South Dakota

My family and I went to South Dakota a few times in my life. Although it doesn't seem to be the most exciting place to be in the world, it can be pretty fun. We went when I was about 4 or 5 years old. Again when i was 13, and once more when I was 14 years old. The most exciting place seems to be Mt. Rushmore, but there's a lot better places than that. We went to a place called the Bad Lands. Its a very dry and hilly area in South Dakota named after the Indians. It's pretty amazing because you can look out over them, and see miles and miles of hills with no civilization. Another cool monument besides Mt. Rushmore that's in South Dakota is Crazy Horse. It's still in the process of being finished. Crazy Horse is named after a famous Indian Chief who was murdered under a peace flag. The monument is of Crazy Horse riding a horse. It's supposed to be Man-Kinds biggest art project and it's been worked on for over 60 years and not even close to being finished.

When you think of South Dakota, a lot of people just think of flat, boring ground with nothing to do, but when you get out to the western part of South Dakota, it's very hilly and has lots of mountains. Rapid City is the city where Mt. Rushmore was built and also is the most Mountainous region of South Dakota. The car ride out there was not very fun. My family of five had to squish into a tiny Mercury Sable. And I was stuck in between my 2 older sisters for over 10 hours. It was hell. The animal life is different from here. You'll be driving down a road and all of a sudden there will be a giant buffalo in the middle of the road. There's also fields of prairie dogs popping their heads in and out of their burrows. Mountain goats climb all over the hills in the western part of the state. It's a totally different atmosphere. We also went to the hotel that was featured in the old movie North by Northwest. One day, our whole family went on a hike and my mom almost passed out because of the high altitude. Another interesting place to go to in South Dakota is Wall Drug. It's the biggest drug store in the U.S., at least when we went there. There's signs promoting Wall Drug at least 400 miles before you get there. They say things like "Free ice water at Wall Drug", or "5 cent coffee at Wall Drug." My mom and dad even saw one when they went to Europe.

Although South Dakota doesn't seem like a very exciting place, you'll be very surprised.

Bad Weather

The weather has been so crazy lately. We had no fall season at all, at least so far. It is only mid-October but it feels like mid- December already. Our summer was pretty mild in the Mid-West, so I hope that means the winter will be as well. Although, I don't think that's going to be the case. I think that mother nature is going to totally skip over fall and go right to winter. We haven't even had any 60% weather. That's the whole good thing about fall is that we go from scorching hot summer to nice breezy fall. But instead we go to bone chilling winter. I don't know if we have Global Warming to blame for this or what, but I don't like it.
It snowed for the first time the other day and it's only October 15th today. I usually get excited for the winter, but this year I'm just dreading it. It's going to be long, cold, and pain full. Winter used to be so fun when you were little. You could run around in the snow and make snow men, have snow ball fights, go sledding. And when you would come home you drink a big mug of hot chocolate and snuggle up in a blanket. But now its just a pain to drive in and I'm cold for three months.
The weather hasn't been bad just because of the cold. It's also been raining for almost a month straight now. I think we've had maybe 5 nice days in the past month. Every where I go now I need to bring a poncho. I just can't wait until spring comes. The only thing I'm looking forward to this winter is skiing and snowboarding, but I might not even be able to do that since it costs a fortune. Hopefully I'll find something to do this long boring winter.

Driving

I live in Trempealeau and I have to drive to school in La Crosse every day. For those who don't know, the distance between the two cities is about 25 miles. To some people, that number may not be very large compared to how far they have to drive, but for most people it's far, and it's not very fun. In the morning I feel like falling asleep on the way to school because I'm so tired and the drive feels never ending, but don't worry. Depending on what traffic is like, those 25 miles can take anywhere from a half an hour to over an hour.

Some days I have class at 9 O'clock in the morning, and other days I have class at 10 O'clock in the morning. The difference between the two times is night and day when dealing with traffic. At 10, there's hardly anyone out on the road. You don't have to worry about crazy drivers ridding your tail, or long lines at stop lights. But at 9, it's a whole other story. There's cars flying by you on the free way. People are not paying attention, talking on their cell phones and doing their make up. And forget about going the speed limit. People piratically run right into you trying to get around you even if you're going 70 mph.

When I finally get to school there's a whole other obstacle. There's no where to park. I can usually find a spot in the parking lot when I have class at 9, but the rest of the days I have to park 6-7 blocks away. I think if people are blowing their money on a $70 parking pass, they should at least get a parking place so they don't have to drive around trying to find a spot on the street. Westerns whole parking theory is horrible. They have an unlimited amount of parking passes but only a certain amount of spots. I think that's a little ridicules.

It's the same story on the way home as in the morning. I get done at noon on some days, and 3:30 on other days. At noon it's a nice relaxing drive home, but at 3:30 the roads are so congested that I'm thinking of just riding a bike home because I'd get there faster. Hopefully this whole experience will pay off in the end. I don't even want to know what it's going to be like in the winter.

Six Cats

Many people may think that living with six cats might get on your nerves after a while, and it does. I still live at home with my parents, but I’m seriously considering moving out soon because of our cats, and because I don’t want to live with my parents forever. I live with six cats at my home and they are a real handful. Their names are Violet, Gordon, Annie, Maggie, White Cat, and Black Cat. We have never gone out looking to buy a cat. We’ve never wanted pet cats. They all have just showed up at our house with my older sister.

My sister, Jennifer, has brought all of the cats we own to our house unannounced and now my parents and I are stuck with them now that Jennifer has moved out. I do admit that I don’t mind the cats that much. They’re usually outside most of the time, but when they are all in the house at the same time, I feel like punting them across town. Our oldest cat, Violet, came home with my oldest sister about ten years ago when she decided to adopt an unwanted cat from her boy friend’s. The second oldest, Gordon, was a stray that showed up to our house one day. We felt sorry for it so we made the mistake of feeding him, and he has lived with us ever since. Annie and Maggie were a double package. We got them when my dad, sister, and I were driving down a country road and were forced to swerve into the ditch to dodge two little dots sitting in the middle of the road. These little dots were Annie and Maggie. They were in the middle of the country with no home in site. They had weird cuts and wounds all over and weren’t even old enough to eat on their own. My sister nursed them back to health, and they too have been living at our home ever since. The most recent case was two cats, one a white male and the other a black female. They go together pretty nicely. They have names, but my mom keeps changing them, so I just call them White Cat and Black Cat. They came from one of my sisters friends. Her friend was moving away so she couldn’t have them anymore. Her dad was going to shoot them so my sister swooped in to save them and dump them on us. At this time, my sister was moved out of the house.

When I tell people that I live with six cats, they think I’m crazy. They can’t imagine living with six little fury, scratchy, noisy, sneaky, jumpy, stinky cats, but now that I think about it, I’ve lived with them for so long I can’t really imagine not living with them.

My Car

While I was driving to school the other day, I was thinking about what I should talk about in my next blog. I couldn't think of anything, so I started looking around at things on the side of the road. Maybe something would spark my eyes. As I attempted to drive through a traffic, it all of a sudden turned yellow. I slammed on my breaks and slid for about 15 yards. While cussing at the poor condition of my breaks, a spark lit. So I decided to write a simple post about my car.

I drive a 1991 Chevy Caprice. Although its not the coolest wheels on the road by any means, I still love it and I love driving it. My parents originally bought the car from an old couple down the street for my older sister, who was currently moving to the Twin Cities to go to college. After getting into various accidents, we quickly found out that the caprice was not a versatile city vehicle. So after a couple of months, the car was back at our house.

The caprice has been around with me through many interesting experiences. I got pulled over for the first time driving it because it was to loud. I crashed in the ditch the first time in it, quickly realizing that trying to do donuts in a snow storm is not cool. I got in my first accident in it, realizing that following someone closely with bad breaks is also not smart. But I can truly say that I am a wiser person after going through with these bad experiences.

As much as I love the Caprice, it definitely has its flaws. The radio hasn't worked for about two years. The air conditioning hasn't ever worked since we've owned it. The breaks are bad, the brights don't work, it doesn't have shocks, it doesn't have a grill. It sounds as if it has no muffler, although it does have one.

The Caprice was my first car that I drove on a day to day bases, but my first actual car was a Volkswagen Van in which I had for about 2 1/2 years. It was fun until it broke. Many people don't understand the relationship that guys have between their cars. As lame as that sounds, I still think it's true. But when someone else sees the Caprice as just an old rust bucket sitting in the driveway, I see a cool car filled with youthful memories that I'll remember for a long time.

Longboarding with Trempealeau Police

My friends and I have been longboarding in Trempealeau, WI for about three or four years now. It's fun to go in Trempealeau because I live there, so it's most convenient, and it has the best hills around without a lot of traffic. A lot of the hills in Trempealeau are being repaved, which is also a plus when it comes to longboarding. For those who don't know what a longboard is, it's a long skateboard used for speed and long distance. It's not used for doing tricks, like what a skateboard is used for. It can be dangerous at times when you're going 25 mph down a hill without a helmet or breaks, but if you're smart about it, it is a pretty safe sport. Longboards are convenient when living in a city because they're fast, easy to ride, and they're small enough to carry them around. It has become a very popular sport over the years, especially in Trempealeau. However, we've had a great obstacle to avoid when we've gone out to board for the past few months. The police have stopped us almost every time my friends and I have gone out the past summer. They pull us over and yell, give lectures, or threaten us with citations. It has become a big problem because every time I want to longboard in town, I can't enjoy myself for fear that a cop is going to give me a ticket for riding on the road, being a nuisance to drivers and pedestrians. It makes us angry because we don't cause any more problems than a person riding a bike would. The only difference I can think of is that the police see us riding a board with wheels and they have stamped skateboarders as punks, trouble makers, and bad kids. They think we're riding around on sidewalks, ruining private property and getting in the way of pedestrians, when we're just minding our own business riding on the roads, where we're supposed to ride. Personally, I think they're just bored because there isn't enough crime to solve in Trempealeau. One of my friends even went to another town to board and a cop pulled him over for no reason, took his information, then warned him that the Trempealeau cops were looking for him. I thought that was pretty ridiculous. It is true that longboarders can get in the way of other people, and it can be dangerous, but isn't this true when it comes to anything dealing with wheels on the road? We've been riding long enough to know what we're doing. We know we shouldn't blow a stop sign in a busy intersection, we know to look both ways before crossing a street, or to get on the right side of the road when a car is coming our way. The war between skate/longboarders may never end, but as long as I'm not being arrested, I'm going to keep on boarding.

Cooking in a Restaurant

Working in a restaurant can be both fun, and stressful. I cook at the Trempealeau Hotel and it’s anything but boring. On a busy Friday night, from the second you walk in until the second you leave, you’re on your feet running around, dodging waitresses, cutting up vegetables, or running back to the walk-in cooler. To be a descent cook, you definitely need to know how to multi-task. Orders are constantly coming back, and you and the other cook/cooks are throwing food on the grills or sending food out to the tables. You also have to remember how long food has been on. When you're cooking for ten tables orders, it's pretty easy to get confused to whose food is whose. A disadvantage of cooking would be our schedules. Restaurants busiest times are on nights and weekends, and that’s when I want to enjoy being away from school. Another disadvantage to cooking would be the customers. Everyone’s policy when working with people maybe that the customer is always right, but when you start working in a restaurant, you quickly find out that the customer is usually wrong, no matter how stubborn they may be. Some nights you get food sent back because the customers food is to dry, over done, not done enough, to hot, to cold, to salty, to bland, etc. Although, sometimes they are right and we made a mistake, but a lot of the times people are just looking to make their bill a little lighter. There are a lot of stressors when it comes to the restaurant business, but there are a lot of good things that come with it too. You meet a lot of new people when working in the food industry. There are always new waiters and waitresses who come and go throughout the year. A lot of the people who come to eat are from around the country and some are from different parts of the world too. Work friends are also an important part for working in a restaurant or any other job. I have met a lot of friends of all ages while working. Some busy and stressful night feel like they're never going to end, but by the end of the night, we can all look back and laugh on how we got our butts kicked. Another benefit to cooking in a restaurant is there is always something to eat when you get hungry. By the end of every shift, I am always starving and I definitely don't want to go home and cook something for myself, so can just make something really fast at work before I go home. And of course the best part of working in a restaurant is getting a paycheck at the end of the week.