Of Hiking and Manhole Covers ... Yep, That's My Life!!

First things first ... I am NOT getting old(er) ... (-ish) ... at least in my MIND I like to think that I'm not!! However, today IS my birthday (yes, it's true ... I'm 27 ... again)! I feel like I am more adventurous and willing to try fun, new things than I have EVER been (activities, food, music, friends!)! Heck, how can ANYone who goes to a restaurant and tells the server to "surprise me" NOT be considered adventurous??? But ... sometimes ... I seem to get myself into a pickle ... but, I digress ... I'll come back to that and the reference to manhole covers in a minute ... READER WARNING ... this is loooonnng ... and EPIC ... and SOOO totally TRUE!! None of the names/events have been changed to protect the innocent ...

Scrapbooking myself is something I just don't do ... pretty much EVER!! However, having had to create a myriad of things in this past year for Stampin' Up has often pushed me out of my comfort zone (something ELSE to which I have easily adapted ... most of the time ... which ALSO proves I am NOT too old, right??). Anywho ... I did this layout to highlight a hiking adventure I went on with my family this past June. We did the West Rim Trail at Zions National Park. It is a beautiful and scenic 17-mile undertaking, which I was MORE than happy to tackle. I LOVE being outdoors ... I LOVE hiking ... and I LOVE my family, so it was a winning combination all around. (Not to mention the fact that I LOVELOVELOVE my Woodstock "Happy Camper" shirt!!)

Stamps:  Hello Lovely, Gorgeous Grunge
Paper:  Crumb Cake, Natural Composition DSP, Neutrals Patterned DSP, Brights Patterned DSP
Ink:  Pacific Point, Pear Pizzazz, Daffodil Delight
Accessories:  1/2" Circle Punch, 1 1/4" Square Punch, 3/4" Circle Punch, Brights Candy Dots, Sewing Machine



What on EARTH does ANY of this have to do with manholes, you ask? Well ... it seems that, lately (as in the past couple of months) I have apparently misplaced some small mount of finesse that I would like to think I HAVE had up until this point in my life. I run ... I run pretty much every day (and the odd fact is that I really don't LIKE to run ... but I DO love that I live in a place where I can be in a lovely canyon within minutes of my front door ... and the scenery distracts me from the fact that running is not always the MOST fun thing!). Many of my SU buddies KNOW that I run. And many of my SU buddies have asked if they could run WITH me while they were here for Convention in July!! No PROBLEM!! GREAT!! FANTASTIC!! What's NOT to love about having some of your BFF's along to run with ya?? Seriously, right?? So, at 4:45 AM (yes, you read that right!!) I went and picked up several of my stampin' buddies at their hotels to come and share my run with me (that's Mindy Backes, Marla Reed, ME and Bree Renwick in the photo). It was dark, but we watched the light come up over the mountains. AND ... just as we were coming out of the canyon something TOTALLY unexpected happened (while I was with my friendies ... of course ... because this has NEVER happened to me when I was ALONE!) ... I fell.flat.on.my.face!! SPLAT!! Have absolutely NO clue what happened there!! One of those instances where you try to just "jump up" and pretend nothing happened ... and that you are TOTALLY fine and IN CONTROL (even though your hair is screaming and you've ripped the freckles CLEAN off about half of your arm!)!! "Yeah ... I MEANT to do that!" I needed a better story, though ... telling people I have the grace of a hippopotamus is kinda embarrassing. So my daughter's BFF (hey, Tiffy!) told me that I should just tell people when they asked (because my arm looked THAT pitiful that people WERE asking!) that I had saved a baby ... I was kinda thinking something along the lines of a Zombie Apocalypse ... so my story was that I had saved a baby FROM the Zombie Apocalypse ...

It's a long story, I know ... but I AM getting to the manhole cover!! Just the other day (barely more than a MONTH from my baby-savin'-Zombie-Apocalypse experience) I was walking about a BLOCK from our business to our church in order to attend the funeral of my brother-in-law's father. It was particularly windy and I decided that I needed to avoid walking through the sprinklers at the corner ... the wind was blowing the water SIDEways into a big, wet ol' misty cloud ... and of COURSE I didn't wanna get my dry-clean-only skirt wet, right??

Soooo ... I stepped onto the grass adjacent to the curb .... and proceeded to walk around THIS fire hydrant ... took just a few steps and my whole perspective on the world changed ... I suddenly found myself dangling with one leg down inside that freakin' manhole!! My very FIRST thought was, "Sinkhole??? Are ya KIDDIN' me??" Then I looked down and realized that this little manhole had tried to EAT ME!!! The dumb lid had NOT been secure and it flipped up when I stepped on it! And I was now doing a semi-split ... in a skirt ... in the mud ... and my SHOE had fallen off down into the abyss of the manhole. Sooooo ... as I dragged my bruised, bloody and muddy leg outta that dumb hole I was feeling kinda NON-FINESSE filled. Here I only had ONE shoe and I was a hot mess!! And the funeral was starting in about FIVE MINUTES!! One of the neighbors who lived close to the fire hydrant saw the whole event in all it's spectacular glory. She seemed VERY concerned and wanted me to knock on the door of her surgeon-neighbor's house. I declined, reassuring her that I was FINE (despite my somewhat pitiful - there's that word again! - appearance). I hobbled over to the church ... shoe in hand ... and somehow managed to get a bit cleaned up and sneak into the service without too much fanfare. The fanfare??? Oh yes!! There WAS fanfare! As soon as the services were over we all took our turns exiting the building. As I was hobbling out one of the funeral directors looked at me and my one pitiful shoe in hand ... and the mud on my skirt ... and the ROAD RASH and LUMPS on my leg and blurted out, "Oh!! Are YOU the woman who fell into the MANHOLE??" What.the.HECK??? Has THIS been on the NEWS already??? Holy COW!! Apparently, the woman who saw me fall in was a bit concerned and called 911 ... which prompted a FIRE TRUCK and AMBULANCE to show up at the funeral (unbeknownst to me!). They came into the back of the chapel and peered around looking for the (again) pitiful soul who needed help!! I HONESTLY would not EVEN have had ANY idea that they were there for ME even if I HAD seen them! And I canNOT believe I MISSED the opportunity to have HOT FIREMEN giving me their undivided attention!! Dang!!! (But they did, thankfully, rescue my shoe!) I need to call the city AGAIN and have them send someone over there to secure that dang thing ... it's still kinda skeewompus! And I would HATE to think that there is another non-finesse-filled pitiful soul who may wander into its path!! (Not to worry ... I will make sure ... TODAY ... that that thing is made safe for all the world!)

Sooo ... today I am going to spend my day in Disneyland with my BFF and sister-in-law, Diann!! And HOPEFULLY I will not save a single baby ... or encounter a SINGLE zombie ... and I will do my UTMOST BESTEST to avoid ALL manhole covers!!