Driving @ MindSay



 

   
Free and Easy
"Living life like a Sunday stroll, free and easy down the road I go." 

You see, I was TRYING to channel Dierks Bentley this morning, even had him on in my car, but it really didn't work out for me . 

Here's what happened:

I left for work at 11:45 am. I was running late (duh!) but that's not too bad. I was driving in via I-94 when suddenly traffic comes to an abrupt stop. What the.....?

It is Sunday morning, there shouldn't be any traffic at all, much less a traffic jam. I crept along at a snail's pace trying to figure out what was going on. I knew that the MN Twins were playing their final game at the Metrodome today (of the season...for a playoff spot, but also their final game EVER bc they built a new stadium) and that the game is sold out, but even that didn't account for gridlock more than 10 miles away from the stadium. 

After a few moments of thinking, I decided--and I thought this was a brilliant plan--to scoot off on I-35E south and take the side roads through town, eventually cutting across to the university. Seemed like a grand plan, and I was psyched. I got off the interstate and started my trek. I knew exactly where I was going, but traffic was unusually thick here as well. I shrugged it off as "ah well, people must have had the same thought" and kept on a-goin'. 

When I hit the main street I would use to cut over to the university, all I needed to do was turn right and it would take me practically to the school's front door. So, I get in the right lane and just before I make that turn, I see (about 2 blocks ahead) "ROAD CLOSED". What the.....?

It took me only a moment to figure out why one of the main streets (Lexington Ave. for the curious) in St. Paul would be closed. The DAMN Twin Cities marathon. So fine, Lexington is closed at Summit, but (and here is where I get really brilliant) I figure there is NO WAY they have closed the north and south halves of the city off from one another, there simply MUST be a way across. {To be clear, I was on the south half of the city and I needed to be on the north half} 

It was about this time that I called home and told my mom this saga. She advised that I stop a cop and ask where the cut across was so I could get to work. This was a great plan, except that all of the cops that I saw were on the marathon route, so in order to talk to one, I would have had to find a place to park my car (impossible!) walk two blocks to the marathon and then ask for help. Not. Happening. I figure I could figure it out. Ha! Wrong. 

I decided not to backtrack because the traffic was SOOOO bad going that direction (east) that I guessed it would be smarter to head west and keep checking for a place to cross over. So that's exactly what I did. I won't bore you with the details except to say this; turns out, for the marathon, they are very much willing to shut down one side of the city from the other. There is no place to cut over. Not one. Every way I went was a dead end. Road fricking closed. There were so many road closed signs that they seemed to be funneling the traffic all in one direction. East. Back the way I came. 

ARGH! So I headed back toward the interstate after my fruitless search and sat in some of the worst traffic imaginable before I even get to the interstate. Seriously, at one point, the line of cars I was in was so long it stretched from one stoplight to the next. Which meant that one or maybe two cars was getting through each rotation of the light. Finally, I got on the interstate headed back toward I-94 (where I started from) when I realized one thing. There is no way to go west on 94 from where I was. The only way to do it takes you through town and I wasn't doing that because I didn't know where the damn marathon route was and didn't want to get stuck again. So I ended up crossing OVER 94 to the north side of town and creating a route through that area. It wasn't pretty and it wasn't fast, but at least I was moving and not in traffic. 

Final result?

Typical mileage from home to work: 18 miles
Average drive time from home to work: 22 minutes
Today's mileage from home to work: 34 miles
Today's drive time from home to work: 90 minutes
Time work started: Noon
Time I arrived: 1:20 pm
Ability to laugh at myself after this experience......Priceless!

Would you like to see this craziness?

Exhibit A- My typical route to work, with "A" being my home and "B" being my work:



Exhibit B- My "marathon" (pun intended) route to work, with "A" being my home and "B" being my work:



And if you look closely, you can see several areas where the purple line is darker...that is the places where I was forced to double back. 

"Someday I know it's gonna take me home, so...
Free and easy down the road I go"

Thanks for the advice Dierks.

 
 
   
 

Driving
I picked an exceptionally long route home from class today. It was the first time I really enjoyed driving in a while. I love driving. I hate driving to destinations. I hate driving people to their destinations like a taxi.

On my way, I intentionally missed a turn and went 10 miles out of the way, passing by the places where I used to play as a child. Eventually, I headed west again, and I was blinded by the setting sun. I couldn't see my gauges, my instruments. I couldn't see anything but the blacktop shimmering golden, slowly curving in front of me. The brightness was intense. I felt like a pilot flying blind. I felt nostalgic of my great uncle piloting his P-51 Mustang 65 years ago. I felt the guttural bark of my Mustang in what was then the here and now.

It was beautiful.
 
 
 

   
blog #19 [edited]
[edit] okay just so everyone knows the video at the end basically contains the same information as the blog... its just that we were in a rush and left out a couple of details about the day. so i wrote the blog afterward. but i couldnt resist tagging the video on the end so you guys could see aj ;D

enjoy!

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i was supposed to post this yesterday, but i passed out. then aj called and texted but i was soooooo far gone [into dreamland] that i didnt even notice until like 10:30 this morning... and when i woke up the laptop was still sitting there right in front of my face where id left it and gary was pretty much almost dead because he had been off the charger all day and night :( [poor thing...]

we [aj and i] woke up at around 5:30 and left for orlando. it took us a couple of hours to get there. by the time we were actually within the city limits it was about 8:05am. we were feeling pretty smug because we were 45 minutes early for the orientation, but then we realized we were going to the wrong campus, so we had to go to the wrong campus, and ask for directions to the east campus D:

i ended up being LATE for orientation. i waltzed in there at 9:00 and everyone [about 54 other prospective students] was in this big hallway and as soon as i arrived they all turned to stare at me and then this professor guy called me UP TO THE FRONT to sign in. it was pretty humiliating...

aj decided hed wait in the truck... i dont think he realized i would be in orientation for 3 hours...

after we left at 12:00ish we went straight to the gated community i wanted to move to and took a look around one of the model homes and it was AMAZING! there were 2 pools and a fitness center and a computer area and all these other really nice extras. and the house itself was gorgeous! theres 4 bedrooms in each house [equals 3 room mates...] and im getting the downstairs bedroom because it has its own bathroom ;D

thennnnnnnn we proceeded to get taco bell. meximerican food. we'll get back to this in a minute...

we had to go to the mall so i could talk to my future manager at the hollister there [waaaaay prettier mall and the store was amazing! i cant wait!!!]. id been really nervous about meeting her but she was REALLY nice and told me to take as long as i needed to move in and get situated then i could call her and she would start scheduling me! :D then we went shopping there just to prove how much we loved her [and hollister]

movie time was next. we watched district 9 [highly recommend that movie it was EPIC]
but during the movie the taco bell [told you id come back to it] started giving us hell. we both started feeling sick... i took of my shirt and slumped in the seat and he just groaned the whole time. it was horrible. but it passed right around the time we started making our way home

when we got to ocala we went to my mall and got reimbursed for our purchase at the other hollister and went to american eagle to get some jeans for the boyfriend. whilst in ae this girl with amazing hair was cashing us out, and we both remarked on the aesthetic value of her hair. she gushed [heh heh beccabooskii] so aj got a free shirt because he bought a pair of jeans. i smiled at the lady with pretty hair and she gave me a shirt too! its pretty cute too!

at the end of the day he drove me back to my apartment and we tried to part ways... it was hard... i gave him a shirt of mine and serenaded him with the guitar and my voice. in the end he still left. and i was sad...

fin

heres a video we made before he left. enjoy <3

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I Need To Get My Driver's License!!!

I seriously need to get my driver's license. I am 23 years old and still don't have one yet. I'm going to start studying for the written test. I had a shitty experience today with a cab service. We got to the campus and I gave the driver my Capitol One. I wait for him to verify and he tells me it's invalid which is total crap because it doesn't expire until next January. He tries it again and it still comes up invalid. During this whole time I am literally sweating puddles, sitting in the backseat. I ended up giving him a different credit card and it is valid. I don't understand how my Capitol One could have been invalid for the cab but valid when I use it at the campus bookstore....hmmm. I won't be using that cab service again. So frustrating!

 

~A.M.L.~

 
 
 

   
blog #3

last night YET AGAIN i found it impossible to sleep. so at 1 am i decided to roll out of bed and see what was going on in the world. i turned on the laptop and read a couple of articles about homes made of recycled shipping crates, and men surviving being struck by lightning, and women dragging their toddlers through department stores... then it occured to me that i recently had my cpt scores faxed over to valencia but i hadnt checked if i could sign up for new student orientation yet. so i hustled over to my atlas account and logged in.

and guess what?

I CAN

 

so i have two options.

option 1:

take the new student orientation online

pros: easy, fast, dont have to waste money on gas

cons: must print out some assessment sheet [dont have a printer], and kinda boring [2 hours sitting at the computer...]

 

option 2:

go to valencia and attend the new student orientation there

pros: great excuse for a road trip, more fun [more interactive], can visit the new apartment, can get immediate help from a counselor if i need it [as opposed to having to call in if i take it online]

cons: gas to take me from ocala to orlando is going to be pricey [im broke almost all the time :( ], the orientation in orlando is an hour longer, blah blah blah...

 

im not really sure which one im going to go with right now... option 2 [apart from the financial aspect] seems like the smarter option because i can get more done.

 

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anyhoo so after i got done with the computer, i went back to my room and started reading the florida drivers handbook because i am DETERMINED to have my license when i move from this place. yupp. i keep envisioning how my test is going to be. im kinda nervous [-tears chunk of hair from head-] i hope i pass it the first time... if i can get my license i wont need to worry about a lot of things. i'll probably use some of my grant money to make a down payment on a not-too-shitty-but-not-too-flashy car and that will help me LOADS when i move. ESPECIALLY considering that the college is a 6 hour walk from my apartment and i dont know how to use the public transit system down there AND i need a way to get to work also [hollister is transferring me -happy dance-].

 

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it didnt take long for me to get bored with studying for the driving thingy. so with complete disregard of the time and my neighbors i picked up the guitar and started trying to figure out the chords to that new panic! at the disco song [called new perspective]. its a lot more fun trying to figure it out by yourself than googling the tabs and chords... at least i think it is [not so sure about my neighbors... im pretty sure they hate me... and my guitar]. i have the bridge of the song and i kinda have the chorus. once i have it all figured out i'll post it here so everyone can see and be dazzled by my amazing talent and whatnot.

im hungry...

-goes to make fruit salad-

 

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so im wondering if its possible to consume healthy food in such a way that it becomes unhealthy...?

for instance every morning i wake up shower and do all that stuff then i make my breakfast which usually consists of fruit, or granola-y cereal, or a healthy breakfast bar. i also take a daily multivitamin and wash it all down with milk [enriched with more calcium because i sometimes add stawberry nesquik; another guilty pleasure of mine]. lunch is normally something vegetarian like soy burgers [or some other meat substitute] or a hearty sandwhich and fruit juice, and then dinner is almost always soup or salad or something. the point being that maybe im overdoing all the nutrients a bit. the multivitamin PLUS all the "good food"... is it possible that put together they might be doing me some harm...?

-musing-

i dont want to die... maybe i will eat cake for dinner tonight

 
 
   
 

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