Skepticism

The Last TAMce…day that is…kittynh blog

Sunday starts late.  We are all kind of tired and miss a lot of the papers.  Still, we straggle down to just enjoy being with the skeptics.  There is an energy you just don’t want to let go of. 

In the hallway my teenager spies one of her favorites Todd Robbins.  She is a shy kid.  She doesn’t say a lot, and I’m surprised when she walks right up to Todd and says, “so, why are you holding those dice?”  Todd says to perform a magic trick for her…and the magic starts.  A typical mother, I am taking photographs of this special one on one performance when I notice someone leaning into the shot.  Really, who could that rude person be that is simple staring over Aynz shoulder to get a good view of the trick?  And then I go, “oh it’s Teller!”  Teller was quietly studying Todds techinique.  When the trick was over Teller simply said, “and with clear dice, nice!”  Penn  you see and hear coming a mile away.  Teller, he’s there, but you get the feeling he’d rather be watching and learning than noticed. 

A quick rest and I do a trade off with Tim (a very cool Brit).  He takes my teenager, and I take his wife.  His wife wants to “see” the strip (or at least part of it) and we are both people that saunter.  We don’t WALK, or make an exercise out of walking.  We like to take things in.  We aren’t just into point A to point B. 

The Pool Boy is recruited to drive us to a point for the  saunter to start.  And then it is Lynn and Kittys Vegas adventure.  I don’t know what Tim did to deserve Lynn, but she is in a word FUN.  I just immediately adore her.  She is the perfect saunter companion.  We saunter around the M and M store.  We saunter through the MGM and notice the street outside is closed, and there is part of the MGM blocked off.  There seem to be a lot of policemen.  Hmmm, what could it be?

 A word about Pool Boy.  I saunter.  He walks ahead, then finally figures out he has no clue where I am, and calls on the cell phone.  So he is at his usual pace, but I don’t care as I have Lynn.  We are walking over to the Luxor and we notice there is quite a crowd.  QUITE a crowd.  And they are all pointing (fingers and cameras) at the big MGM sign.  What is going on?  Well…the crowd is more than glad to tell us.  There is a JUMPER!!!  “See that guy in black?  he’s going to jump!  And those 2 guys in khaki are the police trying to talk him down!”  It should be noted that even in Vegas NO ONE yelled “jump jump”.  A few people did enquire if their spouse with the camera had enough zoom to really get a good shot, but people were very nice about it all. 

At this point we hurry over to Pool Boy, did he know there was a JUMPER? 

As usual, the non skeptic (“because no one really believes that stuff”) says, “that isn’t a jumper.  Those are repairmen fixing the sign.  Part of it has fallen with the high wind”  Spoilsport points out the sign repair trucks parked in the blocked off street.  We are happy (yes, we were!) that there was no jumper.  But we also had a good laugh!

I soon learned what Yorkshire humor was when I entered the Luxor.  Lynn has been to the pyramids.  She was comparing the fake to the real (and oddly, the fake was not measuring up).  We walk in the lobby and she says, “oh but I do remember that yellow thing.”  I’m looking around, what yellow thing, a yellow statue of Ramses?  A yellow pillar or painting?  What does she recognize from Egypt.

“yes” she says softly, “that yellow Hummer”

I almost crack a rib from laughing. There is a yellow hummer on display which we name the “hummer of Ramses”. 

Lynn is a good sport and we go on a very confusing ride that has to do with finding a lost something.  We fly down in an fake elevator, go on a fake ride, and laugh at the poor real person that is explaining things.  She admits it is her first day at the job, and her lack of enthusiasm makes me feel for her job security for day two.  Lynn makes it fun.  It’s a ridiculous ride, but instead of commenting, she is in for the fun. 

 We then get a call that Aynz is back with Tim and the guys at the Riviera.  So we go back to the dollar cafe and find out what my little darling has been up to. 

What she has been up to was first the Atomic Museum.  Very good history lesson for her.

What came next was Tim pretending to be her guardian and taking her to the Gun Store.  He has video, she has a target.  The kind guys all chipped in so she could shoot the heck out of a shape of a man.  And she liked it, a LOT.  We were all impressed with Tims target.  As Aynz says, “see, he only barely missed once, and that one probably really scared the bad guy.”  Aynz now wants to grow up and be just like Tim.  I kid you not.  She thinks he is the coolest guy ever, and she thinks she would make a great PI.  I think Tim is the coolest guy also. 

 The rest of the day is just more fun.  It ends with yet even MORE DDR.  We are finally so exhausted that we collapse in a heap, but  decide we have enough energy to kill some zombies.  Somehow we have to pack.  We don’t have a lot of stuff, Vegas really isn’t for shopping.  But we do have a LOT of memories. 

You come to TAM one person, you leave changed.  To share it with my children is such a pleasure.  To let the wonderful people at TAM help change thier lives, and change my own, is why this experience is so very powerful.  There are so many good people at TAM.  It helps you deal with the Sylvia Brownes and the Woos. 

There is a real pride in being included in a group of such wonderful, smart, giving, strong skeptics.  You just hope enough rubs off to last you another year.

I have to end with our goodbyes to Randi.  Aynz adores this man.  She actually asked if she could call him “grandpa” and he agreed.  Then a big hug for him.

 I just sort of stood there taking it in, when Randi came over to me.  HE gave me the super get out of the way hug and kiss.  He’s my hero, he’s my role model for my children, he’s one of a kind, he’s my teacher…and he’s my friend.

 

I know luck isn’t something skeptics are supposed to believe in.  But I believe I am a very lucky person. 

 

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Kittynh

Artist, Mom, Skeptic Looking for the perfect lollipop

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3 Comments

  1. Why shouldn't skeptics believe in luck? Another way to put it is "shit happens". ("Shit" by the way, can be good or bad, so the statement doesn't imply a negative.)

    Or maybe you're referring to the idea that you can control what happens to you with "lucky charms" like rabbit feet or something? Does anyone over 5 years old really believe that?

  2. For any circumstance, some people are going to be more 'lucky' than not, simply based on chance. Logically, then, we can imagine someone who has completely randomly happened to have been lucky for their whole life up until this very point. All that being a skeptic requires is realizing there is no way to influence the chance of being lucky (prayer, luck charms, etc) and that there is no reason to believe that just because you have been lucky your whole life that luck will continue. I myself led an inordinately lucky childhood, although it unfortunately stopped about a decade ago. I actually remember being banned from some games of chance in carnivals as a kid because I won so often.

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