A Bit of an Adventure
well, yesterday went a different way than I had originally thought it would.
Jason & his girlfriend picked me up around 9;45 or so to head to Minneapolis for our auditions. I had to walk a ways to meet them because neither my street or my avenue had been plowed yet. (or my alley for that matter)...after a quick ATM and gas stop we were on the road by 10 - our targeted leaving time.
About 20 miles or so down the road, we came to some slush in the passing lane. The slush was covering, unbeknownst to us, black ice. Jason said 'slow down, slow down' and before we knew it we were spinning on the freeway and landing in the ditch with a big thump and an explosion of white. I think we spun around twice on the freeway but I can't be certain as I shut my eyes until we hit the snowbank. I am thankful that we didn't hit the cement median or another car.
The scariest part of this was waiting. We were there for probably an hour and a half waiting for AAA and the state patrol. In that time we saw 5 cars spin out (do full 360's) and either hit the median or hit other cars! There was car debris everywhere. We were terrified that these cars were going to come hurtling into US on the side of the road. Only 5 cars spun out but COUNTLESS lost control at least for a few moments and were swerving everywhere. It was ungodly stressful. It was cold. We didn't know if we should be in the car (the apex of the curve of death) or be in the ditch and dive into it further when a car came our way. I had boots on (thankfully) but Jason & Erin did not and quite frankly, my sorels aren't what they used to be. We were all cold, wet and quite frazzled.
Eventually the state trooper came, the tow truck came and a couple of plows to clear up that section of road. Whew.
Once we got back on the road - the car was shaking something fierce. We assumed it was snow up underneath it or the alignmnet was off or something so we stopped ina small town there and found a mom & pop auto shop that luckily the owner was out snowblowing (otherwise he wouldn't have been there!). He put the car up on the hoist and took a look at things and determined that yes, it was just due to snow being jammed in all the wheels. Whew. He dug it all out, charged us a modest $10 and we were on our way.
We were about 2 1/2 hours late to our own auditions. Some people had been waiting....luckily my cousin & another actor/friend were there to let people know what was happening. We saw only 5 people. We saw some good, and some bad. We'll be back down there at the end of the month to do more auditions and some callbacks. Whew.
After that we headed over to the Mall of America to hit the Mac Store. MECCA. I think we spent almost 2 hours talking to a sales guy there - about the iMac (for office stuff), about software, about my iPod which wouldn't start that morning, about the Mac Pro and sweet sweet and delicious 30 inch cinema display, about speakers, about laptop bags, about printers & fax machines and more software. Whew. We ended up with a new iMac for now & a printer/fax machine and will get the Mac Pro at the end of the month.
Then off to IKEA for some cheap office furniture. Well, we only picked out a few lamps and we each stocked up on tea lights (so cheap!). We did some browsing and are going to go back with Steve's truck next week to pick up a desk, some chairs, a work table, etc. Slowly but surely the office is coming together.
We were supposed to go to an IFP party in St. Paul that night but we were all far too exhausted to even consider schmoozing and socializing. Ah well
We drove back to Duluth.
Sunday was much more enjoyable....I'll post some pics of our snowshoeing advennture later!
Jason & his girlfriend picked me up around 9;45 or so to head to Minneapolis for our auditions. I had to walk a ways to meet them because neither my street or my avenue had been plowed yet. (or my alley for that matter)...after a quick ATM and gas stop we were on the road by 10 - our targeted leaving time.
About 20 miles or so down the road, we came to some slush in the passing lane. The slush was covering, unbeknownst to us, black ice. Jason said 'slow down, slow down' and before we knew it we were spinning on the freeway and landing in the ditch with a big thump and an explosion of white. I think we spun around twice on the freeway but I can't be certain as I shut my eyes until we hit the snowbank. I am thankful that we didn't hit the cement median or another car.
The scariest part of this was waiting. We were there for probably an hour and a half waiting for AAA and the state patrol. In that time we saw 5 cars spin out (do full 360's) and either hit the median or hit other cars! There was car debris everywhere. We were terrified that these cars were going to come hurtling into US on the side of the road. Only 5 cars spun out but COUNTLESS lost control at least for a few moments and were swerving everywhere. It was ungodly stressful. It was cold. We didn't know if we should be in the car (the apex of the curve of death) or be in the ditch and dive into it further when a car came our way. I had boots on (thankfully) but Jason & Erin did not and quite frankly, my sorels aren't what they used to be. We were all cold, wet and quite frazzled.
Eventually the state trooper came, the tow truck came and a couple of plows to clear up that section of road. Whew.
Once we got back on the road - the car was shaking something fierce. We assumed it was snow up underneath it or the alignmnet was off or something so we stopped ina small town there and found a mom & pop auto shop that luckily the owner was out snowblowing (otherwise he wouldn't have been there!). He put the car up on the hoist and took a look at things and determined that yes, it was just due to snow being jammed in all the wheels. Whew. He dug it all out, charged us a modest $10 and we were on our way.
We were about 2 1/2 hours late to our own auditions. Some people had been waiting....luckily my cousin & another actor/friend were there to let people know what was happening. We saw only 5 people. We saw some good, and some bad. We'll be back down there at the end of the month to do more auditions and some callbacks. Whew.
After that we headed over to the Mall of America to hit the Mac Store. MECCA. I think we spent almost 2 hours talking to a sales guy there - about the iMac (for office stuff), about software, about my iPod which wouldn't start that morning, about the Mac Pro and sweet sweet and delicious 30 inch cinema display, about speakers, about laptop bags, about printers & fax machines and more software. Whew. We ended up with a new iMac for now & a printer/fax machine and will get the Mac Pro at the end of the month.
Then off to IKEA for some cheap office furniture. Well, we only picked out a few lamps and we each stocked up on tea lights (so cheap!). We did some browsing and are going to go back with Steve's truck next week to pick up a desk, some chairs, a work table, etc. Slowly but surely the office is coming together.
We were supposed to go to an IFP party in St. Paul that night but we were all far too exhausted to even consider schmoozing and socializing. Ah well
We drove back to Duluth.
Sunday was much more enjoyable....I'll post some pics of our snowshoeing advennture later!
Comments
And Ikea and Mac are a great way to celebrate a near miss!
Seriously, I'm glad everything (and everyone) is okay, and that you had such a productive trip.