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Published: June 30th 2006
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Kristina, Melissa, Rebecca
My friends aren't this hot. They were there to buy drinks for Bish. :) Woke up with a bull in my face I died this morning. Trampled and gored repeatedly. A bull. A very large, angry bull with horns sharp as razors, was pounding down on me in the street. There was nowhere to go and this muther was huge! As he overwhelmed me I could feel his horns piercing my skin and ribs and stomach and smell him, hear him roaring like a freight train. It only hurt the way dreams hurt. Not physically, but emotionally. I woke up with my heart pounding out of my chest, as terrified as any dream before.
The first time I went skydiving, I had the same feeling. I would wake up in the morning and I tried to do my best to picture myself up in the airplane, all set to jump out, and I would get to the door (in my mind) and just freeze. I would totally freak in my imagination and it scared the hell out of me. I can't do this, I would say, why can't I do this? I know now the reason is that my mind had nothing to wrap itself around, I'd never been skydiving so I had no
Loud, Louder
No, we aren't really 17. We just play them on TV. idea what it loooked like or felt like to stand in the wind in an open door over 2 miles up in the sky knowing you're going to jump out into eternity. My brain would lock up, I could feel ice and hot bile flowing in my veins and in my imagination, my own personal run-through, I could never get past it. Fuck that, I would say, shake it off and smile to myself anyway. And go back to sleep. Of course, I went skydiving anyway. And it was perfectly terrifying, and completely exhilirating, all at the same time. I've been going on my birthdays ever since and have 4 dives now and another one coming up in September. Feel the fear and do it anyway.
Running with the bulls is now having the same affect on my fertile mind. I've been reading newsletters from Graeme and they ain't pretty. To build up my already anxious and excited mind about this trip, Graeme has been sending newsletters from Pamplona every friggin day with headlines like 14 Days Until the Party Begins! 10 Days Until the World's Biggest Party Begins! He writes a little note and then I open up
Mark, Jill, Katie, Chris, Kelly
This was before the lady came by with the tarantula. Underdow=fun=kinda scarey. a short story written by someone who ran with the bulls but almost every one of them has people getting their flesh ripped open and kidneys spilled onto the streets. I'm thinking the romance mixed with chutzpah of Hemingway (who never actually ran with the bulls) and Graeme has me thinking about seas of people getting trampled, sliced and diced, ripped apart and simply run over and crushed by these beasts. Yes, that's what I'm in this for, the sheer experience of sparking a dream and seeing it through till the end and then having that experience for the rest of my life. All of my thrill seeking experiences are designed to do the same thing - remind me to be grateful I'm here and live each day as much as possible. Stretch myself. This penchant for danger also is affecting me in ways I didn't expect. I'm waking up with a bull in my face and nowhere to run and wondering how I'm going to feel when I'm standing in the streets of Pamplona and I hear that first rocket go off, and then the second, and just like standing in the doorway at 14,000 feet, I can't wrap
Amy, April
Local Hawaiian Tropic models.. my mind around this yet. And the ice and bile is back, and I love that feeling!
Here is an excerpt from one of Graeme's last updates from Pamplona. It's about a most famous runner, Julen Medina, and how he almost lost his life on the streets of Pamplona. It begins right in the middle of the action.
The two trailing bulls, a dun reddish bull and a jet black bull, stopped running and began to lunge with their horns into the two piles of runners. The red one at the entrance to the tunnel and the black one near the exit to the tunnel. Some of the runners were tossed and gored repeatedly. Near the entrance to the tunnel a photograph shows Julen Medina next to a white and brown steer with a black bull on the other side of the steer. The next photo shows Julen right behind the steer with two other black bulls closing fast. The next picture has Julen entering the tunnel with his back turned to a single black bull. Julen is off to the right side of the tunnel.
After a second or two goes by, the next picture shows two young men touching the red bull as it enters the tunnel. The next photo has the red bull at the entrance facing back and goring anything that moves. At the same time the black bull is in the middle of the tunnel goring people on the ground on the right side of the tunnel. Another picture taken from inside the bullring shows the black bull smashing straight into the pile-up on the right side of the tunnel. This is where Julen Medina is seriously gored.
Even the best can have really bad luck. While being gored, he puts his arms out to keep the bull away from his face. First the bull used his right horn as Julen is gored in his left wrist. Then the bull gores Julen twice in the right thigh. Then the bull uses his left horn to gore Julen in the lower back. One of these went deep into his body near his kidney. Other runners tried to help Julen including a young man who jumped on the black bull’s back.
The good news is he was rushed to the hospital and he lived. He spent six months recuperating. He also came back in 2005 to run with the bulls again like nothing had happened. I wonder if he wakes up in the middle of the night too?
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Dr. Debbie Gibson
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Leave it to you and Bish
I don't know if I have the stomach for this blog. It's a little too bloody for my blood, and you haven't even left town yet! I'm sure the bulls will think you're just gored-geous.