Seeing as I was only gone for two days, there isn't that much to say about camping. However, in true Erin fashion, I will elaborate on stupid things.
First of all, Stephanie and Kevin are real nature nuts. They wanted to spend time immersed in the great outdoors, and the rest of us kind of didn't. During the hottest hours of the day, I just wanted to be in the shade so I wouldn't turn redder than Ayrton (renowned for his ruby-red blush). Kim and Ayrton just wanted to nap all day, and Josh didn't seem too keen on the idea of going off the trails and exploring (especially after getting up early to get to the campsite and then having a brisk hike around the lake). I probably would have done more outdoorsy things, but I figure that a hike around the lake, a swim in a remote swimming hole, two walks to the lake to watch the meteor showers, and a swim in the lake counts as "outdoorsy."
Secondly, Kevin had his own lingo, which Ayrton tried to copy. This annoyed Kim so much that she finally declared: "Okay, you're fired!" to Ayrton. Truth be told, I was getting pretty sick of hearing such catch phrases as: "That's nutter!" "That is kill!" and "I'm mad for that!" Kevin also used the word "geeks" as a term of fondness. Go figure.
On both nights we went to sit at the beach and watch the meteor showers. The stars are amazing out away from street lights. It was like walking into a planetarium. I had never actually seen stars twinkle before, and I hadn't believed it.
The most interesting part of the trip happened on the second night. It was about two a.m., and I was trying to fall asleep when I heard a rustling in some nearby bushes. It sounded like a pretty big animal. I asked Josh if it could be a bear. He said that there were no bears in the park, so I felt safe and went to sleep.
A while later (when I was in between sleep and waking up), I heard a noise come from Kim and Ayrton's tent, like someone was shaking it. It turned out that Rachel (who was supposed to be sleeping in Steph's car), had put her sleeping bag outside to sleep under the stars. She wanted to get into their tent, and was saying something about bears. I figured that she was scared like I had been, so I went back to sleep.
In the morning, I got out of the sleeping bag, and Kim and Rachel and Ayrton were saying that a bear had been in the campground last night, and had eaten all the food we had left out, and had dumped some of Kevin's half-full beer bottles onto Rachel's sleeping bag. Of course I was appropriately (and theatrically) annoyed with Josh for saying that there were no bears.
Tonight I went to Rob's farewell party at McBurney's (he's going to Alberta for the next school year). Laughter, dirty jokes, and liberal references to drag queens provided much of the entertainment. Also, one of Rachel's co-workers is named Jesus. It isn't even pronounced the Spanish way. It's pronounced the biblical way, so we had fun saying things like "Jesus spoke to Rachel today!" and "Jesus works at McDonalds." Can you imagine what that poor guy must go through when he introduces himself to people?
"Hi, I'm Jesus."
"Ha ha. Yeah, and I'm John the friggin' Baptist."
I took my camera with me to McBurney's tonight, and I think that I'm going to take it with me more places now. I got it so I could use it, not so it would be a waste of money that sits in a desk drawer. I only hope that once I start taking more pictures, I don't do it to the same degree that Ayrton does. He's nuts with the camera, he takes his everywhere, and has stacks upon stacks of pictures at home. People have started to compare him to the creepy American Beauty ripoff guy with the camera in "Not Another Teen Movie." If I get like that, someone please gently tell me, and kindly remind me to start leaving the camera at home. No offense to Ayrton, but being the obsessive photography fiend is already his niche, and with me in there it could get mighty crowded and annoying. I highly doubt that all of our friends constantly want a flash going of in their faces.
Anyway, I used my photos from tonight to make a mini-photo collage, so check it out.
Time for sleep.