My Vacations

First the Texas part of my blog:

So I went to the University of Arlington to register for the Fall of 2006. I'm officially majoring in Software Engineering so I can get mad hacks for programming robots. UTA has an Artificial Intelligence Lab, robotic dogs that play soccer, battle bots, unmanned aerial vehicles, clubs that design and develop games... I'm going to have so much fun there being a geek!

Halfway through my math readiness tests, though, there was a gas leak. Leave it to Texas, right? So we new students were ushered out of the building while everyone else lounged around on the inside, eating food and having a good time at registration. It took them half an hour to get the message through that the building was dangerous, and another hour before they figured out how to shut the gas OFF. Oh well.

San Diego.

Did much beaching in San Diego. Got some excellent body surfing in (it's like boogey-boarding, without the board. Way easier.). Ate GREAT food, and rode the rollercoaster a bazillion times. Steve joined in, and we had tons of fun just hanging out. Late at night we'd watch '24,' and by day we'd go play at the beach. We even got buried neck-deep in the sand a few times. And once in a while we'd catch sand crabs with Aiden and Jason.

And then came Jet Skiing, which is really my all-time favorite thing to do, moreso than playing on the computer. Steve and I rode one jet ski, and traded off being the driver every fifteen minutes or so. We tried wake hopping, which, obviously, is when you cross the wake of another fast-moving craft and use it as a jump. We got some good ones in, and then I noticed the perfect opportunity: My dad's jetski was ahead and to the right, and a speedboat was ahead and to the left. So there were two wakes (or four jumps) in a row if I came at the wakes perpendicular!

I went for it, but something went wrong.

First my dad's wake tilted the jet ski to the left when we landed, but right away the other wake hit us, and threw us to the right. It felt like we ran into a rock. One minute I'm on the jet ski, and the next, there was a big JOLT and I'm in the air, and then I hit the water at 40mph. I skid for a ways (water really is SOLID at those speeds) then just sank a bit. I kept my body limp to avoid injury, but it still HURT. My life vest pulled me up to the air (because I was too disoriented to find it myself.) Steve and I landed maybe 50-60 feet away from where the jet ski was. We just floated there for a minute, waiting for our brains to catch up while we giggled like idiots.

My dad came back to haul me up to take me to my jet ski so I could rescue Steve. But I accidentally tilted his jet ski and threw him off. In the course of the rescue, we tipped the jet ski over one more time before I could get back to mine. It takes a lot of strength to haul yourself back onto a jet ski, let me tell you. Strength Steve and I could hardly spare.

I guess it was the shock from that little accident, but I felt a bit woozy for a while afterwards. But hey, it was still the best day of the whole vacation. We got the jet ski up to 46mph (6mph over the supposed maximum for the craft), hopped some great wakes, and hit the water going 40mph.

But I began to miss home badly. So I'm going to quit my job so I can spend more time with friends, because I'll be making two more trips before I go to college. From July10 to July 15, I'll be in Flagstaff with the police explorers. And the weekend around August 12 I'll be in California again for my cousin's Bat Mitzvah. And August 24 I move into my dorm.