The Death of a Car.

Went to my friends birthday party on Saturday, had a great time. Stayed late. Left around midnight. Headed for my Mom's house because we were supposed to go to the circus in the morning.

12:40am.

Just getting ready to exit the freeway. 3 blocks from my Mom's house.

I merged into the far right lane and started to slow down for the ramp.

saw brake lights, slowed more. Then realized they weren't slowing anymore, but had stopped completely. In a panic, I hit the brakes as hard as I could. That was a big mistake. The brakes locked the wheels, but I slid right into the other car, who had hit a stalled car.

hence the almost instant transition from slowing to complete stop.

Then 2 more cars hit me from behind.

The police showed up and told us to exit the freeway and park in the gas station right by the off ramp, but my car wouldn't go. I had to get pushed by one of the police cars.

When I got there, they had the guy I had hit over in a corner doing a series of sobriety tests.

Another girl was leaning out the door of her car crying hysterically and vomiting. She kept saying that she had just had an accident the day before and she couldn't believe it happened again.

I think I might have been in shock. I was completely calm, gave them my license and other paperwork they needed, and gave them my statement.

as I finished giving the statement, they put the guy I hit into the back of the police car. I said "wow". the officer asked what was the matter, and I told him that I had never seen someone cuffed and put in the back of a police car anywhere except on tv. He laughed when I said it felt like I was on an episode of "Cops".

An ambulance showed up to pick up the hysterical girl, who had been driving the very last car, and was acting very strangely. My mom, my sister, and her boyfriend had showed up by this time, and my sister said that she heard they were taking her in for a 24 hour hold. She said that she thought they probably wanted to do a drug test, because she was acting like she was on something.

They brought my papers back and said I could go, but I had to wait for the tow truck. my sister's boyfriend rode with the tow guy and I went with my mom and sister.

Got back to my mom's around 3am Sunday. My baby sister's birthday.

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The guy came out for the evaluation on Tuesday. It's totaled.

R.I.P Katie-mobile 2.0

Lorelei

 Just because I've got the song stuck in my head.

Am I the only person that didn't realize the song wasn't about a girl named Lorelei? Looked it up, and learned that Lorelei is the name of a treacherous river passage in Germany. I suppose it explains why he begs the river for mercy.

Beautiful song.

4th of July / Cannon Shoot

It was SO hot this weekend.

At FMRF I saw a weather report that said it might rain in Victorville over 4th of July weekend, and I was worried that it might interfere with the shoot.

Rain might have actually HELPED.

It was so hot on Saturday that no one else wanted to go back out on Sunday to shoot again. We all ended up sitting around at Piper's and watching season 1 of Game of Thrones... twice. Great show though.

I bought a pound of powder and 100 balls for my gun. We ended up shooting it a whole 6 times.

I never got to fire the cannon.

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Mom had a BBQ for the 4th. My cousin and his girlfriend came too. We made up for my lack of shooting at the cannon shoot - everyone got to shoot my gun.

Fabrics-Store.com Blog

Was interviewed for the fabrics-store.com blog during faire this year. Just found the article. They messed up Mat's name more than once, but I'm re-posting anyway.

http://www.fabrics-store.com/blog/2011/05/11/192/

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May 11, 2011
Meet Mortimers Skully and Katie.

Mortimers Skully & Katie

Name: Matt Graves, aka Mortimers Skully
Occupation: Plays with the Belles of Bedlam at the Faire. A massage therapist outside of the Faire.
How many times have you been to the Renaissance Faire? This is my fourth year.
Did you make your costume? No, actually my costume was made by a friend.
Does it incorportae the use of linen? Yes, for the shirt and other parts.
What is your favorite dessert? Creme brulee. (Mortimor also suggested we try the "Sin on a Stick" sold at one of the food booths. It is chocolate covered cheesecake on a stick. Yum!)


Name: Katie
Occuation: Plays in the parade at the Faire and is a retail associate at JoAnn's Fabrics.
How many years have you attended the Faire? Ten years.
Did you sew your own outfit? Yes.
Did you use linen to make some articles of clothing? Yes! (Katie is actually a huge fan of Fabrics-store.com and used some of our linen in her ensemble.)
Why do you like shopping at Fabrics-store.com? Because its cheaper than anywhere else and it's all 100% linen!
What is your favorite dessert? Chocolate mouse and German chocolate cake.

Frazier Mountain Renaissance Faire

Spent 2 weekends up in Frazier Mountain for the new little Renfaire up there. It was great. There were oak and aspen trees everywhere and the weather was lovely. If the sailboat thing doesn't work out, I would SO move up there instead.

Spent most of the time over at the Gnarly Oak Alestand. It was kind of the musician's hub of the faire. I had my drum and my guitar, and I got to play with a lot of other people. I was talking to one of the minstrels, and I mentioned that I can pick up most instruments and within 20 minutes or less play them like I've been playing for years. He pulled out this really cool looking thing that I had never seen before, and asked if I could play it.

It was a stringed instrument.

I asked what the tuning was, and he said it was in the key of C, lowest string was an octave below middle C. I started playing The Rose. His jaw dropped. I started playing a medley of whatever came into my head, and he just sat there staring. It was way cool. I forgot what the thing was called, but if I find one, I'm so buying it. I loved it.

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He called it a Cantella. Saw him again at SLO

Venting.

In a major funk right now. It seems like everything that could possibly go wrong is, or is about to.

Got my graduation evaluation back, and it says I have MORE friggin classes I need to take.

Car is busted up, and I got a technical "at fault" for it.

Have all kinds of events coming up that I am supposed to be at, but I'm afraid to commit to them because everything is so tentative right now.

I still haven't found a better paying job. Anywhere.

...I really just want to crawl under a rock and disappear.

Seriously, what's next?

Moving Day etc.

Successfully moved.

Loving the new place. Kitten is still a little skeptical, but she's warming up to it.

The room here is kind of huge. I haven't had a room this big since High School when I was living at my Grandma's house. It has this really awesome sloped ceiling too.

The night before the move, I went and saw Mat's band, and gave him the guitar strap. He loved it, and used it all night.

The show was awesome. The venue had margarita pizza and Guinness. I figure that's a good dinner. Tasted good.

Flogging Molly was playing down the street, so parking was a nightmare. I had to park almost a mile away, and walk to my car in the dark. Good night to wear the trench coat I guess. At least no one messed with me.

Saturday was pretty miserable. I'm SO glad it's over. I don't know what I would have done if my Mom hadn't come out and helped - there probably would have been blood. There was a little anyway, but I'm sure there would have been more.

One of my book shelves died a horrible death. Down to two now. Don't want to have to buy a new one, so I'm really hoping that adding the scavenged shelves from the dead book shelf to the remaining book shelves will be enough.

Wednesday was finals. Breezed through the CIS final, but the math one was tough. Summation notation is a bitch, and I forgot just about everything there was to know about it. The series and patterns stuff was easy though. I just hope it was enough. I would really like to NOT have to take math over again.

Going to take something during the summer. Need to figure out what though.