I love it when I remember a story from years ago. I have an interesting brain; I remember hundreds of stories for many occasions, but I can never seem to remember what I did last week. Thanks to a friend, Justin in Germany, who I know from Clackamas back in Oregon.

I had forgotten a great story from a few years back involving a bed (hence the bad to the left). We had a conference with CCCI after Christmas in Vancouver, BC. I was in a room with Justin and another buddy, Ryan. The bedroom was equipped with two queen beds that four guys shared. For those of you that don't know me very well, I am just a big toddler, which must be why I love working with kids; I understand them since we have the same level of maturity. So, I never had a brother or two beds in the same room growing up, so I never got the desire to jump from bed to bed out of my head. One afternoon this desire became too great to ignore. This is not a good idea since I am a big guy and tend to get a little excited.

So, I start jumping on one bed and then flying across the room onto the other bed. After many successful jumps, I start getting more daring. Finally, I decided to cannonball the other bed. I KNOW, I KNOW!! bad idea... I jump and realize that I am not heading toward the center of the bed, but toward the corner. It is difficult to change directions mid-air, but I did try by clawing at the air and trying to pull on the imaginary rope to move myself. It did not work.

I landed not very gracefully and the bed gave way with lots of cracking and smashing. It was interesting the different reactions in the room. I was totally freaked out because I had just demolished the bed, Justin was in shock and pretty silent, and Ryan was running around the room clapping and giggling.

I flipped the bed up and noticed that I had splintered the plastic post on that corner, the box spring was cracked badly and screws were either bent or broken. I decided that the best plan of action was to try and fix it. Justin remembered he had a few tools in his car. He ran down and came back with two things: a small crappy screwdriver and duct tape. Well at least we had that...

I then started shoving duck tape into the stripped out screw holes, taped together broken bed posts, and switched out the broken post for another solid one that was in the middle of the bed. Finally, we were able to test it out. I laid on the bed and did a little jiggle around to test the stability. It was definitely much shakier. I guess no more bed jumping for me.

We actually slept two more nights on it. I like to think that some family came along later after the conference was over. Maybe their small child was having some fun jumping on the bed and then BAM!! Broken bed. I would love to see the reaction of the employees when the looked at it and saw all the duct tape that once held the bed together.

Now you might be asking yourself if I had learned my lesson. Yes, I did! I now always look under the bed at the frame. If it is metal, I can jump on it; anything else, is off limits!