It’s not about the years, It’s about the mileage…

Lois, my 2004 Ford Focus was pronounced “totaled” on October 23, 2008. I was driving southbound in the fast lane of the 101 freeway last Tuesday night. Traffic was coming to a stop due to some construction on the right hand side. I proceeded to slow down to almost a complete stop with traffic. Unfortunately, the guy driving the vehicle behind me did not do the same and slammed into Lois. The impact sent Lois into the center divider and she came to a stop a little ways down the road in the left breakdown lane. Fortunately for me, I walked away with a slight concussion, a little whiplash, and a few bruises on my leg. It was a very sad night for me and as I went to the tow yard a few days later, I reminisced on the great memories that Lois and I have had. Our first trip together was to Big Sur with Brandon and Kyle for Brandon’s birthday. Lois and I made multiple trips up to Mammoth Lakes together. Even just the day to day drives to the grocery store or to friends’ houses were filled with great times. She was a great car and will be missed dearly. Thank you for all the memories Lois…and for keeping me safe…and for being so reliable!

She looks great from the front.

Not so great from the back...

Another view...

I am going to let this video speak for itself. Just keep in mind that it is similar to a Will Ferrell movie in that it gets better every time you watch it.

So this game of tag has been going around amongst the blogs of my friends. What you do is post 6 random things about yourself and then tag 6 other people to do the same on their blog. I have been wanting to start a blog for a while now…so I figured this was a great way to get it started. So, here it is…the start of my blog and 6 random things about me…

1. Llamas are my favorite animal. Kind of random, I know…and I cannot really tell you what first got me excited about llamas. I just remember playing a soccer tournament in San Luis Obispo and seeing a sign for a llama farm by the side of the road and getting very excited about it. I’ve sort of adopted this Llama that lives on a farm in Terre Haute, Indiana. It’s kind of a long story, but his name is LaVern.

2. I enjoy scrapbooking. When I had my hip surgery in June, I got really sick of just lying around the house all day so I decided to pick up scrabooking as a hobby. I love going to the craft store and picking out all the cool little accessories. I wish I had more time to work on my scrapbook.

3. I am a self-diagnosed obsessive compulsive matcher. My clothes always have to match, and I have certain rules in how they match. It takes a good 10 minutes or so for me to pick out what I want to wear to go on a run. Packing for road trips is very stressful and time consuming because I have to lay out every single outfit for every day. I cannot just pack a few random t-shirts, shorts, and sports bras…they all have to match in just the right way.

4. When I was a toddler, my uncle would strap a little dart board to my back and chase me around the house while shooting rubber darts at me. While it scarred me as a young child, I do kind of see that it was the beginning to my career in running.

5. I won a bread stick eating contest at Olive Garden by eating a total of 16. My soccer team was playing in a tournament so we went to Olive Garden the night before and decided that it would be a fun idea to see who could eat the most bread sticks. It was an intense battle, and I came out victorious by finishing off #16. I then went on to eat some salad and my dinner.

6. I do not drink soda. The last time I had soda was the summer before my junior year of high school. That makes it a little over 7 years without one sip. It all started at a running camp where I was told that the phosphates would weaken my bones (or something like that), then I found out it wasn’t AS bad as I thought, but by that point it had been so long that now it is just kind of a competition with myself to see how long I can go without having any. This little competition does cause a little bit of strife in my life. Now, if I am ever getting water out of a soda fountain and accidentally get a drop of coke or sprite on my hand, I have to go wash my hands. I have also had a couple dreams where my friends try to trick me into drinking soda. They tell me it’s water and it turns out to be sprite. I wake up in a panic and then have a big sigh of relief when I realize it is just a dream. It’s weird I know…but please don’t ever try to trick me!

I don’t really know who to tag, since I don’t really know who will be reading this anytime soon. So, if you read this and have not been tagged before…consider yourself tagged…and then let me know so I can read your 6.

I guess this concludes my first…bloglette…post…what do you call these things? I hope to keep up with this thing on a regular basis, but we’ll see how it goes.