We're Going on an Adventure, Bishop

Today I went to visit my mom and dad because Bishop had the day off school.  I wanted to get away from our apartment for the day so my kids didn't go crazy in it.  They're like little volcano's.  I have to get them out before they explode.

Bishop and I took a walk in the woods together.  At one point, Bishop started to get complain-y about the length of our walk and I said "But we're going on an adventure, Bishop!  Don't you want to go on an adventure?" He told me he did not.  At that point, I walked off the path and into the woods.  He reluctantly followed.  He asked me to turn back but I kept going.  I stopped about 30 feet from the road.  Then Bishop suddenly got into it and kept walking.  I hesitated because I didn't want to get too far from the path.  He turned to me and said "Lets go on an adventure, Mommy!"  There is NO POSSIBLE WAY I could have said no to that.  So I followed him.  Luckily he got bored about 50 feet in.  If you're trying to picture the distances in your head, don't try too hard because I'm terrible at estimating distance.  I have zero spatial awareness.

We made it back alive.

Safe on the trail

Mid-Adventure

The Bloggess

So... I was supposed to blog about this a while ago.  Probably the week it actually happened.  It has now been exactly 3 weeks since we went to see the Bloggess.  I guess I've been in a post-lent stubborn laziness.  Better late than never?  I guess. 

Anyway, I met the Bloggess!

See?  Proof.  That is Teresa and me standing right next to her.  John was there too.  He took the picture.  She also signed my book.  I'd post a picture but... then I'd have to go take one and that might delay the writing of this post for another 3 weeks.  Nobody wants that. 

So, we got to meet her before the reading and official book signing.  Why?  I blame the bookstore but luckily everything worked out nicely.  Apparently there were tickets I was supposed to purchase for the event in order to enter the store and be seated.  I did not know this because there was no mention of purchasing tickets on the bookstore website which I checked the second the tours dates were announced and then I checked again about a month before the event.  Of course they had added it sometime between then and the event because we checked as we were standing in line in the hopes that we could still get tickets. 

But they were sold out.  The Bloggess being the awesome person that she is felt bad that there were people who showed up that couldn't get in for the reading so she came out to meet us and sign our books before the event started.  Then we stood around talking about what we might do since we drove an hour and a half and weren't about to just turn around and go home right away.  About 2/3 of the people standing in line left right away.  Then after a few minutes the store manager said we could come in and stand in the back as long as we weren't blocking anyone's view.  So Teresa and I came in and were able to see and hear the reading and the Q and A.  Plus we didn't have to pay for tickets.  It was pretty awesome.  We also didn't have to wait in line for the book signing since we already met her beforehand. 

Also I have to say she's a lot funnier in person which is saying something because she's really funny on paper.  

All in all, it was a successful adventure.  Here's a bunch of other pictures I took in the bookstore. 

Poster of the book cover

Taxidermied animals

My view from the back

Attempted close-up

WT: Adventure

This week Kris decided that we should blog about adventure.  This is how this particular post is gonna go down: I'm gonna start out describing some half ass adventure I had this week and then try and loosely connect it to some reading I did today and some crazy idea I came up with.  So, by the time this post is concluded, I will have completely diverged from the topic of adventure.

First point of business: Kris told me to have an adventure this week.  I didn't really plan on actually doing it because I have lots of homework to do so I figured I'd just dredge up some old story about times past and try to draw some new insight into what happened.  However, without even realizing it, I actually did go on an adventure and forgot that I was fulfilling the assignment until Kris mentioned that she neglected to go on hers (suck it).

Adventure of course can be loosely defined so I consider anytime I exit the apartment for any length of time without the car to be an adventure.  Of course adventure can also include an automobile but you have to do something extra special with them to be considered an adventure like go on a road trip or drive around with no destination. 

This particular adventure was simply a walk in the neighborhood which I initiated because John and I neglected going to the gym that morning.  We ended up walking close to 3 miles though so our walk more than made up for lost exercise.  We delivered a letter to the post office and then settled down at wienerschnitzel for some ice cream.  At least that was the plan.  Actually, I ate ice cream and John had hot dogs.  Super exciting, I know; it gets better.  After our stop at hot dog heaven (insert some sarcastic intonation) we headed over to dimple records to look for movies about communism because SOMEHOW John convinced his professor to let him write a 10 page paper about movies.  Then we went home and showered because its pretty hot outside.  There was a nice breeze though so we were pretty comfortable the majority of the time.

Anyway, to loosely connect this to academia, reading books is kind of like an adventure in that it takes you places and causes you to think about things you would not otherwise go/think about.  I am well aware that that last sentence was a disaster.  I'm actually impressed with the speed at which this post is coming along.  Usually I demand complete perfection before I continue on to my next thought but for some reason, I feel like just letting it slide.

Anywhozers (again), I'm reading The Late Great Planet Earth by Hal Lindsey and let me tell you, this guy thinks he's God's gift to Christianity (seriously).  He tells us a bunch of stuff that some guys came up with in the 19th century and he pretends like its been in the Bible the whole time.  Also he basically calls Jews idiots... and pretty much anyone else who has the audacity to suggest the Bible is not literal.  In fact everyone is an idiot who does not understand the Bible and biblical prophesy EXACTLY the way he does.  And we wonder why.... never mind that's really not the point. 

For SOME REASON while I was reading this psycho babble about how Philosophy of Religion is secretly witchcraft, I thought of this weird idea (that I swear I've had before... or maybe I heard it somewhere else and am just taking credit for it).  What if every person in the whole world is actually the same person?  I don't mean like the whole Buddhist "we are one" theory (although that could tie in nicely) I mean like what if one person was reincarnated after they die into someone else and this process just kept happening until that person lived the life of every single person in human history?  Think about what that would mean.  Essentially we would be fighting and disagreeing with ourselves. 

Someone's probably gonna read this and be like "there's already a whole religious system built around that concept" and then sue me for copyright infringement.  Either that or I just started a new religion.  Not that I believe it.  But then, who really believes in the religions they start?  I have a hard time believing that L Ron Hubbard really believes in Scientology.  By 'hard time' I really mean 'not at all'. 

Did you see?  I'm not even talking about adventure anymore.  I have come to the end of my own prophetic statement at the beginning of the post.  It's easy to prophesy your own actions.  I have about 90% accuracy rate.  I think this post is a record for me.  I hope no one got bored. 

A Jedi Craves Not These Things

I really, really, really wanted to have an adventure this week.  I had adventures in misadventures instead and now I don't have time to go out seeking adventure.  Which is sad, because I told Angela she had to have an adventure this week too.  Only I don't know whether she did or not.  She probably didn't because she was busy too.

Then I started to think about what qualified as an adventure.  I tried very hard to fit up some new experience I'd had this week as an adventure.  But I think in order to have an adventure, you have to experience personal growth on the journey.  I don't think I experienced personal growth this week.  I think I experienced frustration and irritation, but not necessarily personal growth.

Then, I tried to fabricate an adventure.  But the people I was fabricating an adventure with didn't experience personal growth either.  That was my bad.  There should have been a personal growth moment there...somewhere.  But I failed to provide opportunity for personal growth.  So there was no adventure there either.

THEN I tried to write about previous adventures and include Angela.  But Angela has pretty much covered those bases.

Oh!  Oh wait!  Now I know!  I will discuss the time we had a Chicago adventure together:

Angela was looking at going to a college in the state of confusion where I live, so we were going to Chicago to look at a school for ourselves. Only we were too poor to take a taxi and neither of us knew the bus routes, and there was one train that would take us mostly to where we needed to go, but we had to find the train station first.  Being the pro from Chicago that I am, I set us off in the wrong direction.  We boldly walked further and further away from our destination.

About the point I realized something was amiss was when we entered an area that was starting to look kind of shady.  I had Angela duck with me inside of a place so we could reorient ourselves off of the street.  The place we ducked into was pretty much a dive and at that point I realized if we just head back the other way, quickly and boldly, maybe no one would notice we were lost and come hastle us.  So we did just that!

Eventually we managed to find the train that took us into the area we wanted and we made it to the school.  We sat in on some classes, ate their food, got shown a really, really old book that belonged to Martin Luther, and then Angela was put on the spot with a councilor to tell them whether or not she was going to go there.  She didn't end up going there, but we did make it home with less confusion!

We were two women, alone in a big city and we persevered!  Woo adventure!

Wait...no...there was no personal growth there either.  DANGIT!