Colorado Update Part 1

Dear Friends,

I feel as if this post is going to be a long one so just brace yourselves. In fact I may break this up into three posts…basically this update will be longer because I learned and experienced massive amounts of great things this week. If last week was a 10 this week was a 100. If last week was a miata this week was a hummer. If last week was a hummingbird, this week was a flamingo.

You get the picture.

I’ll start with last Friday. I guess once a month every one who works (or in our case, attends class) at Focus on the Family gets together for a time of worship and to hear a message. This past Friday we did just that and the guest speaker was Michael Reagan, the oldest son of Ronald Reagan. I kid you not, he was the best public speaker I have ever heard. I was captivated for the entire hour he spoke. Never looked at my watch. Never took a note. Just stayed enraptured in the story he told. I have gone over in my mind the characteristics Michael Reagan had as he spoke that really made him stand out to me: first, he had an amazing story. Imagine being the adopted son of two Hollywood stars, one of which who becomes the President. Although much of his story did not simply deal with that, it was a major aspect. He had an amazing story to tell. In addition, he was very well-spoken and articulate, he used humor at appropriate moments, and conveyed authenticity. Though he talked for an hour, he spoke very purposefully. Never going off on a rabbit trail or dwelling on a thought longer than necessary. He has a biography out I think, that I definitely want to read at some point. I’m sure it tells his story, so you will want to read it too. After he spoke, a White House representative named Tim Goeglien spoke. Apparently my dad knows him, and I can’t quite remember the connection. I just know that I’ve met him before…Anyway, Mr. Goeglien was also extremely articulate (not quite as charismatic, but you can’t ask for too much). He basically gave us a run down of some political things going on in D.C. He told us about how Hillary Clinton wants to run for President. And how she will run for President. And how she really could win. It was a bit of a wake up call for those of us who agree with very little she represents. He told us that if we thought the past few elections were huge, they don’t come close to the next one. He basically told us that Christians and social conservatives need to get serious about this one. Start gearing up. I guess, like…4 years early. Whoa.
So that was the big news from Friday.

Saturday we went to Buena Vista, Colorado and went whitewater rafting all afternoon. It was SOOOO fun. I have a waterproof camera that I used but unfortunately we don’t have a scanner so you’ll have to wait for pics of that…it was super fun though. The guide for my particular raft was a girl (her name is already gone from my head) who is probably one of the coolest girls I’ve ever met. Basically, a couple of weeks ago she was drunk off her butt and broke her ankle doing some stupid stunt outside of a bar’s disco night (that’s not what makes her cool though). The cool part is that she got a cast, wrapped the thing up in a duct tape, and decided to keep on whitewater rafting every day this summer.

WHAT A WOMAN.

She also happens to do rock-climbing and kayaking, and she lives in a tent down by the river all summer. (Not to be confused with a van…) She’s going to dentistry school in the fall in a city so I guess she has to get a lot of this outdoorseyness out of her system now. So anyway, girl that I forgot her name…in the top 5 coolest girls I’ve ever met…probably. Oh other exciting news from the day, I made sure not to fall out of the raft when we went through some rapids but I did happen to fall in once. It was kind of humbling…took me awhile to get back up….geez…Also, before we even got to the river a bunch of the guys were playing football in a park and one dislocated his pinky catching a ball…apparently the bone came through the skin. Which is pretty gross to think about. I didn’t want to go look at it, though a lot of people did. I was pretty sure I’d throw up if I looked at it. I know he has pictures of it online, but I haven’t asked what the link is. If you really need to see the thing (weirdo…) then just leave a comment and I’ll find out…