January 2011

I started the year in the state of Illinois surrounded by my family. All of my siblings, their spousal units, nephew and my cousins, aunt, uncle, grandmother, and friends. We had a great celebration. The next day, I met some extended family and was able to add to my family tree as well as put some faces to the names that had been floating around in my mind. As I traveled home, I thought of what a rich vacation I had been having.
My students and I finished our semester strong. The failure rate was lower than in years past, and I felt like we had a good energy flowing. Best story of the month, Friday night of MLK weekend, stayed out late, was invited out Saturday but crashed early, but Sunday was the kicker. I was called by my buddy in Portland and agreed to meet him. I had driven less than 10 miles when I saw a car on the side of the road with flashers going. As I saw it, I thought, "I hope I don't do whatever that car did." As I thought that, however, I felt the car ram the passenger side front tire into a giant pot hole and then slowly deflate. I pulled over. I was blessed in the fact that the torrential downpour of the previous three days had ended and I was able to look at stars. I also had a tarp in my trunk to lay on as not to get muddy. As I wrapped up changing the tire, a policeman came by to check on me. He told me I was the third car that night to flatten a tire. I drove 2 miles to the next town turned around and drove back toward home. I decided not to continue to Portland with a donut. As I passed near the pothole, 7 other cars had their flashers on and were pulled over. ODOT came and patched it that night. As I returned to mac, I hit another pothole and felt the donut lose air. I was able to coast into a parking lot at the edge of town and walked home. The next morning a buddy helped me haul my tire to Les Schwaub and I was able to change the tire back to a full size, fully inflated tire. As I finished and threw everything in my trunk, I also put my keys in the trunk. I then got a ride back to my apartment searched for the super, called the office in Salem and was able to be keyed into my place to get my spare key to the car.
I was the girls basketball announcer at the high school this season and had fun doing that. I also joined an adult choir and practiced with them once a week. It was a great release. On January 31, I joined a gym to try and get into shape.