My Personal Golf Cart
My favorite movie of all time is Ernest Goes to Camp. Since I'm sure you have all watched that movie recently, I don't have to remind you that there is a running gag in the movie with the golf cart. It drives off by itself at the beginning of the movie and sporadically shows up again in various scenes. When they make a movie about my life (it's only a matter of time), I have a similar gag that will keep popping up... gather round while I spin you a tale.
It all started back in high school when my lifelong friends, the Hintz's, moved to Kenosha, WI (yes, home of That 70's Show.) I spent a lot of time up there visiting them, and two popular activities were going to Six Flags and the outlet malls in Gurnee, IL which is just north of Chicago. A trip to either place led us past a unique domicile. And by unique, I mean it was a pyramid - a complete Egyptian pyramid. And by complete I mean he had Egyptian paintings and sculptures in his sand box/yard and a wall around the entire property. You can see it on Live Maps. Thus begins my "golf cart" story.
Cut to a few years later. It's my junior year at Purdue and I'm at a Computer Science awards banquet, nervously waiting to see if any companies have decided to invest in my next year of education. I was seated a table of 10 people, and two of the people were Microsoft reps. The conversation eventually got around to a story about a guy at Microsoft who lives in a castle. He built an authentic castle somewhere around Seattle with a moat and everything. There is another guy sitting next to me who appears to be a professional student. He is in his seventh year of his undergrad and doesn't appear to have any plans to finish soon. He speaks up and says that the castle is nothing compared to a guy he knows who... you guessed it... lives in a pyramid. It turns out that this guy stole the girlfriend of pyramid guy. Obviously the two of them are not on the best of terms now. I'm sure the guy in the pyramid had an easy time consoling himself. "He got my girl, but I live in a pyramid." Also, I think shady student guy was lying about the girlfriend thing because the pyramid was built by a married couple in 1977. Or maybe if you live in a pyramid you're allowed to have a wife and a girlfriend. I've never lived in a pyramid so I'm not familiar with the social norms of pyramid dwellers (if in fact they have norms for socials.)
Last week I was walking through the office, and as I passed by the kitchen, I overheard a conversation about... you guessed it... a guy around here who lives in a castle. I didn't jump in on their conversation, but I did have a good laugh. How many more times can this story pop up in random places?
I feel like I should find this castle guy. Perhaps he's my Yoda and all of my life has been a series of events designed to guide me to him.
Or maybe people who live in castles and pyramids shouldn't be messed with. After all, Dr. Quinn, Medicine Woman lives in a castle.