Hippie camping

Thank you, lB, for making delicious strawberry shortcake to take on our camping trip! It made the trip a little bit better.

Since you know me well, it comes as no surprise when I confirm that camping isn't my thing. Sure, there was a shower with hot water and portable toilets at Belden...but the ~10-hour long bus ride up for a normally 4-hour journey was tedious - the old spray-painted blue bus with solar panels and vegetable oil containers overheated frequently*, so we had to pull over often; the interior decorating (if you could even call it that) was a dirty, worn, hippie look with a bed area at the back; the bus took many pee breaks that were reminiscent to Bay to Breakers; we simmered in the bus from the afternoon sun as we left the coastal area and entered the valley; we could have been in Japan with the lengthy transit; the other 24 passengers for the most part weren't my type of people, and it was mutual; my ears were sick of loud, crappy electronic music by hour 3; I suffered from ennui by hour 4 and studied window patterns for some time, which only led me to get a dirty look from the girl sitting across from me as I kept gazing just above her head and beyond her. And lastly, for a brief moment outside of Sacramento, our bus seemed like it would have to wait for the later bus to take its passengers, since the later bus forgot to pick up some East Bay folks and considered turning back for them. Luckily, the 9 forgotten people rented cars instead, so we didn't have to wait 30+ mins only to pack more people into the bus. That later bus beat us up to the camp site too, despite leaving 3 hours after our bus. We finally arrived at Belden ~11 pm and consequently didn't get great camping sites.

The rest of the trip was alright - I splashed around in the river for a little bit, though I got my period by mid-afternoon. I did some work and took a nap, then made us some smoked salmon with cream cheese and dill on cracker. Afterward, we played with balloons and made a balloon neuron. Then we went to the Midsummer's Night themed party, where people were dressed up in whimiscal gear. I didn't want to pack wings with me, nor did I bring my glowing creations, so I wasn't in costume. The live music was captivatingly beautiful, especially Lulacruza with the live re-mixing.

Another couple art pieces were excellent: the triad of swings that pulsed light in a center area, such that each swing shined a different color of light into the center. The pulse was timed with the swing's oscillations too. The other piece were screens, on which abstract patterns projected. Elements of the patterns were carefully and aesthetically controlled by two complex joysticks with various buttons and switches.

Aside from my boy, I only talked with 4 other people that weekend in conversions that exceeded ~6 lines of dialogue. I also suspect that I was the most sober/clean person there, having only two sips of beer on the bus ride up. Perhaps I should have drank more.

In any case, I have confirmed that I am not a hippie. (I already knew that though.)