~ leapt from faith ~

Earlier today I was thinking about how I'd really like to go on a hot air balloon ride. There are many adventurous sorts of activites which I consider myself to be much too afraid to attempt - - skydiving, bungee jumping, rockclimbing - - they mainly involve the prospect of my person being high above the ground and the possibility that the mechanism used for safety could fail. This is not to say that I wouldn't be shivering in my booties, but that in spite of my cold sweats and rapid heart rate, I feel that I could really enjoy a hot air balloon ride.

In other news, I have been giving considerable thought to becoming an instructor of something. I've had several opportunities recently to train some people on stuff, and I have found it very rewarding. From these opportunities, I have been requested to train more and more people on stuff, in addition to developing training guides and tools to validate competency. This has given me an excuse to perform literature searches on these subjects and I feel that I am attaining a good grasp on the theory behind knowledge retention. One of my supervisors forwarded me a job description for a program instructor, and while I don't feel qualified at this point in time, I'm thinking about transitioning my work towards something similar.

Right now, however, I'm thinking that it's about time for a raise. Last week, some hooligan decided to depress a knife into one of my car tires. I haven't had an opportunity to have it fixed. Tonight, Josh and I plan to go snowboarding and, since I didn't want to drive up the mountain on my spare tire, Josh offered to spend his day off taking my car to the tire-fix-it place. So, I handed to him my car keys and a blank check, believing that these tools would be all that he would need to complete the mission. Unfortunately, when he tried to start the car, it wouldn't start. Now, I've known for a while that I need a new car battery, but I've always managed to get it started before. I'm not very good at car maintenance stuff. With the help of a friendly neighbor friend, Josh was able to jump start the car and take it to the shop. Of course, the people at the shop noticed that one of my other tires had become particularly bald and needed replacement. So, what was at the beginning of the day an ordeal that I thought would be no biggie, and that my insurance would cover, turned out to be a big deal and has cost me a lot more money. Obviously, I had to have Josh take back the blank check because I don't have the kind of money to cover it (what with the whole "living paycheck to paycheck" thing) and I had to put it all on the credit card. Anyway, I'm in a lame mood but I am glad that I have such a wonderful boyfriend who didn't appear to mind helping me with this on his day off.

What is especially dumb about this is that I am not even a regular car driver! On a daily basis, I walk or ride my bike everywhere, and I only drive about once a week to places that are too far for self-propelled transport. I go through a single tank of gas a month! Yet, I pay $72 a month in insurance, along with expensive yearly maintenance. Earlier today I was contemplating selling my car...but realized that was a stupid idea because I live in a city that has virtually no public transit and I like to do things like going snowboarding that require a vehicle to get up to the mountain.

Also, last night I did something to further facilitate my self-propelled transport. I purchased a pair of Jandd grocery bag panniers that fit perfectly onto the back of my new bicycle and are the exact size of a paper grocery bag. Directly after buying it, I then rode my bicycle over to the grocery store and performed my week's worth of grocery shopping. I did not limit my normal grocery buying, and found that everything fit wonderfully into my new panniers. Riding home from the grocery store, my groceries remained snuggly in their pannier home, even when I was riding up and down curbs.

Posted by jennifer at 1:40 PM | Permalink | Comments (4)