The flight back was interesting - an exercise in amusement and stress management. Get to the airport, the lady at the counter said "oh, didn't they tell you your flight is delayed 2 hours?" - haven't I heard this before?. I got up at 3:40 and thus am very tired so I sleep on the floor of a cold airport lounge for about an hour and a half. Once we start boarding the plane the moment I step on board a baby begins screaming uncontrollably (real ego booster there), however once I sit down she quites down and doesn't make a peep for the rest of the flight. The jetway is pulled back and the plane slowly starts to roll backwards. At this point the man one row up grabs the airsick bag and retches noisly into it a few times. Yeah this is going to be a fun flight.
Huston was a little better. US security found the horribly dangerous weapon that a 1.5 inch pair of scissors constitute burried in my toiletries bag (I forgot I borrowed them up on Cayambe) so did a hand search and generally molested my carry on bag. It was fine. While they were busying themselves with the minutia of my Ipod I glanced over and saw a group of men huddled in a circle. Prayer group I decide. They break and part so that John McCain can leave the center of the circle. It isn't actually the only republican I've ever considered voting for but it looks just like him. Anyway - the pious young men are standing now in groups of two or three chatting when a gorgeous dark skinned woman walks slowly by. They resist and resist and then each of them in turn grabs a quick glance or two then returns to their huddle. Mr. McCain gets a nice long look. Not leering or anything just appreciative. Some things are just hardwired eh?
So now I'm home and still recovering. Sherry should hopefully be making an attempt at cotopaxi today. They have a buffer day built in so that if the weather blows today they can try tomorrow. I hope it's better than last time for her, though it could really hardly be worse. For my part I'm definately dissapointed not to have had the chance to try it, though it is an awfully harsh experience, but I'm looking forward to hearing the tales when she gets back.
Sherry had a few things in her emails that didn't quite make it into here, so I may do some creative database editing to post her emails in where they belong in this little journal when I slice it off as a travel log. I definately want to keep her perspective.
Damn body, still on east coast time, waking me up at 2:00 am.
Speak'n'spell says... Giardia
Glad ya made it home and didn't fall off the mountian....but I really want to hear more about the gorgeous dark skinned woman.....
Maybe the circle was just praying for a gorgeous woman to come by for their leader... ;)
Ahh twig, hadn't thought of that. 26 days to go eh damon? Be safe, make sure to bring back lots of souvineer sand :)
I hope you're going to post an update of what the lab boys found after sorting through your shit, smearing it on little pieces of glass, and then looking at it REAL close up. Or maybe they have sort of a litmus test. If the paper comes back blue, it's "parasites." If it comes back grey, it's "other parasites." I dunno. Upshot is: do you have giardia, or what?
I'm kinda curious too...make sure ya get a picture of what it is, so you can scan it and put it on the site....customs won't let us bring sand...but I sure hope I don't bring anything back like you did!
The lab test is really more like an exit poll. "How would you classify yourself as a microorganism? Did you exhibit behaviors common to your own or another classification? Do you intend to reclassify yourself as a result of this experience? Do you have any suggestions to improve the parasitic process?" etc...
Knowing Zack for years is not enough for me to want any visuals; whether of a scientific nature or not :P. Ew.
Well I suppose no news is good news. They said that the lab results could take up to a week (that would be this coming friday) to get to me via mail. However if anything were really bad they'd call me - which I would have gotten by now. So while I don't have any actual results, the lack of results is good. I think. Who the hell knows. I can eat and move around and whatnot again though so I'd say I'm fine.
Have you seen Ice Pirates? Maybe you have Space Herpes.
Space Herpes...to funny!...what a classic movie!
Space Herpes...beautiful, Tony. And we finally have a winner for the name on Zack's team jersey. Thank you to all who participated; the contest is officially closed. Although, given what else the men in Ice Pirates lost (besides dignity), Zack may have gotten off easy. Ew.
I think Tiff is right that would be perfect for the jersey, and Zack would of got off easy
On a happier note, you've got to love that the test results take longer than the sickness to run its course... (I say conspiracy ;)
"How to Win Your Friend's Jersey-Naming Contest Without Really Trying," by Tony Hellmann. I personally would rather have "Adorkable" enblazoned on my chest or back, so I guess I'm glad I'm not Zack. I mean I'm glad I'm not Space Herpes.