The Origins of VRap

When Annaliese picked me up from the airport, on my first official visit to Colorado, she explained that two of the flatirons were closed to hikers because of raptor nesting. I nodded sagely, as if I knew what she was talking about, but I was picturing nesting velociraptors, because I did not know what a raptor is.

Several hours later, as we climbed the first flatiron, Annaliese, Karolyn and I encountered some other hikers who were curious about the raptors. The couple confessed that they too had pictured velociraptors. We had a good laugh for close to five minutes about this, with Annaliese explaining what a raptor actually is.

As we walked away from the other hikers, I started to slide on the ice and threw up my arms to stop my fall, yelling, "I'm a velociraptor!" as I did so. Karol, who had appeared to be listening to the entire previous conversation, said in exasperation, "What the f*ck is a velociraptor?" She was really irate at not understanding the joke, and Annaliese and I laughed so hard that it was hard to explain.

Several weeks later, Karol found a tiny dinosaur at the bar, and so began the adventures of VRap.