jd yates

I made a grave error in not jumping on writing this while the topics were fresh on my mind… but here goes anyway. My best effort to recount the events of my summer vacation to Key West with my brother:

..:: Day 1 ::.. (click the links to see photos)

The morning started technically when I went to bed, at 2am, after moving all day, and laundry and packing all night. I was exhausted, but super excited to get out of town for a few days. My sleep that night was less sleep and more power nap. The alarm went off at 4am and we had to be at the airport by 5am for a 6 o’clock flight. Luckily check-in and security were relatively easy (although I can never get my head around taking off my belt and flip flops to go through a metal detector. They may as well strip search me, I’ve already removed 2 of my 5 total articles of clothing), so naturally my first instinct was to caffeinate. My brother may as well be Mormon, don’t normal 14 year olds subsist on 3 cups a day? I know I did. Anyway. Coffee, check. Blueberry muffin, check. First-class boarding pass (THANKS A&K!!!), check. Snotty, half-asleep adolescent, check. We board.

Am I ever going to get one of those planes that has the screens in front of the seats, as opposed to the ones that drop down from the ceiling? Aside from that, first-class was fabulous. Corey couldn’t figure out what to do with the hot towel, which was amusing to watch (mostly because my bar for humour is low that early in the morning). Pretty sure that was the first time I’ve watched a sunrise from thirty-thousand feet. It was gorgeous. Corey enjoyed the in-flight meal, apparently, while I enjoyed my blueberry muffin and quadruple venti vanilla latte. I blogged and played sudoku most of the flight, while he listened to his iPod and got the hang of the “please turn off all electronic devices…” timing. He hasn’t traveled much.

Two and a half hours later we arrived in Miami where we suffered through a 2 hour layover in an airport that may as well be Mexico City for all it’s charm and convenience. (side-note: realizing I overuse hyphens and commas). The puddle jumper from Miami to Key West was as uneventful as a 45 minute deafening flight through overcast skies could be. Corey complained about his ears through most of it. Thank god for turboprops, that day. By the time we claimed luggage, hailed cabs, and suffered through a botched check-in we were both completely wiped. We hauled our stuff upstairs where my brother proceeded to see if the Westin Heavenly beds live up to their name (a.k.a he passed smooth out). The room was perfect. Two double beds and a balcony that faced a beautiful palm lined harbour filled with several multi-million dollar boats and one ginormous Royal Caribbean cruise ship. I left him and returned downstairs to claim my first meal of the day (it’s 5pm EST, at this point) and deal with some more check-in nonsense. Once those two objectives were completed, I explored the hotel’s immediate surroundings and returned to the room for a little siesta of my own that ended up lasting through the night.

It would seem my initial worries about not remembering enough of the details to fill a post were unfounded. So far, in fact, that it looks like I’ll have to split this up into a series. I’ll go ahead and post this and pick up with day 2 tomorrow, cuz it’s 1:30 in the morning and I’m wiped. Night!

It’s continued to be tough to motivate myself to tackle these “If…”‘s and get caught up, especially in the wake of my most recent post. So in an effort to make the process a bit more succinct, and because I know you won’t mind hearing a bit more of my verbose dribble than usual, I’ve loaded this one up with two… that right T-W-O… weeks worth of questions. Hopefully, this will get Nick off my ass for a while, and actually qualify as a check on my to-do list. Also, check LawHog to see which week his lazy, bar-taking, ass is on.

If you were to have one famous person alive or from history stranded with you on a desert island forevermore, who would you want it to be?

Stupid answer, but I’ve been waiting for another one of these ridiculous island questions to throw away on an answer like this. Ryan Reynolds. Because there’s no way we wouldn’t eventually get it on. I’m just sayin’. Also, he’s kinda funny.

If you could kill the pet of anybody you know, whose pet would it be?

Dr. Narcissus (Friends will know who this is. If you don’t, then ask. For everyone else: He’s just some douche I let trample my heart a few dozen times.), though he doesn’t have a pet. If he did, I would choose it as my answer for this question. Though I can’t say that I would ever have the heart to harm an animal as retribution for the misbehaviour of a person. I, however, have no such qualms about harming said person.

If you were to be recognized by posterity for one thing, what would you like to be known for?

Inventing cold-fusion (i.e. clean, renewable, abundant, safe, cheap energy). Nerd reference, check.

If you could have said one sentence to Hitler while he was alive, what would you have said?

“Be honest… the holocaust was never philosophical or ideological, was it? You did it for money and power. You’re just one more in a long line of history’s little men. Congratulations on committing human-kind’s greatest atrocity to-date to satisfy your unimpressive… stature.”

..:: Week 12 ::..

If you had to choose one color that describes you most accurately, which color would it be?

Blue. Because it spans the range from melancholy to vibrant. Because it’s versatile and dynamic. Because it’s the color of beautiful oceans and vast skies. Because it’s my favorite color. Because it’s the color of this great bloody sofa, and I had damn-well better love it.

If you had to convert to a different religion, which would you choose?

It’s been a while since I was read up on major religions, so most of this comes directly from nowhere… I’m gonna choose buddhism, because it’s kharmatic (which I’m told isn’t a word, but you get the point) which I believe is a great philosophy to live by, and about finding balance within yourself, throughout your life, and with the world around you, finding god within yourself, and the pursuit of enlightenment. Just about anything that’s not overbearingly preachy, I’m fine with. Also, meditation is good. Or whatever.

If you were to drown in a liquid other than water, which would you want it to be?

Nick chose to be drowned in egg nog, and I’m just not sure that fits the spirit of the question. Actually, I’m not entirely certain what the spirit of the question is. So I’m going to, per uze, be completely obscure. After some research, I’ve learned that there are only 6 elements on the periodic table that are liquid at temperatures below 40 degrees centigrade. Mercury, bromine, francium, cesium, gallium, and rubidium. Yeah… none of that works for me. So in perfectly lame fashion, and because I can’t see the point of enduring drowning in something simply because I enjoy ingesting it, I choose liquid nitrogen. Because my death would be instant and presumably painless, and my body would be perfectly preserved.

If you could reverse one sports call in history, which one would it be?

I know there are a litany of sports calls that I would overturn, though I can’t think of any off the top of my head, but I can’t be certain that the simple act of overturning the call would change the outcome of the entire event. In light of that fact, I choose whichever call was most pivotal in last year’s Texas vs. OU football game. Hook ‘em Horns!

Feedback? Anybody…?