Dinhternet

Went on my sec­ond white-water raft­ing trip on Sat­ur­day. This time, I went with Eddie C, Michow, James S, Joe M, Alice H, and Rachel Loh.

We were pre­pared for more near-death and lost shoe sto­ries like from our first trip, but it actu­ally went really well. No one was knocked out of the raft this time, no one lost any equip­ment or cloth­ing, we did not get embar­rass­ingly stuck at the photo spot for sev­eral min­utes, and we did not have to hitch­hike to get home.

After a rough start at the early Class IIIs where we got knocked around a bit, we all set­tled down and got a sys­tem going, thanks to a “guardian angel” kayaker who gave us some pro trips as he passed us. Here’s a video of us shortly after that on some smaller rapids:

(There was a bet­ter video later on the river when we hit another Class III, but I’m again hav­ing some prob­lems with my cam­era. I think the bat­tery may not be charg­ing properly.)

Over­all, we did so much bet­ter this time, I think every­one who went on both trips was a lit­tle shocked. I’m a lit­tle sad, since our first raft­ing trip will always have bet­ter sto­ries, but you can’t com­plain about a smooth trip. We were say­ing that it’s prob­a­bly a bit of expe­ri­ence on our part, but prob­a­bly has a lot to do with the river’s flow being a lot greater this time. More water means less rocks to give us trouble!

Oh, and the kayaker told us to think about send­ing some­one to guide school so that we can hit higher class rapids, and I’m giv­ing it some thought now. Maybe some­thing to do next summer.

I’m told it’s bet­ter to die young, so I went sky­div­ing over the week­end right before my birth­day. Thanks to Christina T, James S, and Tim C for com­ing with me.

For­tu­nately, it’s harder to throw your­self at the ground and miss than Dou­glass Adams makes it sound. Unfor­tu­nately, this guy attached to my back really miss really slowly, so no death for me.

Any­way, enjoy the pic­tures. Video is com­ing later, I’m hav­ing some trou­ble rip­ping the data cleanly.

Oh, and Mom, if you’re read­ing this, happy belated Mother’s Day! My gift to you is that I’m still liv­ing. You told Dong Ha on her birth­day that she was the gift, but never said it to me, so I’m just going to tell you instead.

When I went to Chris­tine N’s engage­ment party on Sun­day, she was play­ing with one of her dogs after most of the guests had stum­bled home/into bed.

“Resist!“
– Chris­tine N, hold­ing a piece of food in front of the dog. Then she would alter­nate between eat­ing the food her­self and feed­ing the dog a piece.
“Wow, that’s well trained!“
– James S and me.
“You should have seen his mom. I could hold a piece of food in her mouth, tell her to resist, and then pull it back out and eat it. She would shake and tear up, but she wouldn’t bite it.“
– Chris­tine N.

Cruel, but awe­some. And James S and I agree, we have not seen a dog cry before. I guess we missed out.

I wish I had that level of self-control.