man in white

So I almost didn't write this post. Really my last post was based on the idle thoughts of a dog walk and doing it again would be redundant. But in the case of a story that wants to be told, the story will not stop until it must be told.

First of all, Jenny is off visiting family in Minnesota and I am left at home to supervise the puppies. I spent the morning at Snowbird enjoying a bluebird day on groomed runs, came home and took some nappy time. I figured I should take the dogs on a walk around the neighborhood, so I opened the door to check out the weather. It was one of those moments where you realize you have been napping inside on a beautiful 60 degree day in the middle of February. Looking for a reason for a journey I decided that a man with black shoes should own a black belt, to live otherwise would just be silly (Jenny has made me watch one too many episodes of What Not to Where). I made it a couple of houses down the street in a short sleeve shirt before realizing that the shady areas were a bit chilly.

I have a rule that I like to break, never buy anything nice and white. This isn't to doubt my purity or me ability to eat without spilling. It ultimate comes down to me liking to play at any given time. Awhile ago I bought a white zip-up cotton jacket that I could where over a polo shitrt at work. My work has a casual dress code but I don't think looking like a dirty mountain bum would go over well, so I try to put some thought into my apparel. When buying this, I thought very clearly that this was for work and not play. This story is so predictable that I almost can't bare to tell it.

So I walked the dogs to Nordstrom Rack and bought a black belt. Then saw a park across the street and figured with the warm weather it might be worth a trip. I walked on the sidewalk, used crosswalks and even walked the paved loop around the park. How could anything go wrong?

Near the end, I figured the puppers were a bit thirsty and there was a babbling brook off the side of the trail. So I started to walk them over when I saw that it was extremely muddy from the freshly melted ice and snow. I tried to change directions when my right foot slid in the mud. My left was still on stable ground, so I pushed off of it to get my balance and to land on the dry ground just ahead. Once my left foot landed in the mud just in front of me which was not dry ground, I put on full-flail mode.

Now lets take a break for me to pat my own back. I am an excellent faller. Some people are athletic and well balanced and rarely fall. That is not me. I am constantly finding my self hiking, climbing, running, and jumping with no clue how I am going to stay on my feet. In general once I flail enough, I find myself standing where I started no worse for ware.

So I flail. I think I throw in about 3 additional steps (on top of my first 2) while my center of gravity is falling towards the ground. Yet this magical mud before me seems impervious to my flailing. I decide (loosely used word since this all happened in less than 1 second) to just catch myself with my hands and land on my knees to protect my white apparel. Super-mud takes out my hand, drops me to my elbow and lands me on my back. I quickly bounce up to minimize the oozing.

So I walk the rest of the way to the water. Get the dogs their drink and wash off my hands.

Now I head home. I have a nice 30 or so minutes to think abut my stupid fall and wether it was even worth the time to tell the story. I figure it isn't really that funny unless you understand how clearly I had thought when buying this jacket that I would never put it in a situation to get dirty.

I get to my front door, ready to wash myself off, when I realize I don't have my keys...

Laying in the mud between step 3 and step 5 on the bank of a babbling brook were my precious house/car keys, just waiting for this story to be interesting enough to tell.

No Animals were harmed in the writing of this blog

So I don't really blog all that much. Normally one or two sentence on Facebook accomplishes my goal. This little 5 minute event takes at least 3 sentence to tell.

I was stopped at an intersection of a fairly big street and a fairly average street (900 S, 700 E for SLC folks). I saw a lady walking two yorkies on a retractable leash or I guess in this situation two retractable leashes. Now these leashes are normally 10 or 12 feet long. I just checked online and they do have 26' long leashes, so I am guessing this is what she had.

As she approached the intersection, I was astounded by how far ahead these leashes could stretch and was waiting to see her pull them back or to see if they were trained to sit at intersections. The best I can tell she called for them as they got close and they jumped around like little excited cat-dogs. They never went into the intersection but they didn't seem too under control. The lady then turned to walk down the street I was driving on and the direction I was driving. Luckily this is a street with a sidewalk which is about 10' away from any cars. (Yes some of you can see where this math might start heading).

As I approached the dog walker, her dogs were on the grass between the sidewalk and the road. Fortunately being a dog lover, I was watching the dogs and not the road. Now the cool thing about retractable leashes is that they come with a lock button on them, so you can stop your dog from walking into the street and the cool thing about yorkies are that they are so light you can pull on their leash and whip them around like a...something you whip around. I then saw one of the yorkies jump off the curb into the street, so I honked my horn and took my foot off the gas. I really figured having a dog in the street and car honking its horn would cause the lady to put the brakes on her dog or to pull her dog back to her. A half second later, I realized she was not reacting at all.

Now heading at 30 mph to a dog that has walked an additional 6 ft to the center of my lane and cars coming at me in the other direction. I decide it is about time to slam on my brakes as hard as possible. Honestly by the time I felt the car start to slow down the dog was too close to the front of my car for me to see and by the time I stopped the dog's previous location was about even with the center of my car or even with my back tires. I really couldn't tell if I hit him or not since it would be an 8 lb dog impacting a 2000 lb squeeling car.

As soon as I stopped I looked up to my right and saw the lady casually standing there. I looked down and there were two doggies jumping around playing. I waited another second to see if the lady would show any emotion or something...nope.

So I drove home and wrote this.

Cupid's Snowy Arrow

Dear Robin Moores,

(name corrected on 1/5/09)

This email is written in the form of a letter for two reasons. One is that I am pretty sure Rob is the only one who reads my blog and B if he reads this he should come to Utah ASAP.

I ended last week snowboarding with two of my ole' college friends at Brighton and Solitude. They were tele skiing and we had a rompus good time hitting the blues. I also took Jenny out for her second day boarding and it went spectacular. Leaving this high for a week of work was a bit of a let down and so was having Jenny working on weekends. Let's say that the week itself was a bit of a hassle and I wish a quick painless death upon it.

I started the day off by doing some grocery shopping and house cleaning. After making up for Jenny working (I do chores to alleviate guilt about having free time), I set of for Snowbird Ski Resort in Little Cottonwood Canyon. Wait... "little" then why did you drive to the top of Big Cottonwood Canyon. I make mistakes. So I head over to the correct mountain and stare at the clock. Is it worth going to the mountain and spending $45 to board for 4 hours. I've been driving for an hour and would be sad if I didn't play in the snow a bit.

The parking lot and road are packed and it was a bit of a hike to the lift. Sidenote: I got new Solomon boots and they were awesome. So I get on the first lift I see and hit a blue to start the day off right. Now I find myself sitting in the snow stuck on a flat spot staring at 12 yr old skiers learning to do slalom. I am not feeling it today. I was so confident last weekend and now I'm forcing every turn.

I make it the next fast lift and decide to start balling down an other blue. There is about 12" of powder in the ungroomed and untouched parts of the mountain. Then I see it. A small opening in the fence with two little symbols of a black and pointy nature. They were so enticing and the trail didn't seem all that perilous.

Thus begins the greatest day of snowboarding in my life.

I head through the gate and the trail is full of powder and not to steep. I eventually get buried up to my waste. Sure it took some digging and hiking to get out but it was beautiful. I head around the corner and there is a steep drop off with tons of fresh snow and not too many trees to dodge. Heart pounding fun like I haven't had in ages.

I go for another two runs and am constantly checking out the super expensive tram that goes to the top of the mountain. I was wishing and hoping that the chair lift up there would open sometime soon. Now I look closer and it is moving. I can love the tops of things.

I ride up and see it again. Two pointy black symbols indicating a potential doom and a beautiful bowl full of sugary white goodness.

(not my image)

Done!


I ride a traverse around the top of the bowl. When I run out of momentum I drop in and yes I am Done!

Life is good and I have found peace.

In the end I found myself riding through trees, dropping off ledges, falling in powder, sliding on my chest, and the whole time I was daydreaming about writing this. Immortalizing this adventure.

Love Always,

Jimmy Budnik from the ultimate team

dawning of the age

So I meant to write an exciting blog about 2 consecutive days of snowboarding, followed by a snow storm and a night of snowshoeing. Unfortunately I was too busy playing in the snow to do that. Instead I shall welcome the dawning of the age of yuppiness. Ohh, sure I've been a yuppy for a while. Driving around in sports cars, wearing suits to work, dreading going to work in the morning, and so on. But yesterday I crossed the line.

I went out and not only bought a blackberry. I bought the fancy-shmanciest blackberry on the market, the Blackberry Bold (or Crackberry Cold if you like). I'm not counting the storm because I think they feel weird.
I don't really know what it can do so far. I have found an app where I talk and it searches for things from my voice. Google maps will find my location and be a GPS for me, with street view. I shall see.


Now for the long rambling story. Jenny gets an ATT discount through work and Tmobile doesn't get great coverage in this area, so we were thinking of switching plans. Since Skidaway ate my phone for dinner a couple years ago I still had a contract. This was going to end on 5/24/09. I looked at Tmobile's contract and saw that with over 180 days, it cost $200 to terminate a contract and with less than 180 it cost $100. Since my work will cover some of the expense of me getting a blackberry, I figured it would make up for this loss. ATT is so proud if it's 3G network that I felt like I had to use it but the Bold was the only blackberry with 3G capabilities and I do love toys. Yes, I had a sidekick before all the kids of the world even knew they existed. Jenny found a cool Pantech Matrix. It slides out to a QWERTY keyboard in one direction and a number pad in the perpendicular direction. So we went to get these. Oh, I missed a part and don't want to edit this. We got to the store at 7:05 and the sign said they closed at 7:00. Lucky for us the door was unlocked. We later found out the lock was broken (: So we went to get the phones and to jenny's discontent they did not have the Matrix. A bit later she settled on another phone and we asked to be put on the waiting list for the cool phone. So 45 minutes later a contract is signed, hundreds of dollars have vacated my life, and we are at home. I was a bit afraid ATT was going to rip us off, so I made sure we liked that deal before calling Tmobile.

I called Tmobile and they tried to pull the ole' "you owe us $200" game. I explained about the 180 days and asked to talk to a supervisor. They said he was in meeting and he would call me back in an hour. Two hours late I call back. By this time I read the contract in more detail and they had a fair argument. There is a link in the contract for people who signed before a certain date to go to in order to get their contract (very shady). It now takes about another half-hour of me explaining how my wife works all the time and she has no coverage there and how we need to switch. No deal.

Now I am going to go back to ATT and give up on my blackberry dreams. I head over at lunch and wait patiently to talk to the worker there. He listens to my story and says it won't be a problem to cancel my plan. At the last second he runs behind the scenes and comes back with a counter offer of 50 bucks for me plus 50 bucks for jenny to keep the phones. Deal!

Now I got my blackberry and jenny has her second best phone. At 5:00, I get a call and the cell phone guy says "guess what?" I quickly figure out that he has her phone...The Matrix.


The villagers rejoice.

PC is better than MAC

So I saw someone at work pop-up a mac looking thingy on a PC. This has inspired me to visually and somewhat functionally turn my PC into a mac. For the most part I just downloaded skins over things and a couple other programs. For more detailed information go here:
http://features.engadget.com/2004/06/09/turn-your-pc-into-a-mac/

Here is a screen shot of my pc (click to enbiggen image):

dog year and one

Over the past 8 years, I have lived my life.

I have moved across this country in that time, including Oklahoma, Indiana, Minnesota, Georgia, Colorado, and Utah. I have also traveled to France, Germany, Spain, Italy, Hungary, Belize, Canada, Peru, Amsterdam, and other fun little places around the world. I have tried and failed and tried again and fallen in love. I have entered the work force and been through many jobs. I have been a truck loader, shelf-maker, paper-stacker, waiter, educator, even a cowboy one day, and yes an engineer. I have walked, run, jumped, driven, strolled, slept, talked, played, pondered, cared, teased, cried, hoped, hugged, and loved!

I am excited by the next 8 years because I can do and be more.

Garage Sale

So I have gone to a couple REI garage sales over the past couple years.  Normally it is just a swarm of people fighting over a couple dozen used or broken items.  It was half-heartedly that I went to the sale this morning.  Upon approach,  there was a much larger swarm of people, which made my chances of getting something cool drop way down.  Then I saw the jackpot of goodies sitting outside the store.

So as my turn to rush the gate came up.  I immediately headed for the snowboards.  It has been my goal over the past couple months to find a really cheap used snowboard to trash while I slowly become profficent.  All other attempts to find the 

aforementioned board have left me wanting.  The first couple boards I saw looked new or slightly used and were a about 150-250, which I am sure was a great deal.  Then I saw a pile of generic looking identical boards off to the side.  They were labeled rental boards.  So apparently REI was getting rid of some of their rental gear and they had what were once nice Burton boards on sale.  Then I thought I saw a price tag, but was quite mistaken because it was only $19.99.  After a bit of deliberation with the common sense department of my own intelligence, I decided that this was the price and I must by this board.  I thought for a second about buying multple boards so friends could have some when they came in town, but that would involve more boots and bindings too.

Now that I had a board, I need some boots.  They did have a line of rental boots for sale, but I actually plan on using the boots for a couple of years.  I found a relatively new pair of boots that appeared to be in great condition.  They were my size so I tried them out.  I'm not calling myself fat but really now my toes need to breath.  I went over and found a slightly less cool and new looking pair of $20 boots that fit like a gem.  They too were Burton's so at least I am brand loyal apparently.  As I went to return the little piggy crushers, I caught a glance of the "womens" label on the boot.  Whoops.

So now I have boots and board and no way to connect the two.  Unfortunately this problem was not resolved.

I tried to walk around and shop but I kept hitting people with the snowboard, so I checked out and loaded up the car.  Then made a 180 and went right back to shopping.  I found a cool folding lounge chair for Jenny (that I also love).  Now I could go home.

I set up the chair when I got home and realized a couple bolts were missing.  A quick trip to Home Depot and a little enginamaneering skills and I had a functioning chair.  Now you as the reader might wonder why I am still talking, since this is a blog about the REI garage sale.  

Plot twist~~~~~~

Jenny comes home and loves the chair and like Jenny's do, she wants to go to the garage sale.  This should be the point in the story where Jenny crashes our bank account and we live in a pile of pizza boxes for the next decade.  Instead, we decide I should wear a helmet while falling off mountains on my new toy.  I also found a Zipka headlamp for $15 that I was going to keep in my car for emergencies but I think Jenny is in love with it, so we can count that as a Jenny gift too.

Burton Board (check)

Burton Boots (check)

Burton Gloves (check)

Bindings (uncheck)

Patagonia Snow pants (check)

Arc'Teryx Coat (check)

Ski Pass (super unchecked)

It looks like I am on my way.

And the seasons turn turn turn

The leaves are turning and the seasons changing.  Not those silly weather seasons, but sporting seasons.  No, not those things that people watch on TV where strangers do things with balls and sell stuff between points.  I'm talking about those things where I waste all my money on my own adrenaline needs.  

Ultimate season has ended with an 8th place finish at the Mixed NW Regionals.  Due to two unfortunate incidents with double-game points, we will not be going to nationals.  I feel like I played well and made some new friends, so that was nice.

Thus begins the next season.  I don't know what that is though.  I have spent the past four winters climbing indoors, because I lived in Minnesota.  Now I face the awe of mountains full of snow.  I don't think I have ever been excited about winter and cold, but flailing down a mountain at ridiculous speeds just sound so blissful.  Oh and there will also be that silly indoor climbing thing this winter.

A view from home

So there was a bit of a fire and smoke in the air today which always makes for nice sunsets. This is from the street outside my house.

I like mountains and fire.

Welcome to the Family

For those of you who never got know Eleanor, I apologize. She was a close and dear friend. When I decided she couldn't join me and Jenny in Salt Lake City, it was a sad day. I will never forgot the look on her as I left her behind. The time had finally came to find her heir apparent.



I would like to welcome the newest member to my family. She is three and half month old and in great health. Her name is Roxanne, but you can call her Roxi for short. She is 173.8" long and weighs a delicate 3,142 pounds. With a 4 cylinder turbo charged 240 horse-power engine she is sure to be a little trouble maker and I look forward to all the adventure we are sure to have.

Roxanne "Roxi"
(2008 Subaru WRX)

Jimmy misses Robin Mooers of the Happiness Team

http://superhappyfunthoughts.blogspot.com/2008/07/robin-misses-jimmy-budnik-from-ultimate.html

Greatest Moments in Sports this week

I've been living without cable for most of the past 4 years, and in the past 2 weeks I have seen some great moments in sports. I normally don't even like watching sports but these were so cool that I had to enjoy them.

First was a documentary on a High School wrestling team that had not lost a team head-to-head match in 34 years. The one year that they decide to make a documentary the team lost a match.

The other was just on TV. Every 4th of July there is a Nathan's Famous Hot dog Eating Championship. This is the event that made competitive eating famous. In order to make it a more safe and healthy event they reduced the time from 12 to 10 minutes. It was 6 time champion Kobayashi vs the American who upset him last year Chestnut. In 10 minutes they both ate 59 hot dogs... a tie! How can this be???

So it goes to a 5 dog eat off (thus negating the 10 minute health warning).

Chestnut wins by a dog and America keeps the mustard yellow belt!

Inflated Kangaroo Massage

Let me start off by saying:
"I could go for an inflated kangaroo massage right now".

So I haven't been doing an adequate job updating people on my whereabouts because when you drop everything and run away to Utah, you kinda have to find a job. Now finding a job these days isn't about a little kickback, a wink, and a smile. It involves digging through the cesspool, we also know as the internet, and trying to find something you like, will pay well, you can get hired at, is near you, etc... It just makes you sick of typing on computers.

Thus I have not been updating my blog.

I could write more about the whole process and what has come and gone, but like I said when I started this blog "I am not going to write about anything that might be important". Really I don't know who is reading this.

In the end, I wake up each morning with a dog lying in my bed, mountains on every horizon, and the knowledge that my wife is going to help sad sick kids be happy healthy kids. The rest is just a bunch of blank spaces in the game of hangman that is my life. (was that morbid to you, because I was imagining a happy kid playing hangman with her mom when I wrote it so it was happy to me?)

I do miss my friends in MN, my friends and family everywhere else, and my freedom when I'm applying for jobs.

Foods of Peru

I (and much of my family) have been criticized for not having a wide enough palet and willingness to try food. This is always mildly absurd to me, since I am constantly trying food and then not liking it. I do live in a world where eating food I don´t like should always be a last resort. For example if you drop me off in the middle of the Amazon with no food for four days, I will manage to eat fish.

This is the blog about the foods I found and tried in Peru.

The good

Alpaca Filet: sweet tasting filet mignon-like steak

Potatoes: I think Peru has like 80 different types of potatoes and they are wonderful

Rice and Pasta: when camping and all that is left is rice and pasta, why not mix them. This will be made in the future. This may not be all new but give me a break.

Coca Leaf Tea and Muña Tea: leafs thrown in some hot clean water and helps with altitude

Banana everything: fried banana, banana chips, raw banana, boiled banana, etc...

The bad

Pirranha: now this might not be fair, since I hate fish and it was not nearly as bad as other fish.

Fried catfish: same thing, but since I ate it the cooks thought I liked it at the Amazon Lodge

Firrungua: the name might be wrong but this is the Peruvian version of Hard-tac

Hamburgers: All I want is ground cow meat and white bread. Everywhere in Peru they try and improve with spices and herbs. This should be a crime.

The Ugly:

Guinnea Pig: more specifically half a guinne pig including the head and two legs. I could barely get through the skin to find the meat

Agguchi Soup: Agguichi are like 5 pound rats and ours was diced and served in soup. I did manage to eat all of what I was served.

Palm Nut Juice: not so bad unless you think you are just drinking brown river water

Aguchi

Guinea Pig

Alpaca

Flux

So my moments of change continue...

I am now on the tail end of a 6 week trip around Peru. It has been an amazing experience. I wish I could give some brief mind blowing explanation of life in Peru, but that would never be brief. In the end, I highly recommend coming here and seeing it for yourself. I'll try and come up with some comical blogs about it in the future, but the real meaning of the trip would have to be a face to face conversation.

One of my best friends is joining the army to become a helicopter pilot, which it is nice to see him pursue a dream and I hope everything works out for the best on this new course.

Jenny is now really a real doctor.

I will be moving to Salt Lake City in a couple weeks. I don't have a job or a real place to live, but I have possibilities.

I got sunburn on my lips again. Need to get better at stopping this.

I miss my puppy dog and love my wife and am forever amused by the antics of children.

And that is pretty much life as of now.

Peruvian Expeditions

Jenny and I will be writing a co-blog about our Peruvian Expeditions at http://pikatrails.blogspot.com/

Enjoy!

The great Peruvian Expedition (Beta*)

*"Beta" either from computer programming meaning “in design mode” or from climbing meaning ”information about a route".

For those of you who have inquiring minds and would like to know the detailed itenarary for my and Jenny’s trip to Peru, this is not an ideal location. If you want a rough sketch of our trip, you are at the right spot.

We will begin on April 19 in the year of 2008. Our first flight will be with the MN born NWA airlines and will be taking us to Miami for an evening of relaxation. Now no South American adventure would be complete without a visit to Columbia and their fine airfields. We will be landing and departing Bogota without incident, no matter what anyone tries to say or do otherwise. Then we will continue on to Lime, Peru. From what I know about Lima, it is like Seattle without the pop culure and a lot of homeless people. Lima is wet and grey and surrounded by a giant shantie town. People often wonder why they are in Peru when they see Lima. We will spend a day in Lima and then will head off to Cuzco.

Cuzco was the center of the Incan Empire, and no matter what people say about the Spanish being evil for killing the Incans, just remember the Incans killed all the people there well before the Spanish came. We will then head out on the Incan Trail for a 4 day trek to Machu Pichu. The difference between trekking and backpacking is that trekking is what rich tourists do, when they have porters and pack animals carry all their gear. Machu Pichu is one of the most famous ancient ruins in the world and is beautifully perched atop the Andes. It is delicately speckled with thousands of tourists at any given point in time. We will then spend the night at the base of the ruins in a somewhat posh hotel before taking a train back to Cuzco the next day.

At this point the trip gets murky and dream like. I kinda remember going to Lake Titicaca, a huge lake high in the mountains. I believe people live on floating islands of reads with tiny read huts on the lake. I also think there was something to do with the deepest canyon on land on the planet earth. Was there something with rock climbing or rafting??? Man it’s just not clear to me. Wait, I think we went surfing somewhere.

Who knows?

When it all cleared up we are a week later and sitting in Lima again. Ahhhh, get out of Lima! Book a flight to the Amazon to stay safe. Spend 2 weeks in the Amazon looking for Tarzan. We will be staying at a place with cool treehouse type huts and lots of free tours and educational experiences. The place is famous for its Amazon survival course and jenny really wants to hunt down some poison arrow frogs. I think a monkey will steal my hat. I would like to camp out in the middle of the rain forest for some alone time in death’s grip. Ok we had our fun now back to Lima.

Somewhere along the way someone said something to us about some sort of thing that we should definitely do if we have the time. So now we are going to do that for a week.

Hop a plane from Peru to Bogota, run though airport in 65 minutes and hop a plane to the US. Get deloused by customs and spend 2 days relaxing in Miami by the pool.

Fly home June 2 of the year 2008.

The Rise and Fall of Exhilaration

So I haven’t written much in a while, so why not type a little update?

First off, congrats to dD for getting into pilot school. Good luck in boot camp.

I’ve been estimating that my life will be in some state of ecstasy or turmoil from March 20, 2008 to December 25, 2008. This could be way off, but who knows.

The basic outline thus far goes a little something like this:

March 20: Find out where we are moving (Salt Lake City)
March 21: Pack
March 22: Move stuff into storage in Rochester, MN
March 24: Hand in letter of resignation
March 24 to March 31: live on airmattress in empty abode.
March 31 – April 17: live with Dan and Kate (bro/sis-in-law)
March 24 – April 18: Determine living arrangement in SLC. Sell my car ): Send puppy to Rochester for 2 months.
April 19 – June 2: Travel around Peru. Exploring the Andes, Machu Pichu, the amazon, the coast, and Lake Titicaca to name a few.
June3 – June ?: Drive out to SLC and live in hotel. Look for a job and maybe a house and maybe a mode of transportation.
June ? – June ?+4: Go whitewater rafting with Jenny and all the other interns
July – December 25: Start a job, buy a house, buy a puppy?, buy a mode of transportation, start digging out of student loans, work on house, have friends visit mountains, teach jenny to like falling down snowy mountains, enjoy the view, and go Christmas shopping (:

“Through pleasure and pain, I embrace the unknown.” – me, just now 4/1/08

Wagons West!

There will be a full something about this at an other more convenient point in time, but the results are in.

Jennifer Lynn Makosky, James Edward Budnik, and Skidaway Ellen Roo will be deconstructing their current existence in order to habitat Salt Lake City for at least the next five years. To all we are leaving, you will be missed and you are always welcome to visit. To those we are about to meet, why are you reading my blog and nice to meet you.

Love Always
jimmy

In response to the Robin's comment...

Robin Mooers

The One Story

This story has been told before, and it will be told again. It is my pulse check of story telling ability and my testimony to chaos or fate. This is the story of the night that changed my life and how little really happened. Intentions, actions, decisions all could have destroyed this series of events and I brought none of them to the table. I tell this story because of love and I tell this story because of hope.

I could start at the beginning but that would be cliche. It is now the end of winter 2008 and I am without my wife. She has gone off to see the world and to help the ill. She will be back and I will continue to love her. We have known each other for almost five years now and knowing each other was all it took.

Five years ago, I went on the road and into the wild as the literate might say. I took my liberty and set off for Savannah, Georgia in the spring of 2003. A year after college and a little too much time in Tulsa, I was ready for my future. I had been thinking about the Tao belief that there is a "way" that we should be following and I knew I was not on it. Maybe random luck or just doing what I wanted would help me find the "way". I took three days journey to Savannah, because if Easy Rider taught us anything, it was that all great American road trips should go to Mardi Gras.

Fade out and flash to a sunset wedding off the coast of Tybee Island. It was only right that we get married here. It was during the endless summer nights that we learned to trust each other, to sit quietly with each other, to smile at each other, and to listen to the world around each other. Without that beach we would have been busy, we would have been active, we would have just been friends who might like each other. The beach gave us time and two years after those nights we walked a sandy aisle on that sub-tropical isle.


In truth, it really was out of my hands, but it was out of hers too. We maybe left a little too much of our life up to our friends, but they seemed to be having such a good time, and we both truly love our friends having a good time. I was going to sit the festivities out that night. I had a long weekend playing some ultimate with a random coed team. My good friend was leaving Georgia and I just wanted to be with her to say good bye. Sure they were going to call. How could they not notice that we weren't there? I really was just going to relax. There is one great weakness to all wanderers out in the world and it was accidentally put before me. I had no money and barely had a job. What if someone called and offered me a free burrito? What if I told you I had never had a burrito before and didn't think I would even like it? What if the girl asking was such a sweetheart that I could never turn her down and wanderers have to eat? What if none of the girls in this paragraph were the girl I was destined to marry? So I accepted the offer and went to dinner. Fashionably late of course.

I've never been one for social interaction. Not that I don't like people. It is quite the opposite. I love people and I would hate to upset people. I would hate to have them think less of me. I would hate to find out that I might not like them. I have worried about being around new people since childhood. I always feared being teased, never wanted to look dumb, always tried not to be noticed, and often failed at all of these. I was self conscious and am still to this day, but I will strive to grow stronger as I ramble through life. So how could I ever make new friends, meet a girl, meet a girl and make her my friend? In all my attempts, the most successful path normally involves them not liking me for a long period of time and after enough exposure they get to see that I'm a sweetheart, who has no clue what he is doing a lot of the time.

I show up to team dinner and I am immediately assaulted with questions of my eye color. BLUE. I have a standing policy that if someone asks me a question I will answer without questioning the cause of the question. It is a part of me trying to force myself to be a more open honest person. So yes I have blue eyes and some would say if I put enough hair dye in, I have beautiful blond hair, but none of this matters or at least it shouldn't. But I guess it does.

There was one time in my youth when my aunt came to the door and asked if I was ready to go. This must have been during the summer while my parents were at work. I remember so vividly not having any clue what I was supposed to be ready for. I knew that by the looks of what I was wearing she thought I might be ready. So I ran upstairs and put on my bathing suit, because she had a pool at her house, and I then put my other clothes on over it. This way I looked just as ready as I was before and she wouldn't ask why I changed. I was horrified about asking where we were going and what was going on and I just went along for the ride. I like just going along for the ride when I am in doubt. We ended up at the dentist and that was no fun. Then I was taken home.

Let's just say that this ride went a little smoother. People immediately started hollering that I was a perfect match for Ginny, well she seemed like a nice girl. A little quite and just as uncomfortable with this game as me. It seemed that we were supposed to sit next to each other and put on a show for the fans, but I was not going to play this silly game for this crowd. I grabbed an open chair somewhere else and started in on my free burrito. The conversations finally reveals the cause of the blue eyed question.

Moments before my arrival at the restaurant, Rachel the aforementioned nice girl with the aforementioned free burrito was being grilled on the topic of her availability in the dating world by one or two or a half dozen margarita drinking friends. They seemed to think she would be a perfect match for there short Asian friend, Swirve. In a moment of quick thinking Rachel deemed that only tall dark and handsome men were acceptable to her, AKA her friend Jaime. Oh well, crises averted. Except now the attention is drawn toward the girl called Ginny. Why wouldn't she go out with Swirve? What could her response be? Of course she would only be attracted to a blond hair blue eyed boy, AKA her friend Aaron.

Now I know you might be wondering who is this Ginny character that seems like it should be Jenny. Well that's what I wanted to know. Sure I met Ginny. I talked to her. I even gave her a back massage, but then one day after pick-up ultimate I finally got her phone number. Except there was no Ginny on the list. Yes, there was a Jenny and I am madly in love with her today, but back then I didn't even know her name. It came to me in a moment of panic that I had misinterpreted my southern dialect. You see they can't decipher between "in" and "en". This is why they will always ask for an "ink pen" or a "push pin". So now my Ginny had become my Jenny and will always be my Jenny til the day I die a happy man.

With a couple seats between us and a burrito in my belly, things are looking up for falling into the background. Until I get so comfortable that I stand up and leave the table to take care of some personal needs. Oh those pranksters. But of course, I come back to find the only open chair next to the beautiful new girl in my life, who clearly only likes blue eyed boys. So I sit and chat. I play into their game because I do really like people. I just want to fit in, and when they ask me to flirt more, I even offer to give her a back massage. A rare aside in this story, but I think fidgety people give better massages because they want to move their hands all the time anyway.

Nothing can really come from heckled forced flirtation. It takes one-on-one time, and that was not in the cards. I wasn't looking for a girlfriend. I was only in town for a couple months. I just wanted to have fun and would never toy with a girl's emotions like that. Sure I would like to have a girlfriend. Of course, I wanted to be close to someone, but that was not going to happen. I just sometimes wonder... If it's raining on Tybee Island does that mean practice is canceled 20 minutes away in Savannah? She did give me her number. Oh and if that practice is canceled, we might as well do something together. If she shows up after a spring shower and is bundled up in a warm blue hoody, what other choice do have but to let my heart skip a beat.

So the dinner ends and we head off to the bar for some more excitement. In the overcrowded over amplified bar scene the two of us can just blend back into our own world of people watching. Sure there was still some sideline support egging us on and sideways glances with little smirks from the bystanders, but nothing to really bring us together. Except for muppets.

Savannah College of Art and Design (SCAD) is a place where young artistic souls are set free amongst a historical city. Now if you were to be a talented performer and maybe had some skills of craftsmanship, what trouble would you cause? Hypothetically, would you make some muppets, take them to the bar, give them some beers, and then have them play a couple games of pool?

Jenny and I are children. Not in the derogatory term that is used to belittle intelligence and behavior; in the kind way of open souls looking for things to love. We can't help but to find children and talk to them, play with them, teach them, love them. We identify with a child's point of view of life and that is something that can bring people together, like muppets.

Two people getting to know each other for the first time come across muppets interacting with adults and they want the whole room to know, but so few care. This makes it even more special to be with those that do care. Yes this made her special to me.

Over the next two months, we laughed, played, talked, hugged, kissed, and fell in love. What was temporary became permanent. What was random became fate. I found the "way" and have been following it ever since.

Jenny I love you and will never forget our story as it grows with each passing day.