Lessee... hafta begin this one on New Year's Eve, whereupon I had a massive headache, crashed at 7pm, woke up at 11, and was up until 5:30 or so. Which was really bad, since I had to be in Corvallis by 10 to go to Portland (2 hour drive). I somehow managed to get up, make it to my car, and get into Monroe, only to realize that not only was the gas station NOT open, but I had no gas to go anywhere. So I went home and borrowed mom's car.

Which is a 1998 Mustang GT. See where this is going yet? Yup. Marius is in a hurry, and he has a car that can go insane speeds with no problem. Which is how I came to be going 80 on the highway. Then I noticed a car in the distance. A white car. Then the light bar came into view. Ruh-roh. Slow WAY down. He turns in the next road and starts following me. Great. Gets up behind me, lights flash, I pull over.

Cop: Can I see your license and registration please?

Me: *hands over paperwork*

Cop: Going to Corvallis?

Me: Yes sir.

Cop: Seeing friends?

Me: Yes sir.

Cop: Your car?

Me: Mom's car.

Cop: Ok, right. Be right back. *does some stuff back in his car*

Cop: Well, I went ahead and wrote you a ticket. It's for 75, which is about 100 less than 80 would have been.

Me: Um, thank you.

Cop: Now remember, you don't need to be going that fast.

Me: Yes sir.

And that was that. He pulled back into a road to zap more people, and off I went, being surprisingly calm about the whole thing. The feeling was something like "Well, I was being dumb, I got caught, and got let off somewhat good in comparison to what it could have been. Guess I won't be doing THAT anymore, eh?"

Then I make it to my friend's place, and he's like yeah, you could have been a little bit later. Well crap. Oh well. So we jumped in his car and drove up to Portland, which is 2 hours or so. There was much playing of music and doing random car trip stuff.

Airports are interesting places, really. Crowded, somewhat crappy, but interesting. Beyond there being almost no signs to GET to the airport, the parking garage has this cool bridge between it and the airport, plus the entire area is roofed over with glass. It looks really cool, and the whole outside looks like it's one of those 50's models of the future or something. Walk in, walk around, realize we have at least an hour and a half to kill. First stop: Bathrooms. While hanging around outside, I was looking at the metal detectors and the way out, which had this big DO NOT ENTER sign on the floor. Being me, the immediate thought was "I wonder what happens if you walk in..." Of course, somebody DID. The response was some flashing lights, and a voice saying "WARNING. YOU ARE GOING THE WRONG WAY." I have to be somewhat disappointed that it wasn't more like "HELP! WE'RE BEING ATTACKED BY TERRORISTS!" complete with flashing lights, sirens, and lots of guards with Uzis. Oh well.

Lunch was entertaining as well, even if highly overpriced. Plus the guy put WAY too much salt on my pretzel. The whole damn thing was coated with it. Eek. On the plus side, I got to watch out the window and look at the stuff going on on the OUTSIDE of the gates, which I had never really done before. Of note:

There were little roads all over, but nobody used them. The little tractor things they have are really funny looking. The safety trucks are painted in this white/red candy cane stripe paint job, with hard to read gold letters. They really stand out though. Surprisingly few planes actually DID anything. Like 2 left while we there. That's it.

Oh, yes, and a revolving door story: Little kids in revolving doors is funny. Actually, little kids in general are funny.

It should also be noted that escalator floor things are fun too. Rode them back and forth for a while, which was fun. I love doing stuff like that.

It should also be noted that the way the gate attached to the plane was something akin to a giant vacuum cleaner being attached to the nose and all the people sucked out. Funny, in a strange way.

And one of these days, I want to jump on the luggage conveyer belt and ride it past the little flaps into the back. That would rule.

Drive back was entertaining, what with my friend's sister having been awake for 30 hours (she was dressed in PJ bottoms and a sweatshirt, too. Heh.), which meant she kept nodding off with the requisite head jerks and snapping back awake motions. In the midst of loud music, no less. Then we got behind this van that had to have had at least 10 people in it, including a couple of kids in the very very back. They stopped whacking each other long enough to stop and point and poke the people in the front seats when I made faces at them.

Oh, yes, and U2's New Year's Day came on on the way up. How appropriate.

It should be noted that mom was amazingly unmad about the whole getting a ticket thing. The entire conversation was something like well, your insurance is going to suck now, and I what did I tell you about speeding on holidays? Dad, on the other hand, is pretty mad, I think. He's not exactly talking to me, which is never a good sign. Oh well.

And that's the Marian version of New Year's Day. Whee!

[edit]Oh yeah, and I need to mention an important fact. After sucking for like 30 years in a row, Oregon State football completely ruled this season. Notre Dame went down 41-9. Buahahahahahahahahahaha. And no, I don't especially like football, but hey, I do have a LITTLE school spirit.[/edit]