So I this is my first official blog. I hate to get on and complain, but that’s what I’m going to do. So for Thanksgiving, I decided to DRIVE home to Portland. What a great idea. 8 hours of Frappuccino, road lines, and tons of different local radio stations (because I don’t have an ipod)…and cops…what a blast. First off, in my defense, my car doesn’t have cruise control, and when you’re on the road by yourself at night without cruise control with another 4 hours to go, you tend to speed a bit. So I got pulled over and I just so happened to be going the fastest that I had gone all night – 96…in a 65. I had been trying to keep it below 75 the whole night, but I must have just gotten carried away. So I get a speeding ticket just outside of Pendleton (Oregon) for a whopping $427. Mind you, this is the first time that I have been pulled over. No warning, no reduced fine, just $427.

So I was pretty angry about this the whole weekend and I felt that I didn’t have much to be Thankful for. To make matters worse, the Dixon-less Ducks get shut out by UCLA, but that’s another story for another time. But nothing could prepare me for what would happen on the trip back. The trip back to Nampa was a long one, so when I was going through the pass just before La Grande, I pulled off at a random exit and drove down a snow and ice partially-covered road. There were a bunch of trees and I wanted to cut one down and take it home, but I didn’t have anything to cut them with. So I tried to bend the trees until they would break, but it didn’t work. Trees are surprisingly resilient. Here are some pictures I took while I was out in the middle of nowhere:

So I was able to find my way back to I-84 and continue my journey. The trip was going fine and the time was flying by, until… I had crossed the Oregon boarder back into Idaho and I was almost to Caldwell, and suddenly my car lurched and white smoke billowed from my hood. Luckily there was an exit, so I took it. I coasted up the offramp and around the corner, where I parked and shut off my car. My car hasn’t turned back on since then. Luckily, my Grandma bought me AAA so I gave them a call. I quickly explained to them where I was what my car looked like. I did this quickly because as soon as I got out all the information, my phone died. I was stranded at the Sand Hallow exit of the freeway with no phone and no car. Apparently the AAA lady thought that I said I was still on the freeway, so it took the tow-truck driver an extra 20 minutes or so to get to me. It was probably twenty-something degrees and I was cold. But I had to wait outside near the freeway offramp so that I could see the driver when he arrived. So he arrived and it turns out that my AAA completely covered the tow, so I didn’t have to pay for that.

So now my car is parked in front of my house (at school) and I’m pretty sure the engine block is cracked. I have gotten a few estimates and the cheapest one is about 2 grand. I hate my life. So anyways, I just paid my ticket today and got it “reduced” to $350. But since I was going over 90, I guess I will have to take some online driver’s school crap next semester. I think that if a person’s car breaks down, that person should not have to pay any tickets that the person received while driving that car. It’s really just adding insult to injury…or vice versa. So that’s my story.