This morning I picked up Matt Netherton from the Great Lakes Naval Training Base at about 7 and we drove over to St. Peter's for 8 o'clock Mass.
We met Matt Ryan there, drove to his house, adn picked up Johnny to go waterskiing.
In the car I talked alot with Matt about the Navy and the other branches of the military, what his experiences with them were, and what he would reccommend if I ever joined the military, which I consider a possibility after college. It sounds like the Navy and the Airforce have the best educational programs and prepare you very well for a civilian job if you so desire, but while Matt ghouth the Navy was a better choice for a young single man he did say that he heard the Air Force catered better to familes, most likely because they have large bases instead of ships.

Matt N. and I were rather hungry, so we stopped at McDonald's on the way to the lake, knowing very well that Matt R. would highly disapprove (he did, later; but we weren't going to eat his super-spicy "Wasabi Trail Mix," which looked...too health-nutty. :P ).
We had the boat pushed off by 9:40 and both the Matt waterskiied (had a tricky time getting and staying up). I went out after them, practiced my wake-jumping and slaloming, and then I tried on the trick skiis for the first time. And they were tricky. The trick skiis are shorter and wider than a normal waterski, but the biggest difference is that they don't have any rudder. Because of the increased surface area, I popped right up out of the water, but once I was up I found that I had no control. If normal waterskiing is like zomming through the water, this was like bouncing on top of the water. I skidded around, trying to keep my balance (which I did) and figure out some way to control my travel. To no avail. I guess I'll have to ask my dad how to do it. I did have a spectacular wipeout though, and Johnny got a nice picture of it.


After that we cruised (and her I use Tommy's favorite term as it should be used!) back to the dock and picked up the tube. Johnny went out first on that, because he didn't really want to waterski. Everyone got to tube and drive a tuber. It should really be called "Extreme Tubing" because we were seriously having an insanely fun time out there. Well, the rest of us were, Matt R. kinda got knocked around alot and complained a bit. I guess us single guys are just willing to take a few more risks. ;) Anyway, all of us got at least three feet of air on some of the jumps going over the waves, and I fell so hard me first time that I bit my lip. It was actually rather fun to come abck on the boat after two more times spitting blood and saying "Oh, yeah I must've bit my lip awhile back." Side note: blood tastes good.
We finished up about 11:45, I said goodbye to Matt R. and Johnny and drove Matt back to the base. We talked about politics for awhile, which he was fairly knowledgeable about. I said goodbye to him, and I probably won't see him again till the New Year's Retreat at Marytown, unless he's in SEAL training then, in which case it will be even longer.

And that was only the first half of my day. More to come later.

[Note: Stupid Angelfire won't let me hotlink my image. I'll see if I can fix this, but for now try inputing "http://www.angelfire.com/rings/turelio/DSC07385sm.jpeg" into your browser window.]