Delayed post as my birthday was on Valentines Day.


Happy Valentine’s Day to everyone out there!  Personally, I hate the holiday.  Even at work everything was pink, heart shaped, and sickeningly sweet.  It’s never been my favorite holiday, but then again I may be bias since I share my birthday with V-Day. That’s right, today is my birthday.  I have hit the big THIRTY!  Hazzuh!  It’s been a crazy, adventure filled first thirty years, and I can’t wait to see what this next decade brings me.  Hopefully a degree, a few babies running around the house to drive me mad, and happy memories to add to the ones I already have.  I actually called my twenties my terrible twenties because of all the tragedy.   I’m hoping that my thirties are terrific.

Last weekend my husband set it up for us to go down to the Hard Rock in Hollywood.  There were friends and family – even my parents showed up which was a surprise.  Not that they haven’t always been there, but they live four hours away and my mom told me they wouldn’t be able to make it. LIARS!  But it was a good lie, because it was a GREAT surprise.  We drank, gambled, and my husband even got us a room.  It was absolutely luxurious!  Not a bad way to start the decade at all. 

 

ME AT 30!

 

So, what are my goals for this next chapter in my life? (In no particular order)
-Finish School.
-Become a better writer.
-Have a little imp or two.
-Publish a novel or two.
-Go someplace I’ve never been.

Those are the major ones anyways.  My goals for this week are to:
-Pass my Oceanography Test
-Pass my Math Test
-Review the short story for my Fiction Class
-Finish and review the book for I Read a Book Once.
-Find some time to sleep.

Yup, that sounds about right.  Work full time, go to school full time, sleep part time.  I am a very lucky woman.  I’m 30 and living fabulous.

Today is not my day.  I honestly should not have gotten out of bed.  Weighing my options this morning, I figured I needed to save up what little time I do have for when I go on vacation this summer.  Ergo, I got up, took a shower, got dressed, and headed off to work.  Since my brother is home this week, we opted to carpool.  We took my car.  Now, my car is a feisty little thing that enjoys making all sorts of noises.  I know each and every one of those noises, so when I’m on the highway doing 80mph and I hear a brand new noise that I know doesn’t belong, I get wary.  I slowed down, got out of the fast lane and went over to the right hand slow lane, consistently breaking slowly as I did.  Just as I was about to pull onto the shoulder.  BOOM!  My tire exploded.  Tread flew up in front of the car, smoke spread out everywhere, and my car is wobbling on the rim.

Luckily (and thankfully)  – and I’m pretty sure this is because I was already breaking – I didn’t lose control of the car.  I slowly eased it onto the shoulder and came to a stop.  My brother who was riding shotgun goes to get the spare out of the trunk.  It’s a donut tire, which would have been enough to get us off the highway.  It was – however – flat.  No good.  I call my husband, tell him to come get us and call AAA.   While we’re waiting for him a State Farm Road Ranger pulls up behind us.  Brian (my husband) arrives not long after.  All in all we waited maybe twenty minutes.  Brian asks the Road Ranger if he has an air compressor.   The Road Ranger firmly expresses his belief that we shouldn’t try to patch the blown tire.

…

There was absolutely no way to patch that.  Unless you’re MacGyver – even then there are just some things beyond repair. Brian explained we wanted it for the spare.  The Road Ranger helps him change it while my brother and I take the truck that Brian picked us up in.

It was on empty.

…

We make it to a gas station off the highway, I find a dollar, get coffee, get gas, head to work.  Work was…well it wasn’t a happy day.  It was frustrating, annoying, and made me want to throw a computer through the window.  That’s putting mildly.  I actually broke out into a fit of laughter just because of the absurdity of people.  I’m not joking.  On the way home the lane to the turnpike was blocked in two different areas.  What should have been a fifteen minute drive turned into forty minute one.  That was just to GET ON the highway.

Okay, I’m going to stop now before I run the risk of sounding like a petulant child who still needs to write a short story for class.