Rowdy Ropin' Rodeo

It was a sunny July afternoon. Bryan and I were in the midst of another Sunday Funday. Bryan's birthday was fast approaching and he had mentioned he wanted to do something really fun, but we hadn't yet devoted time to thinking of anything. It was time for a serious discussion:

Me: "B-rye, we gotta think of something fun to do for your birthday!"
Bryan: "Well...I kind of wanted to do something East County"

For those of you unfamiliar with San Diego, East County = as close to Midwest and southern culture as it gets in Southern California.

It just so happened that the Lakeside Rodeo coincided with the weekend of Bryan's birthday. Perfect! I had never really been to a real rodeo before either!

So we rounded up the usual suspects, and caravanned out to the rodeo. But, we weren't about to just stroll into the rodeo as normal audience members. Oh no. We were there to EXPERIENCE the rodeo!

Theorem 5012, Section 3, paragraph 4 in "Arun's Guide to Lifetime Awesomeness" (I had to dig deep to find this one): "Rodeo Experience" = All rodeo-going participants must wear at the minimum, a cowboy hat, button up shirt, and an optional lasso.

So, when we showed up, we blended right in! Ok...well...my friends blended right in. The Rodeo grounds weren't exactly crawling with Indian-Cowboys. In order to prepare for the festivities, we partook in such events as the "Budweiser shot-gunning challenge" and that ol' classic, "people roping."

Interestingly, when the rodeo was going on, we all were having so much fun amongst ourselves that we ended up not even watching most of the rodeo. I came to the event donning an Australian Cowboy hat that Frederico lent me. Naturally, I spent a good portion of the afternoon talking in my mischievous Australian accent.

At one point I was talking to four ladies, laying on the Australian real thick. Three of them loved me, but one was unconvinced. She went over to Brent to question my authenticity:

Her: "Is your friend really Australian?"
Brent: "Ummm...you know I really couldn't tell you for sure"
Her: (now coming back to the conversation between me and her three friends) "You know what!?! I don't think you're really Australian!!! YOU'RE BRITISH!!!"

Other Girls: "Oh you leave him alone!!!"

Now addressing me: "Don't worry about her! We know you're Australian!"

At this point I couldn't say anything because all of my energy was being devoted to suppressing my laughter at the hilarity of the first chick thinking she had brilliantly discovered my true British identity! Couple that with her friends' vehement defense of my Australian origin, and you have Arun fighting to keep the explosion of laughter inside.

I'm going straight to hell :)

The rest of the night was equally entertaining. We went on an East County Pub crawl during which, at one stop, Jeff and I somehow managed to make it onto the stage singing "Sweet Home Alabama" with the live band.

The antics of the rodeo though, managed to linger weeks later...

One night, Jeff and I returned home late. For the passed two weeks, we had wondered if we had a new neighbor. We had never seen anyone move in, nor enter or exit, but one day all of a sudden, we noticed furniture and decorations through the window. The furniture was too perfect though. Everything seemed perfectly in place, and there was even a basket of fake fruit as the dinning table center piece.

Logically, we figured that they had turned our neighboring apartment into a "model apartment" to show prospective tenants.

On this particular night, we decided to find out.

The neighboring balcony was close enough where you could hop from ours over to the neighbors without too much trouble. Jeff was setting up to jump across and check out the model apartment.

The only problem was, we lived on the third story and I didn't like the idea of him jumping across without ample safety. I thought, and looked around at what I could use, then I spotted it...a lasso happened to be sitting in the corner. YES! I quickly lassoed Jeff and wound the rope into an elaborate makeshift anchor-pulley system that may or may not have made any sense.

So there we were, Jeff on the ledge ready to take off, and me, tangled in a mess of rope as the "safety" man. We are brilliant! Suddenly, Jeff's bedroom door opens, and out comes his half asleep ex-girlfriend giving us "the look."

"What the HELL are you guys doing!?!"

Busted.

If you look up the phrase "Deer in Headlights" in the dictionary, you'll likely see a picture of Jeff and I.

Suffice to say, she didn't let us pull off our little caper. This turned out to be extremely fortunate, because the next day, we bumped into our new neighbor who had lived there all along!

Huh...turns out it wasn't just a "model apartment" afterall.

Close call. I can't imagine what her shock would've been awaking to a Jeff-wrapped-up-in-lasso, on her balcony!

Once again, Arun and friends engage in debauchery but avert disaster!!!