September 5, 2010-10: 45 PM

It is amazing how much a few seconds can change your life. Many of you know (since mostly my family reads this) that I was in a car wreck on September 5 of this year.

I had a really long day at work that day. I got off late because we kept getting busy, and I didn't have time to get my chores done to leave (rolling silverware, etc). I finally got off, and I waited around to buy a piece of carrot cake because I just wanted to go home and relax and eat my carrot cake. I said by to my managers and co-workers, went outside and called Matt to complain about work, and then I started to drive home.

I drive home on a 4 lane high way, with 2 lanes going in each direction. The speed limit on this highway is 55 MPH, and there is a median going down the center for specific sides of the highway to make U-Turns. As I came down a hill and could literally see the stoplight where I turn to go home, I realized that there was something red in the lane. I could not see the car lights because it was perfectly perpendicular to my car. I was confused for a split second, and then I realized that there was a red car going directly across the lanes I was driving with. My first instinct was to turn the wheel, but thank God I did not do that. If I had turned the wheel left, I would have hit the cement median going 55 MPH, and I probably would have flipped my car. If I had turned my car right, I would have thrown my side of the car into his car at 55 MPH.

Instead, I cried out, braked my car as hard I could (brake to the floor) and braced myself for impact. My thoughts before I hit the car was that this was going to be how I died-in my Cracker Barrel uniform at the start of my senior year. It was the scariest moment of my entire life. I remember the tires squealing, hearing the loud crash from our cars colliding, and hearing a loud explosion as the airbags went off. I remember seeing the teens in the other car jolt when I struck their car (they were completely stopped in the road), and I remember seeing the powder from the airbags through the air (I thought my vision was blurry from head damage haha).

Whenever I hit their car, my airbags went off, my windshield shattered, my car doors and trunk popped open, my windows fell inside the doors, my car shifted into reverse, my rear view mirror fell off, and my radio flew off. I screamed so loudly when this all happened, and then I jumped out of my car to see if they were okay. They were all okay, but then a girl in the other car started screaming "Oh my god she is pouring blood!" Well, if you know me, you know that me and my blood don't mix. As soon as she said that, I collapsed on the ground and cried my eyes out. Apparently, there was blood pouring out of my mouth, off of my face and neck, and pouring down my uniform.

The next few moments are still a blur. I remember cops and paramedics arriving, and hearing their sirens. I remember people trying to get me to stop crying/screaming. I remember panicking to find my phone (which was thrown out of my car) and trying to call Matt because I just needed to hear his voice. In my confused state, I realized the car was sitting across from a Do Not Enter sign and I couldn't figure out what was going on and whether or not I caused the wreck. Luckily for me, 2 Marines fresh from Iraq stopped to help because they heard a girl screaming (me). One of them wrapped me in his arms, and squeezed me tightly and told me to breath deeply and squeeze him because it would calm me down and stop me from hyperventilating. This took at least 10 minutes for me to calm down. The Marines gave me basic first aid while we waited for the paramedics, and made me follow their fingers with my eyes and tell them about school/work/my family. I kept telling them I was fine, just scared, because at the time I was in shock and felt no pain. When the paramedics got there, they wanted me to immediately get in the ambulance and go to the hospital, but I didn't want to leave my car with my textbooks and money and parking passes. So I said I would have my brother take me and they left.

Once I was calmed down, the police talked to me. However, the police officer insisted that he did not need my story because it was clear what happened. I was so freaked out because I thought it was my fault, but the cop told me I had nothing to worry about.

Here is what happened: The other car (A red glitter Cadillac) attempted to make a left turn onto the highway. The turn was an illegal turn, and there was a sign that even said "No Left Turn." Where he turned into the median to make the turn, there was a "Do Not Enter" sign. His friends in the car even told him it was an illegal turn, yet he still made the turn. Then he realized he couldn't make the turn, and attempted to put the car into reverse. And that's when someone in the car screamed because they saw me coming at them, and they heard my tires squealing.

Basically, I was found to be zero percent at fault and there was nothing I could do to stop the wreck from happening.

My brother came (the Marines called him for me) and I have NEVER been so happy to see him in my life. Kristina, my roommate also came as soon as I called. She helped me clean out my car and reminded me to save me expensive parking passes. They towed my car (which I thought was drivable for some reason). My brother and Kristina took me home.

When I got home, the pain started to hit me. And I saw my self in the mirror which did not help. Kristina ended up taking me to the hospital around 11:30 or so, and I was there until the next morning. I guess my injuries appeared to not be so bad, because they kept putting everyone in the ER ahead of me. When I was finally taken back, the nurses put me on a Morphine drip pretty fast.

Matt arrived around 3 AM, and he got to rub my back while I threw up from the needles (yuck). I had x-rays done of my hand, and a CT Scan of my abdomen. The conclusions were that I had a mass on my L5 in my spine, a fractured wrist, sprained wrist and pinky finger, lacerations on my lips and inside my mouth, abrasions and burns across my arms and neck, and bruising across my abdomen. I feel like this is nothing compared to how much worse the accident could have been. Luckily no one was killed, and everyone walked away from the wreck.

All of my injuries were from my seat belt and airbag....but had it not been for either of those things, I probably would have hit my head on the steering wheel or windshield...I can't even bring myself to think about what would have happened if I had not worn a seat belt or the airbags had not have gone off.

My poor car was totaled. I will talk about the aftermath of the wreck in my next post.



The front of my car looks pretty good considering how hard I hit. I wish I got a picture of their car...it was awful.



Only major damage on my front.



Shattered windshield.



Passenger side airbag.



Where I was sitting.



Arm had to be in that temporary cast for a week, luckily I did not need a real cast.



This is the only thing that left a scar. It's from the airbag.

What Happens When Loose Change Falls Into Your Steering Wheel...

Today I had to work from 5:00 until 9:30 for the evening shift at Cracker Barrel. I decided to leave early so that I could stop for food. I stopped at an Arby's 3 parking lots over from where I work, so that I could just cut through the parking lots to get to work. Whenever I ordered, my total was $3.23 so I got out three ones and a quarter.

Well, as I went to hand the drive-through worker a quarter, it fell out of my hand and into a crevice in my steering wheel. It was too far in for me to get it, so I take a card and run it through the crevice to make it come out...this was NOT a good idea.

Apparently, a quarter will either press something or connect wires in my steering wheel that make my car honk it's horn, without needing me to even touch the center of my wheel. So, the whole time I am pulling out of the drive through, my car is blowing its horn. I turn into a parking spot, and when I turned it the quarter moved so it stopped. Then I backed out...and it honked once and stopped.

So I drive away, behind a large white truck full of people...go around a curve, hear the quarter move....and my horn goes off without stopping. The people in the truck thought I was honking at them I think, because they immediately roll down all of their windows and flip me off. I am a whimp, and since my car wouldn't stop honking, I sped away into another parking lot and luckily when I turned the wheel the horn stopped. But I have a very recognizable car so I really hope they never find me out anywhere lol.

I pull into work, and it goes off again. Out of frustration, I started shaking my wheel. I mean, could I even take it to a garage to have that fixed? And all I could think about was what I was going to do when I went in to work 4.5 hours at Cracker Barrel while my car sat in the parking lot beeping it's horn the whole time. Luckily, the shaking of the wheel jiggled it loose and the quarter fell into my lap.

The moral of the story is: I will never ever hand change over my steering wheel unless there is saran wrap or something over the wheel...haha only me!

Matt's Cracker Barrel Order

Last night I wrote a blog about my first night serving at work, and Matt commented on it "HALF POUND BACON CHEESEBURGER!" So this blog is in response to his comment =]

The other day, Matt made me bring him Cracker Barrel food because he was hungry and craving a burger. Well I got it wrong (or he is blaming me even though I was not the one who put the order together) because he didn't get his 2 cups of Ranch that he wanted. Let me add, that I don't get a discount on his food and I paid full price for it AND there is an extra charge for his onion rings.

So for anyone who ever takes Matt to Cracker Barrel or picks up food for him, Matt wants:

A plain half-pound bacon cheeseburger (nothing but bacon and cheese)
Onion Rings
One container of Mayonnaise
TWO containers of Ranch

If it's not like that, he will blame you for it being wrong.

Can I Take Your Order???

If you want to skip and go to just my blonde moments, they're listed at the bottom!

For the past 3 days, I have been training to start serving at Cracker Barrel. For the first two nights, I "shadowed" my trainer and just made drinks, cleaned, refilled drinks, and put some orders into our ordering computer. Tonight, I served while my trainer "shadowed" me. It was crazy!

I started off serving one man, and I had a really goofy look on my face the whole time from nerves. When he left though, he left me a note with the words "Good Job!" and a smiley face...so that made me feel more confident. The next group was a large group of 6 with kids....and I think I made them nervous because when I was passing out drinks I may or may not have come close to knocking over a sweet tea on someone...luckily I did not do that....just almost did.

Whenever you are training, you should only have about 3 tables because literally you have no idea what is going on. Not only was it a Friday night, but I had 5 tables. At one point only 2 were taken, but then 3 tables got sat in the rest at once (triple-sat) so I had to greet everyone, take orders, and continue to my next guest....so basically things were busy for me and slow for people waiting for their orders to be taken. And, some of those people who came in during that time included: Mack, Avery, and Matthew...as much as I wanted to chit chat with them, my trainer was like "MOVE FAST" so I could not talk to them which was sad.

After all of our tables left from the group that triple sat, we were really slow. I ended up leaving 15 minutes early, and I got compliments from 5 guests, 2 managers, 2 of my trainers, and other servers. Most of them couldn't believe that I had never served somewhere else before, which was good to hear! Now I am officially a server!

Blonde Moments:
-Almost knocking a sweet tea on a poor woman who I scared
-Refilling a sweet tea with un-sweet tea (which someone pointed out as I did it, and I fixed it!)
-Telling someone we have Vinaigrette dressing when we actually have only oil and vinegar
-Refilling a Sprite with water....which I realized after the drink looked really weird...but in my defense, the woman handed me her class and asked for me because she thought I brought out Sprite.
-I can't even begin to count how many words I pronounced wrong and all of my stuttering moments....most people were patient with me though!


And FYI, if you go in before August 13 whenever they go away forever, try the Campfire Beef or Chicken....the meat is slow roasted with corn, potatoes, and carrots and the are AWESOME! Also, my recent obsession is the turnip greens with apple cider vinegar....I never ate them until this week but they are AMAZING there!

Oh noooo, your tires all flat and junk!!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NjMUfIKktWUS

o on Saturday evening I kept trying to go home. Well, the entrance ramps to the interstate were all closed off and it took about 20 minutes to get to one I could use. This should have been my sign to stay at my apartment.

A mile from my house, I came around a curve and in the blind part of the curve there was something that I saw right before I drove over it. I thought it was either a pothole or something in the road, but wasn't sure. When I drove over it, my car made a really loud noise and then after I drove over it, it's like my car was making a weird noise and wobbling/shaking. I pulled over to see what was wrong, and was shocked to find my tire flat with the rim basically sitting on the ground.

My first instinct was to call Matt, who was not anywhere near me. So of course my next person was my big brother, who was about thirty minutes away. I was ready to cry because there is no way I could change my tire by myself, but he said he would call his best friend to come change my tire.

While I waited, I freaked out. All of my tires are brand new (2 months old) and I was so upset that I had ruined one. While I sat and waited, cars kept pulling over to check on me. Let me explain that I was sitting at the entrance of a trailer park and some woods, which was not somewhere I liked sitting by myself with people pulling up.

Two guys pulled up and offered help, and I was a little surprised when the person said, "Holly are you okay?Do you need some help?" It turned out to be my friend Wes, who I used to go to car shows with my freshman year of high school, and my other friend Nick who I went to middle and high school with and rode the bus with. I explained that my brother's friend was on his way, but they were nice enough to stop and help me anyways so that when Kevin got there he didn't have to do it all on his own.

After they pulled my tire off, Kevin said they was nothing wrong with it, and he didn't know why it was flat. When I looked at it, I realized that the rim was dented SO BAD. I thought I was going to have to go buy a new rim. Lucky for me, my big brother is a welder and works with metal for a living. So the next day, he came and picked up my rim and took it to his shop to work on. He got the dent out, and nothing is wrong with the tire or rim now, and I didn't have to spend any money on repairs=] which was awesome!

Search and Destroy Squad

For the past month, I have been using my iPod Touch to communicate online, and borrowing my roommate's computers every once in a while. While I could stand touch typing on my iPod enough to Facebook and check e-mail, there was NO WAY I was going to update my blog with it.

Today I have my computer-my old one back, but it might as well be a brand new laptop. Last summer I had the motherboard and keyboard strip replaced. This month, I took it in for repairs on my CD/DVD drive and USB ports because none were working. Because they weren't working, I could not back up anything. I did not think this would be a problem, because the things being repaired would not effect my memory.

Well, I thought wrong. Today as I was eating lunch with my friend Emily, I got a random phone call from a random phone number. I recognized it as Geek Squad because they had called me at 7:30 AM the previous morning to let me know that my computer was FINALLY being shipped back. Well this time the person on the phone told me while they were repairing my computer somehow the hard drive crashed, and had to be replaced...which means I lost all of the data on my computer. My computer didn't even have an Operating System. I stil don't understand how, but somehow they replaced the hard drive and still had the hard drive in their possession. He said for a fee of $60 they could check to see if anything to be recovered, and then charge a price to me seperate to buy any of my recovered data back...but I would lose the $60 even if they found nothing. Needless to say, I was MAD. Poor Emily, she said I kept getting louder and louder on the phone haha and we were in the middle of eating on campus. As she put it though, what happened to my computer was like taking your car to have the brakes fixed, and then finding out they broke the engine while repairing the brakes.

I pretty much have a new computer now, even though it is the same computer. The hard drive (programs, music, pictures, documents, settings) are all gone. I also have a new DVD drive, USB ports, outer casing, hard drive, and randomly a new motherboard. Luckily I had a restoration disk for the operating system, and most of my documents and pictures are backed up and saved. The only thing I am concered about is my iTunes music that I purchased. It's all on my iPod Touch, but if I hook it up to my computer without any iTunes music on my computer, I will lose all the songs on my iPod too.

I heard that I can call Apple and have them help me restore it, so hopefully that will work!

Other than my computer the only things going on in my life are class (even though Algebra has become optional at this point), starting a new job as a server at Cracker Barrel, and that pretty much it right now!

Oh and to explain the title, Geek Squad should call themselves Search and Destroy Squad....it would be a better way to describe their services!

The Itsy Bitsy Spider

Today I decided to make homemade tomato sauce to eat with some pasta. I went through all the trouble of dicing onion, carrot, celery, & 4 large tomatoes. The tomatoes also had to be boiled in water to be peeled & deseeded, which took forever. The sauce takes between 1.5-2 hours to cook, and I didn't bother to put a lid over it because I like to stir it a lot and it makes my apartment smell awesome. I was sitting at a bar stool at my counter, when I noticed the itsy bitsy spider come down from the ceiling....and straight into my spaghetti spot. I mean, do spiders not sense the heat or smell of food and know they shouldn't go there??? I went to look in my pot & saw him for about a half of a second before he drowned in the sauce. Poor spider. And, my sauce was ALMOST done. It had already been an hour. Thanks spider for ruining the meal I had been looking forward to all day.

I ended up going to Bloom & buying a jar of Prego sauce & making it the cheap, fast way. So disappointing.

And, also I am terrible at making the right portion for one person. I made enough spaghetti to feed like 7 people. But no one is here with me so I will be eating this all alone....well, really just tossing most of it in the trash after it goes bad in the fridge in a week!

Oreo Cupcakes Recipe (Dedicated to Nicole haha)

This is not my recipe. It is from the 2010 Best Desserts from Paula Deen (page 19).

Cupcakes Recipe:
Note: This makes 28 cupcakes. I cut the recipe in half (and I literally scopped half an egg out to do this) and made 12 big cupcakes. If you cut it, don't forget to cut the frosting recipe ingrediants in half!

If you make the cupcakes & frosting, the recipe calls for softened cream cheese & butter. Make sure to lay it both out about 30 minutes before, or until you can put your finger in it gently & it leaves a little dent. Microwaving either will probably makes the frosting/cupcakes tough.

1 and 1/2 cups butter, softened
1 and 1/2 cups sugar
3 large eggs
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
3 cups all purpose flour
1 tablespoon baking powder
1 teaspoon salt
1 and 1/2 cups whole milk
14 crushed oreos (To crush them, I put the Oreos in a sealed bag & lightly pounded them with a hammer)
Garnish: Mino Oreos (I used the mini Oreos from the 100 calorie packs)

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Line 28 muffin cups with foil liners.

In a large bowl, beat butter and sugar at medium speed until creamy. Add eggs one at a time, beating well after each addition. Beat in vanilla.

In a SEPERATE medium bowl, combine flour, baking powder, and slat. Gradually add to the sugar/butter mixture, alternately add milk, beginning and ending with flour mixture. (Basically pour in flour mixture, beat, add in milk, beat, add in flour mixture, beat, add in milk, beat, and add in flour mixture).

Stir in crushed cookies. Spoon batter into prepared muffin cups. Bake for 16-20 minutes, or until a wooden pick inserted in the center comes out clean. Let cool in pans for 10 minutes. Remove from pans, and cool completely on wire racks.

Spread or pipe Cream Cheese Frosting evenly over cupcakes. Garnish with mini Oreos, if desired.


Cream Cheese Frosting
This tastes just like the Oreo filling!

3/4 cup butter, softened
12 ounces of cream cheese, softened
1/4 cup heavy whipping cream
9 cups confectioners' sugar

In a large bowl, beat butter and cream cheese at medium speed with a mixer until creamy. Beat in cream until combined. Gradually add confectioners' sugar, beating until smooth.


To put these together, I piped mine to make them look pretty. If you don't know how to do it, you just fill a little piping bag with icing & fit it with a medium-large tip. You then just take the cupcakes & basically start from the outside & make a spiral around the cupcake, layering it on top of the other icing. Then put a little Oreo on top!



What my first try making them looked like!

Last Day in Chicago!

After we packed our room up & checked out, we went to pick up my sister for one last visit before we said good-by for good.

We were determined to have real Chicago Deep Dish pizza, but the place that we heard was good was closed. We ended up (after beeing lost in a scary neighbordhood Jessica was actually restricted from being in), we headed to Max's Dawg House for some hot dogs.

THEY WERE THE BEST HOT DOGS EVER! End of story. I was starving, and I ordered a Bratwurst which I demolished as soon as I got it. Everyone agreed that the food was awesome, and if I ever go back up there I will definantly visit that place again.

Once we ate, we couldn't figure out what to do to kill time. We decided to walk around a little strip mall, and I got excited when I found Rainbows on sale for $30! I didn't buy a pair at first, but then I decided it was such a good deal and they had a color that I did not yet own...so I walked away with a white pair of Rainbows.

Then we decided to all go get our nails done (poor Matt & Andrew). Jessica could not get a manicure, but she got a pedicure. It was funny to see her in her uniform with her slacks rolled up painting her toes pink. She told us it would be okay because they didn't check their toes lol. They had actually been doing swim training, and their Drill Instructors realized that half of the girls had polka dots painted on thier toes. She also told us how they got to go to the Navy Exchange, and they snuck a pair of tweezers out (that they bought) in a pair of socks (tweezers are banned). After lights out, they all snuck around and plucked their eyebrows.

After we got our toes and nails done, we headed back to the pizza place for Deep Dish pizza. The place was filled with Sailors, and they all ended up being friends of Jessie. After what felt like forever, we finally got our pizzas...and Matt and I were not dissappointed this time. The pizzas were huge, and the cheese was on the crust, then the toppings, and then the suace on top of that. We had way too much food, and we ordered 2 pizzas and left with a whole one.

Then we said bye to Jessie until around the end of August, when she comes home for 2 weeks. But at least we can talk to her on a regular basis soon.

Then we began the long trip home again =[

Day 3-Matt & I Visit the Windy City

After we got back to the hotel, Matt and I decided that we did not just want to sit around the hotel with everyone else. We wanted to go see Chicago while we were so close, because who knows when we would come back again. We tried to figure out the train schedule, and then decided to leave for the train station because the next Metra train came in like 15 minutes. We thought this was plenty of time to get there, but we got lost. We eventually made it there, but missed the train by 10 minutes. So we waited about 45 minutes to an hour for it to come back.

We could not figure out the schedule, and I ended up calling the train station info center for help (Matt claims he figured it out on his own though). Once we got on the train, I was amazed by the fact that there were 2 levels. Of course I made Matthew sit with me up top so we could see better. We passed all these cute train stations, and the people on the train were nice and explained to us where to go and how to get there.

Once we got off at the last stop in Chicago, I was amazed by the amount of stores in the stations. It felt like a little mall. Matt was nervous about going through the revolving doors, and I had to do it first so he wouldn't be scared (haha). Once we found our way out, we found a Starbucks and got drinks. We discovered that when you left a Starbucks, you could usually see another one as soon as you walked out the door.

We made our way to the Sears Tower, and when we asked for direction and tried plugging it into GPS, we found out it is now the Willis Tower because it was bought by someone else last December. People kept telling us we could see it to walk to it, but it was hard to find with all the other buildings blocking the view.

After we purchased our tickets, we made out way to the little musuem area. There were these TV screens built into the floor that you could stand on & press a button, and then the screen would zoom up 103 stories (the height of the tower) and then drop back down. It's supposed to be like the view from the tower. My stomach was dropping already.

On the elevator, I clutched Matthew for dear life because I was so scared. It went so fast, around 18 mph or 24 feet per second. It took around a minute to go up 103 stories.

Once we got to the top, we wandered around and looked at the views. We could see the Interstate we drove in on, and Matt was happy to be able to see Wrigley Field.



Both of us posing with the replicas of the tower, and the view from one side of the top.

Then Matt forced me on the solid glass ledge. Once you step out on it, you can see straight down 103 stories. When I looked down, I realized the toy cars I saw were real cars. I immidiately ran off the ledge and gripped the wall and Matthew for dear life. We wanted to take the professional picture up there, and it took me two tries to make it on the ledge for the picture. You can see the fear in my face, and I was SQUEEZING Matt for dear life lol. I was so happy to get off of it. Matt on the other hand, was brave and walked around on it like it was nothing.



Can you tell I am scared for my life?

After we left (thank goodness), we caught a bus to the Navy Pier. One of my friends told me to visit there and ride the Ferris Wheel. It was so much fun! We could see the whole city, but not from 103 stories up. However, Matthew scared me by rocking our little ferris wheel cart and talking about how it was only held up by those "little wires."



After that, we got sucked into a tourist trap. What we thought would be real Chicago Deep Dish pizza ended up resembling the Digiorno frozen deep dish pizza. The only highlight of eating there was that we could eat outdoors. These kids were feeding these ducks who were on the sidewalk, and the ducks snuck under the gate and came into where we were eating. Then a kid starting poking a duck with a play snake, and the duck bit him. I guess the lesson here is not to feed the ducks in Chicago.



I thought they were going to bite my feet lol.

After we went to a park for more pictures, we got back on the Metra to head back to our hotel. We played Monopoly the whole way, and Matt might have been beating me, but I am convinced he cheated somehow because no one beats me at Monopoly! I guess we will have a rematch.

We were supposed to get off the train at the North Chicago station. When we were at the Great Lakes stop, the one before our stop, Andrew texted me to ask if our train was pulling in. When I asked Matt what station we were at and read Andrew's text, Matt freaked out and got off the train, and I ran after him. However, I was being confusing.

We had to give my aunt directions to the place we were, and we were standing in a really sketchy area. When they were driving towards us, me & Matt attempted to walk somewhere easier to find. We definantly passed scarey people and a homeless man. I ran to our van whenever I finally saw it lol. After the long car trip, I never thought I would be so happy to get back in the van, but I was so excited to get in it that night lol.



Fact: If you are dumb enough to set your purse on the gross floor at the train station bathroom, it will get stolen.

Day 3-Jessica's Graduation!

When we got to the Naval Station at Great Lakes, we were a little surprised by the lack of security. Yes, there were men standing around with guns at the entrances, but no one searched our bags or checked our ideas before we went in. Not what we expected at all.

Once we got inside, it took forever for them to start. Matt, Andrew, and I sat separately from our family & these Sailors wouldn't let us go up the back of the bleachers and under a little rope. Instead, we had to climb over 20 people. It was annoying.

To start the graduation, they had a parade of flags, and each Sailor in the parade carried a flag from one of the states represented at the graduation that day. Then all of the Divisions marched in and were presented.



Jessica was in Division 204, and I was waiting for her Division to be announced to get a picture of her Division marching in and look for her. However, they called Division 203 and then 205, and skipped 204. So I was not looking forward. By the time I realized that the woman called 205 twice instead of 204 at all, I had already missed her walking today. I'm pretty sure every parent/relative in our section were MAD because they never corrected in.

After that, they all fell into formation and the Navy Band and Chorus performed. They gave out awards, and Jessie's Division got something, but I don't remember the name of the award.

Throughout the ceremony, this woman was driving me & Matt crazy. Yes, I was taking a lot of pictures. But unlike her, I knew not to get out of my seat and wander around to take pictures. She was all over the place, hanging off the bleachers, walking on the parade deck, and she was in a dress that I know was from the Junior Department at Kohl's because I tried it on. It was too small and she was like over 40. Gross.

Also, I noticed that all of these like drill instructor type people were pulling people out of their platoons, taking their covers (hats) off, and grabbing their arms and leading them away into this room. I could not figure out what was going on. They took around 20-30 people. I thought they were in trouble, but my sister filled me in later that someone had come into the station that was new and brought in the flu with them. So half of the people there were sick with the flu, and people were actually passing out during the ceremony.

After they called At Liberty, we went and found Jessie and met her friends/commanders. She lost weight! We took her to Cracker Barrel for her first meal out of camp, and she said it felt weird to be off base. Then we all headed back to our hotel because she said that she wanted to lay in bed and do nothing.

Fact: Even though she was At Liberty, she was not allowed to take off her uniform when she was with us off base because she would be considered AWOL (Absent Without Leave). Crazy!



Jessica with one of her commanders.



In the Navy chair at Cracker Barrel.



Jessica's Cover (hat).



Jessica's Cover, Ribbon for serving in a time of war, and two green stripes for being an E2 in Aviation. (Aviation people have green stripes-she told me it's green as in ground, as in you don't want to crash and hit the ground).

Ya'll got Grits?

For breakfast we stopped at IHOP, and we were all arguing over whether or not they sold grits. My aunt decided to ask, and to our surprise they actually had grits.

There were about one million farms in Ohio/Indiana, and two million deer. We passed a tractor that was black with a three on the side…clearly it was a 3 for Dale! I never knew I would see Rednecks out of the south-but they were everywhere in Ohio and Indiana.

In Indiana or Ohio one, we passed these farms and windmills. I mean there were like hundreds of farms and five times as many windmills. And not the old farm windmills that you would think would be at a farm. They were just these huge, white windmills. It was all we saw for around 20 minutes.

Later on, we finally started to see Chicago. Matt would NOT let me out of the car to go to the bathroom and made me suffer for around thirty minutes before stopping at a gas station.

We pulled up at a toll booth and it literally cost $1.25 to ride for maybe two minutes down on a road with potholes. When we had to pay $3 again about two minutes later, my aunt started yelling in the backseat (but not in a mean way) "Where is my toll money going? Obviously ya'll aren't using it to fix the potholes!"

To our amazement, we saw a McDonalds in the middle of an interstate. Literally in the middle. There was drive thru, but you could also park. It was crazy.

Also, for the first time in my life I spent $30 at McDonalds. But at least it was for me and four other people.

(See the car driving & the interstate exit sign?)

285. Round Trip.

Today is the first day of our trip to Chicago to see my sister graduate from the Navy’s basic training at Great Lakes, Illinois. We are beginning to think the van we are driving is cursed.

So far, 2 GPS things have brokenm and the dash broke so that we could not get our graduation passes or registration out of the dash.

We have seen about a million deer, including one we passed who just stood in the middle of the other lane. We’re pretty sure a tractor trailer that passed us hit the deer because it stopped right past where the deer was standing.

The best part of the night was stopping at a McDonald’s in West Virginia. Some guy came in who was drunk and was telling the people he wanted French fries and he didn’t want them to smell like “stinky feet.” He also told the workers that they were going to have to run to get his food.

Matt would not stop driving, and he finally stopped, but we could not find anywhere to stay. We found somewhere that would let us rent a room that night, but the catch was we could not check in until 3 PM and it was currently about 3 AM. We drove a little further, and we all ended up getting to go to sleep in a hotel around 6:30.

I would just like to explain the title in this post. SOMEONE in our group refused to fly to Chicago. It would have cost $285 and taken 2 hours. Instead of flying, I am on the longest car ride of my life.