I left school right after sixth hour, I caught the BX15 to the M60, and made it to the airport with time to spare. Magically, neither of my American Airlines flights were canceled. I got to St. Louis on time, was immediately picked up by Sean, who already had my sleeping bag, and we drove to CoMo. We ate Rancho, then headed to Justin’s house. I’ve never had my transit schedule be so accurate before…!
We hung out for a bit at Justin’s, then went to bed. When we got up the next morning (or should I say afternoon?), we headed to Rocky Forks, and hiked out to the spot. It was overcast and chilly. The water was downright cold. We’d looked on the internet, and at 55 degrees, hypothermia would begin in only 9 minutes if you weren’t wearing a wetsuit. I was still all about it, but Justin and I bot ended up bluffing, and staying dry. Sean wisely never planned to swim. After Justin threw a few casts (and caugt a fish), we headed back to the truck, then his house. We deliberated, and then decided to sped the night in Three Creeks, a primitive camping site. Justin brought his hammocks and one of his landlord’s, and we headed first to the store, then to the site. By the time we got to the site, dusk was coming on. I moved rocks into a hearth while Justin hung thehammocks and his old gal gathered sticks. Sean prepared the sleeping bags. In no time at all, our campsite was set up. I tried to ignite the fire with the help of cotton balls daubed in petroleum jely (good trick!), but had difficulty. Justin endedup getting it going. That night, we cooked lentils, smore’, hot dogs, and whatever else on that fire as we drank wine and whatever else. We ended up sleeping in the hammocks. Justin’s dogs had come with us, and Blue got up in Sean’s hammock and slept there with him. Cherokee slept on the cold rocks, though, and was quite grumpy in the morning.
In the morning, we reignited the fire, ate smores, packed up, and headed out. We got home, took showers, and then hung out in hammocks for a while. Then we went to campus for Earth day. Justin, Sean and I ate at Shakespeare’s first, and Sean headed out afterward. Then Justin and I walked around, played hack, stood around at the NORML/SSDP table, and whatever else. We eventually went to his friends deck to hang, then headed to Middlebush for a premier of Super High Me, a documentary. It was decent, and I saw lots of old friends. From there, Justin and I headed to a bar that was operating as a speakeasy. We went in through the back using our yellow passes, and walking with the owner. That was a cool night. Jack was there, which was troublesome, and Eapen acted oddly. But otherwise, good people and good times. When we got out of there, we headed back to Justin’s, hung our hammocks by the lake, and went to sleep.
But not for long. We were up early to go turkey hunting. I put on camouflage Justin had that somehow fit me, and we headed to Rocky Forks. We got there a tad late, and I wasn’t walking very fast, but we ended up scaring 5 turkeys out of the roost (I saw three of them). Aggravatingly, we had set up camp, but woke the turkeys when we decided to move closer. Soon, there were hunters 200 yards upstream and downstream from us, everyone cooing on their triple strikes, all turkeys probably smart enough to know what was going on – especially when someone fired a gun. Justin was hunting with a bow and arrow. We didn’t catch anything. I liked the language of turkey-hunting more than the experience itself, which I slept through most of. Jakes, Toms, gobblers, calling them in, decoys, strutting, clucking…a whole vernacular I didn’t know about before.
The days after that are less contiguously reported, because I cast aside my digital masters. A lot of morels were attained, and at one point Justin even fried some of them with powdered sugar accidentally. Sara Skags came over and talked with e in the hammock for a while as I drank wine. Somewhere in there, a lot of hempmilk was also consumed. I hung out with Lindsey Howald and Liz Forkin, and met with Marvin Rogers, Larry Powell, Suzette Heiman (who bought me sparky’s!), Dr. Palonsky, and Cyndi Frisby (who made me promise to pitch her class next time I come to MU). My phone got left out in the rain in a hammock when Corley and Justin’s old gal came over. We had fun, but when I got the phone the next morning, it was dead. Due to its death, and the fact that justin and I went fishing, I missed an opportunity to go home on MoX that day (Thursday). Not that I was in a rush anymore – I needed to get back that night so Sean could fix my phone, but since that wasn’t going to happen, it was no longer a necessity. In the course of fishing, Justin and I did a little work, and ended up catching a fish in the oddest way. He cast in, the line broke imediately, and we spent a good deal of time fishing out the line, which was danglingly on the surface. Since the fish weren’t very educated (more fun vernacular), the 3 lb bass that had just kept striking and that had eventually broke the line aparently bit the hook and then just laid down. When Justin got ahold of the line and started wrapping it round his arm, he was surprised to find that it still had a fish on it, which he subsequently puled out…!
I headed back to StL via MoX, and made it to the airport by 1. I called my dad on a payphone, ad we headed back to his house, where I showered and unpacked. Then we headed to the Obama event. The event was fun, and Angad attended and knew some other law students, Lola and Alicia, so it was decently fun. Claire McCaskill and Jean Carnahan both gave great speeches to the crowd of maybe 30 people. Afterward, Angad, my dad and I went to a Persian restaurant, ate and talked politics. I then went with Angad to get CS3 and others, then he drove me home, after driving us into Illinois for just a bit. When I got home, I went to bed.
The next morning, my dad drove me to my mom’s house and I went from there up to the farm to see my grandparents before my grandma headed to the Mayo clinic to get treatment for her myloma. Oliver and I planted trees and some crops with my Uncle Tom, then we had a meal. Shortly after, we left and went to see Oliver’s new house. It’s realy cool. Two stories and a basement, and 98 years old in great condition. After that, we went home, and Cor eventually came over. We watched Scarface, talked to Kyle, and ate blackberries.
The next morning, my dad picked us up and took us to the zoo, where we saw the somali wild ass and pondered on human exhibits and grand battles between animals. Cor got picked up shortly afte we left, then dad, Laura and I went to eat and met Oliver and Molly. We ended up eating at the Hill, and having a great meal. When we got back, we opened presents for my dad’s and my birthdays, then ate strawberry shortcake. Sean came over even later than that. Finally, I wrote lesson plans for the next three days.
Today is Monday. I’ve gotten a lot done. I found out that my co-employees were not able to get the worksheet handed out, and my class was essentially a free day today…damn. My dad is coming shortly to take me to look at new phones, which I don’t really want but probably need to do. My plane leaves tomorrow at 11:10. I am home by 6:30ish. The next day, I take kids to the Tribeca film festival. Then 7 more wees of teaching, Regents, July, my dad’s wedding, and I’m off to Indonesia…
— oh, all right. Fine. April Fool’s. Ha, ha, ha. It isn’t real. There. Are you happy? Does it please you to drag us out of our lovely little fantasy world, to crush all our hopes and dreams? Is that really what you need to hear? Fine, you’ve heard it. Virgle isn’t real.
