Monday, December 18

Homeward West!

I have had no power at my house since Thursday night. It has been miserable. Left Pullman with Erika and Jessie on Friday morning around 11. The drive was alright until we reached Ellensburg. We stopped and got some food and it started snowing. Uhhhh. It stopped a couple min later and we finished up and left. I did not want to go over the pass in the dark. Got up past Cle Elum and the roads got bad. I wasn't worried...I just don't trust the other people around me. Took a few pictures (I'll post them when my power comes back on) on the pass. At one point we got to the summit and traffic stopped. Apparently, everyone had to put on their chains. That plugged it up. I really didn't see why we needed chains...the road was not that bad if you just continued driving. Got on the King County side of the pass and it was just slush. We had no trouble...first time in five years the pass has had snow on it since I have been at WSU. Got off of I-90 and that's where the trouble began. There was no power on Hwy 18 until we got to Covington, so the lights were messed up. We saw an accident happen on the hwy going towards I-90. Glad I wasn't there, backed up traffic for miles. Got off of hwy 18 and onto 167 towards Puyallup, traffic was backed up there too for a while. There was no reason for it. Got off onto 512 to Spanaway, I was not a happy camper after that. I swear we had to stop at every light at least twice and we went 8 miles in an hour. I just wanted to go home...I was tired, irritated and we needed gas soon. Finally got on the road towards Rainier. We were less than 50 yards from my house when we had to turn back because the road was closed. We tried three other ways to my house and had to turn back. We finally had to go through Yelm into Rainier to get to my house. A trip that is suppose to take 6 hours turned into 8+!! My mom worried because for some reason our phones would not work. We showed up at home and my mom asked us why we took so long. Damn traffic!! On the flipside of things...I was glad I was not at home during the bad windstorm. A couple of trees fell in our yard and one hit our truck. Our truck is a tank so it just dented the tailgate and part of the cab. We now can't put the tailgate down...sad.

For the past couple days we've been freezing, bored and wanting the power to come back on. Luckily, our grandparents gave us their generator to use until ours comes back on. We've spent our time playing Yahtzee, cards and Scrabble with my dad and my siblings. We went shopping one day so we didn't have to spend time at home doing nothing. You can only play board games so much with your weird dad. We even made up a few new words in Scrabble. I'll post them later...they are pretty funny.

Our power should come on tonight...hopefully.

Sunday, December 10

Dead Week 2006

This semester's dead week was absolutely horrible. I couldn't believe how much stuff I had to do that wasn't even related to classes. Some of it was fun and some of it stressed the heck out of me.

Saturday was fun. Got up late, ate some food. Went to the rec center with Lea and Hiro for a while. Lea and Tucky prepared Asian food for us and our neighbors. Everyone came over about 6:30. About 11 people came over. A few of them had to leave and then some of them wanted to play a game. So we played Scattergories. I could not believe how many times I had to explain the rules. Nicole and James (our senior citizen neighbors) were so competitive. James cheated and Nicole argued the whole time. Time ran out and everyone left. I called Ashlee and asked if anyone wanted to go sledding. We had to wait until the movie Becca, Nickey and who ever else was there watching it was done. I hung out at home until Ashlee called me back. It was around midnight when we actually left and went up to the HS. Becca, me and Ashlee went down a couple times and hurt ourselves before Nick and Nickey came and joined us. Becca didn’t feel the greatest and we thought we might have given her a minor concussion. So she sat in the car for most of the time. I went down doubled with Nickey and we exploded off the inner tube, landed funny and did not see where the tube went. It was so much fun. I got brave and decided to go down head first. I never made it down on the inner tube. Every time I hit the hump, I flew off of the tube and slid down the hill. I still haven’t conquered it. Nick and Nickey took Becca home after a while and me and Ashlee stayed until about 2. I took Ashlee back to her house and had some hot chocolate.

Sunday was pretty relaxed for the most part. I had to go to a group meeting in the afternoon for my sport management class. Our project was on the new NBA basketball by Spalding. We spent some time dividing up the work and then we left. Went home and watched the Seahawks beat Denver in the last minute of the game. That Josh Brown has sure saved us this season. Then I had a co-ed flag football game at 7PM. That was a cold night. We won and moved on to the next round...the game before the championship game. We have won all of our games in the last couple minutes of the game. From my understanding our captain said that we were going to play on Monday at 7. That worked out for our girl’s game too. Play co-ed at 7 followed by our girls' championship flag football game at 8.

Apparently, my car tabs expired November 30th and my mom didn't tell me until December 3rd. I was driving around town with expired tabs. I ended up getting them in the mail on Monday. I was to meet Nickey at the rec center at 2 and when I drove up there I found out that one of my tire chains fell off while I was driving. I was pretty upset because I did not want to buy a new set of them. After the rec center, I drove back home and luck would have it, I found my tire chain in the middle of Stadium Way. I could not believe I found it. I could have been anywhere. I went home and did some homework. I got a phone call from Dave, at the intramural office in Smith Gym. He called me and told me that the team we were playing tonight for our woman’s flag football game was going to be canceled because the other team could not make it. I was upset because I wanted to play them tonight and get a shirt. He told me it had to be rescheduled. That was not going to be okay with my team because we made plans and reschedules for people on my team so they could play on Monday. The rest of the week was booked solid for everyone. This was going to be a very long week for me. I went to work up at the elementary school for the HS freshman games. I did the girls’ 30 second clock and then left. Ate dinner then Donald and Shannon came and got me for our co-ed game. The flag football game didn’t start off too well. The other team got a touch down right away and that wasn’t good for us. We held it in there with 27 points scored by our girls and 2 points scored by our boys. Throwing it to girls is a great incentive for more points. I had a couple of great catches. We came up short however, losing by two points. Poop.

Tuesday was a really boring day as far as school is concerned. I sat through 11 presentations. I wanted to gouge my eyes out with a spoon. Sooo boring. The only good thing to come of it was we now have an example of what me and my group need to do for ours on Thursday. I finished my survey for my EdAd class, glad that was out of the way. Got out of class and met up with Ashlee and Jackie. We weren’t going to let the intramural office screw us (Jackie has been before with dodgeball). So we drove over to the rec center and went to talk to Dave. He wasn’t in his office. We did meet him in the hall as we walked down the stairs. We stood there and talked to him about the reschedule from Monday. He told us that the game was rescheduled for Wednesday at 7 PM. That was a surprise for us, when was he going to let us know that? We wouldn’t have known if we hadn’t gone in there and talked to him. He confirmed it with the other team but did not tell us. That was frustrating. We told him that we could not play at all this week due to school, work, presentations and projects that everyone was busy with. We explained that we worked this out so we could play on Monday with no problems. If we were to play on Wed or Thurs, there would be maybe 5 people who would be able to show up. We weren’t going to forfeit. He said that he will try to work something out for us, even if we had to play the game next semester. I even mentioned that we were willing to be co-champions with the other team…he really didn’t say anything about that, he kind of ignored me. We wrapped it up by saying we would have to cancel on Wednesday night and left. Jackie and Ashlee dropped me off at home and then I got ready for concessions. I got a phone call from John, one of our umps saying that he has not gotten paid for our games. So now another problem to go fix with the frickin rec center. Shannon came by and picked me up. Went into Beasely and got a wrist band…weird. This was going to be a huge game, I was nervous. I hope nothing goes wrong because the game was sold out. We started getting stuff ready and after a while we had customers. The wiener machines gave us a hard time because the breaker would not stay clicked. Everything seemed to be going well until the explosions….

Our soda machines decided to poop out on us. Water and Co2 went everywhere. It sprayed everyone who was back there; it got on the walls and even sprayed the wieners that were cookin. This was about 8 minutes before half time…the feeding frenzy. We grabbed garbage bags to put the hose in; Courtney went and got the mop bucket…anything to keep a lot of water from getting on the floor. We got it cleaned up and some maintenance guys came in to fix it. People were really upset they couldn’t get their sodas. We had to give them bottled pop for a while. Once the stand died down, a bunch of us ran out to the corridor to watch the last two min of the game. We beat Gonzaga by 10 points. It was insane! The floor was covered in fans. Such a sweet victory. We went back and cleaned the stand. Grabbed some leftover food and me, Shannon and Nickey went home. I got home and ate one of my chicken burgers. Then Nickey IM’s me asking what I was doing and if I wanted to go with her and Brenna to the Zzu. I went. Me and Nickey got there and ordered a drink. Few moments later Brenna showed up. For most of the night to closing we sat there talked and drank our drinks. It was fun to hang out in a chill fashion. It was closing time so we walked up the driveway and to my car. I took Brenna home first then to Chief-Joe to drop Nickey off. I decided to go in with her. When we got out of the car, Nickey instantly fell in the parking lot. She was laughing uncontrollably and I went over there and helped her up. She told me she was embarrassed that she fell. We went up the stairs and Kaitlin came down asking us what was happening. I told her Nickey fell in the parking lot. She told us if we needed any help she was willing to do so. I told her it was fine and we went into the apartment. Nickey instantly got a phone call from Brenna and talked to her for a while. I was in the living room with Becca. We talked for a while. Then I left because Becca had to finish some papers. I drove home and went to bed.

This was the worst Wednesday I have ever had since I have been here at school. I woke up, went to my one class, hung out with Ashlee for a bit in the library and then went to lunch with Shannon, Donald and Courtney. I went home and ate some lunch between the noon and 2 o’clock hour, before I had to go back up to campus and meet with my EdAd group in the library. The first of my 4 meetings that day. It was a quick meeting. Divided up what each of us was going to talk about in our powerpoint. Went home and did a few things before I had to go to the library again at 4 for my English 402 group project. This was to be on if we should pay college athletes or not. I walked up there again to wait for my group members in front of the library. Megan calls me, one of the girls who plays on the other team. She called to harass me about why we could not play them Wednesday night. I told her everyone was busy with school and work. The most that could make it would be about 4 or 5 girls, it wouldn’t have been fair to play it since the other team canceled on us for Monday. She also mentioned that her captain got a phone call saying that we were going to be co-champions and that her captain was picking up the shirts as we were speaking. I told Megan that I should be getting a phone call too. Never got one that day. I told her bye and that I would talk to her later because my group members showed up. For some reason I got mad. We got our group thing done in less than an hour and we were to meet again at 7. I went home and got my car and drove up to Stephanie’s. We actually got some stuff accomplished for our presentation Thursday morning. Powerpoint was finished, paper was getting done, radio blurb was talked out and our flier got done. Good feeling of accomplishment. The only thing that seemed to get done that day. I was late to my other meeting at 7 back at the library. We got it finished before 8 that night. I remembered that Smith Gym was open til at least 10 that night. I went out on a limb and walked down there. I thought to myself…what the heck, what else could possibly go bad today? I went in there and told the girl at the desk who I was and what I was doing there. She told me that Dave wrote her a note saying that 2 of the 3 games that were to be played that night because the other one was forfeited…yeah she used that word. I was like…uh, we did not forfeit. The game was rescheduled for another time. She said, oh, on here it says that Bohler Addition wins and they got their shirts. I actually pointed at the girl and yelled that wasn’t fair. She said that if I had a problem to talk to Dave. I walked out of Smith Gym pissed. I was so mad I couldn’t even unlock my car to get in it. The part I was maddest about was that Dave couldn’t take two minutes to call and tell me what the hell was going on. I called Jackie and told her. I came home and told Nickey, IMed Becca and left a message with Ashlee. We were going to go talk to Dave on Thursday since we had to go there for officer meeting at 6 anyway. I went home and tried to calm down. I attempted to work on our group stuff. Got some of it done before I went to bed. We were ready to present tomorrow, all three of them.

Got up early on Thursday morning and found my “nicer" looking clothes and put them on. Got all my stuff printed out and put on my flash drive. Walked up to campus and looked at the paper for a while. Put our powerpoint on the computer my group went third. It went well. Better than I thought it would. Ok, one down, two more to go. Got to my EdAd class and found out my zipper broke. What else could go wrong this week? So I stood up in front of the class with the powerpoint print out in front of my zipper. That presentation went well also. That one was more casual than the others. Ok, two down, one more to go and I am home free! Went to my English class and waited for us to go. That one was not as smooth as the others. The teacher is a real flake and is very confusing. I hated that class with a passion. Well I guess it wasn't the class but more the teacher. 1:15 came and I was excited to go home and take those blasted pants off. I thought I deserved a nice lunch at Cougar Country so I went by myself because everyone was in class or at work. Scarffed it down and got a call from Bri asking me to take her to class. I went up to her house and picked her up and took her to class. She told me about her late early morning bathroom adventures and her trip to the ER. Poor Bri. Dropped her off in front of the P.E. building. Went home and took a well deserved nap. Got up and went to the rec center. Dave was not available. So we went to our officer meeting. Got home and watched some tv. Watched Survivor and CSI, then when Lea got home, me, her and Tucky went out to Mike's for a chill evening. Walked up near Greek row and heard that some Frat watered down a sidewalk to watch the girls in heels fall on their butts. I actually laughed. Why would you wear heels out in the snow and ice? We got to Mike'€™s and sat at a table, got a few pitchers of beer and just sat. A few of Lea's friends came by and talked for a while. I remembered that Nickey and Nick were out on a date. So I thought I should ask how it was going. She got back to me. I told her I was at Mike's. Her and Nick came and sat with us for a while. It was nice to see them. A bit later, Lea and Tucky got tired. So we left around 1:30. We walked home and went to bed.

Friday was the big day. Had one class, Psych 230 (aka dirty 230) we ended that class by talking about porn and prostitutes. Had a phone call during class, did not know who it was and they left a message. Class got over early, went and sat in the Bookie with Ashlee. Talked about flag football. Then I remembered that I got a phone call. I thought I should see who it was. You have one new messages. It was Dave. You should have seen my face. I went from mad to the happiest person on the earth. Ashlee started freaking out, who is it, who is it, what did they say? I told her it was Dave and we were co-champions and I could come get the shirts this afternoon. We started calling everyone. It was insane. After the phone frenzy, Ashlee had to go to class and I had an appointment with Butch at Jefferson. I went and picked Aaron up and we met Charlie and Butch at the school with pizza. The kids were soo excited for Butch and ¦they really did not care about the pizza. Took some pictures and left. After that, I went to the rec center and picked up my shirts. I walked out of the rec center with the attitude of yeah, I a€™m an intramural champion. I drove over to D10 and Jodie was there. Gave her, Nickey and Becca their shirts. Went to Chelsea's gave her her shirt. Went down to My Office and gave Jackie, Kaitlin and Ashlee their shirts. Sat there for a while with everyone, then drove to Moscow to pick up my sister some stuff. Came home and Jackie picked me up for dinner at Fireside, with her and Jodie. Ate, hung out and came back to D10 and chilled until all 6 of us showed up for the White Elephant Gift party. Donald gave us our stats up to that point. By the way Ashlee, I have a HOMERUN!! There were some funny gifts. Then all of us drove to John's Alley in Moscow and listened to a band. I totally forgot that Idaho doesn'€™t have the anti-smoking laws in their bars and I wasn't happy. We were there until midnightish and then went to Denny's for food. I came home and took a shower and passed out. I was so tired.

Glad that week is done, never again.