• Check out Desert Bus for Hope. It's a great charity that donates all its funds to Childs Play Charity, but with the added bonus of being put on by an insanely funny Canadian comedy troupe. So, go see Desert Bus, and afterward if you want to check out some quality comedy sketches, go see their main site at Loading Ready Run!

• If you haven't checked it out already, make sure to go visit the various Anissa pages I'd linked in my previous blog. She's made a lot of improvement over the last few days, but the family could still use a little help with donations and prayers.

• This entry was supposed to have a pretty awesome picture I took today but I'm pretty amazing and forgot my cord thing at my parental units house, so when I came home in hopes of giving you something completely ridiculous to laugh at, you'll have to wait until I make another blog post.

I've posted this story about a billion times on various places on the internet, but I really can't help it. It's probably one of my all time favorite stories, and everyone always laughs when its brought up. Especially me.

(Sometimes only me, shut up.)

Back when I was sixteen, I was really in to meeting new people on the internet. Not so much in person, but I had collected a disturbing plethora of online friends. Probably somewhere in the realm of 75 or so. One in particular that stood out was a kid named Jay. We'd shared enough late-night witty banter, that when the opportunity to travel across the state (with my real-life best friend, Kati) presented itself to meet in person, I jumped on it.

So, Kati and I packed up a days worth of clothes, various bits of entertainment, CD players, and headed out across Pennsylvania with her parents. The trip was mildly uneventful, and all I could really think was "God, these people pee a lot." SERIOUSLY IT WAS LIKE ONCE EVERY HOUR THEY ALL HAD TO PEE, WHAT THE HELL KATI YOUR FAMILY ALL HAVE TINY BIRD BLADDERS.

But by the time we got to the suburbs of Philly, I tried to call my friend from a payphone that prematurely ended the call. Finally, I grabbed my phonecard and we headed back into the hotel room. I attempted twice to dial the impossibly long string of numbers on the phone card, but with my mild dyslexia, I got frustrated and handed the card to Kati.

"YOU DO IT!"

"Oh, Kati." Faith, her mother, chimed in. "Remember you have to dial nine to access the outside line, then one, then the eight-hundred number."

"Okay fine." Within seconds she had dialed the number and the access code. "Its ringing... A lot. Its like the 10th ring."

"You have to dial nine-one-eight-zero-zero and then the number." I reminded her.

"I think I did, but I'll try it again. Oh, look it worked. Hi, hold on a second."

Kati passed the phone to me and I gave Jay the directions to the hotel so we could meet up. After that, we sat on the bed and talked to her parents for a while. That was, until...

All we could hear was the sound of hurried footsteps on carpet-covered cement floor. Someone was running down the hallway.

"I wonder wha---"

BANG BANG BANG BANG! A fist repeatedly hit our door, followed by a frantic voice.

"IS EVERYONE OKAY IN THERE?" The voice yelled, jiggling our locked door handle. "DON'T WORRY! We've called 911, the ambulance is on its way!"

"WHAT?" Faith yelled, as the three of us looked at each other. However, Kati's father Dave didn't bother looking up from the paper.

"Ma'am!" The voice yelled, still jiggling the door handle. I'm not entirely sure if he was trying to unlock it or just trying to look productive for when the ambulance arrived. "Someone in this room just tried to call 911."

"... No." Faith said. "My daughter just misdialed trying to use a phone card. I apologize." Faith looked at Kati with a blank stare, as though to say "What the hell I can't believe I gave birth to you. This isn't even out of the ordinary for you!"

"Oh..." The door handle finally stopped jiggling. We could hear footsteps leaving. Honestly, I think working in a hotel is boring, and the guy was probably excited for some action. Too bad for him.

"DAD!" Kati half-yelled, latching onto my arm as though I were going down with her. "Am I going to go to jail?"

Dave turned the page of the paper he was reading, silent for a moment. He never did bother looking up from the paper, and responded with a single word.

"Probably."

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