We spent Memorial Day weekend in Florida visiting my parents. During this weekend, I experienced several “firsts”. Some are uninteresting, and some are far too personal to post here, but there are a couple than I can share with our audience (all two of you).

It is tough to get all five of my immediate family members in the same room. Various things happen to prevent us from being together, even during important events. For example, Charlie Macc wasn’t at my wedding, Gemini wasn’t at Charlie Macc’s wedding, and none of us were at Gemini’s wedding.

My immediate family hasn’t been together in a year-and-a-half; the occassion that brought us together this weekend was Gemini’s birthday. He was on leave from his tour in Iraq. He’s heading back now, or should already be there. The family didn’t do a whole lot on the Friday and Saturday that Nad and I were there. No amusement parks, no water parks, no Disney. Just IHOP, Macaroni Grill, Checkers, KFC, Burger King, Walmart, and the movies to watch Episode III (I’m the only member of my family that actually liked that movie).

Oh yeah, and I watched The Punisher. It belongs in the gutter along with some of the newer Marvel movies, like Daredevil and Hulk. It’s too bad all Marvel-based comic book movies can’t be like Spiderman and X-Men.

I fired my first gun while in Orlando. It was a Smith & Wesson 9mm. I have to admit that I was extremely nervous. It didn’t help that I heard a shotgun go off as I entered the shooting lanes. I had never heard one go off, let alone in a small area that echoes. My heart skipped several beats; once I recovered from that initial fright, I got into my lane with my father, where he showed me how to load the clip and some basic safety precautions.

My hand shook terribly when I pulled the trigger for the first time. In my head, all I could see were all the horrible things that could happen if I were to make a mistake. I was afraid of hurting myself, someone in my family, or even one of the strangers in the lanes next to me. I jumped a little every time I heard a shot go off. The blast of heat that came from the gun every time I fired took me by surprise. It took a few pulls of the trigger to calm my nerves and become more comfortable with the gun, but I never got as comfortable with it as Gemini and my father were. While my brother was firing round after round of the .45 with little effort, I was gently handling the gun like it was a bomb ready to go off if I put it down too hard.

Like most others might think about themselves, I thought I’d be dual-wielding pistols and diving in slow-motion taking out all of the targets with headshots Chow Yun Fat-style when I first picked up a pistol. Even though that was no where close to reality, I did learn that if you stand perfectly still 15 feet away from me, then 47 out of 50 shots (or 94%, for the mathematically impaired) will hit its mark. So, if you want to get in a gunfight with me and survive, you better move around. Not too much though, so I have a fair chance.

I got my first tattoo at the base of my neck. This is Nad’s third, and our first matching set. The flash in Nad’s pic on the right makes it extremely difficult to see hers, but it is identical to mine.

The tattoo says san gatsu ni juu ichi, literally translated as three moon two ten one. This is the Japanese way of saying March 21st, which is the date of both the beginning of our relationship and our marriage (1993 and 2003, respectively).

Edit: I would like to add how painful that tattoo was. Nad gave me her dogtags to hold on to while I was inked. After a few minutes, the tags weren’t enough. I gripped my neck so hard that I was choking myself. The constant jabbing into my skin was much worse than I thought it was going to be. I was already nervous about the whole thing, and it didn’t help that whenever I said, “This is my first tattoo,” the person I told sucked their teeth (like when you skin your knee) and responded with, “And you chose your neck to be the first spot?” That area of skin is still tender, and it should be a few days before the pain fully subsides.