, but it at times it seems that 18 credits or more every semester just isn't enough and that taking advantage of the summer isn't a bad idea. But, I said HEY! I'm gonna live this summer and go all out, so I will. End of story :P
Alrighty dudes, well I better peace out. The library is open till midnight this week which is awesome, so I can get some great study time in this week and prepare myself for those upcoming exams. I'm not too worried actually. Getting into sophomore year, you get more into classes that are actually about your majors, so these exams are over subjects I actually want to learn about! so yeah! I'll chat with you dudes later.

Peace
~Annie

I've gotta pocket, gotta pocket full of SUNSHINE

Spring has finally filled the air on the Trine Campus!! :DDD And just in time as the track season is really starting to roll. We had a meet this past weekend at Adrian. I will never forget how muddy it was, uggggg.... I will also not forget the awesome PR I nabbed too! PR is, if you didn't know, Personal Record. I run the steeple chase and well, the first meet we had this season I sucked the bag :P I went out waaayyyy too hard, so at Adrian I knew that if I paced right, I could survive haha So I did, and dudes, I hurdled at least 2 steeples every lap!!! If you don't know what the steeple chase is, it's 7 and 1/2 laps of, well, agonizing pain and thrill. There are 35 jumps total (we jump over steeples which are like 3 hurdles long and are wide enough that you can push off of them, but they won't move if you run into them or if your foot catches when you go to jump over it like a regular hurdle would, so yeah, that leads to some awesome wipe outs) and out of the 35 jumps, 7 of them you have to not only get over a steeple, but over a water pit too. Yeah, it's crazy :P That's why I love it so much! It takes guts to do it. And at the Adrian meet, we were coming up to our first water pit jump and this defiance chic had to of slipped or something as she was getting ready to jump because her legs totally caught the steeple and BAM! face first in the water pit. I had to jump over her, it was epic :P So yeah, my best time had been 13:30 which really isn't good at all :P Like good steeple times are like a minute faster than that, like 12:30 but at Adrian I was able to finish with a 13:13!!! Yeah, still not where I wanna be but i'm getting faster! I think that once I start hurdling every steeple it will be sooooooooooo much easier and faster :)))))) So yeah! I also did the 800m and finished with a 2:33 which isn't my best ever, but it's my best this year, so I'm excited for that race too! Overall, it was a successful day fo sho! We're actually heading back there this saturday for an MIAA meet so I like knowing what I can expect from the track because their track is set up a bit differently, it's weird to explain, but like their turns are longer than usual, but yeah, anyway, can't wait!

Nothing crazy going on in class or ROTC. Ummmm... it's Wednesday so that means Delta Ki WINGS!!! My friend and I always look forward to it. After practice, we race over to the Delta Ki house and fill our empty bellies with delicious homemade wings and lemonade :)

Alrighty, well I'll end this here since my last post was quite long and it's gorgeous out so dude, stop reading, don't check out your facebook, go outside and have some fun!!!! :D

Peace
~Annie

MIA and KIA

Sorry dudes for being a bit MIA there for a week or so. It's been... an emotional few weeks. :/ Lots to cover, so sit back, and prepare for a crazy ride.

1st = FTP Retreat. Like I said in the last post, I SURVIVED! It was tough, but not as tough as I thought it was gonna be. :) It really opened my eyes to how much I really do need to learn and prepare for. Through all the yelling, all the stressful moments, I do feel more comfortable now and do feel that I can be a better leader when FT does come. As of the date to when I ship off, that's coming up in a bit.... So overall, it was worth it and I would totally recommend to all the other cadets when it comes to their time to have to face FT. We went to a Navy Base in Chicago and I was roomed with a cadet from another detachment and she was really nice. We both helped each other out with getting the room set up correctly and up to standards (yeah know, folding, hospital corners, that fun stuff) then we had to change out of uniform into another uniform in record blowing time while keeping the room still up to standards, and fall out in the hallway at attention. We did that at least 20times throughout the course of the day, just constantly changing uniforms haha. Then we might do PT, marching, ORI (Open Rank Inspection) and the most fun, STBYI (Standby Inspection!) aka get your room torn to shreds after you've spent forever getting it together. Nothing is ever perfect to them, ah well :P Eating was a blast too. Don't grab too much, or else you're gonna want to vomit trying to shove all that food in your mouth in a matter of 10minutes. So yeah, that was great. I was appointed Flight Leader, yeah, talk about nerve racking. The outlook of your flight depends upon the Flight Leader's actions. If I don't know a command or screw up, it's not just on me, but my ENTIRE flight, so yeah it's stressful, but... I kinda liked it hehe. Yes, I messed up and broke my bearing a few times, but it was a learning experience and now I know I can be that ready-for-anything Flight leader :DD So yeah, that was FTP! good times hehe

2nd = Sucker Punch the movie was AWESOME!!!! everyone needs to see it. I am determined to either dress up as Baby Doll or Sweet Pea, haven't figured it out yet, for future Comic Cons (yep, my nerdiness shows :P ) The music, storyline, action, cinematography, acting, EVERYTHING was just amazing. My favorite movie of all time fo sho :)

3rd = Okay, so more into last week which was a sucker punch to the heart pretty much. Yeah, a little more mellow now so please, bear with me. A weekend ago, 4 Angola High Schoolers were killed in a car accident. They were driving up from Florida, it was their spring break, and the weather played a key factor in the whole situation and took these 4 young men's life. The whole community shook like an level 10 earthquake. I didn't even know the 4 men and it affected me. Numerious church services were given throughout the week. Trine provided the ARC for the funeral viewing. The radio, posters, colletion jars, I mean everywhere you looked, those 4 men's names were ringing in your head. There was no way you couldn't be apart of the emotional time. Through all the hurt through, Trine University did something great and helped contribute to a scholarship made by the four families called Fourever Friends Memorial Scholarship by matching the amount of money the football team raised for the scholarship. In sorrow we give hope. God rest those four souls and many prays to the family and the entire community to find that hint of sunshine in their life. 

Alexx Bauer, Matthew Roe, Evan Weaver and Riley Zimmer <3

4th = Well, this is, yet again, another sucker punch to the heart, and it happened only a day or so after I heard about the 4 teens killed, so again, sorry if I make this last one short, since it's still tough for me even a week or so later to talk about. So last week at Air Force ROTC we got word that our Captains have the list of what cadets got a slot into FT or not. In all the years of AFROTC at Notre Dame, they have never once not have a cadet get a slot, until this year... Gosh, it's still hard to press the letters on the keyboard down to just write down what happened. Okay, well I'm going to jump right into it. I got a slot. Yes, I got a slot. Notice I didn't say "we" ..... it was only I, from Trine University, that got a slot, not my fellow Trine cadets. Just me. The Captains had originally split us in separate groups (ones who got a slot, and ones who didn't, though at the time we didn't know what the grouping meant, so it shocked everyone) I just remember starting to smile when I got word I got a slot, but then I looked around me in the room and I didn't see anymore Trine. Even some of my other fellow AS200s that had become my friends through these last 2 years weren't there. Ugh, I just wanted to vomit and wake up from this nightmare. I never wanted this, I never wanted to go through this alone. I joined the Air Force ROTC program, yes to be in the Air Force, but to also create a bond with other dreamers that are wrapped in the Red, White, and Blue. Out of the original 4, the first ever AFROTC cadets from Trine, I'm the only one left..... I know, I worked hard, I earned it, but they did too!! I'm angry, sad, confused, sick, and maybe even a bit hopeless. I mean, the scholarships they were given are gone now since, if you don't a slot for Field Training, you're not in the program anymore, kicked out pretty much. I mean, you could take the chance and go another year, but it's all the same really, nothing on your record is gonna say that you're trying again. 10 people didn't get slots. 10!!!!!!!!!!! I couldn't believe it. 10 of my friends didn't make it. The cadets from Trine are probably not even gonna come back to Trine next semester because they're short of $ now since their Air Force scholarship got taken away. So why such a blow this year compared to the past years? The military is taking heavy budget cuts, and they seriously cut out like 1,000 slots from FT this summer. So that's 1,000 people that couldn't go. It's horrible it had to come to this and everyone at the detachment felt the hurt and still do. I don't know if I'll ever recover. I just know I gotta lead now and make the ones that didn't get a slot proud. It's all for you guys now. 

Shipping off Date: May 19th.

Peace

~Annie