HAPPY NEW YEAR!!!

I made it to another new year! If things had gone differently with my job in Pullman, I probably would have spent this one in Seattle spending time with the family before my trip back to Pullman. But as it turned out I am staying in Seattle so I figured I would go through with my plans to work and stay in Pullman this weekend.

It has been one heck of a year. Here are some things that were big for me through out the year and a small quotation from my blog about the event. This is only one thing from each month. This is not to say these are the only big things, but looking back they were pretty big and they cover many of the different aspects that make me who I am today.

Jan - First Fatal car wreck - Pete had called me to see if I could come help him on the scene. So I got my truck and headed back to the scene. I took photos of the scene and helped to remove the body from the truck. Then we headed back to the funeral home to do more investigation.

Feb - Surgery - After the IM softball season in Fall 03 I went to the doctor. He had some X-rays taken. It showed that I had indeed broken a bone back in 1999. Really what had happened is that when my ligament was stretched it caused an avulsion of my bone. The bone of course did not heal correctly. It was causing inflammation and pain for all these years. The doctor referred me to a specialist. The specialist had me get an MRI and then scheduled a surgery for last Thursday, Feb 5th.

Mar - New Truck - I told him what I was looking for and what my situation was. We went to look at the Dodge Fifteen-Hundreds. After checking the out for a little while we took one on a test drive. It drove pretty darn well. It has a Hemi. Then we looked at just about every other Fifteen-hundred on the lot. I was going to go for one truck when my eye was caught by one I had not looked at. It had everything my Dakota had sans the leather seats. It was blue as well. It was a dark blue however.

Apr - New Job - As I was getting to Pullman I got a call from someone from a computer company in the Seattle area. He talked to me a little bit. He asked what it would take to get me over there. He asked me when I could start. He wanted me on Monday. That was just too quick. I needed to give notice and think about it. I was offered about one and a half times when I am getting now at IS. That is big. Plus it will be a change of career's working in the computer business. It will be a programmers job and with time and experience I can move to bigger and better pay. It will mean however that I will have to leave Whitman County and all the things I have for myself. It has taken a long time for me to get all my jobs out here.

May - The Palouse Thunder: Semi-pro football - After the game we did a big team prayer. Both teams were in on it. After the game one of the guys on the Yakima team told a teammate that the team was behind it. It turned out his brother was killed in a car accident the night before. The kid had played his heart out in the game. He had an awesome game against us. After I got changed I was in the parking lot. I saw the guy whose brother had died. I went to him and said sorry to him. I shook his hand and then we had a friendly hug. He said thank you.

Jun - Softball player of the week - I went to the ECSA website and found my player of the week blurb."Scotty Anderson, Maulers: Although Scotty was out all night helping out at a community function [I helped my old high school teacher with a over-night survival outing], he was a key contributor to the Mauler wins on Sunday. He pitched in 2 games and also played 1st base in 1 game. He hit 6 for 7 and drove in at least 5 runs. He is always upbeat and encouraging to his team mates and the other team."

Jul - My Bestfriend Ryan Gamble - Ryan said he was happy and that he did not take that lightly. I am happy about that. Ryan is one of those guys who I have been friends with through thick and thin. He is the guy who if everyone else on Earth died, that I would want to have with me. Over the years I have shared so much of my life and my growing with Ryan. He looks past my faults and weaknesses and still loves me as a friend.

Aug - Boating with friends - We got going at about one pm. We cruised a little bit before doing some tubing. Russell was out there. He did awesome. The first crash sent him about ten feet in the air and about fifteen feet flying through the air without the tube below him. I have never seen someone crash like that before. At one going he was riding the tube. It was going to wipe out I saw it coming. He was sitting in the tube. The tube was on edge going perpendicular to the water. It was amazing. I had never seen anything like that. He stayed on the tube!

Sep - Now my mom knows - I certainly was not ready for that day to be today. Thankfully she told me she loved me and did not care about my choices. She wants to be part of my life. She also told me she would not tell anyone else in the family. I know she will try but someday it will slip out. Someday the homophobic part of my family will find out about me.

A little bit later I was cleaning up after dinner and getting the left-overs ready for the dog. My mom was going up stairs. Then she came back. She said she loves me no matter what and gave me a kiss on the cheek.

Oct - Edgar's Day- At the beginning of the 9th inning I could some people standing and pointing. I hear some murmurs go across the crowd. I was looking around trying to see what they were looking at. I had hoped Edgar would get one more chance to play the field. Then I looked at third base and it was Edgar! The stadium announcer made the announcement "Your attention please, now playing third base, number eleven, EDGAR MARTINEZ!" The crowd went CRAZY. I was so happy. The first pitch was a ball. Then Willie Bloomquist came out to replace Edgar. The crowd first booed, then they got into one of the loudest standing ovations of the day. Then the crowd went into a fast Ed-Gar chant. Soon Edgar appears out of the dugout for a curtain call. The crowd went nuts again.

Nov - Apple Cup Victory - The punt was a good one. I worried that it would be blocked. We stopped them on about the ten yard line. The Husky's ran two plays and then the game was over and the Cougs won the Apple Cup. The band played the fight song as people started to stream onto the field. Soon half the field was covered in Cougar fan. The band played the fight song again with the team and then they played Jaws followed by the fight song again. I sung along as well as the fans on the field. It was so wonderful.

Dec - Turning down a job in Pullman for money - I said okay to the base sixty-five option. So I will stay at NU and I will make in every paycheck the same amount that I use to make in one paycheck at the county. However I get paid twice here for every one time at the county. So I will pretty much have twice the take home than I did at the county. This should get me out to debt very fast. I hope that within a year I will only have one debt source. That would be my truck. Once out from under that, I will do things the right way. I will save for it and buy it when I can afford to pay it off. I will have twenty percent down for a house before I buy one.

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This morning I woke up and headed to Ryan's. We was going to help me clean out my storage locker. But I could not get the lock off without the proper key. I looked for bolt cutters all around Pullman and Moscow. With today being a holiday many places were not open. Of the ones open there was none to be found. We gave up on that headed to get some lunch.

We went to Ryan's and we played some Madden football. I played a couple pre-season games. My guys were doing bad. I thought for sure I was going to lose a lot of games. I was getting mad. It turns out the two pre-season games I play I lost.

We went to John's at about six o'clock to play poker. I won the first pot and lost after that. I did really bad. It was not my night. I ended up losing about twenty dollars. At about one am we left. I dropped off Ryan and went home myself.