My Family

Tonight...the night before Thanksgiving...I get to my parents apartment at 11:45. I sit down...eat some bangin food, and then my Dad asks me, "Hey Ben, you wanna go bowling?" To which I respond, "Naw."

He then turns the t.v. on to reveal my "family's" new Christmas present...a Wii.

Excitement filled the room as we picked our "Wiis" and proceeded to bowl.

But now...for the best part of the whole night. Me and my sister were talking junk to each other (of course). My mom walks up in front of the t.v. for her turn to bowl...walking past me on the way to her "spot"...and to shut me up...

She farts in my face...

And you wonder where I get it from...

Wisdom from a 7 year old.

At Windy Gap this past weekend, I got to hang out with a 7 year old I used to babysit...Noah Hancock...Yes, THE Noah Hancock.

Well, we were leaving the club room, and this dude from Goldsboro, Scott Stafford, yelled at Noah, "Noah, you're the man!"

Jokingly, I looked at Noah and said, "Noah, say 'Hush up Scott!'"

With a surprised look on his face, he said, "No."

"Why?" I said.

He replied, "Because, then I WOULDNT be the man."

Dang it.....I'm so immature.

Asher and Lucy

I live with a 5 year old and a 3 year old.

I actually room with the 5 year old.

His name is Asher.

Hers is Lucy.

They are two of the best things that have happened to me in the past 4 years that I've been in Asheville.

Tonight...After a few beautiful running/jumping hugs...some kisses good night...along with the unexpected, but equally as glorious, child flatulation...I got to thinking...

Here are two kids, that I could essentially tell them everything. (whether they listen or not)

I would tell them about things that have hurt me in the past. Or ways I have hurt others. I could tell them about all the good times I want to remember, or all the bad times I wish I could forget. I could tell them my deepest darkest secrets...

...and I bet you all the money in the world, that in the next few minutes following my story, I would here these words in broken, southern, 5 and 3 year old vocabulary...

"Ben, I wuv you...I wuv you so much."

They don't even realize, that's helped me through some tough stuff. And they don't care. And I love it.

1st YL Club

So, we had our first YL Club of the year Tuesday night. 

IT

WAS

CHAOS!

75+ kids + toilet paper + anything they can throw + a broken projector + God's fabulous sense of humor = an insane night. 

But, when we finally got the projector working, these loverly videos were played and used to bless people with pure, raw talent. enjoy.

After club, the room looked like a frat party. Add the fresh hole in the drywall, and you get an extremely exhausted, but nontheless, BALLER YL team. 

That's how we do.

Happiness in the Small Things

You've all heard that saying right???

How about when you get stung twice in the face by a yellow jacket and your bottom lip looks like you should be taking shrapnel with Forrest Gump?? ("But my friends call me Bubba, just like one of them old redneck boys, can you believe that??")

I can definitely find joy in the fact that Turd Ferg haunts me in my new apartment.....

Weird?

I think so...

mmmm...photobooth

The last day on the boat...Photobooth shoot...awesome way to waste time.

This is me, sitting on the couch, at Margaritas house, a week and some change after I have returned to the U.S. I have been in Asheville for a few days now, and I'm not gonna lie, I really love being home. 

My first day back, Me and Sloan took 3 of our YL dudes to Midnight Hole, this sweet swimming hole where you can jump off rocks and stuff, immediately followed by kickball with the rest of Asheville YL, immediately followed by Cici's pizza fest, immediately followed by an 18 person poker game with all my high school fellas. What a great homecoming. 

I found an apartment that I think I'm going to rent. It's pretty sweet, 1 bedroom, basement apartment. It's a pretty cool place, and great location for me doing YL at TC Roberson because it's only .5 miles away from the house. And the rent is cheap...I'm thinking yes.

I've been helping Sloan with the kitchen renovations. It is looking so good. You can definitely tell that it's supposed to be a kitchen. 

Besides that all is well. 

I am so thankful to be back in this place. The sailing trip was so good for me, but it was time to come home. 

Oh, and my favorite part of coming home was Asher leaping off the top step of the stairs and into my arms to give me a bear hug that would make a lumberjack tear up...take that to the bank.

Chuckling...aka...Man Giggling

7-17, Friday

Well, I'm at the airport in Lajes, on Terceira. A recap of the last week:

Wednesday, July 8

We left Flores at 10am and had great wind all day. It was definitely a bit more relaxed, especially since it was only goin to be a 24 hour sail. It was pretty low key, but we did see some sweet dolphins jumping a few feet out of the water...I think a few of them were mooning us...because that's how dolphins roll.

Thursday, July 9

We arrived in Horta at 7:30am, so a solid 21 hour trip. Horta is cool, definitely not as beautiful as Flores, but there are people! And cars! And tons of sailors! And hot showers! Sweet mercy of Jesus, a hot shower. And free internet...which ruined me...I was on it for 4 hours the first day...geez. We (the crew from Flores that went to Horta, which was everyone!) went to Peter's Cafe Sport, this legendary sailor bar that has been around for decades. It has whale bones on the walls, and flags from pretty much every country in the world...but the food sucked...but that's cool, it was still a cool hang out, for real...but the food sucked...but whatever...who cares. We pretty much hung out there all night...btw, the food sucked...and then we all parted and went back to our ocean vessels for a kip.

(PS. If anybody is still keeping up with sailor creds,

 you don't have to any more...I've racked up way too many since Bermuda to count or keep track of...and my brain just can't handle it right now...because I'm kind of awesome...let's be honest)

(Seriously...be honest...deep down you know its true)

(And if you don't think so, just agree...it's my blog...I'll say what I want)

(But seriously, if you're completely honest, you're going to agree...so no worries matey)

Cool view of Mount Pico from the boat.

Friday, July 10 – Monday, July 13

All these days run together a bit, but to sum them up:

I moved onto another boat, Yamma, because the capitan, Steve from London, is going to give me a ride to Terceira, where I fly back home in 7 days. His boat is a Halberg Rassy, 36 feet...aka...real nice. I feel like I'm in a hotel room. Steve is a legend, classic brit...with a dry sense of humor, plus, a mouth like a sailor, equals, a classic fella.

Yamma

So, the first 10 minutes on the boat, I go to the bathroom, and break the freaking toilet. I thought they were all the same...But, in theory, I forgot to open the seacock...idiot. So, now Steve's cussing up a storm, I'm a bit nervous and worried that he won't give me a ride anymore, but semi chuckling (or “man giggling”) which makes him even more annoyed...crap...Long story short, we got the toilet working, and Steve loved me again.

Oh, in Horta, it's bad luck to leave port without painting the name of your boat on the sea wall. (Steve didn't care, so we didn't do it) (I'm convinced that is why the toilet broke...it knew...it was a future knowing toilet.) Anyways, so that makes for thousands and thousands of paintings that have been there for ages, and more keep coming....real cool. So, I walked around for an afternoon, checking out all the paintings...so cool.

The Paintings

Sunday, all the folks from Flores decided to go to the supermarket. We left the supermarket with two rabbits, wine, and this banging chocolate/cookie dough roll/cake awesome times dessert. (Seriously, thats what it was called) So that night, we went out to the Swedish couples' catamaran (which are freaking sweet) to have a “Rabbit Stew Party”. It was amazing...Legit amazing. Rabbit is awesome. We ate and drank to our hearts content, and then we all went back to our boats...fat and happy sailors.

Me and Carolyn at the Rabbit Feast.

Monday was my last in Horta, so I decided to walk around by myself. I was craving some oranges, so I bought some...Sailing has increased my appetite ten fold...I'm in trouble for real. Then, I went to the old whaling station and watched this movie about whaling...People...these guys are crazy raw. Whaling is the craziest fishing/hunting activity you could ever do. Those whales are freaking huge.

The Whaling Museum is on the opposite bank...the beach in Horta.

After all that, I went back to the boat to surf the web and sleep!