flying too close to the sun

Ladders are ancient tools and technology.
-wikipedia

So how hard would it be to use, right? More difficult than I hoped.

At the Santa Monica Pier, where my company picnic was, there's a sort of carnival area complete with a ferris wheel, carnival games, and a fairly lame roller coaster. I'm just saying, if the operators let you go twice on the roller coaster, even THEY know it's fairly crappy.

Anyways, in the past few months in which I have frequented that place, I have been acquainted with a certain game that manages to rob me of my dignity in seconds at a time. And yet I still go back for more. That game involves climbing a ladder.

It's simple really. Climb this short ladder on a much less than vertical angle, reach the top, and you win one of those oversized novelty stuffed animals of whose purpose you will no longer find a few weeks down the line.

My first attempts at this happened in April of 2008. I must have made at least 7 or 8 attempts to conquer this game, and at $2 an attempt, well, you can do the math. My unlucky first attempt (and an indicator of how the rest of the night would go) is shown here. I'm the second guy, obviously.

Despite the hundreds of onlookers watching me fail time and time again, I continued my futile attempts, until finally giving up and yelling "no more!" as the ladder spins me one last time onto the inflated rubber.

So that was then. 6 months later, on October 25th, I'm back, and I'm ready to regain my confidence. This time around I can do it. I know what to expect, and I'm ready to win. What happens when I finally do make it on there?

Closure and defeat.

Rather than drop the dollar bills in attempt after attempt, I decide to walk away with no shame, and before the crowds begin gathering around. But lo and behold, I am called that same evening, and where do my friends wanna go? None other than the Santa Monica Pier. And what do I decide to do while I'm there?

Come on, Mark, you can do it!


Ooh. Ouch.

"you don't need to use all these facial creams, just eat bananas...have you ever seen a monkey with a pimple?"
-RB