laura and i arrived in denver today! woop woop! we had some interesting things happen during our trip though. first things first. both laura and i finished packing literally 10 minutes before heading to the airport (not surprising). once at the airport, we were going through security when they had to search one of our bags. it was mine. i guess i didn't take my kubaton out of my bag before packing it up and running it through security [a kubaton is basically like a 6 inch metal stick used for self defense]. the unhappy lady running the xray screen thingy informed me that kubatons were highly illegal to have in airports. and i was like "uh ok..you can keep that."
but i guess they have a full procedure to stick to when a kubaton is found. so a very nice security dude told me that he had to call the cops and a couple managers over and that we'd have to fill out paperwork and blah blah blah.....
so, after a good 30 minutes of them asking me questions and taking photos of me and of the bag (the "crime scene" as i like to think of it), they released me. i guess the end result is that my kubaton will be sent to like homeland security in washington dc and that i might receive a letter in the mail saying kubatons aren't allowed in airports.
no kidding.
after that, laura and i flew to denver. the flight was good. a bit of turbulence, but otherwise it was a lovely flight. naturally, i was asleep the whole time.
then we took a shuttle to our hotel. it was me, laura, a middle-aged couple, and a rando guy. we dropped off the rando first, then the middle-aged couple, until finally it was just me, laura, and the driver in this van. apparently, our driver had been eavesdropping hardcore when i told laura that i wanna do a mission trip in africa next summer, because as soon as the three of us were alone he started asking me what i would do on this mission trip. i politely explained that every mission trip is different, but that i'd probably work in an orphanage or like a homeless shelter or something like that. he then asked if i would "preach" on this mission trip. i said that of course i would be telling people about Jesus because that's the main point of any mission trip.
big mistake.
the driver then spent the rest of our [neverending] drive trying to convert laura and me to Islam and quizzing us about adam and eve. when we finally got to our hotel, he turned off the van and turned around to face us. (we were ready to jump up and defend ourselves if need be). but he just smiled and continued to try and persuade us that Islam is the only correct religion, meanwhile not letting laura or me a) escape, or b) correct him and tell him that Jesus is the only way to heaven. when laura and i finally got out of the van, the driver told us he hopes to see us in heaven someday - if we "make the right choice"
we just grabbed our bags and bolted into our hotel - completely speechless.
this is a shout out to the coolest front desk ladies EVER who greeted us at the hotel!! so nice!!!!
then tonight, me and laura met up with laura's friend nat d for some dinner and laughs. we hung out for a bit before deciding we needed fireworks (after all, it IS memorial day!). so me, laura, nat d, and nat's friend ashley went to a firework store and bought a LOT of fireworks. [we also got a free lighter! ohhh YES.] we then went back to nat d's house and lit the fireworks off. nat d tried to light them and throw them, but she throws like a paraplegic. we hit the house with smoke bombs at least ten times.
we took a break from fireworks to chat it up with nat d's momma and her friend. they were soooo COOL!!!! we watched the snl skit with the radio show featuring betty white talking about her "muffin" and flipped through a baby book (only, it was for a puppy, not a human). then we lit off more fireworks and dedicated each one to any dead person we could think of.
i would say the climax of the night was when we all went to get ice cream. on our way to dq, we saw the crime lab van (2 of them actually!) and a bunch of cop cars at this one house. after we got our ice cream [with "cookeeto" (ie, cookie dough)], we drove by the crime scene like 7 times and tried to figure out what was happening. we also asked a guy if he knew anything about it, but this dude was clueless. he was holding a leash, but there wasn't a dog in sight. we asked him 3 times to make sure he wasn't hiding any insider's information, and then we all concluded that he's just lost in this world and that we weren't going to get anything of worth out of him. after that, we drove by the crime scene one more time, then saw a rando cop car and followed it for a couple blocks - simply because we could. this entire time - ever since we left the house to get ice cream - we were laughing hysterically.
finally, we decided to look up this crime on like "crimereports.com" (if that even exists) because our drive-bys weren't producing any information. so nat d and ashley drove laura and i back to our hotel where we are now ready to sleepy sleep.
a great start to a great summer!!
