Day 636: Defender...and the end of an era
Jun. 9th, 2008 08:31 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
nagi_schwarzSo there's a lot to write. To save people from the horror of things like pictures loading and just an intimidating deluge of text, there will be LJ cuts instead.
Thursday was the day after Dad's surgery. I went to work and got the last of my research projects done before I headed over to see Dad. He was out of the ICU by then, so that was sort of nice. I talked to him a bit, and people came to visit before I headed up to Cedar. I hung out with Ericka, Chani, and Weber at the Wendy's on burger alley. It was a bit fun and wicked, being the obnoxious teenagers in the corner. We cleared out the place pretty quick. (I shouldn't be proud of being a prat, but sometimes it's funny.) We visited Chani's place to get some bellydancing jewelry and also to get directions from SLC to Vernal from Samurai Bri. From him we found out that the drive to Vernal was four hours instead of two, and that we'd have to pass through some nasty Skinwalker country to get there, so we made the tough decision to forego Del's wedding reception and go straight to Vernal from the wedding luncheon. Then Ericka and I went to bed, for once at a decent time. We loaded her car up first, then called it a night.
We were out of bed at half seven. Well, I was. I showered and dressed and checked through my gear one last time. In typical Nagi fashion I'd overpacked. I had a suitcase that was 90% full of garb and 10% full of normal clothing. Most of the garb, of course, was Chani's. In my little purse bag I had two notebooks, a bag of ink cartrdiges, nine pens, my iPod, my ID and money, two sets of tarot cards, a little pouch of runes, and three books to read, and also a nice leather book to write in. Also some throwing knives, my LI pills, my cell phone, and a little pink torch. It was a bit heavy, but I was determined not to be bored. By a quarter past nine me, Ericka, and Chani, were on the road. As chief navigator I was given shotgun. We stopped by the Maverick on the way out of town for petrol (and prices were gobsmacking) and then hit the road. Chani was chief DJ, and we listened to some Creature Feature, Ludo, Disney songs, and other random things on our assorted iPods. It took about four hours, and we made it to Bountiful in good time. We changed at a gas station in Nephi, and then I took over driving from Ericka. Unfortunately, I was too short for her car even with the driver's seat pushed all the way up, so I perched on the edge of the seat. Luckily for me, I can drive in a city now, so we made it safely to Bountiful - noting the exit that would take us to Vernal - about an hour before the luncheon would start. We dropped Chani off at a Ross so she could shop around, then tracked down the restaurant. We sat in Ericka's car, reading to each other - poetry by Edna St. Vincent-Millay and letters by Rainer Maria Rilke. It was good times, and Ericka reads poetry very well.
The actual luncheon was a bit awkward at first, as Ericka and I ended up at a table with some of Del's grandparents and cousins, but we managed good conversation. Del came over and talked to us. She was sad that we couldn't stay for the reception but understood the driving situation, and we had good Chinese food. She came and talked to us a lot, and we gave her our gifts before we ducked out. It was strange, seeing her. She'd sent both of us text messages that read, "Dude. I'm married." When she first walked into the room she looked absolutely overjoyed. I was glad to see her happy. It was amazing - she looked almost like a new person. Ericka and I were both glad for her. There were loads of hugs all around before we took off. We returned to the little shopping plaza where we'd left Chani and split up, one of us to B&N, the other to Michael's, because we knew Chani wouldn't have stayed put in Ross for long. We located her, so we went to get some more petrol, and she needed the loo. As her luck would have it, the station loo was closed, so we dashed down the way to the Burger King, which loo was also closed. So we piled into the car to hit another gas station, and then we left Bountiful for the road to Vernal. We had to pass Park City on some winding mountain roads. I saved us from almost dying. The roads were badly surfaced and dragged the car to the side, and we almost wiped out into the side of a semi truck, but I saved us. We made it to the junction past Park City quickly and thought we'd been misinformed, that it wouldn't take nearly as long as Bri had said to get to Vernal. And then we discovered that the 40 went through towns and the speed dropped to 30 in some places. We made a pact that we could eat and drink all we wanted until Roosevelt, which would be our last stop before Vernal, because between Roosevelt and Fort is the skinwalker country, and Bri told us not to get out of the car going through there. Ever.
We met up with Logan, Trapp (who rode up with Logan), Bri, Chali (Bri's girlfriend) and TJ (who'd ridden up with Bri) at the local Wal Mart, and then Bri led us out to the site. We met up with Plopp (Cassidy) on the way. We passed The Maine park (which is supposed to be haunted) and then hit some dirt roads. (It should be noted that the sign for Vernal has fiery lettering. The others call the place Infernal, and I think for good reason.) We wove through dirt roads, randomly paved section of road, and saw lots of cattle. We also saw some deer. One of them leapt over a fence and face-planted it, which made all of us laugh. The clouds were close overhead, save a couple of gaps that sunlight blared through, and it looked as though the sky was looking at us. It was bizarre. We made it to the site in good time. Loads of others were already there. (The site was called Deep Creek Ranches and belonged to Angie's family.) Jesse met us there, and we paid our site fee in exchange for little metal sun-shaped tokens. We unloaded our cars, set up our tents, and then changed into garb. I met loads of new people and helped out. We had supper around the fire. I was surprised to see blokes dressed as pirates and children in garb, running around with boffer weapons. It ended up being bloody cold, so I yanked on the cloak Chani gave me and we hung about the fire, talking and shooting the breeze. I was tired, so I slunk off to bed first.
Ericka had recommended I bring a sleeping bag and two blankets, and she brought a blanket and an air mattress, so we had a little nest, but I sort of froze to death because Ericka kept stealing the blankets. I pulled on socks in the middle of the night (I was so tired that I fell asleep in garb) but didn't really get warm. I was a bit apprehensive about having fun, but I was with friends, so I kept my hopes up.
Saturday rocked. Sort of. It started off utterly awfully, as it was raining. I'd noticed the night before that I couldn't see the stars for the cloud cover, and I awoke in the middle of the to hear rain pattering on the tent. I also heard howling. (Angie said the sheriff reported a pack of coyotes was roaming the ranches and taking down cattle in broad daylight, so we had to keep an eye on the kiddies.) Ericka and I huddled in the tent, miserable and cold, until someone banged the metal fire bowl (it sounded like a gong) and announced breakfast. I'd left my shoes outside the tent in hopes of not getting the tent dirty, and they were lame leather sandals. And they were wet. I yanked them on anyway and headed over to the pavilion where they were serving food. Ericka let me borrow her red lacquered umbrella, and we all got food. Then we sat beneath the pavilion and bemoaned our fate. It took Ericka the longest to come out of the tent, though I sat with Chani and Logan for breakfast. I met Lash, who is the Red Samurai. He reminds me of Mal from Serenity, and he's pretty cool. Chani ordered Logan around to make him get her stuff, and Lash and JP joked that Chani had him whipped. We noted how ironic is was that the site tokens were little suns, and we were being rained out. Logan explained that Defender usually wasn't so cold, and it was okay that we'd forgotten things. Chani hadn't brought a warm cloak, I hadn't brought gloves, and Ericka hadn't brought proper shoes - all she had were flip-flops to ward off the damp grass, gooey mud, and soggy cow pies. Looking utterly woebegone, Ericka said that the only thing she'd remembered was her sunblock. We all burst out laughing. After breakfast, we were still miserable (and many children had not emerged from tents) so me, Chani, Ericka, and Logan headed back to our tent. (Ours was the biggest. Chani's was the next biggest. Logan's was the smallest in camp and would have been hard-pressed to fit me comfortably.) Ericka and Chani curled up on the bed, and then Logan and I used Ericka as a pillow, and we all fell asleep in a dog-pile to keep warm. When we awoke around one, the rain had stopped, the sun was out (though it was still chilly) and the others were banging the gong for lunch. My feet were stained orange from my shoes, which was pretty funny, so we dressed in clean clothes (after kicking Logan out of the tent) and went for food, which was taco salads (taco fixings in bags of Doritos) and soup. After lunch the boys began pick-up boffer fights, and we girls, accompanied by Rowan (Jessie) the elder went to one of the campers to do some beading. Tracy showed us a memory wire necklace Sarah had made using her camp token, so me, Ericka, and Chani all made some necklaces. Chani also turned Logan's token into a proper necklace (because the tokens were originally on chauncy strings.)
(The tokens had numbers on the back, and the camp directors would call evens and odds for chores. Doing dishes was the best chore in the morning because we got to dip our hands into warm water to do the washing up.)
After we were done with the necklaces, we went to watch the boys fight in their armor. They did some pick-up matches, and then fought five on five, rushing each other. Dee threw TJ down in an awesome tackle after TJ overshot a strike. Samurai Bri dislocated his shoulder when Dee rushed him, but as Samurai Bri is badass he popped his arm back into place and kept on fighting. Then was the first Champions tournament, which was duels in armor. The only girl who fought in Armor was Mother (also called Sarah, but not Corey's girlfriend Sarah) and she did well, but Dee won, so from now on he'll represent the Clan at events year round till the next Champions tournament. It was cool to see. We had supper then, which was deep-fried turkey, salad, roast beef, stuffing, bread, and dessert around the fire.
We did the dishes, and by then night had fallen, so there came Court. I had to dress up in nicer garb for court, and cool things happen. They did Clan business, swore new people in. TJ had made guard, so he was induced into the Guard, and they also changed the clan name (from Moytura to the Black Company). It was cool, seeing things like that. Dee was crowned Champion (with one of Lash's old wildfire chains). Whenever we cheered, our voices rang and filled the entire valley, and it was awesome. After a while we couldn't cheer as loud because it upset Dawn Rae's baby.
After Court was Defender itself, the longsword tournament between all oathsworn who so chose to compete. It was sooo amazing. They lit torches, and so the men (and Mother) fought in the firelight. It was intense - the most intense and the best fighting I've ever seen. We were rooting for Logan, but he ended up getting beaten by Lash, who won the whole thing. If only I'd had pictures - my camera ran out of batteries. It was amazing to see. I knew Logan was a good swordsman, but I saw him - and all the others - at the very best.
After Defender we did the candle ceremony. Each of us lit a candle - and some lit candles for missing clan siblings - and we made wishes, then put the candles on the lake. It was beautiful and powerful.
Ericka and I stood huddled together for warmth, gazing up at the stars (the clouds had rained themselves out and then disappeared). Then we went to get changed. Rowan, Sarah, and I had volunteered to belly dance at the fire. We conned Ericka into joining us. I thought I was going to freeze to death, but everyone had given us a wide berth, so we were closest to the fire, and after a couple of songs I envied the other girls their skimpy outfits because I was dying of heat. Chali danced, and we conned Chani into dancing, Lash's wife into dancing, and some other chicks into getting up too. Mother, Bucket, Logan, Anthony, Corey, and a whole bunch of other people took turns drumming for us. Rowan, who usually wandered around in austere Tudor garb, had literally let down her hair and dressed up for belly dancing, and she was beautiful. She had the most training in actual bellydancing, but I had years of hula dancing going for me. Jesse joked that we were like machines, dancing through six songs straight. Bucket and Trapp said they were impressed, as it was my first time bellydancing and all, which was pretty flattering. Those with children retired first. Once TJ, Trapp, and Jesse were smashed enough, they tried dancing, which was pretty darn funny. Chani and I were the last dancers after Bucket took over as main drummer, and both of us drummed a bit before turning in.
It was bloody freezing again. After Logan and I went to the bog (an outhouse, the toilet shaped like a hand) we headed back to Ericka's tent (we went around in pairs due to coyotes) we saw that the boffer weapons on the grass were covered in frost. It was bloody cold, so Chani came into mine and Ericka's tent with her sleeping bag and blankets. As she was getting settled in, Logan, who was miserable in his tiny tent, arrived as well, and we ended up dogpiling on the bed once more, all four of us. It was warm, very warm, with four people, so we didn't die of hypothermia. But I was trapped between Ericka and Logan. I am claustrophobic, so that was unpleasant, and I couldn't move, so my hip (I was on my side) started to ache. (My knees, thighs, and calves already ached from hours and hours of dancing). Whenever I tried to stretch, Logan clamped his feet around mine like a demon venus fly-trap and immobilized me, so I was awake for hours, terrified and claustrophobic. Sometime in the middle of the night Logan begged to change spots with Chani, so as soon as he moved I rolled onto my back and fell asleep.
We woke late, ate, and broke camp. Ericka and I had a hell of a time folding down the tent we'd borrowed from Nate, but it was fun. We helped break down the rest of camp, and then came packing cars (that Chani calls "squishy tetris"). Though Trapp had ridden up with Logan, he wasn't to ride home with Logan, as TJ was also to ride home with Logan. Being stuck in a car with either of them was enough to aggravate Logan. To be stuck in a car with both of them would have driven Logan to homicide, so I rode with Logan and TJ, and Trapp went with Ericka and Chani. Bryan and Chali led us back into Vernal. We visited the Maine park, then hit a JB's for food. (I wasn't hungry.) And then we hit the road. We stopped for petrol, and there were some mix-ups, but we made it to Provo in good time (because going to Vernal from Salt Lake is the ridiculously long way). Me, Logan, and TJ had some good philosophical conversations. TJ napped, and I napped, and I would have taken over for a tired Logan until he got some caffeine. We listened to music and sang along, and it was a lot of fun. We talked about high school drama, college drama, and traded stories about life, relationships, and everything else. We made it to Cedar at around half eight. I ran around running errands till half nine, and then headed home. I told Mum about my adventures, then slept.
Overall, it was an awesome weekend. I met new people. I can see why Ericka loves the clan, and I can see how joining it would be awesome, but I don't know that it's for me.
Also, it was good to see Del.
She's married. It's weird.
Dad came home from the hospital today. I went to work, and Mum went and fetched him. Brad was out of the office for Scout camp, and all the other secretaries were gone, so I manned the phones till Torrey arrived. I let Andy give me some assignments so I could be useful.
Today was also the end of an era.
I got my hair cut.
See:
BEFORE
AFTER
The Duo plait is no more. I shall mail my hair to Locks of Love tomorrow.
Took Andy a bit to notice it when I got into the office.
I like it lots.
Dad says he won't be able to get used to it.
Oh well.
Thursday was the day after Dad's surgery. I went to work and got the last of my research projects done before I headed over to see Dad. He was out of the ICU by then, so that was sort of nice. I talked to him a bit, and people came to visit before I headed up to Cedar. I hung out with Ericka, Chani, and Weber at the Wendy's on burger alley. It was a bit fun and wicked, being the obnoxious teenagers in the corner. We cleared out the place pretty quick. (I shouldn't be proud of being a prat, but sometimes it's funny.) We visited Chani's place to get some bellydancing jewelry and also to get directions from SLC to Vernal from Samurai Bri. From him we found out that the drive to Vernal was four hours instead of two, and that we'd have to pass through some nasty Skinwalker country to get there, so we made the tough decision to forego Del's wedding reception and go straight to Vernal from the wedding luncheon. Then Ericka and I went to bed, for once at a decent time. We loaded her car up first, then called it a night.
We were out of bed at half seven. Well, I was. I showered and dressed and checked through my gear one last time. In typical Nagi fashion I'd overpacked. I had a suitcase that was 90% full of garb and 10% full of normal clothing. Most of the garb, of course, was Chani's. In my little purse bag I had two notebooks, a bag of ink cartrdiges, nine pens, my iPod, my ID and money, two sets of tarot cards, a little pouch of runes, and three books to read, and also a nice leather book to write in. Also some throwing knives, my LI pills, my cell phone, and a little pink torch. It was a bit heavy, but I was determined not to be bored. By a quarter past nine me, Ericka, and Chani, were on the road. As chief navigator I was given shotgun. We stopped by the Maverick on the way out of town for petrol (and prices were gobsmacking) and then hit the road. Chani was chief DJ, and we listened to some Creature Feature, Ludo, Disney songs, and other random things on our assorted iPods. It took about four hours, and we made it to Bountiful in good time. We changed at a gas station in Nephi, and then I took over driving from Ericka. Unfortunately, I was too short for her car even with the driver's seat pushed all the way up, so I perched on the edge of the seat. Luckily for me, I can drive in a city now, so we made it safely to Bountiful - noting the exit that would take us to Vernal - about an hour before the luncheon would start. We dropped Chani off at a Ross so she could shop around, then tracked down the restaurant. We sat in Ericka's car, reading to each other - poetry by Edna St. Vincent-Millay and letters by Rainer Maria Rilke. It was good times, and Ericka reads poetry very well.
The actual luncheon was a bit awkward at first, as Ericka and I ended up at a table with some of Del's grandparents and cousins, but we managed good conversation. Del came over and talked to us. She was sad that we couldn't stay for the reception but understood the driving situation, and we had good Chinese food. She came and talked to us a lot, and we gave her our gifts before we ducked out. It was strange, seeing her. She'd sent both of us text messages that read, "Dude. I'm married." When she first walked into the room she looked absolutely overjoyed. I was glad to see her happy. It was amazing - she looked almost like a new person. Ericka and I were both glad for her. There were loads of hugs all around before we took off. We returned to the little shopping plaza where we'd left Chani and split up, one of us to B&N, the other to Michael's, because we knew Chani wouldn't have stayed put in Ross for long. We located her, so we went to get some more petrol, and she needed the loo. As her luck would have it, the station loo was closed, so we dashed down the way to the Burger King, which loo was also closed. So we piled into the car to hit another gas station, and then we left Bountiful for the road to Vernal. We had to pass Park City on some winding mountain roads. I saved us from almost dying. The roads were badly surfaced and dragged the car to the side, and we almost wiped out into the side of a semi truck, but I saved us. We made it to the junction past Park City quickly and thought we'd been misinformed, that it wouldn't take nearly as long as Bri had said to get to Vernal. And then we discovered that the 40 went through towns and the speed dropped to 30 in some places. We made a pact that we could eat and drink all we wanted until Roosevelt, which would be our last stop before Vernal, because between Roosevelt and Fort is the skinwalker country, and Bri told us not to get out of the car going through there. Ever.
We met up with Logan, Trapp (who rode up with Logan), Bri, Chali (Bri's girlfriend) and TJ (who'd ridden up with Bri) at the local Wal Mart, and then Bri led us out to the site. We met up with Plopp (Cassidy) on the way. We passed The Maine park (which is supposed to be haunted) and then hit some dirt roads. (It should be noted that the sign for Vernal has fiery lettering. The others call the place Infernal, and I think for good reason.) We wove through dirt roads, randomly paved section of road, and saw lots of cattle. We also saw some deer. One of them leapt over a fence and face-planted it, which made all of us laugh. The clouds were close overhead, save a couple of gaps that sunlight blared through, and it looked as though the sky was looking at us. It was bizarre. We made it to the site in good time. Loads of others were already there. (The site was called Deep Creek Ranches and belonged to Angie's family.) Jesse met us there, and we paid our site fee in exchange for little metal sun-shaped tokens. We unloaded our cars, set up our tents, and then changed into garb. I met loads of new people and helped out. We had supper around the fire. I was surprised to see blokes dressed as pirates and children in garb, running around with boffer weapons. It ended up being bloody cold, so I yanked on the cloak Chani gave me and we hung about the fire, talking and shooting the breeze. I was tired, so I slunk off to bed first.
Ericka had recommended I bring a sleeping bag and two blankets, and she brought a blanket and an air mattress, so we had a little nest, but I sort of froze to death because Ericka kept stealing the blankets. I pulled on socks in the middle of the night (I was so tired that I fell asleep in garb) but didn't really get warm. I was a bit apprehensive about having fun, but I was with friends, so I kept my hopes up.
Saturday rocked. Sort of. It started off utterly awfully, as it was raining. I'd noticed the night before that I couldn't see the stars for the cloud cover, and I awoke in the middle of the to hear rain pattering on the tent. I also heard howling. (Angie said the sheriff reported a pack of coyotes was roaming the ranches and taking down cattle in broad daylight, so we had to keep an eye on the kiddies.) Ericka and I huddled in the tent, miserable and cold, until someone banged the metal fire bowl (it sounded like a gong) and announced breakfast. I'd left my shoes outside the tent in hopes of not getting the tent dirty, and they were lame leather sandals. And they were wet. I yanked them on anyway and headed over to the pavilion where they were serving food. Ericka let me borrow her red lacquered umbrella, and we all got food. Then we sat beneath the pavilion and bemoaned our fate. It took Ericka the longest to come out of the tent, though I sat with Chani and Logan for breakfast. I met Lash, who is the Red Samurai. He reminds me of Mal from Serenity, and he's pretty cool. Chani ordered Logan around to make him get her stuff, and Lash and JP joked that Chani had him whipped. We noted how ironic is was that the site tokens were little suns, and we were being rained out. Logan explained that Defender usually wasn't so cold, and it was okay that we'd forgotten things. Chani hadn't brought a warm cloak, I hadn't brought gloves, and Ericka hadn't brought proper shoes - all she had were flip-flops to ward off the damp grass, gooey mud, and soggy cow pies. Looking utterly woebegone, Ericka said that the only thing she'd remembered was her sunblock. We all burst out laughing. After breakfast, we were still miserable (and many children had not emerged from tents) so me, Chani, Ericka, and Logan headed back to our tent. (Ours was the biggest. Chani's was the next biggest. Logan's was the smallest in camp and would have been hard-pressed to fit me comfortably.) Ericka and Chani curled up on the bed, and then Logan and I used Ericka as a pillow, and we all fell asleep in a dog-pile to keep warm. When we awoke around one, the rain had stopped, the sun was out (though it was still chilly) and the others were banging the gong for lunch. My feet were stained orange from my shoes, which was pretty funny, so we dressed in clean clothes (after kicking Logan out of the tent) and went for food, which was taco salads (taco fixings in bags of Doritos) and soup. After lunch the boys began pick-up boffer fights, and we girls, accompanied by Rowan (Jessie) the elder went to one of the campers to do some beading. Tracy showed us a memory wire necklace Sarah had made using her camp token, so me, Ericka, and Chani all made some necklaces. Chani also turned Logan's token into a proper necklace (because the tokens were originally on chauncy strings.)
(The tokens had numbers on the back, and the camp directors would call evens and odds for chores. Doing dishes was the best chore in the morning because we got to dip our hands into warm water to do the washing up.)
After we were done with the necklaces, we went to watch the boys fight in their armor. They did some pick-up matches, and then fought five on five, rushing each other. Dee threw TJ down in an awesome tackle after TJ overshot a strike. Samurai Bri dislocated his shoulder when Dee rushed him, but as Samurai Bri is badass he popped his arm back into place and kept on fighting. Then was the first Champions tournament, which was duels in armor. The only girl who fought in Armor was Mother (also called Sarah, but not Corey's girlfriend Sarah) and she did well, but Dee won, so from now on he'll represent the Clan at events year round till the next Champions tournament. It was cool to see. We had supper then, which was deep-fried turkey, salad, roast beef, stuffing, bread, and dessert around the fire.
We did the dishes, and by then night had fallen, so there came Court. I had to dress up in nicer garb for court, and cool things happen. They did Clan business, swore new people in. TJ had made guard, so he was induced into the Guard, and they also changed the clan name (from Moytura to the Black Company). It was cool, seeing things like that. Dee was crowned Champion (with one of Lash's old wildfire chains). Whenever we cheered, our voices rang and filled the entire valley, and it was awesome. After a while we couldn't cheer as loud because it upset Dawn Rae's baby.
After Court was Defender itself, the longsword tournament between all oathsworn who so chose to compete. It was sooo amazing. They lit torches, and so the men (and Mother) fought in the firelight. It was intense - the most intense and the best fighting I've ever seen. We were rooting for Logan, but he ended up getting beaten by Lash, who won the whole thing. If only I'd had pictures - my camera ran out of batteries. It was amazing to see. I knew Logan was a good swordsman, but I saw him - and all the others - at the very best.
After Defender we did the candle ceremony. Each of us lit a candle - and some lit candles for missing clan siblings - and we made wishes, then put the candles on the lake. It was beautiful and powerful.
Ericka and I stood huddled together for warmth, gazing up at the stars (the clouds had rained themselves out and then disappeared). Then we went to get changed. Rowan, Sarah, and I had volunteered to belly dance at the fire. We conned Ericka into joining us. I thought I was going to freeze to death, but everyone had given us a wide berth, so we were closest to the fire, and after a couple of songs I envied the other girls their skimpy outfits because I was dying of heat. Chali danced, and we conned Chani into dancing, Lash's wife into dancing, and some other chicks into getting up too. Mother, Bucket, Logan, Anthony, Corey, and a whole bunch of other people took turns drumming for us. Rowan, who usually wandered around in austere Tudor garb, had literally let down her hair and dressed up for belly dancing, and she was beautiful. She had the most training in actual bellydancing, but I had years of hula dancing going for me. Jesse joked that we were like machines, dancing through six songs straight. Bucket and Trapp said they were impressed, as it was my first time bellydancing and all, which was pretty flattering. Those with children retired first. Once TJ, Trapp, and Jesse were smashed enough, they tried dancing, which was pretty darn funny. Chani and I were the last dancers after Bucket took over as main drummer, and both of us drummed a bit before turning in.
It was bloody freezing again. After Logan and I went to the bog (an outhouse, the toilet shaped like a hand) we headed back to Ericka's tent (we went around in pairs due to coyotes) we saw that the boffer weapons on the grass were covered in frost. It was bloody cold, so Chani came into mine and Ericka's tent with her sleeping bag and blankets. As she was getting settled in, Logan, who was miserable in his tiny tent, arrived as well, and we ended up dogpiling on the bed once more, all four of us. It was warm, very warm, with four people, so we didn't die of hypothermia. But I was trapped between Ericka and Logan. I am claustrophobic, so that was unpleasant, and I couldn't move, so my hip (I was on my side) started to ache. (My knees, thighs, and calves already ached from hours and hours of dancing). Whenever I tried to stretch, Logan clamped his feet around mine like a demon venus fly-trap and immobilized me, so I was awake for hours, terrified and claustrophobic. Sometime in the middle of the night Logan begged to change spots with Chani, so as soon as he moved I rolled onto my back and fell asleep.
We woke late, ate, and broke camp. Ericka and I had a hell of a time folding down the tent we'd borrowed from Nate, but it was fun. We helped break down the rest of camp, and then came packing cars (that Chani calls "squishy tetris"). Though Trapp had ridden up with Logan, he wasn't to ride home with Logan, as TJ was also to ride home with Logan. Being stuck in a car with either of them was enough to aggravate Logan. To be stuck in a car with both of them would have driven Logan to homicide, so I rode with Logan and TJ, and Trapp went with Ericka and Chani. Bryan and Chali led us back into Vernal. We visited the Maine park, then hit a JB's for food. (I wasn't hungry.) And then we hit the road. We stopped for petrol, and there were some mix-ups, but we made it to Provo in good time (because going to Vernal from Salt Lake is the ridiculously long way). Me, Logan, and TJ had some good philosophical conversations. TJ napped, and I napped, and I would have taken over for a tired Logan until he got some caffeine. We listened to music and sang along, and it was a lot of fun. We talked about high school drama, college drama, and traded stories about life, relationships, and everything else. We made it to Cedar at around half eight. I ran around running errands till half nine, and then headed home. I told Mum about my adventures, then slept.
Overall, it was an awesome weekend. I met new people. I can see why Ericka loves the clan, and I can see how joining it would be awesome, but I don't know that it's for me.
Also, it was good to see Del.
She's married. It's weird.
Dad came home from the hospital today. I went to work, and Mum went and fetched him. Brad was out of the office for Scout camp, and all the other secretaries were gone, so I manned the phones till Torrey arrived. I let Andy give me some assignments so I could be useful.
Today was also the end of an era.
I got my hair cut.
See:
The Duo plait is no more. I shall mail my hair to Locks of Love tomorrow.
Took Andy a bit to notice it when I got into the office.
I like it lots.
Dad says he won't be able to get used to it.
Oh well.
