While we were driving to Chuck E. Cheese it was Jennie in control, me hanging onto the directions in the passenger seat and Mori and Jana in the back. Jennie drives everywhere with the windows open, rather than turning air on. So, while we were driving down the freeway, I frightened the two back seat people pretty severely by making it appear that the paper with the directions on it had been lifted from my hands by the wind and taken out the window. Unfortunately Jennie didn’t react at all because she knew the way from where we were, but I do believe I got her with it too.
Next, the first night we were camping, Jana and I were elected to do the dishes. Well, actually, I just hate it when everybody is avoiding saying anything because that might be taken as volunteering for the job, so I just went and did it to get it over with. But anyway, I do not know _why_ it was so funny, but it might have had something to do with throwing bits of noodle and sauce down the toilet as we washed the dishes in the camp’s bathroom sink, the only running water we had yet found, that had us laughing through the entire job. Oh, and I somehow was reminded of and mentioned the Swedish Chef, which it turns out Jana has never seen! So I was trying to describe his usual act, but I don’t think I did a very good imitation. We freaked out some other campers with the wild laughter coming from one of the bathrooms, and that made us laugh more.
I guess you had to be there...
I had a crazy dream last night where we were all wandering around a builder’s supply store and we found out they sold pet monkeys. Don’t ask.
Finally, I’m not sure when this originated exactly anymore, but somewhere along the line we realized we had used the term “innocent bystanders” on a couple of occasions (to refer to, I think it was, people who got tickled for just being near other people who were being tickled) and eventually we realized that this just wouldn’t do. There are no innocent bystander freaks, there are only uninvolved bystanders. It is hereby proclaimed, so make sure you remember this.
Anyway, I left off on the eighth. I really would go back over some events on the seventh and eighth that I might have skipped over... if I could remember any at all. Those were slow days. After everyone left for the ball we basically watched Escaflowne until they got back. They returned during the final episode. Oh yeah! One important thing I forgot was that during this time Brian, an old friend of some of these freaks, called up and found out about our whole trip. So he joined us and surprised everyone when they got back, and stuck around on and off for most of the next week and a half. Maybe we’ll even see him around the forum here sometime, now. After that I think we played some cards and then put in The Labyrinth, which I had never actually seen. I think we must have watched something else before it but after Escaflowne, too, because we started it at like 2am and it was over around 4. I was the only one who stayed up until the end. It was good.
Day 9, Sunday, 08/12/01
When everyone got up the next morning the plan was to return to Mikel’s first house, in San Jose. We didn’t keep to the planned schedule though. Instead of a morning drive that became a late afternoon drive. We all slept in late, then in the morning I believe we put on Mulan and a tape of Ranma ½ (an interesting mix, that’s for sure), took our turns in the shower again, which is one of the things that really extended the time... ate more of the camping leftovers and probably some stuff out of the fridge. After all that we finally packed up and took off.
Driving back to San Jose with Brian was an adventure. Noire and I were his passengers for the trip, and he is, I still say, an “expert reckless driver”. He disagrees because he says he’s not reckless, but that’s kind of the point – it just appears that way. We made it back to the house (a total trip of about an hour) a good 10-15 minutes before anyone else.
When we got back in I immediately reactivated the CD player that had about 20 of noire’s and my CDs in it (*g* 3 of hers, actually). I missed my music too much. I think from there we threw everything back in the living room (where most of us were... living) and then sat around doing nothing for a while. It didn’t take long for everyone to finish messing with all their stuff and realize they were hungry though, so some of the group went out to get pizza. They took the walkie-talkie with and probably made quite an amusing scene talking to us while waiting at the... I forget the name of the place, but I recall all the people from around there declaring what great pizza it would be. So, I trusted their judgement. While they were gone noire and I, as the only two people left around, were using the internet. And happened to bump into another old friend of theirs who got invited along and ended up staying the whole trip. I was a little uncomfortable with all these arrivals, but luckily both Brian and this guy, Guerin, were very neat people, so all was well. Again, just have to trust these scary people...
Anyway, around this time a hallucination appeared. I still don’t think I believe in this “Cindra”. If she were real she’d bring the count of strangers joining us to three, but since she doesn’t, it was okay.
When the pizzas arrived some were set on the island and some were set on the table, and this proved to be a near-fatal mistake. It was discovered when they were finally moved again that there was a big round discolored spot on the table. I think they cleaned it up satisfactorily though, because I didn’t see it there later. I just remember Shellie and Jennie running around frantically looking for woodwork cleaning supplies.
The pizzas themselves were admittedly very pleasantly loaded with spicy pepperoni, almost to excess. There were three layers on top of every slice, and just the one of cheese. It was unbalanced. Truly great pizza is not. I liked it well enough though.
After dinner I put in Escaflowne: A Girl In Gaea for everyone. I had specially requested a copy that my anime club president had just finished subtitling at the previous meeting, and was quite happy to be able to show it to all the anime-deprived freaks and Vel, but some of them ignored it and went and played cards instead. Ah well. It’s a really good movie, but some of the storyline got a little less epic because it was condensed so much. I basically take it as a better-looking version of “Highlights of Escaflowne”, because taken as a complete standalone movie it’s a little weak. Visually it’s absolutely stunning though, and some of the new twists are very welcome.
I just noticed that the dates in my posts have been off by one since the sixth happened twice. This is now being corrected in this post. Sorry about that.
Those people who decided not to sit through Escaflowne had been drinking and playing cards instead, and so when the movie was over the rest of us went in to see how that was going. They had banned Guerin from having any more wine (it was, I guess, a bottle that had been saved for Mikel’s 21st birthday, which had been a few days before, hence her joining us late at the campground). Once they finished their game of cards it was clear there were too many people to play the same thing (Oh Heck, having taken over the position once owned by Phase 10) and so instead Cranium was opened up.
It was three teams – Me, noire, and Vel were one, and we ended up the victors. Jana, Guerin, and Mikelwere another, and Jennie, Mori, and Tannen. Yup, nice even teams. Don’t listen to any of the rest of them, I’m tell you, Cindra was just an illusion. “A trick of the light. Ignore it.”
The clay sculpting in that game has incredible potential to make people blush (you’d have to see Mori’s “banana split”), as do the charades. Trivia is easier but less amusing to watch. They made me whistle “Staying Alive” and then took embarassingly long to get it, I had to go through it twice before it dawned on them. It very nearly dawned on us all, in fact, as by this time it well into Monday morning. So after finishing the game we put in Fight Club, of course. Curiously enough we’d had a great conversation about movies with trick endings that you have to see twice during that first night camping when nobody dared wake up noire, and Fight Club was one of the things we talked about. Vel had seen the beginning and thought it was terrible. Noire, we heard at this point, had never seen it either. Never imagining we’d get her to sit through it (she was rather forceful) I had given a spoiler to poor Vel (which at least shocked her enough that she went “Oh! That’s really weird, maybe I’ll have to see it after all – mission accomplished) but noire went in with no knowledge at all, having, after all, slept through that discussion. Even so, Vel fell asleep in the middle of the movie and ended up watching that last third in the morning. I guess that means she must have liked it a bit better this time *g*. I think Jana stayed up and watched it too... and maybe Mori, but most people went and slept. After the movie, so did the rest of us.
Day 10, Monday, 08/13/01
Monday we were going golfing. Well, minigolfing, at least. We all slept in late, as usual, since there was nothing to do before then. Most people had pizza for breakfast, since we were out of milk, but I refused. And so went without breakfast at all. By the time we were all ready it was about time to go. We were meeting more “old friends” and “cousins” and other strange people at this place known as Golfland. A whole large group of them. When our group arrived (the Freaks now constituting about 2/5 of the total group) we found everyone else waiting there at the front door. We weren’t the last ones. So after about five minutes of standing around I wondered out loud if there were any places to find food nearby. Inside the Golfland building, next to the arcade, we found a little concession window. I noted the prices for things, which included (though I’d never actually buy one anyway) a single pickle for $1.50 and suggested we go somewhere else. Vel, noire, Mori and I hopped back in a car and drove about two blocks to a Burger King. We stayed there to eat. I believe this was just because nobody tried calling us to tell us we should come back, but I could be wrong. By the time we finished eating (I tried their cheese sticks, because they were just $1. You get about 3.5 and they’re terrible, don’t bother) they were waiting for _us_ because Erin had arrived.
There were 17 of us. Jennie did her best puppydog eyes for the guy behind the desk and he gave us the group rate even though we didn’t reserve 24 hours in advance. This made it... $3 for a *ahem* game of golf? I think that was all... maybe it was $4. Either way. We split up into a bunch of different groups, and then some groups went to one side of the course and some to the other (they had two sets of 17 different holes, and you share the 18th ball-stealing hole). So then what we had was myself, noire, vel, and... oh yeah, that was it for the moment. We were followed by Mikel, Tannen, and Jana.
And so we... played golf. I really can’t think of much to describe here. I got a nice lead going with a hole-in-one on the second hole, one of those things they call “anthills”. I came in muttering about how much I was just going to embarrass myself, so it was nice to see everybody’s mouths drop open. I did just as poorly as anyone else from there on though, and finished just those few shots in the lead. Of course, the group behind us wiped the floor with our scores (Jana was the lowest, and she would’ve taken second on our team I think, the other two beat me by a long shot). The groups in front of us were all backed up around one really slow bunch of people, so we took forever to get through. I’m sure there were other good shots and interesting moments, but I don’t remember them. Unless it was that game that I got the ball into a pipe that should have kindly dropped it onto the green below, and waited... and waited... and then climbed up on top of the stupid thing to see it stuck on the rim of the pipe where it had seperated from the floor of the hole, taunting me. Grr....
After one game, we... didn’t shoot the 18th hole. We kept the balls and clubs and marched back into the arcade building looking for everyone. We had a plan. Most of the people from the other side of the course decided to go to lunch, having not eaten earlier, so Tannen and Mikel took off with them and Mori stayed with us. We four that had eaten earlier, plus Jana, went around to the second course and played it too. Yup, we cheated the minigolf place. Sad, ain’t it?
The big shot of the day goes to noire, who, on one particular hole, shot this gravity defying, insanely lucky, Mat-Cauthon-would-be-jealous shot to within about a foot of the hole it had no right being anywhere near. Picture, if you will, the obstacles – the ball must travel up a ramp, jump over a vaguely parabolic canal filled with water (which is blocked with a chain at just above knee height, should people decide it might be fun to play on) to reach the square area where the hole is. I’d call it the green, but it was usually blue or red here, so...
She takes a mighty swing... and yet hits the ball seemingly too soft. It begins the jump, but is not going to clear the canal. But wait! It strikes the far side, and shoots straight up into the air. About 8-10 feet, I’d say. Over my head by a good amount, and I’m standing above, next to the target, having gone first. It goes up, and begins coming back. Landing, eventually (it seems to hang in the air forever, of course) on the “curb” of the ramp it has just been shot up. It bounces high again, off a lucky corner, and begins a return trip. This bounce takes it to the other side of the ramp, where it strikes the corner of the curb on the opposite side. This third corner impact continues to send it forward and up on another bounce, and after crossing the canal not the intended once, but THREE TIMES, the ball comes to rest a mere foot from the hole. Stunned silence lasts, realistically, perhaps five to ten seconds before we all crack up. I laughed so hard I had to sit down or I would have just fallen.
Compared to that, the rest of the course was bland. We finished hole #18 and took off ourselves. We were to make a stop at noire’s house to retrieve a DVD player and meet everyone back at Mikel’s house #1 again afterwards.
So. I get to visit yet another freak’s house. What fun! Noire lives in a _really_ neat area. They’ve got their house in a beautifully un-commercialized, tree-covered, hillside community. I didn’t get to see too much of either the surroundings or the house (though we stayed there at least, I think... the better part of an hour) because we were just following noire around and trying not to look suspicious as we detatched a piece of moderately expensive electronic equipment from the entertainment center and carried it out to the car.
Which, btw, suddenly began to have lock seizures. When we all got out of the car the doors just suddenly began to lock themselves over and over. They didn’t unlock first, just kept clicking and the lock things would twitch a little bit. Holding the unlock button down for about five seconds made it stop... but then it started again. We checked out each door’s lock panel, and when it still hadn’t stopped, we waited. Eventually it just seemed to tire of the game and was nice again.
Anyway, I got to meet Rhodric and a snake whose name I forget, saw a glimpse of noire’s incredibly messy room, and look through the photo album from last year, and then we split. In the car on the way back I opened my birthday card from last year, which apparently gave up after two attempts to get to me. Inserted behind it was a piece of paper folded in half with the following written on it:
“La la la... don’t mind me I’m just a blank piece of paper so you won’t be able to read the card through the envelope la la la...”
and on the back:
“You didn’t believe me? I’m hurt. <STO<”
Noire is a very strange girl. With her DVD player loaded up we drove back to the house and joined everyone on the back porch. I thoughtfully connected it to our tv and made sure everything worked before joining everyone else, then after we had sat outside and relaxed for a while I figured we should put that effort to good use and offered up my first DVD, a very strange movie called Six String Samurai. “A Rock ‘n’ Roll Fairy Tale” set in a post-apocalyptic present (the Russians bombed the US in 1957) where Lost Vegas, the last real city, has begun the search for a new king, as “after 40 rockin’ years, the King is dead.” Much silliness and very little worry about such details as plot.
About halfway through the non-watchers, led by Jennie, decided to go to a park, so we ended up all going with them. The soccer ball was supposed to be the main attraction at last (Dk had brought it just about everywhere with her so far but we never used it.) and most people decided to join in eventually. Mikel sat off to one side and read, and noire and Jana ran off wide-eyed to the playground toys, and the rest of us stood in a circle and passed the ball back and forth. It got dark while we played. The game broke up eventually, with Jennie dragging Jana (she and noire had joined the circle after a little while) off to play tennis nearby, and the rest of us just sort of sat around and stared at each other after that, since it was Jennie that dragged us there in the first place. I watched Jennie pummel Jana for a while and then tried to get everyone to figure out what we were going to do next. We talked about the plan for traveling to Santa Cruz, so I finally fount out how they wanted all that to work, and then we headed for home.
The movie was resumed and the people who hadn’t watched the beginning looked at it for a minute and scratched their heads. I think it was during the bit with the Russian Army. (“Why don’t we just shoot him?” “Huh? We haven’t had bullets since ’57!” and “Only one man could kill this many Russians. Find him! And bring me his guitar...”)
Pinochle wasn’t that night. It was later in the week. I had a few things wrong though, and because of that I messed up noire’s version of events too. Here’s the proper time for this...
After the movie we found the non-watchers sitting around again, and Jennie began hyping up her “secret movie” which turned out shortly thereafter to be the Vegas video that Tai sent. We were all, I’m sorry to say, thoroughly bored by it. Even Jennie, who was there *g*. Nothing happened! Four people climbed the same rock wall, in succession, and while it was an impressive enough climb... there wasn't much said. We ended up skipping around and watching some of the highlights, like the famous phone call, and hearing MA’s explanation of Arakasi’s fight. That was good. Sitting on the bus was even amusing enough. The Star Trek museum put everyone to sleep again though, and after that there was just no energy, and people started wanting to drop off to sleep. Mike hooked up his camera to the laptop and began to dump another batch of photos, and I, seeing this (testing had already shown that the computer of the house couldn’t handle a simple movie file) whipped out a CD full of stuff and asked him to pop it in when he was done. After uploading and flipping through all the photos he took a look. The CD was full of AMVs, or Anime Music Videos. Take a popular (or otherwise) song and match it up to footage from something. For humor value, or dramatic value, or whatever other value makes it entertaining to watch. There’s a contest at basically every con there is, but the biggest is the one at Anime Expo, and I was pumped because a friend of mine came away with this year’s title and I had brought that one with me. Incredibly cool. But Jennie was disconcerted by her computer’s making noise when she wasn’t there and began to get annoyed, so we were booted off. She “wanted to get to sleep”... in another hour. Bah. Can’t argue with cranky people though, it doesn’t get anywhere. And it’s her machine, so her call.
We basically did next to nothing for a while then. Nobody was terribly tired, but there was a hush on everything, and over the next few hours we all just sort of dropped off one by one. Tomorrow morning to leave for Santa Cruz.
This is good. I’m back in bulk, and I’m still
not done. There’s lots more to come, so make sure to keep up!
Jarihn