Looking through pictures that have been taken over the years there are a lot of good memories. I think that I have a photographic memory for photographs but nothing else. I can look through my pictures and tell you a story about almost every single one. Other things in my life are a lot harder to remember. I dont understand why photographs have such an impact on my memory but I would have a lot fewer cool stories if photographs were not a part of my life.

This picture actually was not taken by me but my girlfriend Lisa. My sophomore year my staff and I put on a fund raiser right before finals to help relieve stress. Pay a dollar and Pie your RA (Resident Assistant). Lets just say there was a huge turnout and a few bloody noses but it was all worth it in the end. It lives on through the pictures.

Yesterday evening I found out that another one of my friends had something terrible happen to them. This is the message that was shared with his friends.

Last night during Ultimate Frisbee practice, Oliver passed out and went into cardiac arrest. He lost his ability to breathe, and for a while lost his pulse. Paramedics are estimating that his heart was stopped for about 10 min. The ambulance was able to stablize him, and they rushed him to the Emergency Room in Winona. From there, he was given a CT scan. His brain is ok, but there is a probability of brain damage. He’s still unresponsive or able to breathe on his own. They flew him to Mayo Clinic at St. Mary’s where he’s in critical condition. Right now they’re cooling his body to minimize brain damage and they won’t be warming him for another 24 hours. He’s been sedated and paralyzed and placed into a drug induced coma. After they start warming him, we’ll be able to figure out the extent of damage on his body and his brain and then they will be able to add more pieces to the puzzle.. As of right now his heart is unable to function normally, and has a very weak and unstable beat. He has suffered a heart attack at the age of 22. The Dr.’s have no clue as to what happened, or what is happening. After his body reaches room temperature, three things can happen: #1- He won’t wake up and will be declared brain dead. From there it’s up to his mother as to whether or not put him on life support, #2- He can wake up, be rushed into heart surgery and suffer serious heart conditions his whole life, and #3- He could wake up, and all of this could have been caused by a virus. (Obviously #3 is the one that we’re hoping for.) Of course with all of this brain damage is likely due to the amount of time that his heart stopped. However, Dr.’s are hopeful due to his age and his health, and the fact that he’s a fighter. Right now Ollie, his family, and I really need everyone’s prayers. He is my everything, and I don’t know what to do. -Nicole

This morning Oliver was awake and sitting in a chair. The doctors don’t know if he has any serious brain damage though. He will be under a long series of tests today to see what is going on with him. I wish both him and Nicole his finance the best.

I am sorry for those friends that I lost touch with over the last year. We need to hang out before the end of this year. Reunite and relive all those great memories. Peace + Love

All in all this has been an interesting week. Finals are coming up in the next few days for me and I am pretty excited. I feel confident that I will do well on the finals I have left. I am most worried about my Pathophysiology final. I have received a number of new orders from my High School Sports Galleries and I want to thank all of the parents who have supported me.

A student here at WSU was reported missing on Thursday of last week by his family and he was found on Friday afternoon. This is what the school released to the student body

Winona State University regrets to announce the death of one of its students, Matthew Alexander Gille, a junior from Rockford, Illinois. His body was found this morning near the Garvin Heights Overlook in Winona. The body was recovered from a wooded area later in the afternoon. The exact cause of death is not known at this time. The Winona Police Department, Minnesota State Patrol and the Winona County Dive and Rescue Team assisted with the recovery of the student’s body. More details will be provided pending investigation by law enforcement officials. The student was reported missing on Thursday. His family, campus security and law enforcement officials were notified shortly thereafter. A search began on Thursday evening and was narrowed to the Garvin Heights area after his car was found near the overlook. The search resumed on Friday morning, leading to the location of the body.

Freshman year I lived down the hall from Matt and got to know him in passing. He was a nice guy, well loved, and he will be missed no doubt. It is pretty scary to think that this could have been anyone that I know. There has been a huge outpouring of support for the family and through Facebook people have started to collect and assemble a storybook of his life experiences as seen though others eyes. Pretty amazing how many people one person could touch.

Wish me luck on finals and I will keep you as updated as I can. I leave for Arizona on the 15th of December!

Last night Lisa and I decided that we really really wanted some fresh baked bagels. The only problem with wanting fresh bagels in a small town is you just cant get them. Walmart brand bagels did not sound so great either. Searching online we found that just making them is pretty easy so we got everything we needed and got the ovens stoked to cook some fluffy goodness. I thought that it would be harder to do but the whole process was easy to do with two people. After making the dough and letting it rise we cut it into pieces, rolled them out, and made rings and twists. After boiling them in sugar water and flipping them we baked them for 30 minutes till golden brown. It was a bit of work but our efforts paid off because there is nothing better than bagels fresh from the oven.

So last night I took about an hour out of my evening to chase around a bunny rabbit. They are really really hard to even find in the dark much less get close enough to take a picture. Their extremely round eyes make flash photography almost impossible because of the redeye. I was about 5 feet away when I took this picture. It is the best one yet but they weren’t exactly ideal conditions. I shot this at ISO 3200 because of the distance to the subject. I think I need a better beamer to get a little bit more reach out of my flash.

Over Thanksgiving break I ended up staying in Winona working for the University. So far it has been really really quiet around here and I am really missing my friends.

I am not really looking forward to having to go back to school so soon but it has been a joy just to relax for a while. Thanksgiving dinner was filling even though I could not spend it with most of my family. I am still thankful for everything that I have and I couldn’t wish for anything more. I think I am going to go to bed early again tonight so that I can see another pretty sunrise like this one that was taken this morning. Best part about waking up to the sunrise is you have a lot more of your day to spend slacking off or napping.