awestruck and stupid

I have now promised myself to never leave the apartment without some device with which I can take a photo. Because when you leave the apartment with only your key and ID, you can't take photos of "the most photographed waterski trick" during the weekly Mad-City Ski Show that takes place on Lake Monona.

Not my photo. Obvi. Courtesy of The Cap Times.

I went for a short run last night to do some exploring and get my bearings in my new city, and I decided that an easy way to stay oriented was to stay on the path that runs along the lake. But once I got down to the lake I saw that there were all of these people set up in folding chairs just chatting, picnicking, and looking at the lake.

I was a little confused.

Then I got even more confused as I went farther down the path and the crowd of people continued too.

I finally pulled over and asked a woman who was perched by the path, "Excuse me, would you tell me what event this is?"

And she looked and me, beamed up at me, and said, "Oh, yeah it's the Waterski Show!" (think thick Wisconsin accent when you read that)

So then I kept on going and before I knew it, I saw a guy holding the bar behind his back, facing backwards, being pulled behind a boat going 35mph, and "skiing" with no skis. Yeah, barefoot.

Apparently barefoot running is child's play now.

And before I could even process what I had just seen, I see 29 people standing either on water or on each other's shoulders also being pulled by a boat.

And I vigorously patted myself on the forehead for being too stupid to bring my iPhone with me so I could take a picture.

The forehead patting is a story for another time. But it is really useful when you need to gently reprimand  yourself for silliness.