Travels with Twinkie the Kid: Sometimes Mondays are better than Fridays

Well, I thought we were friends, Fall. What happened?

I guess I just took you for granted. I'm sorry. Please come back.

I've been really spoiled with the nice weather here in Flagstaff. Up until Friday it has been beautiful. And now? Not so much. I have an internal struggle of wanting it to snow so I can go snowboarding, and not wanting it to snow because I can be a real wimp. But I digress.

So, going back to Friday, I have a story!

Kayleen and I promised our neighbor that we would get some guy friends and help her move out of her apartment. She set the time for 3:30, I was done with work by four, and I was just going to mosey home. I thought to myself that I would catch the tail end of the move because our neighbor said she only had a few things that needed moving (i.e. the couch, chairs, and bed). Upon my return, I discovered that the guys that we had come over had been waiting at my apartment for an hour because our neighbor wasn't home. Keep in mind that I got home around 4:30. When she did show up, we soon found that we had to move everything. Literally. Everything. Into her trailer.
I quickly said goodbye to my afternoon nap.

Oh, and she has cats. Three of them. And apparently, one is paranoid of everything (that is not an exaggeration). While moving one of the couches, we uncovered the hiding place of said paranoid cat, which caused all Hell to break loose. The cat, Mini, went AWOL and took a kamikaze dive off the balcony and ran into another building. After about ten minutes and hasty strategic planning we captured the rogue comrade (two different times) and finally stuffed it in its holding cell.

I wish that was the end of my tale, but it's not.

At seven, we met my neighbor at the storage unit and unloaded her crap faster than... I don't even know have a good comparison, but it was fast.
Naively thinking that we were done with this little escapade, we made our way out of the storage place in Kayleen's car, only to be welcomed with the awkward thumping noise of a flat tire. Ah yes, the tire. The tire was changed in no time, however, we found that the spare was just as flat. Out of options, and running extremely late for a Halloween party, we drove the car down the freeway at about 15 miles an hour to the nearest gas station. We pulled in, just as smoke started to come off the sad, little tire. We parked it and called our friend Eric to come and pick us up. Keep in mind that it is Halloween and some of us still needed to get costume pieces. We drove to the mall and made a mad dash into the Halloween store ten minutes before closing time.

.....You thought it was over, didn't you? Thought that was a happy,little ending to my story? Wrong!
Of course something else had to happen before we could be on our merry way. Something like almost getting hit by a car. Yeah, that happened. Leaving the mall parking lot, a car came careening into the side of Eric's car, knocking his driver side mirror. You know that moment when time slows down and you can think of about a thousand different things at the same time? I guess one half of my brain is very calm in the face of danger, because I was strangely calm while this was going down. I was sitting behind Eric, so the car would have hit us first. While I was watching the car speed towards us, all I could really think was, "Why, that car is coming towards us awfully fast. I believe it might ding the side of the van. The side I'm on. Oh well, I've had a good run." Really brain? Come on, son. Somewhere in the depths of my subconscious, the reality of the situation stuck. Good ol' logic was trying to make sense of what was going on. "You are going to die and someone else is going to finish your box of goldfish."

But obviously, we didn't die. I guess the moral of the story is...... is that, that night made for a good story.
Yeah, that's all I got.

Here's some pictures from Friday. Consider it a reward for making it this far in my post.