Crusin'

There are a lot of things that most people love that I just never quite "got."

In high school, for instance, one of the "big" events (if there were any "big" events in small-town South Dakota) was cruising. I never much did it, but I guess the concept was . . . driving around. Maybe stopping and hanging out with other cruisers too, I don't know. Like I said, I never quite "got" the whole deal. Maybe it had something to do with that I just wasn't very popular -- nobody wanted to cruise with me, nor talk to me while cruising -- but whatever the reason, it was really never my thing.

Obviously there's no correlation beyond the word, but fast-forward to 2009, and everybody loves vacationing on cruise ships. What's the hype about? I would wonder. What is there to do on a ship that I can't do at home? I don't like to sit by the pool, and frankly we have pools in Louisville. If I wanted to gamble, that can be accommodated with a modest drive. Really, what's the deal? "Oh, the food is incredible, and it's everywhere!" people would say. Cool, I can get with some good food. "The cabin boys come and fold towels into animal shapes!" others would exclaim. Ummmm, ok.

Nonetheless, Laura's always loved the idea of a cruise, and so with our 10 year anniversary coming up, I thought it might be time to give it a shot. I took her to Iowa for our honeymoon, after all, so I figured I could step my game up. Mobile AL to Cozumel and another port near Playa del Carmen Mexico it would be, then.

I still don't get it. The food was fantastic and in abundance. I dug it. The towel animals were surprisingly fun. The ports were nice, we went snorkling which was exceptional even for an anti-water guy such as myself and saw some Mayan ruins, which was interesting.

But seriously, what there was worth a week of my life? We did a lot of napping and reading on the boat. Which is fine, but I can do those as well from here (already have today, thank you!). Of course it was great to spend some time with my lovely bride, but we do a pretty good job of making that happen in our regular lives, too. And most importantly, she had a good time, but after about three days I think we were both ready to be back at home.

Much like this post, then, I just didn't quite get what the point was.

Figure This?

Alright, this hasn't been updated in a long time, but there are reasons. For one, it's been a pretty crazy month. For another, I'm lazy. So I'm behind, but because I am who I am, I'll start at the beginning and work chronologically. That means we start with:

Do you remember when your college buddies, after about eight beers, would say "Do you know what someone should do? *Fill in the blank with ridiculous -- although potentially hilarious if it ever happened in real life, but there's NO WAY that whatever this is ever takes place in real life -- idea* Dude, that would be incredible! They should really do it, too. You KNOW people would pay to see that. I'd pay to see that, wouldn't you? Someone really should do that!" Well, apparently someone across the river in Southern Indiana took their drunk friend seriously and made one of these things happen. That's right, Laura and I enjoyed some school bus figure-8 races about a month ago. The pics are from my phone so excuse their inadequacy, but here we go:






So, yep! School bus figure-8 racing turns out to be pretty much exactly what it sounds like. School buses crashing into each other and causing general unruliness. What more can you say about that?

Anyway, it's been an extremely eventful month even after that, so stay tuned for more updates, hopefully within the month.