6 days of Awesome, part 1

The weekend after the last post started off a looong stretch of awesome stuff, and a large reason why I haven't blogged much. Sure, I've still had huge sections of the day where I wasn't doing anything, but somehow just having a busy schedule and plans takes me very far from the reflection, I'm-gonna-write-a-blog phase. 

Saturday, I didn't really have any plans, and saw by creeping on Kevin's google calendar, that Tony's 4th of July party was scheduled. Tony is Gina's dad, and even though I'd only met him once, I had heard his 4th parties were pretty solid- and he always welcomed anyone. 

SO, I decided to finally, FINALLY get on my mountain bike for the first time this summer and go terrorize some trails. Any good biking is like an hour away, so heading up to Franklin Falls, then shooting back through Tilton to Sanbornton and Kevin made sense. Plus, I looooove Franklin Falls. 

It felt incredibly weird to be on my bike again, and I was honestly somewhat worried it was gonna explode into a million pieces while I was on it. As soon as I hit the first mostly downhill trail (Moose Gully), I had a huge smile on my face. Holy shit I missed mountain biking. It used to be my biggest passion, but over the last few summers, I've realized how much it hurts- that I literally just kill myself out there and nearly collapse when I get home, and get beat up left and right and covered in cuts, all for the sections of downhill. I really should just become a downhill rider, as for me, it really is all about suffering through the other stuff to go really fast downhill. Through being a wimp and not wanting to get extreme and having the goals of hiking mountains and earning patches on my mind all the time, I just haven't gone out yet. 

Sadly, the inaugural first trip would be pretty short, as about 2 miles in, I got a flat tire. I usually have a fresh tube and mini bike pump with me, but I couldn't find the pump before I left (still haven't). "Am I really gonna get a flat? Screw it, I'll risk it." Yea, I got a flat. AND, all of the bugs that I haven't had swarm me this summer are ALL at Franklin Falls. That's where every mosquito in the northeast is. That was a fun walk out. 

TFTMB

I drove to Webster Lake (about 10 minutes away) and jumped in the lake as my ghetto way of bathing. Good enough! 

I then drove wet to the supermarket to buy beer for the party, then changed in Kevin's driveway, and headed to Tony's down the street. I felt quite odd walking onto the property of a friend's father, carrying beer and looking at strangers just going "SUUUP." Tony somehow remembered me and told me that Kevin and Gina were in the hot tub. As soon as Kevin saw me, I knew I would be in for a good night. He was VERY drunk. 

Shortly after, Naro and Sara showed up with Mysterio and Masha. I was psyched they were able to join in on the party. 

It wasn't much of a party- just a small crew of strangers, most of whom were very nice, drinking beers and setting off fireworks. Some hilarious attempts at pool were played, guitar was played, conversation was had. Everyone but me, Mysterio and Masha missed the fireworks because a cat got out at Kevin's, but I enjoyed them, and they were the first of the year for me. I tried out a new app that takes like 8 pictures and stacks them on top of each other. The results were kind of neat: 

  

Kevin and Gina eventually came back, and as the party died down, we hung out inside, playing with a breathalizer. I took close to 70 pictures of Kevin as he was falling into drunk sleep. Here are my favorites: 

"wha?"

"Back in my day"

"duuuuude, where ARE we?"

He finally died as I was attempting to play a violin. I like this picture a lot:

It looks posed, but I am playing some HORRIBLE stuff here, and very loudly

I finally was tired enough to turn in, and Kevin was dead and Gina was still in the hot tub. SO, I drove back to their house for one of the better nights of sleep I've had, which I'm calling "cat nightmare."

When I walked in, Wylee the dog freaked out and tried to kill me as I expected. Once she finally chilled out, I settled onto the porch/sun room couch, with Rug Necklace the cat all over me trying to cuddle. I like Rug Necklace, but I worried I would roll over and kill her in the night- she's very frail. So after struggling to keep her off me, and after Wylee came in, sat on top of the chair next to me and glared at me like a demon in the night, I finally got up and got Rug Necklace out of there, and shut the door enough that I hoped she got the message. Nope, she pushed it right open and jumped on top of me pretty much the second I lay down again. I got her out again, then locked the door, locking myself into the sun room, away from all the cats. I finally fell asleep after like 40 minutes of tossing and turning, and woke up probably 20 minutes later to a terrifying meow/squeel. I opened my eyes to see the phantom shape of a cat running across the room. Did I mention Gina had 5 cats? 

I turned on all of the lights and completely woke myself up looking for a cat that didn't seem to exist. Had I imagined the whole thing? I finally found Widget the cat underneath a couch, hiding. He had been in there the whole time. I pretty much had to attack him with a couch pillow to get him out from under the couch, sending him directly under the couch I was trying to sleep on. He then went under the 3rd couch, much to my fury. I had to open the door to get him to run out, and of course, Rug Necklace ran in. 

I got her out AGAIN, then realized I had to pee. So I went into the rest of the house, where Bonx the cat was glaring at me, Wylee the dog tried to attack me when I got near her, and Munster the cat was now up, literally walking in a figure 8 around my legs while I peed. I headed back to the sun room, as Rug Necklace and Munster were pretty much running alongside me to get in there with me. 

I shut them out and lay down to FINALLY get some sleep. And then the cats started hitting the door, trying to get in. THEY WERE TERRORIZING ME!

I got up and threw a pillow at the door, which silenced them. An hour later, I woke up again to Wylee freaking out and barking. Apparently Kevin had woken up at 5 in the morning in the chair he passed out in, didn't see Gina directly next to him, and walked a mile to his house, barefoot, to find that I had locked him out of his own house, and Gina wasn't even there. 

Hell of a night.

I had planned on biking with Kevin the next day, but he didn't exactly wake up feeing good and my bike was doing some stupid things. SO, we met Naro and Sara at the Tilton diner for some brunch. Naro randomly started talking about watermelon drinks you can get in Laconia- where they mix watermelon puree with rum and margarita mix, then serve you them in chunks of watermelon. 

So somehow, my plan to be healthy and bike turned into us driving a half hour AFTER eating to get drinks in the middle of the day. They turned out to be HUGE.

The menu said "serves two," but I was in a weird macho mood and picturing a scorpion bowl that serves 2, and got my own. "I'll be fine," I said. It was the biggest drink I'd ever seen. It was literally 40 percent of a watermelon, filled with drink.

And I somehow drank/ate it all. It hurt.

On the way home, I randomly noticed a giant rubber duckie in the river going through Rochester and got a sweet instagram out of it. It's still there, and I have no idea why.

Hilton was at our house, and I got home just in time to head back out to Oriental Delight for Jesse's birthday dinner, where I got a scorpion bowl. Yea, being on vacation!! It was a good time, but the true bonus of the night was when we started talking about playing basketball. 

Matt had just installed a basketball hoop at Jesse and his house a few weeks before, and we suddenly had a bunch of people who wanted to play. So, we randomly played a 3 on 3 game (with teams decided by who made foul shots first), after eating sushi and chinese food, and the biggest drink of my life in my case. Smart!

It ended up being Hilton, Al and me vs. Shawn, Matt and Tegan. I wasn't expecting much out of Tegan anyway, but as soon as Al ripped his shirt off the second we started playing, she cowered in fear of Al's sweaty rebounding. Shawn was super intense, driving to the basket in fast forward. Matt played surprisingly solid defense and they did ok, but they were no match for Hilton and my experience mixed with Al's sweaty rebounding tenacity. I somehow scored the first 3 baskets I think, and even sunk a pretty far away shot, screaming OH MY GOD! WHAT JUST HAPPENED!? like a complete asshole. It was awesome, and it felt neat to play with Hilton again, since we used to play pick up games in high school. But as the game progressed and the light died out, I was wheezing with exhaustion pretty quickly. Basketball is TIRING. 

The next day, Hilton and Josh packed up and left for a roadtrip from our house to Glacier National Park in Montana, and eventually San Diego, where Hilton lives now. The point was to drive his jeep that's been at our house with the stuff he never brought out when he moved out there 8 months ago. Josh wanted to go across country, see Glacier National Park and some other key spots along the way, and have an adventure. They set up a blog, but I think Hilton gave up on it half way through the trip. 

Here's the actual moment they left, with Irwin trying to follow them. Poor guy.

This would mark the first time I was completely in charge of the Weez. I had never even fed him before. Look at him, he's a lunatic. He's freaking out and running around in circles barking because I showed him his food dish!

We got along better than expected though- usually when Josh is gone, he just whines a lot and looks miserable. But he accepted that it was just me (Rich was in Vermont for a week with his family), and we got along well. He sat with me, he ate (after skipping the first meal), and he actually paid attention to me when he usually just ignores me. I'll take what I can get! I even took him for a walk in 85 degree heat. We bonded nicely. 

I then ended the day by going for a solo swim at Fernal. It was an absolutely beautiful day and I just swam some laps from the beach to the buoys and enjoyed the water since I had nobody to throw the B with. I even took my phone way out to get some awesome HDRs. I love this one: 

such a nice place.

I'm gonna cut this blog entry in half. These were 3 solid days in a row, and many more followed. The next 3 days will be posted after I get back from the Saco River!

currently listening to: Ween- "Caesar demos"