i should've died but i didn't

more from my weird mind on a sick day...

here's a quick list of times i should've died, but lived instead to blog about them.

1-log ride of death at elitch gardens, co. there is an amusement park in colorado called the elitch gardens. on one particular visit long ago, i was not so amused with this park. it was an innocent ride on a log through caverns and a fake mining atmosphere, that ended with a severe drop into water and that almost ended my life. i'm not sure if i was too small for the ride, or if the bar that is supposed to secure you inside the log failed... i just know that i fell out and rode down the drop on the front end with my grandma holding onto my belt loop.

2-foam fatality. scott and i once decided to explore a cave at the coast near seaside, or. once we were inside, the ocean decided we didn't need to come back out for a while. instead we found ourselves almost drowning in that nasty foam that washes up from time to time. i've had a fear of drowning ever since. (doesn't everyone have a fear of drowning though? it's like saying you have a fear of being shot)

3-tidal terror. next up... another reason i don't really like swimming in big bodies of water. when i was 12, i went to hawaii with some family friends and a school trip. during this trip we went swimming quite a bit - it's an island... it's what you do. so on one particular day we were swimming in one of the many man-made pools found on several beaches(click on the link and you can see the peaceful and the scary sides of the "pools"). these pools have openings where the rocks are below the surface of the water to allow the ocean water to circulate. we decided to "surf" the rocks by standing on them and trying to withstand the waves crashing through. what we didn't anticipate, were the waves exiting the pool. i had the great opportunity of getting blind-sided by one, which pushed me out onto the scary side where i was immediately hit by another wave that sent me flying over the rocks jutting out of the water and back into the peaceful side. it happened very fast, but i distinctly remember seeing fish flying over the rock with me and noticing how close i was to the rocks that were 2-3 feet out of the water.

4-welcome rocket. i've told this story so many times that i'll try to do so in only 2 more sentences. the first week i was in iraq a rocket impacted in the parking lot i was walking next to, blowing out the windows of every vehicle in the lot and pelting me with dirt and rocks. freaky...

i could have added jeremy's bachelor party and how i almost hit the rocks jumping off into the white salmon river or when andrea and i followed some random asian dude into a basement in new york with promises of cheap fake coach bags... but this seemed like just enough near-death for the time being.