Roughing it
Two days ago, five of my dear friends and I embarked on an epic journey northward to stay in a cabin overnight - unsupervised. No, there was no alcohol/illegal activity, and as always we had an extraordinary time without it. I doubt that I'll ever understand the appeal of such things... it's just stupid if you ask me... but that's a post for a different day. So we arrived safely to what I expected to be a cabin in the middle of nowhere. To my great surprise, Sara's cabin was like a mini house! It's on a lake with lots of houses nearby and everything, so we decided to go swimming right away. We immediately went out onto the middle of the lake in our "yacht" (an old pontoon boat) so we could swim away from shore. For the record, I have thus far had a grave fear of being in water that I can't see the bottom of, for some obscure reason. As I stared down into the greenish brown, murky water, my apprehension grew at an alarming rate. I voiced my fears once with a "You know... I can't see myself getting in this stuff..." But after a little hesitation and the reassurance of a beautiful light blue noodle, I managed to jump in the water! Twas quite the accomplishment for me. I then realized that I had to pee quite badly, and the others quickly advised me to just pee in the lake. Sounds easy enough, right?
Wrong. Despite many attempts, I could not do it. I was trying as hard as I could and nothing was happening, much to the amusement of my compadres. They kept shouting advice to me and trying to help me out, but to no avail. As I treaded water, trying to pee in the stupid lake, I had a flashback to the only other time that I've tried to pee anywhere besides a toilet, and let me tell you, it was a horrible memory... essentially, I was traveling with my family and forgot to tell them that I needed to go to the bathroom until just after we'd passed an exit. Tempers ran short, but my bladder was quite full. It was an emergency, so we pulled over and then it was expected of me to just walk over, pee, and keep us moving. But for some reason I couldn't bring myself to do it, so I began to cry. Really, really hard. That's all I remember.
Anyway, so there I was in a similar situation, and tears were close behind my eyes. After several different theories and attempts, I somehow I managed it, and my very supportive friends were quite proud of me. Shaina told me she's never been prouder! How sweet. It was indeed a dramatic event, and the drama only continued.
We decided to go cruising around the lake in our flashy water machine, so we swam back to it slowly, the others poking fun of my latest peeing endeavor. As Andy climbed onto the ladder, though, there was a great CRACK and the ladder, along with some of the siding of the boat, came off abruptly. We all began to laugh until we realized that without the ladder we really couldn't get into the boat. Slight problem. So Andy-super-muscle-man pulled himself in, and then the rest of us attempted to do the same. My own attempt was a painful reminder of the little upper body strength I have... I am weak. But after some creative attempts we managed to help each other in, first Kailyn, then I, then Spice and Sha, and after a great deal of stubbornness, the hostess herself. It was like a teamwork lesson straight out of one of those leadership camps from way back when. Such joy.
We then "cruised", watched a "scary movie" (dumbest thing I think I've ever seen), went stargazing, and went to bed. At least we were supposed to go to bed. Shaina and I tend to grow overly exuberant at certain times when we're together, and that night was one of them. We began to fiddle with my digital camera, taking pictures of random things for about a half hour. We discovered that when you take a picture of a moving fan, it looks like it's not moving in the picture! Shocking. We also took spontaneous pictures of our feet, and I have a lovely shot of Shaina's eye. I then decided to play with my little plastic light-up fan, and managed to get it knotted up in my hair. Ouch. Don't ask.
8 AM came far too quickly and brought the lovely aroma of pancakes. We then drove over to Andy's cabin two miles away, where we discovered what "roughing it" would truly be like. His cabin is much more rugged, with an outhouse and wooden walls and a huge stone fireplace. It's surrounded by four acres of woods and a thick layer of bugs, with an awesome path with wooden stairs down to his lake. We swam there for a long time, and by lunchtime I was exhausted. I hardly ever swim, and when I do it's normally in my Grandpa's pool where I can stand. This, however, was a totally new experience. I swam great distances on my noodle, and paddleboated around for the remainder. It was awesome! The rest of the day was spent doing much of the same - more swimming, a Scattergories tournament on the "yacht" and just relaxing in the sunshine.
All in all we had a great time. I enjoyed it muchly! I hope we can take another excursion someday, only this time I want to sleep outside or at least in a tent.
At the moment I need to go put away my laundry and shower before dinner... right now the house reeks of burnt garlic and it's starting to get to me. Blech. This reminds me, however, of my new goal to begin cooking lunches for this last month before I leave for school. I've been combing through our vegetarian cookbooks and I plan to begin tomorrow with a simple homemade macaroni and cheese. I'm excited!
But yes, the reeking odor is seriously giving me a headache so I'm off. Farewell!
/Edit*/ Now I need to go eat the food that's smells so strongly of blackened garlic... be scared.
Wrong. Despite many attempts, I could not do it. I was trying as hard as I could and nothing was happening, much to the amusement of my compadres. They kept shouting advice to me and trying to help me out, but to no avail. As I treaded water, trying to pee in the stupid lake, I had a flashback to the only other time that I've tried to pee anywhere besides a toilet, and let me tell you, it was a horrible memory... essentially, I was traveling with my family and forgot to tell them that I needed to go to the bathroom until just after we'd passed an exit. Tempers ran short, but my bladder was quite full. It was an emergency, so we pulled over and then it was expected of me to just walk over, pee, and keep us moving. But for some reason I couldn't bring myself to do it, so I began to cry. Really, really hard. That's all I remember.
Anyway, so there I was in a similar situation, and tears were close behind my eyes. After several different theories and attempts, I somehow I managed it, and my very supportive friends were quite proud of me. Shaina told me she's never been prouder! How sweet. It was indeed a dramatic event, and the drama only continued.
We decided to go cruising around the lake in our flashy water machine, so we swam back to it slowly, the others poking fun of my latest peeing endeavor. As Andy climbed onto the ladder, though, there was a great CRACK and the ladder, along with some of the siding of the boat, came off abruptly. We all began to laugh until we realized that without the ladder we really couldn't get into the boat. Slight problem. So Andy-super-muscle-man pulled himself in, and then the rest of us attempted to do the same. My own attempt was a painful reminder of the little upper body strength I have... I am weak. But after some creative attempts we managed to help each other in, first Kailyn, then I, then Spice and Sha, and after a great deal of stubbornness, the hostess herself. It was like a teamwork lesson straight out of one of those leadership camps from way back when. Such joy.
We then "cruised", watched a "scary movie" (dumbest thing I think I've ever seen), went stargazing, and went to bed. At least we were supposed to go to bed. Shaina and I tend to grow overly exuberant at certain times when we're together, and that night was one of them. We began to fiddle with my digital camera, taking pictures of random things for about a half hour. We discovered that when you take a picture of a moving fan, it looks like it's not moving in the picture! Shocking. We also took spontaneous pictures of our feet, and I have a lovely shot of Shaina's eye. I then decided to play with my little plastic light-up fan, and managed to get it knotted up in my hair. Ouch. Don't ask.
8 AM came far too quickly and brought the lovely aroma of pancakes. We then drove over to Andy's cabin two miles away, where we discovered what "roughing it" would truly be like. His cabin is much more rugged, with an outhouse and wooden walls and a huge stone fireplace. It's surrounded by four acres of woods and a thick layer of bugs, with an awesome path with wooden stairs down to his lake. We swam there for a long time, and by lunchtime I was exhausted. I hardly ever swim, and when I do it's normally in my Grandpa's pool where I can stand. This, however, was a totally new experience. I swam great distances on my noodle, and paddleboated around for the remainder. It was awesome! The rest of the day was spent doing much of the same - more swimming, a Scattergories tournament on the "yacht" and just relaxing in the sunshine.
All in all we had a great time. I enjoyed it muchly! I hope we can take another excursion someday, only this time I want to sleep outside or at least in a tent.
At the moment I need to go put away my laundry and shower before dinner... right now the house reeks of burnt garlic and it's starting to get to me. Blech. This reminds me, however, of my new goal to begin cooking lunches for this last month before I leave for school. I've been combing through our vegetarian cookbooks and I plan to begin tomorrow with a simple homemade macaroni and cheese. I'm excited!
But yes, the reeking odor is seriously giving me a headache so I'm off. Farewell!
/Edit*/ Now I need to go eat the food that's smells so strongly of blackened garlic... be scared.
posted by Sarah @ 5:06 PM
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