Feb. 24, 2014 Update, Evening

Not much to report today, as will probably be the case for the next few days. As I said this morning, the doctors want Paul to rest as much as possible, with as little stimulation as possible. But that definitely doesn't mean you can't visit! Nia, Nick, Taylor, and the rest of Paul's family would love the company. So feel free to come say Hi. 

Since that wasn't much of an update, how about an entertaining Paul story? 

We were on an editorial shoot in The Middle of Nowhere, Georgia, on this dirt road, away from all civilization. We had finished our shoot, and we were walking back to the car, when Paul spotted a snake near the driver's side of his car. Paul was convinced that this was a snake that he needed to "handle". I, being terrified of snakes, immediately advised him against it. However, he continued to pursue the snake and insisted that I come closer than my minimum 10-ft safe-distance and "check it out!". Before I had even made it close to the snake, I realized that what we were looking at was a rattlesnake that had no rattler (sometimes when rattlesnakes shed their skin, their rattles become brittle and break off). Paul, of course, refused to believe me as I was running away, and continued to pursue the rattle-less-rattlesnake.

In an attempt to achieve what I thought would be ultimate safety, I ran to the passenger side of the vehicle and begged Paul to open the doors so I could lock myself inside. Little did I know that the snake had moved in between Paul and the driver's side door, and when Paul advanced to unlock the door, the snake bolted underneath the vehicle, heading toward the passenger side of the car, where I was standing. What happened next is kind of a blur, but I'm pretty sure Paul yelled something along the lines of, "IT'S COMING FOR YOU!!!" and I took off running again. The snake ended up staying under the car, taunting me from a distance. After failing to convince me to come back, Paul ended up having to jump in the car and drive to pick me up, a half-mile down the road. 

Once we were back in Jacksonville, I hit the Google search and found out that 1) I was right. It WAS a rattlesnake, and 2) Rattlesnakes CAN lose their rattles. And we learned some valuable lessons that day:

I am always right. And, if need be, I can move pretty fast  :)

If you have an entertaining story about Paul, please email it to me at amy@paulfigura.com. Maybe over the next few days, while Paul is resting, we can post them here and have a good laugh. 

Thanks again so much for everything, everyone.  

-Amy