Camping.

Just got back Saturday night from a week long camping excursion. Went up north with a group of me mates, and stayed at a campsite in McGee Creek. The site was nestled in between mountains and next to a creek, it was fairly badass. The drive up was easy and fairly uneventful. I did manage to get my car up to 130 for a while but I figured it was best not to push it any higher on the drive up (best to leave these things for the drive back). When we got near mammoth lakes it was kind of a debacle getting a campsite we could all agree on. Most of the campsites we originally planed on were closed due to there being clumps of snow scattered nearby the campsite. It made no sense and we almost risked just camping there and hoping we did not get kicked out and or arrested for trespassing in the middle of the night. I would like to thank the mammoth lakes information center for all their help:
Wollin: Hi do you know if we can camp on the lake George campsites?
Information center: I don't know
Wollin: How about the lake Mary campsites?
IC: I don't know.
Wollin: Do you know when they usually open?
IC: I don't know.
Wollin: Do you know who does know?
IC: I don't know.
Wollin: Oh, well thanks.
Fantastic. We drove around a bit more and finally came upon our destination after checking a few more sites along the way. As soon as we got there we made camp, broke out a fire, and started drinking. We made some food and then just went to bed. The food on the trip was good stuff. We hit up a bulk discount store in preparation for the trip and so we had a good amount of everything we needed. Some meals included, Casadillas, Trout and mashed potatoes, Chili cheese dogs, the most unhealthy corn beef hash and eggs, and other good stuff. There was a lot of inappropriate actions, fishing, Drunken Frisbee three flys up, took a pontoon boat around lake Crowley, and we went on a pretty awesome hike (which almost killed me) up this steep mountain to a secluded pond. It felt pretty good to get into a rhythm of waking with the sun and building a fire to make our food at night. It was also a nice break to be able to relax completely without any noise or electric distractions of being in a city. Also it had been a long time since I have seen that many stars. I forgot that there aren't just satellites flying around at night. Now that I am back I have about 10 days until I leave for Europe so I am going to continue to try (probably not very hard) to find a job for when I get back, and organize everything that I have to do for the Eurotrip.

Reunion.

I figure for this post I will start at the end and work my way backwards since it goes from bad to good in this order. First off, I am sick. I completely have it coming since I haven't slept well (or not drunk) for about a month and I have been over eating (thank you Chicago your food is wonderful and you have an abundance of fat guys that in comparison make you feel like you can gorge everynight). Laying low right now till I get better so I can ruckus LA. Chicago trip ended with me getting on my America west flight with no time to spare. Since I am retarded I got to the airport 10 minutes after boarding and had to con my way onto the plane and through security. Mission accomplished I was on the plane and we were taking off.... wait no that was all bullshit. Apparently cloudy weather with intermittent sun and a few sprinkles is horrendous weather in Chicago. We had to sit in line to take off for three hours. Apparently the captain let us know there were 97 planes ahead of us which had to take off. In fact we spent so much time waiting around, WE ACTUALLY RAN OUT OF GAS. We had to go back to the gate to refuel since we were waiting around longer then the actual flight. To cut this long story down, the flight was canceled and I could not get another one until the next day. Bryan was cool about it and let me crash again at his place so it was not that big of a deal. The worst part though was when we were exciting the plane after the cancelled flight the captain had the balls to say over the intercom "We would like to apologize for the inconvenience folks but thanks for flying with America West." Wait a minute! Remind me where we flew to again. Jackass.

Well before all this was an awesome week. I had the first couple days to explore Chicago myself. Fat guys everywhere as I already noted, but suprisingly I really dig the chicks that were walking around too. I may have just had my radar up and working but especially the giant art institute museum was full of smokin girls. The hot weather also was advantageous... I think I am just going to stop this train of thought since this whole paragraph does not have to be creepy and pervy. ANYWAYS, I found not one but two comic book stores in the middle of downtown. I don't read them anymore but I appreciate the nerd acceptance level of the city. I explored a lot and found many a strange artifacts like my genuine Ninja Necklace which proves, that real ninja's wear necklaces of their own faces. That's how awesome they are.

When everyone else arrived there was plenty of shenanigans, but thankfully a lot of slothful cube-ing and eating (焼肉食べ放題, Chicago style hot dogs, deep dish pizza ect.). As mentioned in Anthony's blog there was uncomfortable at times, but also hilarious excursion into boystown after shotgunning. There was also the awesome Play! Symphony which had music from Shenmu, MGS, Mario, Zelda, Halo and many other performed by a symphony. I am glad we are all at least nerdy enough to enjoy that, but as Anthony noted the other people there were a bit too much. They need to chill out and leave their own head's once in a while. So to recap if Chicago did not get turned into a frozen wasteland tundra every winter, I would love the place. Big thanks to Bryan, his roommate Hari, and Bryan's girlfriend Krista who showed us around Northwestern and at least waited until we all left to destroy Bryan. Screw Robo teacher.