Adventure Day.

Alright, so when I LEFT my house today, my tire had air in it.

 I know it did, I put air in it last night on my way home, and it didn't look even a little flat when I left the house this morning to go to school.

 I got out of class, stopped by the Game Lab for a little bit, then headed back out to my truck to go home.

 Flat tire.

 I mean, FLAT.

 Like, sitting on it's rim, no air in it at all flat.

It has had a slow leak for awhile now. No one could find where it was leaking from, so I just went with the filling it up again every few days. Tires are EXPENSIVE, and I didn't want to replace it if I didn't have to.

But now, I have to.

 I still don't have a replacement Triple A card. Mine was in my purse when it got stolen. So, I went to the lab and asked Josh if he felt like being a hero.

He gave me the number.

I called, but they said I have used up all 4 of my roadside assistance calls for the year...

          4?

I only remember calling twice. I do know how to change a tire, though. So I headed back to the lab in search of someone who had a jack. I didn't think I had one.

I found Mike on the way.

He had a jack.

While he was trying to get his out, I was browsing the owner's manual for my truck.

and it said I DO have a jack.

I found it, and got it out.

And Mike changed my tire for me anyway.

Because he is awesome.






...on the bright side, I found my IPod. It was in the glove box.

Go figure.

Vampires.

Donated blood with Josh today. It wasn't nearly as bad as I expected it to be - but then, the company helped a lot.

Needles are scary.

Distractions are good.

He was a pretty good distraction - I laughed through most of it.

I did manage to make a complete derp of myself though. I neglected to eat breakfast. I rarely eat it anyway.

Unfortunately, in this particular situation, the consequences for such actions are...

well...



Yea. I passed out like it was cool.

Theft and Values.

My poor truck got broken into tonight. They took my sad little excuse for a purse. I cancelled all cards that were in it, and I will be going to the DMV in the morning to replace the driver's license.

On a lighter note, I have some of the best friends anyone could ask for. Josh, Austin, Allison, and Craig were there for me through all of the calling to cancel cards. They swept the glass out of my car while I was on the phone, Josh called the police for me so I could get the report done, and Allison sat with me the whole time trying to make me feel better. 

The entire time all of this was going on, I was worried about only ONE item that was in my truck. My flute was behind the seat. My stepdad gave it to me the summer before I started 8th grade, because I wanted to be in band, and he happened to have a flute. It was with me all through high school, through summer camps and band camps. Through audition after audition for the PCC Honor Band that marches in the Rose Parade, and most recently, many rehearsals and an audition with my current band - which is still lacking a name. The case is held together by stickers because I dropped it off the top bunk while practicing the summer after my sophomore year of high school, and each sticker has a story.

It is irreplaceable.

Luckily, it was still there behind the seat, along with a few other things of varying worth that I apparently didn't care nearly as much about.

When I first saw the broken glass around my truck, I didn't think it was from my truck - total "this can't happen to ME" moment. As I walked closer, and saw the window smashed in, I was still swimming in disbelief a little bit. I looked away, then looked back.

The window was still smashed.

I backed away, and started walking back over towards Allison's car. She shouted "are you OK?" and I told her that the window was smashed out in my car. 

then I went back to the car, opened the door. It was still locked, it just no longer had a window. As it opened, glass showered down from the window frame. I could hear it rattling in the door too. It was all over the seat. I remembered that I had left my purse in the car, so I climbed in despite the broken glass to look for it. It was gone. 

By this time the boys were on their way back out of the house. They had heard what happened. Allison told me to let them deal with stuff outside, then dragged me back into the house. As I passed him, I asked Josh if I could use his computer to cancel my cards.

Looked up phone numbers, called and cancelled cards... 

...everything is dealt with, except for the license, that has to wait till tomorrow.

This did make me think though. We surround ourselves with crap. Lots of it. Most of it we don't even remember what it is or why we have it, it's kind of just THERE.

How much of it do we need, really?

One of my favorite romantic comedy movies (super cheesy, but I love it anyway), Leap Year, has a line in it that hits home right now. It asks "If your house was on fire, and you had 60 seconds, what would you grab?"

What would you grab? Do you even know?

My truck got broken into. If I had it to do over again, sure, I would have taken my purse in with me tonight. I almost did, then I put it back thinking "Oh, I won't NEED it, it'll be fine".

BUT, if EVERYTHING in the truck had been taken, and I could only have saved one thing, would it have been the purse?

no.

The board games?

no.

Magic cards? Camping gear? Stereo?

nope.

The only thing in that truck that mattered enough to me that I actually WORRIED about it being gone was the flute.

and thankfully, It was still there.

Happy New Year!

Went camping down at Ocotillo Wells with my church over New years weekend. Had a blast. Rode quads, had campfires, sang around the campfires, had tasty food, and the company was AMAZING.

Rode out there in my truck, one of my friends, Josh, was awesome enough to ride with me, I thoroughly enjoyed the company.

Shortly after we turned onto the 78, he was looking out the window, and saw some odd lights in the sky. We were trying to figure out what they were, and I pulled over so that we could look at them. They turned out to be Chinese wishing lanterns. I didn't know those were even real, I've only ever seen them in Tangled.

We got to the site, and Josh's brother Austin, their dad, and their dad's girlfriend were there already. We set up the tents, and I taught Josh how to play a G progression on the guitar while we hung out around the campfire. It was really laid back, and it was wonderful.

Austin read us a bedtime story: The Hobbit, chapter 3.

The next morning, Josh taught me to ride a quad. I decided it was fun, and I wanted one. Then we all we all went out on a long ride. Austin and Josh rode the quads, I rode in the Jeep because there were only 2 quads. It was still WAY fun though.

When we got back in the evening, The rest of our friends had arrived (Allison, Andrew, Alex, Loni, and Nick). Allison had a Chinese wishing lantern that someone had given her. It was pretty awesome. We had dinner around the campfire, and hung out singing camp songs and sea shanties until midnight-ish. Then we headed over to the BIG communal bonfire in the middle of our little area.

At midnight, they threw a couple of Christmas trees on the bonfire, and we released Allison's lantern. It was amazing.

We all got another bedtime story from Austin. This time, it was The Hobbit again, but chapter 4.

Sunday morning there were a lot more quads available, so we went on another ride. Austin wanted to stay behind and shoot stuff with the BB gun, so I borrowed his quad. I was doing really well with it most of the morning, so I started getting a little cocky. Then a little more... and a little more... and then I rolled the quad. I managed to walk away with just some fun bruising, but I bent up his handlebars and busted his headlight pretty good. I offered to pay for the damage, but they got the handlebars straightened out, and said they probably wouldn't fix the headlight.

I still want a quad.

Reposting my Good Stuff list from Facebook:

I don't even know if I CAN list all the awesomeness I'm feeling right now. Had an amazing weekend up in Ocotillo Wells.

Happy New Year everyone!

1. Camping
2. Friends
3. Smores
4. Quads
5. Chinese wishing lanterns
6. Bonfires
7. Campfire songs
8. Campfire smell
9. Making new friends
10. Improving existing friendships
11. Conversation
12. Bedtime stories
13. Omelets in a bag (they were delicious)
14. AZ's soup/stew
15. Learning experiences
16. Beauty
17. Silliness
18. The new year!

Band Stuff

I completely neglected to write about this, but I got conscripted into a band back in... September? I think it was September anyway.

We do original and traditional(ish) music.

We had an audition for the Renaissance Faire a few weeks ago, and had our first gig just before Christmas. The gig went really well, but we're still waiting to hear back from the Faire.

Yes.

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2010/08/04/prop-8-overturned-gay-mar_n_671018.html?ref=fb&src=sp&comm_ref=false&mid=54

You've got to be kidding me...

Seriously?

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