ridiculousness

My computer has been giving me some rather threatening warnings that it is going to shut down and stop working. It says that the C drive is full. I therefore have the task of downloading everything off my computer and onto my external hard drive. Perhaps what is responsible for this is the 15,695 pictures that I have on my computer.

I was looking through some of my pictures, not all 15,695 of them, of course. I revisited just enough to realize how ridiculous I am. I do ridiculous things and I laugh when I look back at it.

Like the summer I did an internship at the Marine Fisheries lab at Texas A&M in Corpus Christi. I fished all summer long, and got paid for it. I had never fished before so I don’t know why they chose me, but I had a good time, and haven’t fished since I left the great state of Texas. Ridiculous.


Getting up at 4am every day lets you see beautiful sunrises. Plus, the day is done by noon!


Then there’s the time in Ethiopia where myself and a few friends of mine went searching for a child that they were sponsoring through World Vision. We drove through Shashemene, home of the Rastafari where all the hippies live and smoke pot. We went out from there into the country-side and found the school that the boy supposedly attended. We didn’t find him there, because the boy just happened to be playing hooky that day. Great first impression. In the end, however, we learned that he had stayed home to plow the family fields with his ox. I got a chance at steering this great beast, but I think I ruined part of the land in the process. Oops. Another ridiculous moment.


The CBS Early Show decided to air from Yakima once. Madie and I were the perfect pair to be involved in another ridiculous experience. We showed up at the Capitol Theatre downtown on the morning of the shoot. We got there ridiculously early, because of course we wanted to be standing in front. So Dave, the traveling-host man, didn’t talk to us on air or anything, but we did have our millisecond of fame when we made it onto national TV. Standing right next to us was a goat that kept pooping all over the place. We had ridiculous signs. Put the two of us together and we never fail to do something ridiculous.


Then one time in Kenya the monkeys had gotten on our nerves enough to convince us that something should be done about it. Someone had 'heard' that catching a monkey and attaching a bell to it would scare all the other monkeys away. So that's exactly what we did. One of the Kenyan guys made a trap and caught one poor victim for our scheme. We dressed it in an old toddler tee (we had to make room for the tail, of course), and sewed a bell on the front. Actually it wasn't a bell; it was more like a washer and a lug nut attached to string. As optimistic as we were about this non-lethal approach to our awful monkey problem, it did not work. We never saw it, or the t-shirt with the bell, again. It was a hilarious day, though.
Poor monkey.



Once I went spelunking in Arkansas. Caving. We were at this National Park, I forget where, that was known for caving. I was feeling rather adventurous so I suggested that we try some of the more 'exciting' caves. Problem was, we didn't know where any of them were. Lucky us, as we were walking back to the car we ran into this group of people that were covered in mud and slop from head to toe. So we asked them, where did you go??? And they said, over there - and we'll take you in if you'd like! I was having a great time and thought that I had overcome my fear of claustrophobia until I got stuck in one of the cracks. Really stuck - I seriously couldn't move. Luckily the girl that was with us calmed me down and talked me out of it. Twist your body down then over. Ha! My greatest realization was that caves stink. They're full of rotting mud and yuckiness, and I was wearing Chacos. Disgusting. Note: this picture is not "the cave". This is another 'novice' cave.


And thats just a few of my ridiculous moments. More to come. I just have to look through more of my 15,965 pictures.