A little while back I posted the link for you all to vote for Dean Bullock to get a spot in the world championship Ironman race. Dean has terminal cancer and has a dream to compete in the Ironman in Kona. His family posted a video of him on the Ironman site and if he gets enough votes, Ironman will grant him a spot in the race for which a person usually has to qualify with an insanely fast time.
Thanks in part to your help, Dean made it through to the final round of voting, which will last ten days. If you would all take a minute and vote for him here, you'll have done a great thing today. You can vote multiple times too, in case you've got nothing going on today.
I grew up with several of Dean's kids and have considered them great friends over the years. In fact, I may or may not have had unreciprocated crushes on two of his daughters. But I'm not bitter! My cousin Katie married one of Dean's sons a while back and our families have stayed connected partly because of that. They are wonderful people. The kind of people any person is blessed to know. And Dean is a great man. I hope the best for him as he tries to get into this race. EVEN THOUGH I THINK ANYONE WHO DOES AN IRONMAN IS INSANE.
I'm pretty exhausted today. One of my big goals when I moved to Palau was to write a book before I leave this place. The first several months were a little rocky on the book-writing goal. This was mostly because I spent 90% of my time standing in the grocery store, staring at the rotted produce, saying "where the HELL do I live?!"
But the last few months I've sort of had epiphany after epiphany and the writing has really taken off. And I'm enjoying it greatly! I have high hopes to publish something very soon. That is, if I can ever figure out how to publish something.
Last night I had an idea come to me so I sat down to write and before I knew it, it was late into the night and I had been writing for several hours. I went to bed totally exhausted and then slept straight through my alarm.
I woke up to the sounds of a dog and a cat at the front window.
I got up to see what all the commotion was about to find Daniel outside, meowing like a cat and barking like a dog. This isn't the first time he has done this. I asked him how long he had been making animal noises at me to let him in.
Daniel: Not long. Five minutes or so.
Eli: Well, it turns out that it was unnecessary. You left the door unlocked when you went for your run.
Daniel: I know.
~It Just Gets Stranger
Uh, book? When will it be available for us!? Your strangers have a right to know!
ReplyDelete"I know" HI-larious! HYS-terical! I laughed and laughed and laughed! Apparently, Daniel is JUST AS MUCH of a nutjob as YOU are, Eli! Thank you so much for sharing that.
ReplyDeleteAlso, I have JUST NOW re-voted for Dean THREE TIMES, even though I voted for him already all that time ago when you first asked us to do it. It's EASY! I just re-load the page, and BOOM! It says "<3 Vote for This" below the video; I click it; it says "Thank You"; I re-load the page. You (Strangers who have better internets than Eli) can do it, too!
Thanks for the giggles and inspiration for the day, Eli. I <3 you.
I've already voted for Dean 5 times today! Amazing man. Thanks for sharing Eli!
ReplyDeletevoted for! And look at this website that just posted one of those suggested ads on my facebook, yay! http://www.blurb.com/ Now you can publish your own book!
ReplyDeleteI have used Blurb many times to do exhibition catalogues and they probably the best print to order book company, Lulu is good too, but a little more expensive
DeleteBecause Eli has such a following he could probably find a real publisher that would do it rather than self-publishing, which is what blurb and lulu do
I voted several times. I lost track, since I have these kids that keep saying they are "hungry" and want "food", and I have to keep getting up to give them something "healthy" and they are "thirsty". Blah Blah Blah. Kids these days, amiright?
ReplyDeleteOffice people and mothers with sleeping babies, this is a video and it starts immediately. So, if you need silencio, then you may need to turn your speakers down.
I also think anyone who participates in Ironman is insane, but I ALSO think that anyone who WATCHES Ironman is insane. However, if he wins, I will watch it with my insane husband and say, "You see that guy there, I helped him get there. Yeah, I'm a fitness freak. Lemme have your bag of M&M's, I finished mine."
And he will look at me with surprise, appreciation, and dare I say, pride. And then he will hand me his M&M's, because he's also a little scared.
Watched the video, cried a little and voted...and will continue to do so! I will share on my Facebook as soon as I have access.
ReplyDeleteThank you for the daily giggle Eli, the first thing I do when I get to work in the morning is check to see if you've posted that day.
~T
Please, oh please, publish a book. I will definitely buy it!
ReplyDeleteYou can publish yourself on a website called "createspace", it is free, and you get to set the price for how much your book will sell. It has a calculator that will tell you how much of a royalty you get per copy at each price you set. And then your book is available for sale at Amazon.com. You can also have your book published digitally through them, for kindles and whatnot. If you pay an amount (I'm not sure) then your book will also be available at stores like barnes and noble. It's a pretty sweet website, my father in law uses it. You should check that out!
ReplyDeleteVoted and shared!
ReplyDeleteEli, you never told us the resulting conversation between you and Daniel after the cat poll closed! Or did it just never come up again?
Conversation is still ongoing. Let's just say, there was some dissatisfaction with the results. And in any event, there was something wrong with that poll. After a while, the total number of votes started to go down. I can't figure out these internet things.
DeleteEli, you are so awesome. And I can't imagine any girl not reciprocating a crush!!!! Thanks for the votes!!!!
ReplyDeleteYou know I have always thought of you as one of my dearest friends Eli! I often laugh at our times in high school. Do you remember "Happy Tuesday"? One of my best high school memories!
ReplyDeleteThanks for posting about my dad. We can use all the votes we can get!
Jordan, you're going to have to remind me about "happy Tuesday." It's vaguely familiar . . .
DeleteJason (I will keep last name out) gave me roses because he thought it was my birthday, but unfortunately for him it was really a month away. So instead he told me "happy Tuesday". I think he was teased every Tuesday for the rest of the year :)
DeleteI voted ten times! Congrats on writing so much..it can be so difficult to just sit and write!
ReplyDeleteThanks Eli!!! Love your blog and we appreciate the support! - this is deans daughter you didn't have a crush on:) I'm the old one:)
ReplyDeleteLindsey
As far as YOU know Lindsey . . .
DeleteThanks Eli!! Hahaha...I love Lindsey's comment above :) Well unreciprocated or not, there is still that roundabout connection to us...you just can't shake us ;) We think you are awesome and thank you SO much for posting about our dad!!
ReplyDeleteA book about what???
ReplyDeleteDetails to come . . .
DeleteThis is gonna be the bestest.
ReplyDelete