Yesterday was spent most of the day with my great friends from Wesley Foundation. It was Erin, Jessie, Ashlee, Matt, Calum and his new girlfriend, in addition to Melissa driving us all down there in a bus. We went to St. Simons Island to Epworth-by-the-Sea for another ropes course. All the activities we did were different from the last time the group did the course. This time, we did a Simon Says like game, an activity where we had to all change sides using only a rope and a wooden crate attached to a pulley and a wire, without touching the ground, climb a wall, and climb and jump from a telephone pole. The only camera I had on me this time was my phone's camera. Melissa and Matt brought the cameras this time, so I'll have to the pictures of me from the day from them.
The wire and pullet activity went over smoothly. It took us 2 attempts to do it. Jessie stepped into the "shark water," causing the repeat. Thankfully, she did it early in the activity. The hardest part was the carrying crate was out of hands reach, so we had to use a rope to grab it and pull it to us. It took my team longer to get longer to do it the second time than it took the other team to get it done. However, once we grabbed it, the exchange of teams was easy. 
I think that was my favorite of the day.
I did better on the wall down there than the wall at school on Wednesday. I got half way up the wall before my arms gave out. For those that have never climbed a wall or have done rock climbing, it takes a lot of arm and upper body strength. For never doing until Wednesday, not getting 2 feet off the ground on Wednesday, to getting half way up on Saturday, I'm going to be proud of myself. And yes, I do have a fear of heights. It did not become more apparent until the telephone pole activity. I had climbed to the top. And then, I froze. I would stand on top of the pole. I would not move. I was afraid to jump. I can ride the Goliath roller coaster at Six Flags that's 200 feet in the air, but I would not jump 15 feet off the jump with a harness on me and a person holding me but a rope. I don't know why I froze. Melissa even took a picture of the fear on my face. It took me a minute or two and plenty of reassurance that they would not let me plummet to the ground. I did get down by slowly jumping. Still it was just scary. My dad felt the most important thing is that I took a chance.
After the course, the group had a fun dinner on the island at Brogan's and watched the Miami/Florida State game. We had fun watching it go back and forth. We had been score watching that game while still on the course via my cell phone. And when we headed home, we still kept up with the score on the phone, when we weren't talking. It was on the bus that I realized I was with my family. This was probably my last big activity with these guys and girls, but they became my family in the past 3 years. They accept me for who I am and are happy to be around me. I am going to miss them all. And before we got back to campus, we picked up Xander, Melissa's 3-year-old. We're all college kids, but we always have fun with Xander. Now that he talks, it's fun to see what he'll repeat. Don't worry, we keep it clean.
Today was spent sleeping in and then heading out to the wildlife refuge for my Photography assignment. The gators weren't out today, save one. It was baby and this family kept throwing rocks at it. I wish I had had the nerve to tell them they were abusing it. They didn't want it to come to them, but they kept throwing things at it to make it think they were feeding it. Would have serve them right if it had gotten out of the water and bit them. After that trip, I went to Michael's for some mats for the rest of the assignment.
When I got home, my joined my dad to watch one exciting 4th quarter between the Tennessee Titans and Houston Texans. Houston came back from 7 points to take the lead with less than a minute to go. However, the Titans did get the win. Looks like I'm starting to enjoy football.
[♪ Listening to: "The Way That You Love Me" - Paula Abdul]
Posted by Shawn at October 21, 2007 6:06 PM in Flickr Photos, General.
