Still alive!

Damn, this month has flown by!

Here's a good story - I almost died last week! No joke. Wanna know more? Read on.

Last Tuesday I got my new tree in and also several of my trees were trimmed. I told my boss I'd be a bit late in the morning since I wanted to talk to the guys when they arrived, before they started cutting. It was 9 am when I was heading into work and traffic wasn't that bad. I was in the middle lane on the freeway, going 65. The guy in front of me merged to the right but the car in front of him was going slower. As I moved up, I thought I saw him starting to go back into my lane. Well, not really thinking, I kinda jerked the wheel a bit to the left to get out of his way. Bad idea. I completely lost control of the car, it swerved to the left and then to the right, and somehow I did a 180 turn to end up in the far right lane, facing traffic. My car was completely straight in the lane, just facing the wrong way. I just sat there looking at this car coming at me. Luckily he was able to stop in time and I had enough room to turn around and get going. (Surprisingly, I didn't cry....just went to work, though I was a little shaky.) Somehow, I didn't hit anyone or anything, no one hit me, and it didn't look like anyone else got into an accident. I really want to see video of what happened! I don't know if I hit the brakes or the gas, but I know I steered wrong. Isn't the trick to steer into a swerve? I just wasn't thinking and I know I was steering the opposite way. That probably is what caused the car to turn around. Over the next couple days I felt like a character in Final Destination. You know, that movie where they cheat death in the beginning but as the movie progresses the characters are killed in random but elaborate ways? I really was expecting something to happen. I went to CA for Kim's wedding from Thursday to Monday and I half expected my airplane to explode or something. Well, so far, still alive! Woo Hoo!

Anyways.....My trip to CA was fun. I flew direct into San Jose and stayed with my grandmother in Gilroy for Thursday night and Friday. My cousin just had a baby a couple weeks ago so I was able to see them, and her parents were in from Oregon, so it was also nice to see my Aunt and Uncle. We went to Bingo Friday night but no one won. Saturday morning I drove from Gilroy to Walnut Creek (about an hour) for Kim's wedding. It was in a restaurant courtyard in Walnut Creek (east bay area) and the weather was gorgeous. Jason officiated and did a wonderful job. It was the 10th wedding that he did! I got there a little early and crept into the girl's bathroom where Kim was getting ready. She was already in the dress and makeup, just waiting for everyone else to finish. Her photographer was busy getting shots outside, so I starting taking a bunch of shots of her, her mom, and her maid of honor. Got some good candids. I'll make a couple disks of them all and mail them. I don't think any are frame-worthy, but they'll be cute to have. She and her HUSBAND (!) Jeff are huge SF Giants fans and they had baseball cards made up of the two of them in Giants uniforms with bats and on the back of the card was the 'stats' of their relationship - when the met, were engaged, date of wedding, who was in the party, etc. It was adorable - and really different.

After the wedding I went to Stockton and Heidi, Andrea, David, and I went to the new baseball stadium they just built for the Stockton Ports (minor league baseball). Heidi and I got too scared so we left after an hour - all the balls were flying into the seats! The only previous baseball games I've been to were in St Louis for the Cardinals. That's a real stadium! Our seats were waaaay up. At the Stockton stadium it was just one level, so we were close to the game (good) and close to any fly/foul balls (bad). We were near first base, and there were A LOT of balls flying into the seats! You really had to pay attention. That just freaked us (Heidi and I) out. Also......baseball is kinda boring. So we left after an hour after making plans to go to San Fran with Andrea on Sunday. We were supposed to leave Stockton around 8am to get to Fisherman's Wharf early and get free parking. Thank God Heidi checked the bus schedule in SF cause Sunday was the Bay to Breakers Race (huge marathon that gets 100,000+ people). Uh, yeah, SF got scratched off the list. We ended up going back to Walnut Creek and shopped for a few hours. Andrea had to get back to her house in the Bay Area so we drove in separate cars and I went back to Stkn with Heidi. And yes, we got In&Out burgers on the way home.

Sunday night I just hung out with Heidi and her fiance Bert. They're getting married in August so I'll be going out to CA for that too. Heidi teaches 1st Grade and Bert has his own bailing business. He goes to farms in the area and bales hay, straw, alfalfa, whatever. It's a tough job cause the dew point has to be just right, so it's a lot of working in the early morning and at night. Most farmers pay to have it done cause it takes special equipment and stuff. Right now is his busiest time. Sunday night he had to drop his truck off at the next location he'd be doing. We followed him in Heidi's car and then drove him to where his tractor was (about three miles away on another farm). I took this picture and I think it came out really cute.