Stardate: -317905.69

Having been informed by my mom that I need to be well-dressed for my older sister's wedding (I was actually planning on going in cords and a tie-dye shirt, but I guess I'll have to ditch that plan), and having been reluctantly coaxed to go along with her and my two younger brothers to shop for that purpose on Black Friday morning, I found myself standing in JCPenney's amid rows of suit jackets, all marked down, and all still out of my price range. Granted, my mom did say that she would pay for it. But even so, paying $80 or $100 for one piece of clothing really bothers me.

Why? Maybe because I'm cheap. Maybe because I've met too many homeless people, and even given the jacket off my back to one of them, and my gloves to another. Maybe because I spent my Christmas break last year in a small town in Mississippi in the wake of Hurricane Katrina and had my consumer priorities rewritten again.

True, I do need a black suit jacket, even if the word "need" is relative. But I've got to be able to find one for $50 or less. Gosh, even if it cost "only" $50, it might still be the most expensive piece of clothing I've ever worn.

I'm not against spending money; I'll spend a great deal of time in my life earning it, and I've got to do something with it. God says to give 10% to him, and be generous with the rest. But if spending less of my money (or someone else's) on myself helps me to be more generous in attitude and in practicality, then by all means, call me cheap and you're completely right.

And when I do have a black suit jacket, and I know someone who needs one, I won't hesitate at all to give it to them. (Don't worry, Mom, I'll wait until after the wedding.)

Stardate: -317897.19

Yesterday it was Thanksgiving. And I worked. I probably should have asked for it off, since no one else did (?!) and we had too many staff there. I did manage to leave almost two hours early, though, and hang out with Jason and Jeff's family after a speedy ride across town.

I guess if one is going to work on a holiday, yesterday was just about ideal, since it was slow, relatively quiet, low stress, lots of food to eat, and holiday pay to boot.

Riding my bike in the rain can be annoying sometimes, but it does help me appreciate when the sky clears up for a few minutes as it did this morning.

Calling today "Black Friday" is, I think, kind of depressing, seeing as this is one of the greatest testaments to how consumer-driven American culture is, as well as the fact that the moniker "Black Friday" refers to so many negative events in history (see Link below).

Stardate: -317890.07

In the aforementioned week, during which some of you may have noticed blogs from me were conspicuously absent, there wasn't much that happened worth noting, but perhaps more than the silence suggests:

I did my first game for the (basketball referee) association, an 8th-grade girls game in Pleasant Hill that required a car trip. After which I came home and wrote down more than a dozen habits that I need to either make or break.

A mostly uneventful week of work, until Saturday, when all I need to say is asking you to imagine this picture in your mind: Me, wearing pants and a t-shirt, walking down Mohawk Blvd in Springfield in 50-degree weather, hand-in-hand with a 40-something developmentally disabled lady wearing only a dress, slippers, and my jacket.

Seeing friends from New York City, who I haven't seen for seven years, because they moved to Oregon and now live in the downstairs apartment on my half-brother Jason's property.

Stardate: -317890.04

Look, a week later and I post a picture of my new bicycle. This purchase, which I believe is the single largest purchase I've ever made outside of paying for college, took me all week. A week of riding the bus everywhere, of walking a mile and a half to work and back. An afternoon of browsing bike shops and finding a bike that I wanted, then adjusting my price range to fit the bike (something my budget and my money saved from transportation costs allowed me to do), and waiting three days for the bike shop to put together a bike that is the best size for me. And now my new favorite toy, which is really much more than a toy: A contraption that is probably the most economical purchase I've ever made, one that at my present rate will pay for itself in less than a year. A machine that is high quality to the point when it might well save me a couple hundred dollars in deferred maintenance.

What a difference a week can make.

Stardate: -317867.28

Behold, one of the things that keep a wheel from turning.

That which you see in the picture is the rear derailer on my bicycle. This happened on Saturday night, when on my bicycle trip across town I was down-shifting while going up the Defazio Bike Bridge. Apparently the chain got stuck, and the leverage from my pedaling foot caused bending of the frame/derailer, locking the derailer in the spokes of my bicycle.

Can it be fixed? How much will it cost? Will I decide to just replace the bicycle?

I'll know soon...

Stardate: -317861.9

At work on Thursday night, one of the residents had a rough day. It culminated in this resident going AWOL from the house. Since there was another staff member at the house, I followed the resident. As I was hustling to catch up with her, I had one of those moments of priceless inner dialogue, when I asked myself why I am doing this job, and decided that things like this are exactly the reason I do it. Because I was there, I was ready to act, and at that moment, I was the only person who could do what I did. Because when there are problems, monotony doesn't exist, and where there is no monotony, there is no boredom. Because many of life's lessons are learned in the heat of the battle, in the midst of conflict.

And, actually, we had a nice walk. A break from the house, and thankfully, the end of the tantrum that preceded the departure.

Now I go back to work again, and who knows what might happen...

Stardate: -317853.29

Now that Vjera and Hope have moved back into the house with the rest of the family, there is no way for me to ride over with one of them after my side job on Mon/Wed/Fri morning. I have the option of either biking or taking the bus or some combination of both. This morning I biked, which may have been God's grace for my younger brother, because he hadn't woke up on time when I arrived home at ten after eight. If I had taken the bus, he would have been late for school.

Basketball season has started. I have my first game for the association on Monday, a junior high game in Pleasant Hill. I wouldn't normally be going out of the city, but this is an exception because my assigner wanted to pair me with a more experienced referee. I will probably be doing two games a week during the season for the assoc., usually a junior high game on Monday evening, and probably a junior high, freshman, or JV game on Tuesday evening. I'm not likely to get any high level varsity games during my first year.

Kidsports basketball season doesn't start until January, when I'll start doing a couple games most Saturday mornings and Sunday afternoons.

Stardate: -317853.21

I went to the bridge club yesterday afternoon, and played about three hours of duplicate bridge with a bunch of mostly retired people.

It was an experience. Duplicate is a different format -- everyone plays the same hands, so it's entirely skill that determines who does the best -- and it took a little getting used to but I caught on pretty quick. The rounds were timed, so I had to play faster than I am used to but it didn't throw me off very much. Some of the bidding threw me off; my partner, who was a little old lady named Anna Mae, was a decent player. She bid a five-card major, a slightly weak one no-trump, a weak two bid, and a weak jump raise, all things that are not the same as I prefer and am used to. On the first hand, she bid her weak two hearts, I didn't know what it meant, and got into a contract that I couldn't make; everything went wrong during playing the hand and I went down four. Ouch.

It did get better from there. We made some, got set some, and had some nice defensive play to set a few contracts. I underbid two hands, both of which I should have pushed to a game contract. The oddity of the day was that I was dealt (and bid) four takeout doubles, one of which was a picture-perfect strong 4-4-4-1. I also doubled a preempt. The memorable hand of the day was one in which my partner opened a heart, a suit in which I had a void. I had near an opening hand, even if I didn't count the void as any points. I responded with two of my minor suit, and North overcalled at the two level. My partner jumped to four hearts (!) and of course, I had no viable option but to pass her misfit of a game contract. During the play of the hand, trump broke 6-1 and we went down two.

At the end of the day, my team was 13 out of 15 (thankfully we weren't the worst) and my percentile was 37.5, apparently better than some first timers.

I realize that all that I just said will mean almost nothing to most people who read it, outside of my family. However, if you do play bridge or would like to learn, let me know. It's a great card game.

Stardate: -317848.23

This picture is from a couple weeks ago, as you probably know if you have experienced any of our rainy weather here recently in Oregon. Most of the trees are either bare of leaves, or more a dull brown or yellow color, rather than this colorfulness.

I have a bus pass now, which I got for a ridiculously low price through my work. I used it this morning while on my way across town to hang out with a friend. I had never taken my bike on a bus before, so it took me a couple minutes to figure out exactly where the "handle in the middle" of the bike rack was, which the bus driver was yelling about at me because he was getting upset. It's not very obvious where the handle is. Anyway, I didn't mind the bus driver getting upset so much after a lady came running up to catch the bus just before we left. If I hadn't delayed the bus, she would have missed it.

I did a U14 boys championship soccer game yesterday, as a linesman, and worked in three other games over the weekend also. The championship game was kind of low key, though the players on the winning team were quite exuberant.

I actually drove my car from the field to Lane Community College for my basketball referee training, and afterwards to Jason's house where I left it. It's going to come off insurance in a couple weeks and I have no plans to drive it for several months at least, so I figured it would be best for it to be off the street.

At the referee training, I found not only that I am rusty, and thrown off a little bit by my recent soccer experience, as well as needing to unlearn some old mechanics so I can do it properly. It's good to have trainers who can challenge you, as that is something that I never experienced much in my past experience in basketball officiating.

Stardate: -317839.38

I was just starting onto the bike path off West D St in Springfield last night, and something happened that I didn't expect: I was adjusting the headlight on my bike, and the top unscrewed and came off, falling onto the path and rolling, along with the two batteries that were inside.

As I braked to a stop, I realized that the only thing I could see in the darkness were a lot of leaves covering the ground. For a long moment, I was completely helpless and had no idea what to do.

You see, usually I have my other headlight with me, the one I wear on my head, but not on this night. It needed to have its batteries replaced, and I didn't want to take the time to do it, and rather than bringing both the light and the batteries with me, I just left them behind.

After a couple minutes spent futilely poking around in the darkness, I just hopped on my bike, rode home, grabbed my other headlight, replaced the batteries, and rode back out to the scene. It took about five minutes to find the loose pieces even with my bright headlight. Of course, the batteries were the same color as the leaves.

The delay was about 30 minutes. 30 minutes that I would have rather added to my sleep time last night. After this, I'll always keep my second light with me.

Stardate: -317834.33

I am now learning everything I didn't already know about the rules of basketball, which is not very much, but more than I thought it would be.

I learned a lesson yesterday while biking in the early (and already dark) evening: Always carry extra batteries with you, because even if you have two lights, both can be dim at the same time. And a dim light is barely better than no light at all.

When it gets really cold like it is this week here in Oregon, I find myself doing two things: Putting "buying biking tights and/or long johns" on my to-do list, and praying for rainy weather (because an overcast sky is nearly always less cold than a clear one). Maybe I'll buy a ski hat also, you know, one of those warm head coverings that you pull down over your face so you look like a bandit.