Colorado 2012: Banter

I mentioned last time that I took a trip to visit my sister (and her cat) in Colorado, but really, the best part was that all three of the Chang siblings got together to hang out. For the most part, the three of us get along well. What's more, we are each goofy and funny in our own way, but we have a shared history and we feed off of each other. In case it's not obvious already, there is much, much laughter to be had when we get together. This trip was no different.

It's not even like there was one single thing that was hilarious and the rest of the time was boring. Nope, there were quite a few zany antics that I remember. For example:

• I actually arrived a day later than my brother, because my work schedule didn't allow me to leave as early. So, my brother, my sister, and my brother-in-law all had a night to hang out before I got there. And on that night, they decided that they wanted California burritos the next day (apparently the Colorado ones are prepared differently, and they don't taste the same). So, I got a text message asking for "burritos, please." Thirty seconds later, I got a second text message from a different person asking for burritos. Thirty seconds after that, a third text message from a third person. I told the first person that places were likely closed, and I'd have to take my chances with the airport restaurants in the morning. Undaunted, my brother called the burrito place closest to my house to ask them for their business hours, and then he dutifully reported back that they were, in fact, open at that hour. Well, then. I had a good laugh, and made sure to deliver their burritos the next day (though they did come from the airport).
  
• Along the lines of food, we went to watch a Rockies game (that's Colorado's major league baseball team, for you non-sports fans). It was a nice enough stadium, and we had fun being pure spectators. It wasn't much of a game, though; the Rockies were winning pretty handily throughout the game. They were winning so thoroughly, in fact, that I didn't think much of a late-inning grand slam that put the Rockies' ninth run on the board. However, my brother quickly turned to the two of us and said, "wait, doesn't this mean we get Taco Bell?"
  
  As it turns out, Taco Bell was running some sort of promotion where they'd sell you 4 tacos at a discounted price (between 4 and 6PM) if the Rockies scored 7 or more runs in a home game. Almost as if to answer my brother, the giant scoreboard in center field immediately flashed, "we got tacos!" on the screen. We all had a good laugh about it, and promised each other that we'd take advantage of our good fortune. We also exclaimed "we got tacos" to each other quite a few times in the days following (on a side note, that was quite possibly the unhealthiest meal I have eaten in a long time).
  
• I don't quite remember what we were talking about, but one of us was talking about somebody who had made poor decisions in life. To denote his displeasure, my brother remarked that he was vetoing this person's decisions. Immediately, one of us asked what gave him that authority; his answer: "the court of life." Soon enough, it became a running gag. I heard some variation of "in the court of life, I will allow it" or "nope, that's been vetoed in the court of life" quite a few times after that. And of course, the court of life had a far-reaching jurisdiction, so it applied to everything from family affairs to strangers' choice in clothing. The court of life was one hilarious outfit, let me tell you.
  
• Since we were the guests, my brother and I figured that we'd try to make things as easy as possible for our hosts. We didn't ask for anything outlandish, we were fine with eating pretty much whatever (though we do that as a matter of course), and we tried to minimize the burden we placed on my sister. However, my brother ended up responding with "I'm cool with whatever" to just about everything. Eventually, my sister jokingly shot back with, "make a damn decision already!" And, thus, a running joke was born. Every single time after that that we needed to decide something, we asked my brother to "make a damn decision." When he volunteered any suggestions, we feigned shock that he'd "made a damn decision." I have no idea how many times we uttered some variation on that phrase, but let's just say that it was a lot more than a handful (or several handfuls).
  
• We spent several hours playing Super Mario Bros Wii, trying to beat the game. That game requires some cooperation between the players, so there was a lot of back and forth chatter about how to proceed at several points. Some of my favorites included:
• "I want to be the penguin"
  "No, I'm not wasting the penguin suit here, it's not helpful."
  (We all lost our lives, so we lost all of our power ups. This included the penguin suits)
  "Wait, we lost our penguin suits? See, I told you! You should've let me use the penguin suit"
  (thirty seconds later)
  "You know, I bet this level would be way easier with a penguin suit ..."
• "Quick, grab that hat. You have the greatest hat proficiency! Hat proficiency!"
• "How come my character sounds retarded?"
• "Okay, now you're the only one left. You have to survive long enough for one of us to come back. Don't screw it up."
  (five seconds later)
  "Aw, no. You had to die there, of all places"

  Basically, the three of us hung out and laughed together. Sure, we visited some attractions and generally enjoyed being on vacation, but I mostly remember being thoroughly amused. Oh, and I'm going to have to brush up on my Mario Bros and stock up on burritos for the next time I see my siblings.