Frost "Nibble"

Well unfortunately I haven't taken a lot of pictures this week...I will put a few more up from my Chicago trip but other than that not much. :(  I have a few fun stories to tell for this week which should make up for the lack of pictures.

On Monday, I had a meeting to attend at Pike. There were still remnants of a blizzard moving through our city of Grand Forks, meaning there were about 40mph winds and it was probably about -25 degrees outside. I was planning on only wearing jeans, long sleeve shirt, and a light jacket to Pike because I was getting picked up so I wouldn't be outside any more than 15 or 20 seconds. So no need for any snow coat or gloves right??  That ends up being a terrible mistake....

So I get picked up and the five of us in the car decide we want to stop and get food before our meeting which was scheduled to start in about 30 minutes.  Keep in mind its windy, blowing snow, and super cold. We drive about 2 miles to a little sandwich place, and stopping us from getting into the parking lot was a huge pile of snow, probably about 2 feet high and 10 feet long.  Our wonderful driver (nothing against him :P) decides to try to truck it through this mound of snow with his little 2 door car (talk about crammed in the back seats). We get about halfway through and the car tires sink right into the snow, putting us up on a nice pedestal with the tires spinning. So now we're stuck in the middle of this big patch of snow, and I'm only wearing jeans and a light jacket, and Sperry's for shoes. We all hop out and start working away at getting free of this mess we have put us in.  Bare hands digging through snow, wind hitting my face, really not something ANYONE should be doing. 

We're outside for about 10 minutes and I give up and can't take it any longer...I run to the sandwich place to get some place warm. My hands are burning and my ears are frozen solid. Every part of my body aches of cold.  Long story short, we finally get the car out about an hour and a half later thanks to a truck that was driving by. We chained up with him and he pulled us out. So, except for that first 10 minutes I was outside, the remainder was spent in the sandwich place watching the other guys try to get the car out. They were properly dressed unlike myself so they could handle being outside. 

For the rest of that evening, my hands burned, and the pain never went away. I was starting to get worried :/ I know it takes awhile for them to warm back up but not 4 hours later. When I wake up the next morning, three of my fingers on my right hand are numb and tingly. There wasn't any purple or blue coloring...just numb as if you had bruised your finger nail. I went to the doctor  the next day (Wednesday) and he said that is wasn't very bad and gave it the name "Frost Nibble". I had just damaged the nerves in my fingers. 

Well I think that one story gives me enough to talk about this week without boring everyone :P  Of course the one week I manage not to fall on my butt I instead almost freeze my hands off.  Not sure which one I would rather have happen to me... embarrassing moment or lose a finger?

On a more positive note, yesterday I heard the first form of life other than us up here in ND!! Birds were chirping as I walked to class and it was the first noise other than cars and wind blowing I have heard since November!! Hopefully this is a sign that Spring is around the corner...no more of these - degree days. Time for warmer weather! (Can't believe I would ever have myself think that)

Please comment if you enjoyed this, I will take several pictures for next week! Don't forget you can also subscribe via email on the right side so that you know when I write a new post!

Pike house we stopped at on our way to Chicago!

Thanks for following and not making this a waste of my time. :)

Cameron

Did I forget to mention I walked into a Subway for the
first time??

Just a little banner I made...I will talk about it more next week.

Lake Michigan...kinda looks the ocean doesn't it?

Weeks of catching up plus Chicago!!

I was planning on writing a blog this last Sunday, after I got back from Chicago for the weekend. However, due to an unfortunate series of events, I was unable to get home until Monday afternoon because of a snow storm that rolled through all of ND and MN. We managed to make it all the way to Minneapolis but were forced to stop there because the highways were shut down. So I was actually able to stay in two places I have never visited this past weekend, both Chicago and Minneapolis!

To start with a little of last week, just another very fast four days of school. I'm loving how fast this semester is going because it means sooner to coming home! I also managed to have another pretty bad fall last week while walking to class. :/  Devin (my roommate) was walking in front of me, and for whatever reason, he missed the one patch of ice but, knowing me, I caught it perfectly. One of my legs slid out from under me, and the other followed. It then led to me continuously switching which leg was sliding out, looking like I was trying to skate. After about six or seven "slips" I finally went down...Devin turns around laughing out loud and I get up, only to slip one last time and hit the ground again. Something tells me that I wasn't meant to walk in the snow/ice.

Chicago Pizza!!!

Can't believe I snapped a picture as sweet as this

Now to talk about Chicago...what a fun weekend that was. The reason I traveled there in the first place was because of a leadership convention that was going on for my fraternity.  It was just like what I wrote about in my post awhile back about Kansas City. Same exact type of event. There were about 25 of us that went this time, way more than the Kansas City trip.  The drive there wasn't bad at all. We left at about 1 in the morning and drove through the day, getting to Chicago by about 3 in the afternoon. I slept through a lot of it which made the drive go by a lot faster. The first night we listened to speakers and then at about 9, went into downtown Chicago where we walked along the "Magnificent Mile" and went to many different stores and pizza places.  Saturday was pretty much laid out the same, only difference was we went downtown during the day to see the city instead of at night. But overall it was an amazing weekend and I enjoy having opportunities like these to travel to places I haven't been before! I will post more pictures on a separate blog post so this doesn't become ridiculously long.

Like I mentioned above, we left Sunday morning but were forced to stake out in Minneapolis for the night.  Luckily, Minneapolis is the home of the Mall of America so there was an endless amount of activities we could do. This mall was absolutely huge and it managed to have both an amusement park and an aquarium! This was one of the coolest things I have seen and I was able to walk into pretty much every store I could ever want to.  It was definitely an amazing experience and I will be back there sooner than later.


Well that is pretty much all I have to say about this past week. I had my first night flight last night and it was a lot different than flying at night back home. Every direction I flew was just pitch black (with exception of an occasional town) and the only way you can figure out where you are is by using the instruments and GPS. Thank god for technology.

Miss everyone from back home so much! Let me know what else you might want to hear about!

Cameron

The picture from above but during the day/

Navy Pier

From good to bad

Perfect flying weather!

One-fourth of the way done with the semester after this week! After four weeks I am finally back into the flow of everything and also keeping up with my blog. :)  I have been going to the gym most days and finishing my homework well before it is due giving me plenty of time to relax and avoid all that stress. My ability to fly has picked up a little as well since last week. I was able to fly twice and I have a simulator lesson planned on Sunday.   The weather is to thank for allowing me to go up and fly and progress with my lessons.

However, after a fairly decent week (mid-20's), I woke up this morning to -15 degrees. So, like I stated in the title..the good weather didn't stay long. This weekend is supposed to be snowing which means no flying for me. It is so hard to predict the weather here even 24 hours in advance...it may call for no wind and clear skies but when you wake up in the morning the wind is howling outside and it is completely overcast. The conditions are always changing.  Glad to see weather back home is looking nice though! 70's all week, that's beach weather!


I have a few good stories to tell about this last week as well. I had another fun story of being on my bike (of course). So Devin (my roommate) and I decided to ride bikes to the store to get a movie. It was about 20 degrees outside and in the late afternoon, so the sun was going down soon. We get to the store fine, pick up our movie and ride to a sandwich place to get dinner. After picking up dinner, the sun is just setting and we are about halfway back to our dorm. I start slipping and sliding across a patch of ice, but successfully recover and make it out fine. I proceed to yell to Devin who is in front of me saying, "Devin I just about ate it on the [ice]....." as soon as I started saying "ice" I hit another slippery patch, but this time I was not so lucky. Bike slides out instantly, and I smack hard on my back. (Another hint at my title?) Devin stops just busting up laughing and this guy also saw the incident cracking up as well.  Just my luck with my bike. My third successful (bad) fall on my bike. I believe I mentioned the other two in earlier posts. I have just decided that it was not meant to be for me to ride that bicycle.

Another fun event that occurred last weekend was an 80's party. For the first time I went "thrifting" to find an awesome outfit. After countless hours of searching, I managed to find this get-up to the right. I only purchased the vest, everything else was mine. Not to sure how 80's that actually is but I decided to roll with it. I got plenty of compliments that night, and overall I would say it was a success considering I now have a bright orange vest that I got for only $2.50.

Great week overall, can't wait for next weekend because I am heading to Chicago with Pike! I will have plenty of pictures and stories to tell about that weekend I'm sure so make sure to check my post out next week! It will probably be posted on Sunday so I can talk about my weekend.



Let me know what you think about the change in my blog post titles....think it keeps it more interesting rather than just saying something like "Sixth week of college", cause that was boring.

Also make sure to put your email in on the right so you can get updated when I have a new post!

Cameron

Four rows up from the ice!