Science!

Well, Arbor Day bit me in the ass with its now-you-see-it-now-you-don't routine. I was beginning to think it was a figment of my imagination! Maybe it's like Tinkerbell - if you don't believe in it, it ceases to exist? Perhaps it's a manifestation of all those trees that I planted in the oft-mowed back yard, led like lambs to the slaughter? Both? I don't know.

But, apparently, Arbor Day does still happen. It just hides itself well. In the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania, it's celebrated on the last Friday of April. I had to Google a bit to find this out, because the suspense was killing me. So we get Earth Day and Arbor Day in rapid succession, a sort of wham-bam-plant-trees-ma'am. Okay, then.

Why do I keep on harping on this? No real reason. But it did get on my radar again this week when a friend and her four-year-old son invited me to participate in an Egg Drop contest in honor of Earth Day. Let's celebrate the environment! We'll chuck some eggs from a cherry picker! Wahoo!

I kid. But just a bit. Sure, I'll pull a world-weary, sarcastic attitude. I'll do this because .... well, *clears throat, gets shifty eyes* because science scares me. And any sort of engineering feat is far beyond my ken. I want to participate in this, but I'm not really good at the rational, planning aspects of things. Shocking, I know. Still, my four-year-old buddy already managed to design and carry out his plan for unbroken eggs. Me? I'm lucky to crack an egg on the side of a bowl without getting egg yuck all over the place. But my competitive nature is kicking in, so I will attempt to build something that will protect falling eggs everywhere.

I have to admit, though, that every time I hear (or type) "Egg Drop", my mind goes immediately to soup. Yum.

*ahem*

So we'll be making the trek to Ithaca, NY to throw some eggs around. I have a sneaking suspicion that my best bet will be the "splat" category, but I'm trying to be optimistic here. I've got some ideas. I mean, wouldn't a sunbonnet make a fantastic parachute? It protects from the sun! It saves delicate eggs in a single bound! It makes thousands of julienne fries! It ... yeah. Creative process. Brainstorming and all that.

It will be fun to have a challenge. My trip is mostly planned out and paid for, now I'm just waiting for July to happen. I'm getting pretty adept at the water-fitness thing. Work is a festering black hole of yuck but, then again, does anyone "fun" for forty hours a week? Nuh-uh. Didn't think so. They pay you because you'd never show up otherwise. So it'll be fun to try something different, smash a few eggs, and omelets be damned.

Days until trip: 92
Money saved: $425.00