Went to Sandbanks on the weekend. The weather was good, but danced from one extreme to the other along the course of the day. It was Trolley, Tomacini, Kate, Adam, and Eric on one site, Aaron, Karen, Nick, Alison, and me on another about 20 paces away. It was quite a different crew from the one I’m used to, but definitely the one I was most comfortable around. These are the people who never ask for money, who talk to you like you’re family, whom you can depend on to find some orange juice if you’re having a bad trip. We only got in trouble one night, but we were admittedly loud. Our attempts to thwart such problems by introducing ourselves to neighbouring campsites proved fruitless, as we were informed that the noise we were producing was being heard in a larger radius than expected. I took up position as the token Asian guy (keepin it cool) and Adam resumed his usual role as the token homosexual (keepin it fresh). The weekend went by quickly.
Aside from steak, the best part of camping is the campfire. When the deciduous trees flicker orange and the stars normally hidden by the city light show themselves against the navy blue sky. There’s something about the heat and the atmosphere that puts the mind at ease. Nobody cares if one speaks too much or too little, puts on some headphones and listens to music, intoxicates, or pulls out a book and reads. It’s where everyone can do their own thing, together.
Sandbanks has an amazing beach with large sand dunes, which makes it one of the most popular campgrounds, as well as one of the hardest to reserve a site on (Trolley and I had this weekend booked since January). The sand is extremely soft and smooth, and the beach ended up being the only refuge for a loud group, especially at night. It’s also where Adam was paid to market Gatorade to the homosexual population (and the funny thing is, Adam did his absolute best not to look gay in the photograph, but succeeds only in the doing the exact opposite.) The caption for the magazines would be, “ALL I DID WAS DRINK THIS GATORADE AND HOT GUYS STARTED LICKING STUFF OFF MY LEGS!”.
Aaron made his contribution to the Ministry of Silly Walks.
At one point, Aaron and I had to steal some firewood from the other site. We decide to give them some flowers in return as a joke. Aaron just happened to pass by a bunch of daisies, and plucked them from the stem as we were leaving our area. Unfortunately, the entire plant became unrooted with almost no effort, from the flowers to the roots. After a quick twig-splint used to fix a mangled stem, we planted the daisies in the middle of the other campsite. They stood out considerably, since they were over four feet in height, with nothing else around but gravel and dirt. In return, Adam planted a little vodka garden outside our tents.
[one eyebrow raised] With such a descriptive narration of the weekend climax to my 12-day vacation, what else to add but to say how much fun I had. Not only did Ally Cat teach me how to burp a “Wet Four”, she also laughed ~with~ not ~at~ me when telling the story of naming my fecal matter, Tony. With such accepting people, is it any wonder why I was named “The Gay Magician” by Trolley-Squared after pulling a roll of toilet paper out of my a$$ for Kate, and turning a can of Coke into water at Eric’s command?
[ponders inside his head] Passing the boundaries of the beach on Saturday night, who else other than Mark and Eric could keep up with a Lion after the doors to his cage opened, suddenly setting him free? [stares at ceiling and smiles at the memory] God…I just felt like getting Naked…[pauses] wait a minute,…did I already say that…? [changes subject quickly]
Though I can’t say I stayed on Nick’s tightrope longer than 3 seconds for fear of falling and badly hurting myself, it was fun. I’ll practice these next few weeks on multi-woven dental floss between balconies at my apartment, and be sure to kick his ass the next time ’round. [tips hat, winks at Nick]
An honorable bow to the organizer, a slammin highfive to all there, and a hope that I will party it up with this crazy group at least once more before the summer ends.
Cheers to you Jeff,…Love Your Site…and cheers to all for such a great time.
[hands gesture as he does in photos and disappears into the darkness]
(The wind howls off the lake, Adam stares at the stars.)
Adam: (to Mark) Does the sky look, like, wavy to you?
Mark: (Pauses, turns to Adam) …fuck no!
Oh lord, the picture of the starry sky is astounding. I can’t believe you were able to capture it on your camera. That and the strawberries. It makes me sort of wish my roomates and I were going to Maine for this upcoming week…but then I remember they all guard themselves too closely to make the trip a worthwhile experience. :P
The starry sky had to be taken with long exposure mode, so the shutter was actually open for 15 seconds to take in all the colours. The strawberries were unlike anything I’ve ever tasted; no packaging, no transportation, just straight from the strawberry farm to the strawberry stand, where the farmers pick the best ones to sell (and leave the rest for avid strawberry pickers). Fresh, very sweet, and juicy. Unfortunately, just one taste has probably killed store-bought strawberries for me.