Curious Dan

So we just made it back from a weekend trip to Italy. Given the amazing food, scenery, and people, I loved Italy. It was a nice break from the daily grind: skating paris' marble ledges. Yeah, we've got it hard in europe... So we had to ride trains all over the place, and we rode in one last night with beds in it back to Paris. It was like this prisoner train with us crammed into these tiny cots like sardines. Criminal sardines... The train ride down to Nice (we went to Nice for a day) was a lot of fun. It consisted of us hiding in a bar on the train because we hadn't reserved seats on the train although we had legite tickets to ride the train. But they would have charged us more money for not reserving a seat, so we hid out in the bar for 6 hours like true junkies. Oh yeah, that was a funny story. So on the train this hooker tried her moves on our little band o brothers. More specifically Matt and Dan. She was scantly clad with strategically placed holes all over the back of her whatever she was wearing. It reminded me of being a missionary, not wanting to talk to people, just wanting to relax, but talking to them anyway because I had something to share with them. That's how the hooker must feel. Poor girl. And to add to that, it would be like a missionary when you talk to people that aren't interested but you want them to be. Matt and Dan wouldn't budge on her advances. Then after unsuccessfully contacting them, her pimp came to clean up the mess. He asked Dan for his contact info, so Dan cleverly gave him a fake email. Yeah, he made it up on the spot. Then not wanting the pimp to come after us, Dan got out his pepper spray and strapped it onto his belt of his safari shorts with his pepper spray holster. That would be such an awesome sight, watching Dan mace a pimp in the bar of a train for trying to offer Dan his services. Spraying that pepper spray in the train would undoubtedly take out the pimp, Dan, everyone in the bar, everyone in the cart, force the train to pull over and be evacuated, and get us deported or something. But I would still love to see a pimp get a nice point blank pepper spray shot to the face, temporarily blinding and choking him. That would be epic and worth all the consequences... So Dan is off on his own now, he left us yesterday from Italy to hide on a train to Paris then go to London this morning. I got an email from him today saying his in London, so we're happy he made it good. But we don't know where he slept last night?... Where did you sleep last night, Dan? So this post is dedicated to Dan. For those of you that don't know him, haven't met him, or are indifferent, let me tell you a little about Dan. Daniel Robert Shaw is one of my favorite people I've ever met. I'm fortunate to have known him so well and lived with him for 3ish years. He's one of the most sincere, honest people you'll ever meet, and he's one of my best friends. He hasn't lost his essence yet, that essence that makes us pure. Like on Pan's Labyrinth how the girl has to complete those tasks to prove that she hasn't lost her essence yet and become mortal like everyone else. Dan would pass those tests with no problem and in a heartbeat, and he would still have time to dance, ride his bike over a mountain, catch a dear, and make a pair of pants from scratch by dinner time. Like when we were in Nice, chilling on the beach, I kept thinking, "this is sweet, we're in Nice..." Then Dan, after I could see he was thinking deeply for a while, broke the silence by saying, "why are there waves? It's not windy... " Then we discussed the tides, moon orbits and what not. Anyway, he's got his essence in tact still. He and I got a standing ovation and requests for multiple performances the other night at some rad Italian restaurant for doing karaoke to Madonna's "like a prayer". It was one of our best performances yet, and it was 100% improve. Dan was a huge hit after that, all the Italian women loved him, and he was like the guest of honor after that. He even brought the birthday girl at the restaurant her cake. They asked him if he'd be willing to jump out of a huge cake for the girl, and he responded, "YEAH!!" with no hesitation. Turns out there was no cake, but it was a test of true character. He can pull that kind of stuff off when no one else dares... He's getting ready for the long haul, bike riding through Europe, sleeping in train stations, forests, and where ever else he feels like laying his head for the next 5 weeks. I know that I, myself, am wishing Dan the greatest time of his life, lots of memorable moments, and safety. Have fun Dan! As for the rest of us, we're going crazy. I just watched Garrett fart on a wiener dog to get back at it for farting earlier, he's compulsively spraying everything with febreeze, our little hut stinks from all of us sweating, and we're all about ready to head back home now. It's like the Shining, except we've had too much play and it's driven us crazy. Hopefully we survive tomorrow, because that's all we've got left...