Harris is coming to visit!!!!

Maria and I were fortunate enough to meet a kind young gentleman named Harris while at UM. We both rode in his car up to Orlando for a club trip out Freshman year (he was a Sophomore), and I remember thinking he was very nice up until we started talking about politics and then I hated him.

A year later, once the tension surrounding the election was gone and I had calmed down exponentially a bit, we began hanging out with him and getting to know him better.

By his senior year (last year) the three of us had become BEST FRIENDS FOREVER (even if he doesn’t know it yet).

This is us. Guess which one I am...

Harris was President of the UM SCUBA club his senior year. He convinced me to go on several dives that I wouldn’t have otherwise attended, and usually our conversations went like this:

Harris: Are you coming diving this weekend?

Kelley: What time would I have to get up?

Harris: There are going to be bagels!

Kelley: So it’s early.

Harris: Plus it’s only going to be $35!!

Kelley: So it’s really early.

Harris: It’s not that early…

Kelley: What time?

Harris: 6:30 AM…

Kelley: HAHA! No.

Harris: C’mon, it’s going to be really awesome! They saw sharks there last week.

Kelley: Maybe.

Harris: Sharks!

Kelley: Can we go to Moe’s afterwards?

Harris: Yes.

Kelley: DEAL.

I mean, really...

So while he managed to convince me to go diving, Maria and I finally managed to convince him (through a facebook group called “No Harris Left Behind”) to attend a UM sporting event. He had prided himself in his ability to not attend a single football, basketball, or baseball game for the 4 years he spent at UM. When I heard this, it sounded to me like a challenge. Although we were unable to successful secure his attendance for a UM football game, we did make a cardboard cutout of his head, dubbed Flat Harris, who attended the tailgates, games, and even participated in the Senior Walk.

Flat Harris has school spirit. 

Playing some pong.

It's best not to ask about the horse mask...

Us with Flat Harris

On the JumboTron

Senior Walk. He kissed 16 people leading up to this moment.

Flat Harris also likes to dance.

Please note the music playing in the background. We had to listen to it for about 2 hours while we waited in traffic to get to the game. 

And here is Flat Harris dancing at a football game half time show. If you notice the guy dancing in the lower right hand corner with an orange wig... yes, we do know him.

Ian and Flat Harris, sharing a dance together.

 With the help of several of our other friends, I also managed to get him to go out with us to the Grove for a night of dancing and debauchery.

"That way to debauchery!"

(It was mostly just him commenting that the jello shots don’t taste like jello.)

Happy face.

But Harris’ true love, besides making Maria and I watch the extended editions of the Lord of the Rings Trilogy, is diving. He has just gotten a job working in Palau on a dive boat, and I can’t think of anyone more qualified to keep people alive underwater while simultaneously teaching them more than they will ever need to know about WWII naval battles.

A few weeks ago he asked if Maria and I would mind if he stopped by to visit us on his way to his new job. Obviously, we told him that if he steps foot on this continent we would sick our rabid pack of wallabies on him.

Ravenous little bugger.

Nevertheless, he purchased plane tickets and is now on his way over the Pacific to come stay with us at JCU (which is why we are posting this now, so that he won’t see it and make us take it down immediately).

Hopefully our escapades with Harris will provide us with some more material to talk about, as these past few weeks have been on the dull side of the spectrum with class, labs, and papers. It is likely (read: certain) he will want to go diving, and in exchange I will make him go out to Flinders Street and do shots. Fair is fair.