Sehr gute songs and pushups.

So there’s a song I found the other day, and I have been loving it.  Give it a listen:

Now that you’ve listened to it, you HAVE to listen to this (even if you didn’t particularly care for the previous video):

I love it!!!  Love love love it.

And while we’re on the subject of good songs, I’m sure everyone has seen this one long since, but I have to post it anyway because I think it’s so fantastic.  Not only is the song killer, but the video is also awesome.  It makes me have this great feeling and wish I was a young boy, running around all day playing soccer in the mud, or on the beach, or that I could do a backflip, or at the very least have wicked long dreadlocks.  It is awesome to dance to, so grab your honey and kids and push the couch back.

 

In other news, tonight I told Jethro to do as many pushups as he could (not that many), then he told me to do as many as I could do.  Brett yelled “Wait!” and ran out of the kitchen to watch.  I did 9, well, Brett said the last one didn’t count.  Rudie.  Then he did some, but I think I’ll refrain from telling how many because I don’t know if he likes me saying personal stuff like that on here where everyone can see.  But it was a lot more than I did.  :)

It reminded me of the good time back when we were in college, when Andrea, Kami, and I were talking about how many pushups we could do.  (And in all cases when I say pushup I mean a regular, boy pushup; none of these sissy girl-pushups.)  Andrea and Kami were saying however many they thought they could do, and though I don’t remember exactly what they were saying, I think it was around 8-12.  So I said, “That’s weak.  I can do 25.”  They dismissed me with complete disbelief and laughed and mocked.  I actually had no real basis for making this grand assertion, but there was no going back now.  So I had to talk myself up and say “Yes, I totally can!”  So (obviously) they said to prove it.  I put them off, saying I wasn’t feeling it right then (or whatever lame excuse I came up with for then—too hungry, wearing too nice of clothes, etc.), and over the next while, whenever they would remember it, they would tell me to prove it, and I would weasel out of it.  And they would say of course that it was because I couldn’t do it (which is what I too, was afraid of).  However, the day finally came- because it was late enough at night, or I had become sufficiently hyper, or whatever the reason- when I was feeling it.  Brett was there too (I think this was actually when we were engaged, so of course he was there), so I told him that to get me really pumped up he should do some pushups first.  We wondered if he could do 50… and duh duh duh DUHHHHH—he did!!!  He is so awesome.  So then, it was my moment of truth…  and …  I…           DID IT!!!!!  IN YOUR FACE ANDREA AND KAMI, you nay-sayers you!!!

I don’t think I’ve done half that many pushups at once before nor since, but it was that or live with the shame and mortification forevermore.

(I don’t have any pushup pictures, but I have a few arm wrestling pictures, which is kindof along the same lines, so I’m posting those.)

Which brings me to another story.  This time it took place at a family reunion at my aunt and uncle’s house in Canada.  They have a pull-up bar in their upstairs hallway, so a bunch of cousins and spouses and kids and all sorts of people were gathered around seeing how many they could do.  We were having contests of boys and girls.  My sister Amy was talking smack and saying she was good at pull-ups and would win.  She said that she would win but she just had to go last, so that she could do exactly one more than the person who had done the most.  I remember my cousin Devonee was winning out of the girls, and I think my mom had a good showing too.  Then the girls were all done and it was Amy’s turn.  I think she had to do 8 to win.  She grabbed the bar and started to pull and started shrieking (as only Amy can shriek) and gasping because …she couldn’t even do ONE!!!  HA HAA HAA!!!  Now THAT is the kind of humiliation I had to do 25 pushups to avoid.  Because trust me, in my family (my very non competitive family), we remember these kinds of things.

In completely unrelated news, today I was at the gym where Hazel and Jethro have gymnastics, and I was wandering around the hallway with Ethne and Talmage when they were getting really fidgety, and I heard someone talking to Talmage as he went past an open door.  And she was talking in ENGLISH.  Which is no big deal because a ton of people speak English, but this person was speaking AMERICAN English.  So I went right over and asked her where she was from and she told me California and we chatted for just a couple minutes.  It is really weird how huge of a connection you start feeling for your fellow countrymen when you’re in a different country.  Although, when we move back to the States I’ll miss a few things.  Like hearing a random German word in conversation from Hazel or Jethro saying he can’t think of the word for something in English, or Brett writing ‘ist’ instead of ‘is’ in a note to me, or especially having people ask if we’re from Ireland.  I love that.

The end.