(One year ago this month, Pa and I made the trek to China to adopt our sweet Sister Susie. I am going to take the first seventeen days of February 2008 to revisit that trip. Hop in for the ride!)
Never...ever...never ever neverever neverever neverever did I imagine myself on the Great Wall of China.
Funny where a heart can send you.
But climb (a portion of) that wall we did, by golly.
Many people, in preparation for the Great Climb, make the effort to "get into shape."
Well.
Let me just tell you, dear faithful blog readers, that there ain't no getting in shape for climbing the wall. You either have it--or you don't. And I'm thinking that the people who can climb this beast without breaking a sweat (or an ankle) are not the type of people who sit around reading blogs. These people are out "running" and "hiking" and doing all kinds of other inane sorts of things.
Bless their hearts.
I prefer the kind of exercise where I can sit on my duff and type out snarky sentences about people who are completely and utterly, "in shape."
Speaking of being in a bad shape, I am So Totally And Honestly not faking this pose:
Never...ever...never ever neverever neverever neverever did I imagine myself on the Great Wall of China.
Funny where a heart can send you.
But climb (a portion of) that wall we did, by golly.
Well.
Let me just tell you, dear faithful blog readers, that there ain't no getting in shape for climbing the wall. You either have it--or you don't. And I'm thinking that the people who can climb this beast without breaking a sweat (or an ankle) are not the type of people who sit around reading blogs. These people are out "running" and "hiking" and doing all kinds of other inane sorts of things.
Bless their hearts.
I prefer the kind of exercise where I can sit on my duff and type out snarky sentences about people who are completely and utterly, "in shape."
Speaking of being in a bad shape, I am So Totally And Honestly not faking this pose:
As Pa said in his journal, in reference to climbing the wall:
"Going up puts fire in your lungs. Going down puts jelly in your knees."
Well, said, my dear.
But if there is one thing that we do do well, it's stand around and poke fun of things that so obviously need to be made fun of. Like this:
It's a store. On the way up the Great Wall. Where you can BUY A T-SHIRT that says, "I climbed the Great Wall."
Now, I don't know much about history, but that rite thar cracks me up.
"Look, Thag. Climb Wall. Shoot Arrow. Buy Shirt."
And since we were being lapped by the previously mentioned "in shape" types of folks, Pa decided to pull out his best Monkey King impersonation:
