Under the vagina tree (pt 2)

Richardson Grove, CA Sept 8-14, 2009

Day 1 (continued): With the fire going and the sun about to set, we sat around the fire and said nothing. I realized to myself that even though we sat in silence there was probably a fury of ideas, questions and things to do that were rapidly firing in our minds between the 3 of us. I imagine if we could actually hear the ideas coming and going within our brains it would sound like a very loud buzzing noise and then a loud CLAP! or POP! I don’t know why. That’s just what I think I would hear. But the only thing that could be heard then was the slow inhaling and exhaling of our cigarettes and Adrian’s ipod softly playing in the background. We watched the fire roar for a bit, I looked up into the canopy of the trees and felt…uneasy. I just couldn’t relax for some reason. I thought that maybe it was because I was just over stimulated today; with the riding around all over the place and those “set backs” happening, I guess it would be hard to relax. I thought this would be a good time to fix myself a drink and get dinner prepared.

Since it was our first night and it was only the 3 of us, we didn’t go too crazy with dinner. It was just hot dogs and chips or something. Last year, I think we just grilled our hot dogs on the grill we brought but this time we decided that over the open fire would be a better choice. Luckily, Robbie remembered to bring his, what I call “hot dog prod”. It’s shaped like a grill fork, with 2 tines, but it can extend and condense like those older radio antennas. Excitedly, Robbie went first. It was a little funny to watch him squatting near the fire carefully turning his hot dog around and around over the flames with a big grin on his face, almost child like. Once Robbie got his hot dog on his bun, he ate happily. I decided, when it was my turn, that it would be silly for Adrian to wait to cook his hot dog since there were 2 tines on the fork. With the request from Adrian to “burn my hot dog, please!” I knew I would have to endure the heat of the fire a little longer than anticipated. Squatting there, concentrating on the odd shape pieces of processed meat turning and turning around and around over the open flame, a meditative state came over me. The fire jumped and hissed… as the fat dripped down over the open flames, almost like it was trying to grab the hot dog for itself. I sighed loudly and nodded in approval to nobody. The day was over. The week was just starting and it wasn’t a bad start. All that anticipation and anxiety was for nothing.

Careful to get just the right amount of “burnage” on the hot dog, I pulled it from the flame. With 2 hot dogs on the prod it was a little awkward getting them off and onto a plate. Amazingly, I was able to pull them off without dropping them or burning myself. But before I sat down to eat, I wanted to put the prod away. It was extended to it’s full length and I didn’t want it poking anybody out here in the dark. Carelessly, I grabbed it full on making a fist around it. Now, our bodies are an amazing piece of machinery. When I burned my hand, I reacted within nano-seconds. The effects of the burn took place immediately and the pain set in soon afterward. “SHIT!” I cried out and let go of prod. Instantly a barrage of questions came from Robbie and Adrian, “What happened?” “Are you okay?” “Did you burn yourself?” Embarrassed mostly, I said a quick ” Yeah.” and ” I’m okay.” then I ran around looking for some ice. Standing in the closest thing to a corner I could find, I held on to a golf ball size piece of ice and let it melt in my hand. Thinking back to all those times working in a kitchen and burning myself, I found the best way to take care of a burn; just keep icing it. It will still sting but it doesn’t blister as badly. I joined the boys at the table. “What happened?” they asked. I quickly told them what I did then made some comment about my stupidity in the hopes that they would laugh. Thankfully, they did and the energy shifted. I don’t know why I did that. Why does anybody do that? I don’t think people who make light of serious situations are insensitive. Maybe I do it because I don’t know what else to do. Maybe it’s some sort of “defense mechanism” as some people say. There are times and places for seriousness; in my mind, camping with your friends is not one of them, or shouldn’t be anyways.

I still held onto the ice as we sat around the fire for our after dinner libations. I looked at my hand; the markings were a bright white and I could still feel heat radiating from it. I downed my first cranberry and vodka. We started to make up a game, or rather, Robbie and Adrian started to make up a game. I kind of just joined along. It was a “name that tune” kind of game with TV show theme songs. We worked on it for quite some time. There were some disagreements, as is expected. Adrian kept pestering Robbie to write down the rules. There were some 200 TV shows themes that were downloaded and we went through them all. I would estimate that I knew about 80% of them. We agreed on some loose rules that we could each live with. We would finalize and confirm them tomorrow. We decided to call it a night.