TIREd AND cold.

So, last Thursday I got up at 4 a.m., yes, there is a 4 a.m. A time I thought only existed in the college and breastfeeding years. I got up at this time so that I could take a group of four twenty-somethings to a conference in exotic Spokane, WA. (Now, how's that for an exciting destination on what was started as a travel blog?)

We've spent the last 4 days going strong from 9 a.m. until roughly 12 a.m.- 1 a.m. at this conference. It was a good time and they were a great group, but I'll admit, we were all sorts of ready to get home Sunday. Everything went smooth with the flight and such and as we shuttled back to the long term parking we laughed a lot and got into an interesting ethical discussion (about a seemingly pointless topic) which entertained a number of the other passengers on the bus (and probably irritated a few as well).

Much to B's dismay, the car was still parked in the same spot, but, upon closer examination ... oh yay. a flat tire. Fabulous. (This, by the way, is my third flat in 2 months). We got that changed (thank you AAA) and set off to find someone to either patch it or get a new tire (I was definitely hoping for the patching option as it's much more affordable for this ballah on a budget).

This proved to be a more difficult task than expected, but eventually (2 hours, 2 stops, and 3 towns later) we arrived at a tire service that was open on a Sunday and that wasn't creepy.

We went for a late lunch across the street while the car was being serviced and were told that they'd call as soon as it was finished. Well, an hour and a half later we were still sitting at our table waiting for the phone call. We headed back over just to check in and lo and behold, it had been finished for quite sometime. Sweet. Thanks for the call.

We got back to Salem with no major highway difficulties (luckily) and I headed home (finally) after dropping the students off. I arrived at the house and was greeted by a slip on my front door that read "your gas service has been disconnected" dated Friday. No explanation. I didn't initially think this was a big deal, I wasn't going to be cooking anything and I figured I'd just call in the morning, right?

Well, the house is new to me and it took me a bit to remember that in this place, unlike the old place, the gas bone's connected to the HEAT bone, the gas bone's connected to the water bone... etc. How nice that the water heater only came to mind about 10 minutes after I'd applied a cleansing face mask. How fun to wash my hardening face with frigid water.

So I bundled up and hunkered down for a chilly night. I called the gas co this morning (they apparently had no record of my account, I'm 98% sure I called to set it up the same day I called the electric company). They're coming to fix it, sometime ON WEDNESDAY. Burr. Thank goodness for friends who have futons.