HSA reunion: n., singular. 1. A collection of unsocialized individuals. 2. That which is hair-raising, chocolate-infested, and hilarious. 3. Of, or pertaining to, insomnia.
We begin, friends, frogs, Romans, and countrymen, with Sunday. Nah, we begin with Saturday evening.
Saturday evening:
Lowlight: I wasn't wound or hyper, but I COULD NOT GET TO SLEEP. This was the second night in a row that I COULD NOT GET TO SLEEP. This put me in a Vastly Foul Mood, not even consolable by chocolate.
Okay, now we can go on to...........
Sunday morning:
Lowlight: Getting up early and staggering around half asleep for an hour in aforesaid Vastly Foul Mood.
Highlight: Leaving almost on time. (Did you know that the clan motto of our Scottish clan is "Late, but in earnest?" And no, I'm not making this up.)
Highlight: Rounding the first curve in the road and watching a pile of junk tip over onto Heather, who was happily nestled in a little bed in the back on the floor of the van. She was pretty ticked, you shoulda seen it. :D We, uh, pulled off and reorganized the back a little. Late, but in earnest, late, but in earnest.
Heather: It was NOT funny.
Lowlight: Driving 8 hours. Who planned this thing in TN, anyway? Next year, we're holding it in South Carolina, got it? Er, wait, that means I'd have to plan it.....um.....never mind.
Highlight: Listening to my favorite sleepy piano music on my new MP3 player. Everybody in the family categorically hands-down can't STAND my favorite sleepy piano music CDs, so my MP3 player has been Most Satisfactory.
You don't really care about all these trivial insignificant details, do you? Rats.
Highlight from Heather: Taking my morning nap, afternoon nap, and evening nap all in one! I figured I'd better get caught up on sleep before we got there. :snicker:
Highlight: Stopping at a gas station three hours from the camp and unexpectedly running into Kamon and Co., Josh and Jeremy and Co., and an assorted gaggle of other HSAers. INVASION!!! INVASION!!!! Yay!
Lowlight: Not ONE of them gave me chocolate. *sniff*
Highlight: Getting to Mom and Dad's hotel and squeezing in a quick nap, while Mom and Dad went to Walmart to replace certain forgotten brushes and combs (not mine) and to purchase a few last-minute fabulous luxuries for the girl's dorm, such as a box of kleenexes.
Heather: I had caught up on naps, so I read Louis L'Amour instead.
Lowlight: Listening to the GPS instead of Mapquest and getting hopelessly, thoroughly, revoltingly LOST trying to get to the camp. We took A Very Scenic Route. We finally stopped at a redneck house where there were people in the front yard and asked them. And I do mean quintessential redneck--the kind with assorted rusting vehicles laced with kudzu, flotsam and jetsam dotting the yard, a gaggle of barking dogs, and grizzled tattooed fellas with thick twangs. However, "quintessential redneck" typically means "friendly redneck" and they obligingly gave us accurate directions to the camp, which was just a few miles away.
Heather: As it turned out, we got lost on the way to camp in order to avoid getting lost in the camp. We pulled into the back side of the camp and wound up right at the lodge. Everyone else apparently meandered through the camp for four miles, getting lost.
Highlight: Arriving and saying hi to [insert your name here so you feel special].
Heather: :inserts her name and feels special:
Highlight: The girl's dorm, although rustic, was much better than I expected. I have stayed in far smaller, grubbier, rattier (and buggier) places. Heather and I took bunks at the very end, which kept us away from the noise and the door and placed us strategically close to the only alcove in the building, which allowed us a place to store our piles and piles of STUFF unnoticed. We ended up bunking with Priscilla (aka "Kitty") and Jody S.
Highlight: Some of other girls brought as much STUFF as we did. Whew!
Can you believe how much STUFF Priscilla brought? :D :D
Lowlight: I lost my sunglasses.
Lowlight: Trying to make my bed. Exactly HOW does one tuck a sheet around the far corner of a mattress if you can't even reach the far corner of the mattress unless you're sitting on it? *is perplexed*
Heather: Particularly when you're on the top bunk. We, of course, did not put Raquelle on the top bunk. She is a violent sleeper and would have wound up on the floor at 2 am. The main drawback to this situation is that it would wake the rest of us.
I was very pleased with myself concerning my bed-making. I brought along some pieces of foam and plopped them on the hard plastic mattress before putting the sheets on. I, uh, had to have help putting the sheets on. Picture me on the back side of a mattress that's wildly flopping around, hollering things to Raquelle on the front side. It was very exciting and I got my exercise for the day.
Yeah, well, just so nobody messes with anybody else's bunk.
Highlight: Setting up the easel and announcements poster, which sported a picture of my pwecious pussy cat, Spike. *smirk*
My Spike picture
Heather: We found ourselves in the illustrious position of being Office Supply Dispensers. I believe in the first evening alone we dispensed paper, markers, tape, as well as the bulletin board and easel to hold it. We are SO prepared. :preens:
Harassment Moment: Stacy hollering at me in front of everyone about how I ought to find a husband at this event. Pill.
How I feel about Stacy
Heather: As I stood in the dinner line, Stacy came charging in the door. On a recent chat with him, I had foolishly divulged the information that Mom's nickname for us is often Fatty-Toes. Therefore, with the mistaken idea that I would be insulted, as he passed by he airily greeted me with, "Hi, Fatty-Toes."
I, of course, played it cool and merely gave him a frosty, "Good evening, sir." This apparently miffed him and he later explained that when he takes the time to insult me, I should at least have the good grace to ACT insulted. Right. I'll try to remember that for next time.
How Heather feels about Stacy
Highlight: Hanging around chatting before dinner:
Highlight: Eating dinner with the gang.
Thanks to the cooks!
Highlight: Heather had KP duty, but I didn't. Neener, neener. :D
Highlight: Heading out to the evening bonfire and yakking with everyone and joining the sing-along.
Highlight: Dustin showing me how to play spoons one-handed. Cool! I need to hone my technique--he was much better at it than I was.
Instructive Moment: Referring to "choruses" and being roundly rebuked (by Josh, I think) and informed that they are "praise songs." Yeah, yeah, I'm just dating myself amongst all these whippersnappers. When I was a kid, they were CHORUSES. LOL! :D :D :D
Highlight: Singing some old PRAISE SONGS that brought back a lot of fun memories.
Heather: I dug out my little harp and sat on the picnic table amongst the other jammers. Kamon had a mandolin and some other folks had assorted guitars. We sang Praise Songs for a while, but this Old Fogey didn't know any of them. So then we sang old hymns and campfire songs, which this Old Fogey did know. I also gave a performance of The Bear Song (special thanks to Julz, Lilybeth and Raquelle for their help) which went over big. :D
We thought she was singing the bear song....
Lowlight: Bedtime.
Highlight: Snickering with Priscilla as I got ready for bed and solving the world's problems.
Giggle moment: Getting out my Bible to read a few verses before bed.
"Do you have a verse for me?" Priscilla whispered jokingly.
"No!" I hissed back."Go to sleep."
But actually, I had landed on a verse that struck me funny. I just knew that if I shared it right then we'd probably giggle too loudly and wake everyone up. So the next morning I informed her somberly that I had a verse for her. It was: "Put away your witchcraft and your spells." Haw haw!
Never mind, ya had to be there. :D :D
Lowlight: I couldn't get to sleep AGAIN. Finally in disgust I got up about 2:00 and fished out an herbal relaxer pill. I crept off to the bathroom to get a drink. Priscilla was awake too and crept in to join me and we solved the world's problems AGAIN in hushed whispers in the bathroom. :D
Heather: I had a little trouble getting to sleep too. That lovely foam I mentioned earlier? Turned out to be harder than the dumb mattress. But picture me trying to pull it out from between the mattress and the sheet... in the dark... while still laying on it... I dare you not to laugh. It was very funny and I almost got the giggles myself. Once I finally got it all pulled out, I fell asleep and life was hunky dory again.
And, before we close, a few assorted photos.
(I say "assorted" because I'm SICK of the word "random." Random, random, randomrandomrandomrandom, can't we have any variety in our vocabulary any more? Here's a few, y'know, "random" pictures....*affected smirk*)
My sister. Sigh.
CHARACTER PROFILE
Hayden, the Official First Aid Dude.
Nice to have someone experienced on hand in case of necessity. Because sometimes the quality of amateur medical personnel leaves something to be desired.
And, that, my friends concludes Day 1. Stay tuned for Day 2......
