Car Accident

I don't like being stuck in bed. I'm so bored, and I can't believe I actually want to go back to work. I had a four day weekend recently, but spent three of those days sick. Yesterday, I was hoping that going back to work would help me fight my cold. I believe that if I am busy not thinking about being sick, I heal faster.

So here's what happened to me on the way to work. I was driving into Fallbrook, north on Mission Road, when I approached a man and a dog on the side of the road. I slowed down once I realized the dog wasn't on a leash. Suddenly the dog decided to run into the road. Since I had already slowed down, it wasn't hard to stop and not hit the dog. As the dog ran in front of me and across into the opposite lane of traffic, I hoped that the other cars would stop for it, and they did. But right at that moment, my car was hit from behind very hard. I lurched forward and, after coming out of the shock of being hit, pulled my car over. After I pulled over and got out of the car, I noticed lots of other cars stopping but none of them with any damage to the fronts of their cars. They all started running to a densely vegitated ditch on the side of the road. That's when I realized the person that hit me was down there with their car. I almost lost it, but the lady in the car managed to get out. Apparently, she hadn't seen that I had put on my breaks until she was almost to me. When she noticed I was stopped, she slammed on her breaks and turned the wheel to the right. It wasn't enough time, because she hit the back of my car on the passenger's side, flipped, and then landed in the ditch. The witness behind her, who is a nurse, comforted me and told me that she seemed fine and was an older lady that must have not had a fast enough reaction time. She did have a lot of time to react since she was way behind me. The nurse had noticed that I was stopped and that the car behind me wasn't breaking. It is fortunate that she was fine enough to get out of the car. We both had head and back pain, but I declined the ride in the ambulance. I called Gary who came to pick me up and take me to Urgent Care. My car (a very sturdy 4Runner, thank goodness!) was not drivable, so it was towed to the body shop. I thought it would be a total loss, but they called later and said it could be fixed in 20-25 days. After going to Urgent Care and taking x-rays, I was diagnosed with only muscle spasms in my upper back. I had a really bad headache, but the pain pills they prescribed me easily fixed that. It doesn't help being sick either. The doctor recommended me to a chiropractor and wrote a request that I don't return to work until Monday. So here I am in bed and not at work.

It's hard to miss work as a teacher. It involves a lot of preparation for the substitute. The substitute they found for me yesterday had no sub plans. Nothing. I later heard she was new to the district but did fine. There is a teacher I work with who has a daughter that substitutes all the time. I requested her and talked to her on the phone. We put together some type of plan for the next few days. I feel bad because there is a whole county earthquake drill today and I have a new student that is supposed to start. I know everything will be alright, but I still feel bad. Even if I wanted to be there, I couldn't. I'm supposed to stay here in bed with ice. It is hard for me to turn my head. Everyone I talked to said the next two days after an accident are the worst.

Chargers vs. Chiefs Game

Megan, Garrett, Gary, and I had a fun time tailgating before the game. As you can see by how bundled up we are, it was great, chilly football weather.





Some pics during the game.


Chargers won, thank goodness, after I almost had a heart attack. We didn't want a repeat of the Panthers game we went to at the beginning of the season when the Chargers lost in the last two seconds. Chargers were fortunate the Chiefs went for two with only a few seconds left and failed. Final score: 20-19

Here's video of their last touchdown (you might want to turn it down with my loud cheering):




The night before, Dave and Renae met us out in Carlsbad. It was great to see them!

Our Garden

Yeah! We started a garden in our backyard about 2 weeks ago. Everything is going well. We planted onions, lettuce, swiss chard, squash, and brocolli. The herbs in the pot are basil and mint. The rose bush we added to the other side of the backyard. We've always wanted on of those and might end up getting a few more.

No Use for a Name Concert

Gary and I went downtown (San Diego) to the Casbah to see NUFAN. We didn't know what to expect since we had never been there before. It's right near the airport, and I'll admit, I was a little scared walking there with all the landing planes flying right over my head. The place was a dive but a great venue for shows since it is small and you can get close to the band. They were selling 24 oz Pabst Blue Ribbon in a can for $2.50. Crazy! I realized I was getting old when I had to put ripped napkin in my ears to muffle the noise. I still walked away at the end of the night with ringing ears, but it was worth it. We placed ourselves at the side of the stage, which happened to be right were the bands came in. Two bands performed before NUFAN. When they were getting ready to go on stage, the members were standing right near me, so I asked Tony, the lead singer, if he would take a pic with me. Here's what I got.


Can you tell he had a little liquid energy? I think it's been 8 years since I last saw these guys. They were still just as entertaining and played some of my older favorite songs. From where I was standing, I could see their set list. It was neat to see what songs were coming up. Eventually they broke away from the list and played about 4 more songs than they had planned to. Here's our view of them on stage:


Too bad the pictures aren't that clear. I forgot my camera, so we used Gary's cell phone.

Well, that's the end of concerts for awhile. It's weird how all my favorite performers were playing around the same time.

More Madonna Pics

What rights will be taken away next?

I will keep this short. It is my hope to remain positive on here, but I am shocked that a 52% majority vote will bring California a step backwards. I believe in equal rights. So on a positive note, I don't think its over yet. That is all.

Wait, one more thing. I don't teach about marriage in my classroom. I barely have time to squeeze in Science!

Madonna and Obama

Drag Queen

I had such a great election night experience at the Madonna concert at Petco Park. It was great to celebrate with thousands of other people! Madonna made it very clear how happy she was. She even forgot some of the words to her songs after declaring how excited she was. She flashed images of Obama and said, "This is a historical evening! ... We are lucky to be sharing it with each other!"

Madonna looked amazing and her energy level was unbelievable. She danced, sang (not lip-sync), played guitar, and even double-dutch jump roped. The show was great entertainment. Here's some video clips from my camera:

My Favorite Madonna Song


We Are One!


Madonna and her dancers in their Obama Shirts



Music

Here are some pics I found on the internet of her show:

I'm so lucky

I had my class again on Saturday at the San Diego Zoo (Going Green in the Classroom). It was a fun morning filled with petting a meerkat, giving my presentation on reducing pencil shavings in the classroom, and going on the roof of the gorilla exhibit (they stink!). I am still waiting for a classmate to send me the pictures of last Saturday and this Saturday so I can post them on here. Anyway, let me get to the reason why I am lucky. While outside hanging with the meerkat, we smelled some kind of fire but just kind of ignored it. At lunch, as we were walking out to the zoo to explore, one of the zoo educators stopped us and told us there was a car that exploded in the parking lot. She said it happened in the first row of cars, but she knew it wasn't our car. She said that some cars around it had gotten burnt, though. I freaked inside, but stayed calm on the outside. We all rushed out to the parking lot. We had all parked in the first row since we were the first ones there at the zoo before it opened. I saw the fire trucks and they were parked in the same direction as my car. I freaked some more. As I got closer, I noticed it was in the second row, not the first, but my car was straight across from it. The cars right next to it were burnt. My car was covered in the white foamy stuff the firefighters use to put out car fires. I could see no damage. Thank goodness. I talked to a firefighter who said I would need to get it washed today before the foam ruined the paint. My classmate took some pictures of all this too, so I will post those when I get them. I could not believe how lucky I was. My car was so close. The firefighters extinguised the fire before it could get to my car.

It's crazy to think of how a parked car could just explode! When I left the class at the end of the day, one of the burnt cars was still there. Those people were still inside the zoo enjoying their day. I can't imagine what it was like for them to come out later and see what had happened. The car that exploded was towed and there was a note on that last burnt car. These people were probably exhausted from walking around all day and then had to deal with what had happened instead of just hoping in their car and heading home. All I had to do was get my car washed.

Weezer Concert

Gary and I went to the Weezer concert on Friday night down at Cox Arena and we had soooo much fun! First we had dinner in Mission Valley at Seau's and amazingly we ran into Junior Seau. People see him often now around Oceanside and Carlsbad, but I didn't expect he'd be down at his restaurant on a Friday night. He was there for a meeting and then just hanging out. I didn't want to be too pushy and ask for a picture but I did walk by him and say hi.


It was exciting for Gary and I since we are such big Charger fans and that is where he spent many of his professional football playing years.


At the concert, we arrived in time to see the 3rd band of the night, Angels and Airwaves. I have seen them before and didn't really care for them, but thought I would give them a second chance. The lead singer is Tom DeLong, formally of Blink 182, and he grew up in San Diego so I thought local support couldn't hurt. After about 3 songs, Gary and I had to go outside. We enjoyed sitting there with another beer instead. It helped our headaches. (Sorry if you're a fan.)

After, we went back inside to see Weezer. I can't even describe how amazing they were. They came out "Clockwork Orange" style in white jumpsuits and sang My Name is Jonas. Eventually they stripped those off to reveal red retro 70's jumpsuits with Weezer on the back. The played all their classic songs from each album (even a few from my favorite, Pinkerton!) plus a bunch from the new Red album, did a cover of Pink Floyd, and even a forgotten bside from the early 90's (Roxanne). The best part was when they had a bunch of random musicians from all around San Diego on stage with them to play Island in the Sun and Beverly Hills. There were trombones, recorders, violins, you name it. For Undone, the Sweater Song, they had members of Angels and Airwaves play with them.

Here's a video they made to recruit people for the Hootenanny.



Here's me at the concert. They let me join the band.



Today I went to the San Diego Zoo for a teacher workshop and got special behind the scenes access to the Panda Research Center. I will post those pictures once I have them.