One-Up the Excitement

I haven't actually typed this out anywhere yet, probably because it's still a little scary, but we'll see how this goes.

Last Saturday was the day to head home. I'd originally wanted to leave after classes on Friday, but Mom talked me into waiting until Saturday morning, so that more of the drive would be during the daylight. So, woke up at five and finished packing, made it onto the Interstate by 7 a.m. And most of the drive was good. Clear skies, dry road, sun shining through all of Wyoming and most of South Dakota. Bitterly cold and windy anytime I stopped for gas, but as long as I was tucked in the car, it was good.

I'd been warned about a big snowstorm that had been circling, hurricane-like, over my hometown and about a hundred miles in either direction from there. After going through Mitchell, there were a few more drifts on the road, but no real cause for concern. Sioux Falls lacked the whiteout-conditions I'd been hearing about, Mankato was all right...Austin was where we hit some problems.

Which might be putting it mildly. Between Austin and Dexter, there was a point when I had to actually apply my brakes so that I wouldn't collide with another vehicle that had started to fishtail, and it put me into a spin that went across the road and through a mile marker. This led to rolling the car twice.

It came to a stop on the driver's side, and aside from some objects in the vehicle whacking into me during the car-blender session, I was unhurt. I called 911, the trucker who stopped to check on me called 911, and my Mom called 911 after I called her. I was in the back of the police car for most of this calling-around, and got to watch the towing guy attach the cables and pull the car back into its proper and upright position.

We found the mile-marker about twenty feet away from my car. Er, the top part of it. The snow was about thigh-deep there, so no one was interested in anything but getting back up to the road.

The car was towed back to Austin (I'm still kind of excited about getting to ride in the tow truck. I think getting to ride in 'the big truck' brings out some little-kid part of everyone), and my Dad and sister took the van - slowly - to get there. Despite how much personality our minivan has developed over the years, it at least can get through snow that our other vehicles probably wouldn't be able to handle.

The airbags never deployed, because very little of the damage had been to the front. The left headlight assembly had been ripped out (possibly the handiwork of the signpost and beginning of the roll combined), the windshield was shattered, both mirrors were punched up, and the driver's door had taken a lot of the weight and had been bent so that it couldn't be opened at all. The roof was the particularly interesting piece - one good-sized hole had been punched in it, there was what looked like a smaller stress tear by the passenger side, and the entire piece was inverted. My sister has pictures, not sure that posting them would be the best idea, though.

But, aside from a bruise or two sustained from flying objects, I'm unhurt. Most of my stuff made it okay, too. Every time I think of it, I'm just overwhelmingly thankful that things weren't as bad as they could have been.

Well, that was exciting.

Friday night, the big excitement for the roommate and me was the concert the next evening, preceded by a big morning rehearsal. Or so we thought. She headed out a little after eleven to track down a boyfriend of hers, and I was already on the phone with Tony.

Somehow in the middle of that conversation, I found myself in some pretty severe abdominal pain. I ended up calling one of my friends (my buddy Ross is perhaps the only one who would still be awake the night before a morning rehearsal), and he drove me to the Emergency Room. Definitely not the way I'd been planning for the night to go - nor for him, but he was a great sport about it. I think brownies may be in order on the line of a major thank-you to him - he also called my Dad and Tony to let them know what had happened.

So, while it's rather impossible for me to be pregnant (Ross was helpfully suggesting that God was taking his cue for the season and picking another virgin for immaculate conception), I apparently should go on some form of the pill now, to reduce the chance of this happening again. I wasn't thinking that this would be something to worry about for another few years, so, if any of the girls have any advice or anything I should probably know beforehand, it'd be appreciated.

It's been quite the semester! Apparently my body's taken 'moving away from home' as a cue to test various things that could possibly go wrong. I don't dare say 'all' the things that could go wrong, because I'm sure there are far more entertaining possibilities that I've yet to experience. Mom's still pulling for me to move back to Minnesota, so, we'll see what happens. At least that way I'd get extra fussing over me when I come out of the hospital. :)

Thanksgiving was a wonderful time with those I love. Mom and I did some shopping, Dad and I worked on some projects, and the sisters and I crossed paths enough times for some conversation. :)

Seeing Tony again was also a source of joy, and it was a delight to spend some time with his family on two of the evenings. Friday evening, we came back to Willow Hill after spending some movie time with my dear friend Rahni ("Howl's Moving Castle" is a slightly odd movie to begin with, and Tony came in the middle of it - I think he was a little confused by the end), and Thanksgiving Day had time for pie before heading over to Chuck's.

In general, I love being in Sheridan. Living on campus is a lot easier than living at home (more expensive, but so much easier), my classes are a blast (and there are much more options for ASL here than at RCTC - a valid concern for me), I have good friends, and I'm surrounded by miles upon miles of lovely mountains and challenging hiking territory. But, being away from everyone is pretty tough.

Fortunately, this excursion happens to be much shorter than the last. I'll be home in three weeks, and then there are four weeks of mayhem to cause before Rochester bids me farewell again!