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Got to see the fireworks tonight, although in the rain and wind we weren’t sure we were going to last that long for a while.
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( Why beowabbit, what do you mean? )
Yeah, I like this life. And you, my friends on LJ and in the physical world, are a big part of why.
Then I went on to Albany to see Dreaming. He was at a party that his upstairs neighbours were having, looking very elegant and lovely in a tunic
pheromone had brought him back from China. It was excellent to see him in his Albany social circle and meet some of his friends. As I walked in, people were playing Quiddler and Apples to Apples, so I felt right at home. :-) It was slightly odd to walk in on people who on the one hand felt very comfortable and familiar to me, and on the other hand were at a fairly different stage in their lives than I am. (
Dreaming’s going back to school to finish his final semester of college after taking about a decade off.) In retrospect, it makes me nostalgic for college. (It also reminds me of a dream I had a couple months ago, which wasn’t set in college, but had the same sort of easy-to-make-friends stay-up-late-talking optimistic lives-ahead-of-us vibe I remember from college.)
Speaking of dreams, I had a wild one last night, at Dreaming’s. It was clearly largely inspired by my conversation with
pheromone over dinner the previous night. I was getting into the bathtub or getting ready for bed or something, and discovered to my shock and surprise that my legs were covered with tattoos and scarification, which had turned me into a walking ayurvedic massage chart, with chakras and energy lines marked. [Disclaimer: I know nothing about ayurvedic massage or its terminology, so I have no idea how accurate my dream-image was.] The tattooing looked like it had been done quite thoroughly in black and then filled in in vivid and varied colours. The scarification had been done on top of the tattooing (but clearly some time ago since the scars had spread and lost their clarity) and was all long almost-straight lines. The thing that weirded me out in the dream was not that I’d had this done, but that I couldn’t remember having this done. How could I have undergone such extensive tattooing and scarification and not remember it? How could I even have forgotten the decision to get it done, never mind the experience itself? Then the dream morphed into me hurrying along Mass Ave in Boston (near where I work in real life). It was warm weather, and I was in shorts, which afforded me the opportunity to catch glimpses of all the body art, which was still a marvellous mystery to me. As I was rushing someplace — I might have been jogging —, I noticed a couple women walking down the street, arm in arm. They were both fairly tall, and seemed clearly a couple. As I passed them, I noticed that one of them was topless, and thought to myself, “Cool! I wonder if she’s hoping to be a test case.” Then the dream switched to the event I was hurrying to, which was a film festival hosted/MC’ed by my friend Wayne (who in real life is a film buff and has written a book on bisexual characters in film). I was early; people were drifting in, but the auditorium was still pretty empty and the lights were up. I went up to Wayne to ask some question I had and keep him company while he waited to start. And then I woke up.
How’s that for a dream!
So Sunday morning (this morning as I type this), pheromone came to Albany from Kripalu. We started the day with some amazingly yummy veggie pot pie that
Dreaming made from the Country Life cookbook. Then we went for a walk to and through the park. We stopped in SUNY Albany’s gorgeous graduate library with its stained-glass windows on the way; it looks like a library should look, in my opinion. Then after stopping to grab food at the food co-op near
Dreaming’s, we went to see Master and Commander —
pheromone for the first time, and me and
Dreaming each for the second. I loved it as much the second time as I had the first, and I’d still see it again if anybody out there has a craving. We discussed the politics of it on the way home, and then, much too soon, I needed to leave to get home and get to bed at a reasonable time for work tomorrow.
A lovely weekend with lovely people.
BiCamp this year went from Thursday night, August 28, through Monday, September 1 — Labour Day, so it was a bit longer than usual.
docorion went up early in Mr Toad (the green diesel Mercedes) on Friday and set up our tents, bless his heart.
sionnagh was very uncertain whether she was up for going, but decided at the last minute to go with me. We had a lovely drive, and she read me some Harry Potter in the car (we took the Toyota wagon, which I’m slowly thinking might need to be named after the Water Rat).
Around the time we got to camp, though, she started feeling down, and after not very long decided she didn’t want to stay — for a number of reasons, but among them was the fact that fibromyalgia and somewhat chilly camping don’t mix very well. So docorion drove her down to her mom’s house near Hartford (not all that far from where BiCamp was).
I was kind of down for the first part of camp. Partly that was because sionnagh wasn’t there, and out of concern for her (she was actually having a great time down in Connecticut, but since I had really lousy cell reception I didn’t know that), but also because I was feeling lonely in general, and being around all the couples and triples at BiCamp was reinforcing that. I was in the kind of headspace where I was craving company and social interaction, but was feeling too shaky and disconnected to seek it out. I did have a great time hanging out and catching up with
beetiger, a good friend of mine from college whom I hadn’t seen in at least seven years.
Saturday was better. It started with zzbottom and Juzika-Mauserl’s famous blueberry pancakes (with blueberries I’d helped pick that morning when I bummed a ride in to town to replace the contents of my toiletries bag, which had managed to wend its way down to Connecticut with
sionnagh). That can’t be bad. And it had cleared and was bright and sunny, and I went down to the clothing-optional swimming hole and had a nice time there, although the water was cold and I didn’t stay long.
Saturday night was the potluck, which was fun, and after that a little celebration with cake for [onemintjulep, who has since gotten a LiveJournal account], who is just finishing his residency and becoming a Real Doctor. It was loads of fun. He’s really good people, and I wish I saw him more often than once or twice a year.
After that, I tried to set up my telescope (on the lovely folding camp table sionnagh had given me for my birthday), but discovered that it was broken. Bummer! So I came and sat around the campfire with [
onemintjulep],
missdimple,
volta,
bitty, and a few other people. (I forget whether
zzbottom was still up or not.)
Sunday (which arrived after not quite but almost enough sleep) was even better — bright, sunny, and warm. It started with yummy omelettes thanks to volta, and proceeded at the swimming hole. Since it was warmer, I spent more time in the water this time, and also spent a lot of time hanging out with
beetiger on the rocks. (She was giving mothra some vitamin D. :-)
On the way back to camp from the swimming hole, I ran into K., a classical and opera composer from NYC, whom I had had quite a lot of fun with at BiCamp 2002, after a few years of us having our eyes on each other but not doing anything about it. She assured me between kisses that we would find some time that weekend to boff like bunnies, and secure in that happy knowledge I returned to camp.
( Too Much Information of an emotional and sexual nature )
It had been fairly warm when we started, but by the time we were ready to leave the tent it had gotten quite cold, and it was a challenge to get out from under the sleeping bag to put our clothes on. But we managed. We wandered back over to a campfire for a bit, and then K. returned to the tent she was sharing with her sweetie A. (also up from New York City). I stayed up for quite a while, enjoying the afterglow and the warmth of the fire and the smell of the smoke and the bright stars and chatting, as people drifted off to bed from the campfire. Around two or so I went to bed myself, leaving bitty and
volta as the last two people by the campfire. I later discovered that they stayed up all night talking, not wanting to leave the warmth of the fire.
The next day (Monday) we hung out and had breakfast and a plan arose to go hot tubbing at East Heaven in Northampton. ( Car troubles and diner dinner )
The food at the diner was not so great, but it was a fun time. Then most of us went to East Heaven for tubbing while
Tubbing was a truly lovely end to the weekend! East Heaven is a very nice place, and I left feeling delightfully relaxed. volta offered to take Juzika-Mauserl and
fallenpegasus back to Boston, since I’d been really looking forward to the long drive alone to relax and reflect on the weekend, and was also mildly concerned about timing and logistics. And as the big group was all saying goodbye, I got a nice kiss from somebody who hadn’t kissed me in quite a while, which was very pleasant and a nice little symbolic cherry on top of the weekend.
The drive back was fine, quiet and relaxing, and I got home feeling wonderful.
Just got back (well, an hour or two ago; have been catching up on stuff) from Baitcon XVI. It was excellent and I had a good time, but I was also in a kind of down/weird mood, and ended up leaving early (which gets me the chance to have a day at home and catch my breath and run errands and stuff). I will probably do a fuller posting later, but for now the following observations spring to mind: