Alright, I’ve had it. I really don’t think I should have to do this, but people in general are just so fucking stupid.

So, in Minnesota, we are having what meteorologists like to call a “blizzard.” This is when it’s heavily snowing, with a lot of wind. I shouldn’t have to tell you that there’s SNOW and ICE on the road. This is Minne-FUCKING-sota for fucks sake.

In case you do not know, SNOW and ICE are SLIPPERY when you are DRIVING.

SO. That means, you don’t drive very fast and you don’t tailgate. I was driving home from work, and I was going about 40-45 in the 65. The roads are BAD. I didn’t even feel safe going THAT slow! Plus, the wind is blowing like a son of a bitch and I have an ’05 Focus, so my car is not very heavy at all. It’s actually quite light. So there’s people barreling past me and tailgating…which, the tailgating is REALLY fucking stupid because if I lose control of my car, you’re FUCKED. You’re goin down with me!

So anyway, when I’m a few miles from home yet, there’s a 4 or 5 car pile up. HA fucking HA, you retards.

So in light of recent events, I am re-posting this Minnesota Winter Driving 101 that I wrote last year. Which, this doesn’t just apply to Minnesota…you can use this anywhere it snows!!!

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Minnesota Winter Driving 101

1. Make sure you have your Winter Driving Kit: a blanket or two, a small shovel, warm gloves, some gravel or cat litter, a flashlight, a snow and ice scraper, snack foods (ie trail mix), and I suggest bringing a bottle of water with you. Don’t leave it in the car, it will freeze. You never know how long until you get “rescued” from your car breaking down. A lot of times, you may be able to dig yourself out if you go in the ditch. Hence, the shovel. Gravel or kitty litter helps if your tires get stuck. Also, don’t just spin your tires. It creates a bigger rut. Try going in forward, then reverse, then forward.

2. Leave proper distance between you and the car in front of you. I see this every year, and it’s people being stupid. It doesn’t matter if you have brand new tires or 4 wheel drive. There’s is no car or truck or anything that’s completely winter-proof. You still need to be able to brake people!! If you stomp on the brakes because you’re being an idiot and following too close, you’ll slide or go into a spin.

3. NEVER stomp on the brakes. See above.

4. Make sure your tires are properly inflated and have good tread. If money is a problem, buy 2 used tires with reasonable tread. Most cars are front wheel drive. Rotate your tires so the old front tires go in the back, and put your “new” tires in the front. Or vice versa if you have rear wheel drive. This helps with traction and braking, but you still need to leave enough room to brake slowly.

5. If the roads are slippery, you are entitled to slow down before the turn lane. If the roads are dry, slowing down before the turn lane is completely unacceptable.

6. Make sure you have plenty of windshield washer fluid. The roads are slippery. The snow plows use salt. Salt leaves residue on your windshield. You need to use this fluid frequently in order to see.

7. Leave early if it’s snowing. The roads will be bad. Guaranteed.

8. Make sure you have a cell phone. Even if it’s just a stupid little prepaid one, it’ll help you call 911 in an emergency.

9. Use your headlights. People need to be able to see you when it’s snowing. It doesn’t matter if you have a dark car.

10. It’s actually quite easy to counteract a spin. All you have to do is turn your steering wheel in the opposite direction your car is spinning. Go to an empty parking lot, make sure there are no cops around you, and practice. It will soon become second nature and you will instinctually be able to get yourself out of a spin. But, if you paid attention to rule # 2, you will not need this rule. It’s still safe to know it though. Also, go slow on turns/curves. Never brake on a curve, and never accelerate on a curve.

11. Bridges and enter/exit ramps are ALWAYS more slippery than the regular roads. Use caution.

12. Allow people to MERGE when they are entering/exiting the freeway.

13. If you have anti-lock brakes, DO NOT let up on the brake if you go into a slid.

14. Never make any sudden movements with the steering wheel. This will cause your car to go into a spin or slide.

15. If you break any of these rules, I will shove your car up your ass. Have a nice day!

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SOOOOOO……guess who got home safe and without incident?

DING DING DING!!!

That’s right! ME! ANNNND…guess who DIDN’T get home safe and without incident?

DING DING DING!!!

That’s right! The people who were going too fast and tailgating in a BLIZZARD! (This is not at all directed towards a fellow Xangan who got into a car accident earlier today…thankfully she’s okay)

(Also note the heavy sarcasm directed to the idiots of the winter road)

News update on the HUNDREDS of crashes in the metro…

Update:

I saw a car flipped over on its roof on the way to work today. I almost started to cry. I HATE passing accidents like that. I worry about the people inside, if they’re okay. DRIVE SAFER!!!!!

I made a wishlist! I might add to it every now and then. I’m thinking of posting it on Facebook too…hmm.

Anyway, I worked about 11 hours yesterday. I’ll probably work at least that many today. My replacement is starting today and I have to train him/her. I don’t even know the person’s name…

Not much of an update because I just woke up and I have to start getting ready to leave for work soon….ugh long hours is good money, but they SUCK!!

And apparently, Dan has been sleeping around. That man whore. XD

This is a little something I’ve been working on. I started it a while back, a couple months ago. Before you start reading, this is a work of fiction

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I sit there with my coffee and steamed milk and he sits across from me drumming his fingers on the table to a sad beat in his mind. I don’t look and him and he does not look at me. The groggy sun starts making her way into the kitchen, invading. Fog still sits on the grass and flowers, dew forming on delicate petals and blades.

“I’m sorry,” he begins, his voice reverberating. The sentence intrudes the silence, making my heart thrum and skip beats. I wait for him to finish, trying to wish away the tension in the air. His breath falters and I know he feels it too.

He does not speak as he rises from the chair. He does not kiss me. No hug, no pat on the head. We both know. We knew it would come to this. He was diving to the depths of the ocean, twisting, swimming, searching. I flounder. I drown. I am not it. I never had been.

I hear his footsteps moving away from me. I hear the smooth woosh and click of the door. I hear the ticking of the clock. Ticking, ticking, always ticking. Seconds pass. Minutes. I hear the ticking. I am alone. It is deafening.



When I awake, I am not awake. I am dreaming. He did not leave me. We are happy. We are planning our wedding.

I get up from the table. My joints ache from sleeping slumped over the kitchen table. The caramel colored coffee is cold. I dump it out in the sink. I should have had it black today. Bitter. I make my way to the bedroom. I do not feel like writing today. I want to crawl into bed and sleep forever.

I walk to the closet, open the door. His side is empty. His neatly hung clothes, shining shoes, slick ties, ironed dress shirts. Gone. All of it. Everything. Had he ever been there at all? I leave the door open and turn to face the bed.

The we had shared for five years.

On his side of the bed on the matching nightstand is one item. It looks out of place, that item. It shines there. I know it is real now.

His engagement ring.

In all its splendor.

I am not dreaming. This is not a horrible nightmare. I am awake. I do not cry. I do not open the nightstand drawer and toss the ring inside. I feel empty, hollow. I grab the comforter, drag it across the carpet. I slunk down the stairs and flop down on the couch. Now that I am here, I don’t know what to do.

I turn the TV on, the mindless chatter from some court show is static in the background. My head rests upon a pillow. It is soft and cuddly. I feel anything but.

—

Sooo, what do you guys think? And don’t worry, I’ll be working on visiting your sites again =] I got a bunch done last night….

I started too late at going through everyone’s site and dropping comments, so I’ll have to continue tomorrow =[

Anyway, instead of doing much blogging today, I went shopping earlier. Sort of. I was going to go to Walmart (unfortunately, it's closer then target ]=) to get an ice scraper, but I got distracted by the Blockbuster that’s closing. They have to sell everything, and right now the best deals are 70% off, so that’s $3.99 for a movie. All the other movies are 60% off right now, so they are about $5.99. I’m waiting until prices drop more to buy a whole bunch of movies, because they have a lot left. They are paying like 5 people to stand outside with those store closing signs! I would hate that job.

Anyway, I bought 4 movies.

Broken Wings, which I just watched a little bit ago, was really great. Normally, I’m not one for foreign films because it’s kind of hard to pay attention when you have to read subtitles, but this one was really good. The language is in Hebrew, and I’m not sure where it takes place. Israel, I think. Anyway, this family is going through tough times because their father died all of a sudden from a bee sting. The mother is a midwife at a hospital, and she works night shift, so it’s hard for her to be there for her 3 kids. It’s a really great story. I had tears a couple times.

I also bought Clean, which I’m about to watch when I’m done writing this. From the description on the back, it’s about a woman struggling with drug addiction, and her husband dies from an OD and she has a son that she loses custody of to her parents. It looks pretty good.

I bought Nobody Knows, another foreign film, but this one takes place in Japan. It’s about a young mother that sneaks her four children into an apartment. Their mother ends up leaving them, with little money. The oldest child ends up having to take care of her younger siblings and keep them together. This one looks good too. These three movies have won various awards at film festivals, that’s why I bought them.

The fourth movie I bought was Mirrors.

Anyway, sorry for my dramatic antics earlier…we all have our moments I suppose.

I’ve discovered the reason for my sadness.

I am a beached whale.
I say I don’t care about other peoples’ weight.
I care about mine.
I weigh 206 pounds.
I want to never eat again.
I want to waste away until I am nothing.
I want to cut myself into ribbons.
I want to do any drug that lets me forget who I am.
I hate me.

Why am I so sad today? I don’t know.

I should be happy. I start training for my new position tomorrow at work. I’m starting a completely different position and I will learn all new things. I should be happy.

So why am I so sad?

I am slowly getting to your sites and leaving lots of comments.

Sometimes I have to take a break and lay down in bed, staring at the wall. Sad.

I hate being melancholy.

Soooo the limo picked us up at 5:30, and we went to the Capital Grille. My dad, my sister and I went. I ordered 26 oz steak, Porterhouse, that cost $45. The wine was about $9, and I had 2 glasses. The potatoes were $9, and like $8 for cheesecake. I’m stuffed with leftover food.

My dad is a shipping supervisor, and the companies he uses give him perks all the time to keep his business. This one company gives him dinner vouchers for this restaurant and the company limo for the night. I had 3 free cocktails in the limo (grey goose and sprite) in the limo on the way there, 2 glasses of wine in the restaurant, and 1 free drink in the limo on the way home.

I’m frickin full man.

Good times.

Anyway, like I said earlier today, if you say it’s okay, I will go to your site and drop comments all over. I won’t be able to read the whole post, but I will comment on what I did read. I’m trying to get more credits so I can buy more premium =]

I’ll go to everyone’s site tomorrow and drop comments. Love you all =]

Okay, so I got an idea. I want to run it by you, since it involves you. Yes, that’s right, you.

I have a month to get my ass in gear about these credits so I can extend my premium, so here is what I propose.

If you comment telling me it’s okay to do so, I will go to your site and comment a whole bunch of posts. Mind you, I will not be able to read everything, but I will skim the post and comment on whatever I do read. Now, I know it would not be right if I just started doing this to all my friends, so I will only do this if you say Go.

Really, this helps everyone. Who doesn’t want more credits? Even if you don’t use them for much of anything, you can give some awesome minis to your friends. Also, I’ll get to know those of I don’t know very well, plus I miss a lot of posts sometimes.

Now, I’m going out to dinner tonight and soon I should start getting ready (I need to take a bath and shave, pick out what to wear, do my make up and hair….). I will pop in every now and again to see what’s up on Xanga, but the limo is going to be here at 5:30. That’s in about 5 hours, for those of you not in my time zone. I will have more time tomorrow to do this thing….

Now, what say you?

I had to.

I had to buy a month of premium with credits instead of 6 months. I didn’t earn enough. =[

Ugh I'm such a loser.

It's not my fault....working second shift doesn't work well with blogging.

Well, soon I'll be on first shift, so that will change...

Also, from now on, every post will have [a #] in the title, which is counting down to the number of posts left until I hit 1,000.

OOOOO cold beer, it hits the spot!

Okay, so at the end of my lunch break last night at work I checked my account balance at the bank. For some reason, my check was $50 more than normal. So I was like yes! I’m going to go buy the new Lady Gaga CD when I get off work!

So I get off work at about 11:00. Okay, my ATM card is broken, kind of in half, so I can only use ATM’s that you swipe. I decide to go to the Walmart by my house, so I stop at the bank on the way home to use the free ATM. Now, this branch I have never gone to to use the ATM, and when I got there, it was one where you have to stick your card in. GRR.

So I’m like whatever, I’ll just pay $2-3 to take some money out at Walmart. I get to the Walmart. It’s closed. Closed. The fucking Walmart is closed. It’s 11:30. It closed at 11:00.

What the FUCK kind of Walmart closes at 11?!?!! They’re open 24 hours! Every one I’ve been to does, anyway.

I’m like whatever, I’ll just buy the CD tomorrow, but I’m starving since I haven’t eaten all day and I’m going to get money at Cub and get some food. I get to Cub and go to the ATM. It’s one where I have to stick my fucking card in the machine!!!

Now I’m getting pissed. By this time, I was determined to get the goddamn CD. So I drove 15 miles out of my way (one way) to a Walmart I KNOW is open 24 hours.

I get there and the ATM is a swipe (yay!) So I take out $60. I buy some tortilla chips and salsa, a Hershey bar, eyeliner (I was totally out), and The Fame Monster by Lady Gaga. Woohoo!!

So I get in the car and drive home, listening to it with the bass pumpin in my car.

I get home and blog for a while.

Then I go up to my room and pop in the CD while looking at the lyrics (this is how I memorize songs). On the third song, Lady Gaga sings the word “fucking” twice. As we all know, Walmart censors their CD’s. On the CD and packaging, there was nothing to suggest that there was a parental advisory or it’s a “clean” version. I was fucking PISSED.

So guess what I say??

FUCK YOU WALMART.