SSNL [LIFE] THREAD JULY

[shpanko]

Brag: Went sky diving today ([censored] craziest [censored] ever)

Beat: Went with ex-gf who I still kind of like and is now dating someone else seriously.

Brag: Have 3 dates with 3 different girls set up for this weekend. Time to get over the ex I suppose.

Variance: I play like no poker anymore [img]/images/graemlins/frown.gif[/img]

[Jay Riall]

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Brag: Went sky diving today ([censored] craziest [censored] ever)


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Strapped to someone I assume? How high was the fall and how much does that [censored] cost? Very interested.

[kolotoure]

Micki texted me today. Does it matter?

[shpanko]

Yeah it was a tandem jump, the fall was from 12,500 feet, the first 60 seconds are free fall and then there was like 6 minutes of gliding. It was like $180 per person, not sure how many pounds that is.

[Jay Riall]

12,500 feet gives a 60 second freefall, wow thats sick. My mate went recently and said he only got like 5-10 seconds of freefall.

[4_2_it]

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Micki texted me today. Does it matter?

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Depends what she said. Unsolicited communication is good.

[Worm75]

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Micki texted me today. Does it matter?

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You are so Emo Kolo

[wrschultz]

Warning: tl;dr but worth reading maybe? Also, this post is kinda deep...

This past year has been pretty rough for me. I've been depressed and I haven't been the least bit productive. I dicked around in school both semesters, and with just a little bit of effort, I could easily have made 4.0s in both. Instead I barely made passing grades in some classes and failed others.

This summer was supposed to be the time when I finally got out of it and did some fun stuff and then I'd be able to go back to school and do well. The first two months of the summer were excellent, and on July 2nd I was flying up to DC to visit my granddad. We were going to go on a roadtrip to Yellowstone National Park and basically booze it up everynight and have an awesome time. I love my granddad and he and I have always been extremely close. We've taken lots of AWESOME trips together, and I wouldn't trade these experiences for anything. He's taken me to Alaska twice, The Galapagos Islands, London, Disneyland, Florida for MLB spring training, Boston and Chicago two times each, MLB hall of fame at Cooperstown NY, and countless other places. Anyway, about ten minutes before I was supposed to leave for the airport I got a call from his best friend, and I found out that he had fallen and broken his neck. I was devasted and scared shitless, and I got in the car and drove to the airport, the whole time wondering if he was alright.

When I got to the airport in Dallas, the weather was horrible and my flight got delayed and eventually cancelled, and I was rescheduled on several other flights until eventually the only one left was for the next day. When I finally made it to the hospital, I was happy to find out that he was not paralyzed, and wasn't really in any pain at all. My granddad is 81 and has had about 10-15 surgeries in the 19 years that I've been alive, and yet he remains extremely active and still loves life. He was really doing pretty well, and aside from some confusion and swelling on his face, he was pretty normal looking. I arrived on a tuesday, and his neck surgery was scheduled for thursday at noon. On thursday at 10am sharp I arrived at the hospital and walked in to see my granddad gasping for breath and shaking. His monitors were going crazy and nurses and doctors started yelling and ran into the room. They were extremely rude to me and pushed me out of the room without any tact. Even the chaplain who was waiting outside was an [censored] and wasn't the least bit kind to me. I was pretty sure at this point that he was going to die..

30 minutes later a doctor came in and told me that they didn't really know what had happened but that he was stable. In the "incident" his heart had gotten out of rythm, but he's so old that they didn't really want to use an AED as long as it was still working well enough. They also had to put him on a ventilator and sedate him so he would start breathing again. Even after all of this, they went ahead and did the surgery on his neck and everything went well.

The next day he still hadn't woken up from the anesthesia and the nurses seemed somewhat concerned but not overly. I walked into his room and held his hand and started talking to him a bit and he woke up. I felt so awful seeing him there in so much pain with a tube shoved down his throat and everything, but there was nothing I could do.

It has now been a little over a week since the surgery, and today I took him out to lunch for the first timefrom the rehab center he's in now. He's still very weak, but it's getting better every time he takes a step. He'll be able to go home soon, and I'm pretty amazed really... He broke c1 and c2, which is apparently instant death if your spinal cord is damaged at all.

Today was kind of the culmination of a really tough year for me, and when I drove away from the rehab place tonight after watching the BBC Planet Earth Documentary, I felt like a metric ton was lifted from my shoulders. I bought a pack of cigarettes and just started driving, and somehow I miraculously ended up in downtown Washington, driving past the most famous landmarks. I've seen them all countless times, and I know the city well, but I've never driven through it at all. When I saw the WWII memorial, I just started balling. My graddad is a WWII vet and I think I just needed a reason to cry basically.

I've grown up a lot this year, and I'm finally ready to start making a difference.

[Kowalski]

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Got a phonecall from a mate the other day randomly asking if I want to go snowboarding in the Alps with him in a few months. I said 'yeah why not, sounds fun,' but I have never boarded or skiied before in my entire life. Is it easy to pick up?

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Some people pick it up faster than others. Personally, when I started I really sucked badly for my first two seasons. However once you lose your fear and get control of your board you can really progress faster. Take this with a grain of salt, since I was only 10 when I started, and I really didn't understand things like balance or gravity.

On the other hand, I have some friends who have strapped in and could carve like butta.

Have you ever surfed or skateboarded before?

The alps are probably wild haha... Lots of powder . [img]/images/graemlins/grin.gif[/img]

[Worm75]

Tough stretch you've had there bud, gl with the future.