70 Seconds

Doug and I volunteered to work at the Arizona Best Fest in downtown Phoenix.  This is the official celebration for the Arizona Centennial.  We arrived at 7 am, signed in, put on our volunteer T-shirts, and helped with a lot of set up - tables and chairs, fence sections, etc.  As the actual event started we were stationed at the Volunteer Sign-Up location.  We signed people in, told them to get their t-shirts, told them where they were assigned, oriented them on the map and helped them figure out how to get to their assigned locations.  Wow!  We were pretty busy for a while.  Some time later they brought in food for the volunteers that Fry's had donated. There were about a dozen 6 foot long sub sandwiches, fried chicken, and lots of pop and waters.  We helped ourselves, of course. 

When things slowed down a little we decided to take a break and wander around through the events and see what we could see.  We went by lots of booths and picked up some little give aways - pens, pads of paper, key chains, magnets, etc.  We also stopped by Ken Bennet's booth - he is a politician and his daughter is in Scott's ward.  His booth had free red t-shirts.  The shirt had an this on the front:

 + D

On the Big Day - Bring it.

I guess it is to encourage us to not only get out and vote but to bring your ID with you so they allow you to vote.  Pretty cute - we got one of those plus a free red reusable bag.  Jackpot!  But when we went by the Marines booth we saw a nice dry-tech t-shirt you had to earn.  Doug suggested that I do a bent arm hang and try to earn a shirt.  I dismissed the thought at first but Doug was sure I could stay hanging up there for the required 70 seconds.  That didn't sound too bad - so I signed the consent forms and was soon staring about 8 feet up into the air at the bar.  When I signed up a Marine gave me some encouragement and a few tips.  One that proved helpful was that the time kept counting as long as my arms were bent.  Even if I was starting to come down - do it slowly, he said, they'll keep counting as long as your arms are not fully extended.  So with a boost from one of the Marines I stepped into his hands and was soon hanging from the bar.  A Marine with the watch insisted in counting out every 5 seconds.  That was annoying.  But I was focused and doing pretty good.  But at around 40 seconds or so I could feel the burn.  And with the burn my mind started to doubt.  But I kept hanging.  Pretty soon my arms were shaking too.  And at about 60 seconds my chin began to fall below the bar.  But it was a slow-motion falling down - having remembered the tip I was given earlier.  Those last 10 seconds lasted about 10 minutes.  But as my arms slowly left their bent position and moved closer and closer to a straight armed hang - I digged as deep as I could.  And guess what?  Yep.  I managed to delay the inevitable just long enough.  But as soon as he said 70 - I dropped.

I was happy.  I was successful.  I earned a shirt.  Now, why didn't Doug try to earn one too?  Don't know.  But you can be proud that your mom, sister, daughter, cousin, aunt, grandma, or friend wowed a few of those Marines - and it only took 70 seconds. 

So today was a 3 free t-shirt day -

for me!