Buttercup and The Kingdom of The Crystal Skulls

My older brother Trey and I are hanging out at my parents house because I’ve just gotten home from Thailand. He’s got our awesome family dog Buttercup in his lap. I really want to hold Buttercup but I feel bad asking him so I don’t. He’s on one couch and I’m on the other and we are watching TV. He’s flipping around the channels and he passes “Indiana Jones and The Kingdom of The Crystal Skull!”

“Trey! Go back! That was the new Indiana Jones movie which isn’t even out yet! How did you get that channel?!?” I yell excitedly.
“I’m not sure, I was just flipping around.” He replies.

So he keeps flipping but he can’t find it! So he tosses me the remote to see if I can find it. So I start flipping but all I’m getting are Thai TV shows! GRRR! So I give up and we just watch a Thai soap opera.

After a few mins he sighs and says “Well this stinks. You want the dog?”

“Yes!” I proclaim! And he hands me Buttercup.

The Democrats are coming to Bangkok!

The Democrats are coming to Bangkok and I have been chosen to give them the tour! I'm not sure why they are here but it's for some sort of publicity tour. After they arrive we take them down to the river for a boat tour of the Bangkok canals. They each have their own entourages so we split up into two boats. Obama and Hillary are in my boat and in the other boat are the press and John Edwards. Well we ride through the canals and arrive at the famous snake farm. As we pull up to the dock we see a hoard of press who have gathered on the bank. As the tour guide I am told that I need to make a statement. So I dismount and approach the microphones and cameras. I clear my throat and prepare to deliver the joke I have been planning in my head. "Ladies and gentlemen, I had a nice boat ride over here with Mr. Obama and Mrs. Clinton. We had a chance to talk about the current presidential race and let me tell you, I'm pretty sure Mr. Obama is still 'undecided.'" The media laughs and I finish up. "Thank you all very much, that's all for now." So I begin leading the group into the Snake Farm. And that's when I realize my error! Oh no, I was suppossed to say that John Edwards was undecided, not Obama! Why would Obama be undecided? He's leading the race! The joke was suppossed to be that Edwards is the candidate in distant third place so the main two candidates are vying for his support. But I blew the punchline! Not only that but for the joke to work I would have had to be on Edwards boat! As I play back my press conference in my head I realize how foolish I must have looked!

You can’t keep a good Double O agent down!

Three double O agents are stealthily trying to enter a room. Myself, the black guy from Casino Royal and Jessica Biel. We enter the room under the cover of darkness but suddenly the lights come on and we are surrounded by enemy agents!! We begin flipping, spinning and diving around the room firing at them with our hand guns while they unload their fully automatic machine guns! When the smoke clears all three agents are alive and well and the bodies of the fallen enemy agents blink and disappear (like in old video games.) We have successfully cleared the room. Just then TV’s Steven Weber emerges from behind a box doing the slow clap thing. “Congratulations, you have just emptied your magazines on 30 heavily armed…. Holograms!” Just then the door opens behind us and the real 30 armed agents enter the room wearing full swat gear. We drop our empty side arms in defeat as Weber laughs in a self congratulatory way. The other agents and I slowly make eye contact and blink in agreement. “Now!” we yell as we engage the enemy in hand to hand combat. They didn’t count on the fact that their large numbers and this cramped room renders their weapons useless.

Snake Breeding?!?

I’m over at the Overholt’s house at their 4 new puppies are running around with a Cobra in their midst! “What?!? Why is there a snake in there with the puppies?!?” I ask. “It’s ok!” I’m told. “We are trying to get to them breed with the snake because we want a pet mongoose!”

Snake Bite!

I’m in Bang Sak with Trevor and Kory and we decide to go to Khoa Lak. So we start heading that way but we keep stopping at various places that have accumulated water to swim. Drainage ditches, rivers, ponds, etc.. Just before arriving in Khao Lak we see a row of brand new houses. “Wow, those are new!” we note. About that time we notice a ditch with some water in it that has a layer of moss on the surface. For some reason we all jump in even as we are saying to each other how unsafe it is and how there might be snakes. Just then a snake jumps out and bites me on the neck and face! Instantly I can’t breath very well so I ask the guys to go get some help. Pretty soon a man walks up calmly with his wife and starts putting some sort of medicine on my face and neck. At this point I realize that I can breathe normally again. “Me Pen Ha Mai?” I ask. He responds to tell me, no, I’ll be ok, it won’t be a problem. So I get up and follow him back to his shop to say thank you. A European man is apparently working there and he just hands me three receipts! The first two are for 481.50 baht each and the third one is for 37 baht totaling 1000 baht! So then I look up and realize that his shop is called “Snake Rescue!” So I try to talk to the European but he does not understand English! He keeps trying to explain something using a toy snake. Frustrated I walk past him to the thai man and I ask him “Ani pen allay khrup?” (what is this for?) and he responds “Ani pen yaa, leew ani pen service charge” (this is for the medicine and this is the service charge.) “And the third one?” I ask. He points to a picture on the receipt that shows a man building a fire. “But you didn’t even build a fire!” I argue. So he excuses the 37 baht charge. So I pay and Trevor asks “wanna go to a hospital?” To which I respond “Nah, lets go see a movie!”

Explanation: After writing this out I can identify several different real life situations I have encountered that apparently my brain has morphed into one event. My dealings with the European in this story are similar to a restaurant we visited in Khao Lak over Christmas, The Happy Lagoon. A European man works there for some reason and he is never any help! My dealings with the Thai man and the confusion with the receipts appear to come from a situation that occurred when I put my car in the shop recently. A $15 oil change visit turned into $240 in repairs and then I found out later he never got around to actually changing the oil! And finally, my swim with the snakes probably comes from many treks into the jungle with Trevor and Kory to find abandoned resorts, island lookout points, vines for climbing rocks, etc.. The brain is a funny thing.

Taco Bell Comes To Thailand?

I’m in Bang Sak and Marcus is getting ready to put on a movie. “Hold on guys, I’m going to run and get something to snack on” I announce. Marcus offers me a motorbike but I insist on taking my skateboard. So I head off down the highway on my skate board. I keep going past Ban Niang and even Khao Lak because I can’t find anything that I want to eat. Eventually I am going up over the hill and I come down near the elephant camp on the backside of the mountain. As I come down I see a huge, American Style shopping center that has gone up over night. They have a “Logans”, “McDonalds”, “Old Navy”, everything you can think of. So I driving around in there a bit and Ada pulls up next to me with Ben in the grey car. She stops to chat for a few moments and before you know it Ben is gone. “Ben!! Where did you go?” Ben pokes his head out of the second story window and waves. “You have 5 seconds to get down here!” Ada warns before beginning her count. “One, Two, Two and a half, Three…” Ben runs up out of breath. “What were you doing? That’s not your house!” She tells him. So they say goodbye and head back to Bang Sak. So I start skating through this shopping center when all of the sudden I loose my skateboard! It goes flying down the street towards this pregnant lady as her husband is helping her across the street. She can barely walk and as I look at the moo moo she is wearing I can’t determine whether she actually has any legs. She stands at about three feet tall and the rest of her proportions seem correct, just no legs. At about this time the skateboard nails her in the back. Her husband is understandably furious. As I run up to retrieve the board he starts yelling at me. I start apologizing as best I can in Thai. At that point he stops me and says “I’m Singaporean!” So he continues chewing me out telling me that I should use the wheel lock when I’m not using the skateboard to keep it from flying off, etc.. Just then I see something magical and amazing over his left shoulder! A Taco Bell Sign! What?!? Taco Bell has come to Thailand!! Woo Hoo! So I grab my board and rush over there. As I dash inside I see a dining room empty except for three thais sharing a corner booth. I run to the counter to buy them out. Man, I can just imagine the faces of the folks back in Bang Sak when I walk in with Taco Bell! So I start to order and he tells me that they are closed already. What? “When do you close?” I ask. “9:00pm” he replies. I look at my watch and it’s only 9:04pm! Oh come on! “What time do you open” I ask. He responds by saying “Sip mong yen.” Which means 10th hour of the evening. What? It only goes up to 6. “Array na Khrup Sip Mong Yen Chai Mai?” I verify. “Chay” he confirms. Crud. That does not make any sense. How am I ever going to get any Tacos if I don’t know what time they open. I don’t want to reveal that I don’t understand his Thai so I just say thank you and walk out. When I get back outside the man and his pregnant wife are there. He says that he wants me to have his police scanner and CB radio. Uh, ok. So I say thank you and I take it. About that time Dean pulls up in the white car and unloads a lazy boy recliner. “Can you take this back to Bang Sak for me?“ So I take the chair and begin dragging it along. A little further down the highway Marcus, Bum and some other American’s pull up on various motorbikes. “There you are!” Marcus says “What happened to you? I thought you were going to grab some food. Why do you have a police scanner, CB radio and a recliner?” “It’s a long story” I reply “but I found a Taco Bell!” “WHAT?!?” everyone yells at once. So I begin to tell them about the location and about how they were closed. “There were people eating in the dinning room? You could see and smell the food but they were closed? Brutal!” Marcus exclaims “I know!” I respond. So we start to head back to Khao lak. One of the Americans, Ronnie from The Shield, helps me with the chair. “Where did you get the police scanner and the radio?” he asks. So I explain. Then I get an idea to put the chair on the skateboard. “Ronnie tilt the chair back so I can get the skateboard under it” I explain. But he does not get it and he just tilts it the wrong way. “No tilt it back!” wrong again. This goes on for awhile before he finally understands. Eventually we get the chair on the skateboard and we all head back home, without our Taco Bell.

A Dream Within a Dream...Within A Dream

I’m supposed to be running sound at church but I overslept! So I get up and begin to get ready. I’m trying to take a shower but the faucet breaks! So I get some tools and fix the faucet but then I can’t find any shampoo! So I look all over and finally find some. Then I am finally ready so I go outside and my car is gone! Where did I leave it? About that time I wake up and realize that it is all a dream! So I go to take a shower but the faucet breaks! So I get some tools and fix the faucet.. You get the idea. This goes around about 4 times and then I wake up for real and realize that it is time to get ready for church, but I’m not late.