Turkey Time!

Confession: I've been really crabby for about three days now. I've had a really great month this month - hanging out with awesome poeple that I love, doing great things around the city; its been all good. I've had a great period of being able to be myself, love people, and be loved by people. For me - that's how I was life to always be.

But, I had a big dissapointment a couple of days ago, and my outlook got a bit more negative. Then I got crabby. So I want to apologise to anyone I've been mean to, through conversations or blog comments or whatever.

Anyway, to avoid writing another mean blog entry, I've decided to tell everyone why I hate turkeys. No really, this is a justified hate. :)

In the Summer of 2001, I went on a Navigator Summer Training Program called NCP. This took place in one of the most beautiful places in the world: Glen Eyrie in Colorado Springs, Colorado. This place seriously gets into your blood and you leave there wanted to come back so badly.

I lived in the girls dorm. For meals, we needed to walk over to the Carriage house, where the kitchen was. This was a beautiful walk, and I never minded it.

Until one day....

I was walking merrily along by myself, enjoying the splendor of God's creation, and on my way to lunch. Suddenly, I heard a rustling sound in the bushes. At this point I was slightly worried, becaus we had just been called together for a meeting on the "animal situation" around the Glen at that time of the year.

The glen shares land with an animal preserve/national park called The Garden of the Gods. Because of this, the animals aren't as afraid of people as they should be. We'd have sightings of mountain lions, big black bears, my leader stumbled across a wolf, one guy got bit by a rattle snake, there was constantly a herd of big horned sheep on my lawn, ect. If you know what you're doing, you shouldn't have any trouble with the animals.

So, when I heard the rustling in the bushes, I looked over hoping it would be a nice animal instead of a mean one. To my instant relief, I saw an adult wild turkey. I looked at the turkey and the turkey looked at me.

Smiling to myself, I turned back around and continued on toward lunch. However, I soon realized that the turkey was following me down the road.

I stopped, turned around and looked at the turkey. He in turn stopped and looked up at me. I took one step backward, and he took one step forward. I took three steps backward, he took three steps forward.

I'm not kidding around here - I was sharing one freakishly messed up moment with this bird.

So I turned back around and starting to walk (very briskly) away from the turkey. He sped up to match my speed. Then I started to run, and the turkey started to chase me down.

Now, I realize that this was just a tiny bird - but nature can be damn scary when you realize that you have no control over it.

Here's an artist's rendition of what this bird looked like:


Anyway, As I was running down the road, I was coming closer and closer to the guy's dorm, which was elevated above the road on a hill, with a grove of trees blocking the view to the road. But I did see a pair of male feet walking slowely down the hill toward the road.

Herein I saw my salvation, and I bolted toward whoever guy that happened to be (It was actually my friend Aaron). As I reached the hill (and the guy), several things happened:

The first is that a white van drove down the road right after I crossed the street to head for the guy.

This, in turn, scared off the turkey from its hot pursuit.

Lastly, I screamed at the top of my lungs: "Help! There's a turkey chasing me!".

However, the bird was scared away the exact moment before the guy came into eyesight of the road. All he saw was me, hysterically screaming about a turkey, that he never saw. I tried to tell him the story, but I don't think he really believed me.

So, on top of scaring me, the turkey also made me look like a crazy nut. Bravo turkey, you defenately won that round.

Not to worry, though... I've had my revenge...