Fab-o Christmas!!

So we had a fabulous Christmas!! We've been in Midland with my parents since Tuesday, and just had a great time hanging out, playing Wii, and Brian spent most of the time recovering.

Speaking of which, he got the "all clear" from the surgeon this morning, so he's truly on the road to recovery.

Brian's parents and sister came and spent Christmas day with us in Midland, which was fantastic because we could all be together. I feel truly blessed that our families get along so well together, and it's easy and fun to spend time together. Linda had her last day of radiation on Christmas Eve, and although she's hurting, she's glad to be all done with radiation. (Let me tell you, even though radiation is much preferred to chemo, this is nasty stuff. Her skin is SO burned... I hadn't really thought about how they're actually using chemicals to treat her cancer.)

I got to see my friend Susan and her boyfriend Jason on Saturday, and I had a great time getting to know Jason and catching up after 7 1/2 years. (I can't believe it's been that long since I've seen her!)

Speaking of Susan, her family owns my FAVORITE restaurant ever- Luigi's in Midland. It's friggin' fantastic, and that's what we ate Saturday night. SOOOO good. (Luigi's really is the thing that brought Susan and I together as friends in the first place. I met her in the 5th grade when we were both attending GEM two days a week. I saw a watch either she or her sister was wearing that had the Luigi's logo on it. I went crazy telling them how it was my favorite restaurant, and Susan was like "It's my favorite too- my grandparents own it!!" How could I NOT be her friend after that??)

Anywho, we got back in to town yesterday evening after the fastest trip back to Plano EVER! (We must have had a tail wind because the trip that usually takes us 7 hours only took 5 1/2 hours.) No, we didn't speed. Honest.

Oh yeah, I almost forgot the drama that ensued on the trip back. We were about ten miles east of Midland on Interstate 20, and I was passing an 18-wheeler in the left lane. I happened to glance in my rearview mirror, and saw a PT Cruiser barreling towards us. I'm not kidding- I honestly thought that it was going to rear-end us. I was braced for impact and screaming "Oh, God, oh, God, oh, God!" (All I could get out- I'm sure God knew it was a desperate prayer!) When the cruiser was INCHES from us, he braked, and I was able to get past the 18-wheeler and back into the right lane.

This is when it got weird. Instead of racing past me like I thought he would, he slowly crept by at a normal speed. I was able to turn and get a good look at him (and give him a scathing look as well!) and then he kept on at a normal speed. I was kind of weirded out because he had been going SO fast, and was now going at about 75 mph or so.

He approached the next cluster of cars ahead of us, and started accelerating again, and when he couldn't pass them, swerved way over onto the right shoulder. I thought he would try to pass on the shoulder, but swerved back into the right lane, and then into the left and managed to pass a truck, changing lanes within inches of hitting other cars. Now ahead of that cluster, I saw him again swerve WAY over onto the right shoulder and then back again.

He was changing speeds really rapidly, going from WAY fast to slow, WAY fast to slow. I could not it good conscience do nothing. (The way he was driving indicated that he was on something, and even if he wasn't, he needed to be stopped.) I tossed Brian the phone and told him to find the number to someone who could do something, and I sped up to try and get his license number. Brian was not able to get anyone from the DPS on the phone, and I could not get close enough to get his license number.

Watching him continue to swerve in and out of traffic, I decided to call 911. We entered Martin County and I told them what was happening, where we were, and then gave a description of the driver. As we passed into Howard County, a dispatcher called me and asked if we could see him. I couldn't at this point, but gave another update as to where we were. Shortly after, the sheriff passed us looking for the crazy. We knew there was a slim chance they would catch him.

90 miles down the road, we approached flashing lights. They had caught him!! Crazy guy was pulled over!! I, of course, will never know if he was just a really bad driver or if he was actually on something, but I feel much better knowing that he got pulled over. If you see crazies on the road, call someone!! Don't do nothing!! The dispatchers had to pass this call through 3 counties before someone caught this guy, but it worked.

Okay, off my responsible-driving soap box.

I hope you had a fabulous holiday, and I hope that you have an even better New Year's!! Be safe out there! Don't get crazy! (He he... That's for you, Zip!)