Memory Re-Enactment 1

This is a memory about 7 or 8 years old. Special thanks to Terry and Kenya(yes, really) for adding to the story details. Names changed to protect the innocent.

It was the weekend, date I can't confirm. My buddy Terry was down from Spokane for a party, I was with Kenya at the time. Evening started typically, Terry's friend was throwing a party at the tunnel; an old railroad tunnel under the interstate near the Washington/Oregon border. Vodka and Gatorade were involved. The genius behind this was myself, believing it to be better than mixing it with anything else...could have been wrong there? We mixed the drinks in the Jack in the Box parking lot on 395. Terry had some rum and mixed that with soda he bought at Jack in the Box. I don't know if I drank on the drive down there, but I doubt it. We made the drive, I drove. It was dark, it was warm, we got there and Terry and I started drinking.

There were a few people there already, a lot of cars lined the road and we had to park a ways back. Terry and I took our Gatorade bottles mixed with vodka and walked up to the tunnel.

Halfway down the tunnel, a table was set up with speakers and turntables. There was a generator out the back of the tunnel. Quite a few people were in the tunnel, lingering about, or on their way. Kenya arrived later with some friends and we met up later. We walked into the tunnel; since Terry was going to be playing, I brought my records just in case. The acoustics in the tunnel were horrible, “like playing in a ventilator shaft.”
It was going to be a while before Terry got to play, so we went on exploring the area; there was another cave further down the road.

Kenya and I walked on down the road, out the tunnel, into the cool night air.

It was a beautiful summer night and we were up for "adventure." It was only a short distance to the next cave and we all walked there. Terry hung back because he’s more social than I am, and was talking to a lot of his friends. I was hesitant to go into the dark cave without any light, it was so dark and the cave seemed so vast.

We continued inside, and the cave seemed so huge, almost like there was a cavern inside. We caught up with a few people in the cave and tried to look around a bit, then continued on.

Because it was night, the cave seemed to go on and on, but it finally did come out and all we could hear was other people talking and the river water. Terry came through a bit later, walking through the second cave, telling the girls that were with him to hold him because he was scared, which was some bullshit he made up so women would touch him in the dark and he didn't have to pay for it.

We all headed down closer to the water and while Kenya went with some friends to a rock formation that was jutting out into the river, I began speaking with a couple of guys who wanted to go up on the cliffs. They seemed like nice guys and together we went up a steep trail to the cliff above.

The hike seemed pretty short. We got up there and were looking around. I've always been afraid of heights, and I wasn't anxious to step so close to the edge. We rummaged around up on the cliff for a while until someone got the bright idea to start throwing rocks into the river; probably me. I loved this idea and began merrily chucking rocks off the cliff and shouting "boom sha-la," “oh gosh!” and other classic Jungle MC phrases. Terry was down below with Brittany and a few other people when I was up above chucking rocks, screaming. Kenya was still with people out on the rock outcropping as some of these rocks seem to have come very near to hitting them.

This went on for several minutes until I heard Kenya screaming my name as she stormed up to the cliff, "Adam, what the hell are you doing?" "There are people down there, you could've hit someone!" Not to be misunderstood I tried to point out, “I’m not throwing the rocks at the people, I’m throwing them to the water.” This didn’t help my case and she was very angry with me; read me the riot act as she marched us all down the slope back the tunnel.

It was a gentle slope back to the tunnel and was traversed with ease, even in my condition. We walked under the power lines and could hear the loud hum from overhead.

When we got back to the tunnel Terry was up to play, he played for a while and then let me play for a bit. I really messed it up because I was not at all sober, and the acoustics mentioned earlier, but I had fun. Later, I went to the car and passed out for a long while. I awoke when the police came and broke the party up, sending everyone home, stating that they could see our lights from across the river and that it was a dumb place to have a party because of that. Terry must have left earlier with someone else because he only remembers me telling him about the cops, and I know it was late because a lot of people had already left and there were a lot less cars on that little road.

My first skydive

I remember about 4 years ago, my girlfriend at the time had wanted to go skydiving. I was always concerned about the cost, but we DID go. I had always been trying very hard to find things that she and I could do together. We had a lot in common, did many things together, but I was keen to keep things interesting between us and do many different things together. With that intention, I got really into the idea of getting certified to skydive and even bought the SIM manual to study and train for certification so we could jump without assistance. That wasn't quite what she had in mind, but she sure wanted to skydive.

We finally made arrangements to dive that summer. The day finally came around and it was a beautiful clear sunny day, like so many of them are around here. We met with her friend and some family at the airport and then went through a brief training video. Then, it was out to the plane. The plane could only take 4 people at a time, and since we were required to jump tandem we had to split up between either me and my girlfriend, or she and her friend. Pleasantly my girlfriend stuck with me and after we watched her friend dive it was finally our turn. We put on our jump suits and packed into a plane you WOULD want to jump out of, with 2 dive instructors who would be our tandem jumpers. She was with the tall guy, I was with the round guy. The plane took off and it seemed like it took forever to get us into the sky. On the flight up we could see all kinds of things; my house, her house, LIGO, Hanford reach, all of the cities etc etc. It was a really cool view. The way we were loaded into the plane made it such that she would jump first and I would jump second. It went just like that; she jumped, with her tandem jumper, and they were gone, gravity works, then it was my turn. My tandem jumper and I moved to the edge of the plane and I sat out, looking down for my girlfriend/her jumper. Immediately I felt sick because I couldn't see them, the next thing I hear, "keep your eyes open, I'm going to flip you." And then we were gone. I kept my eyes open, watched as the plane seemed to just lazily drift away, and then I was looking at the ground again, and looking and looking. It really felt like a long time; I was able to look around, notice a few things and take in that you actually get to freefall for a fair amount of time. I finally saw my girlfriends shoot, and felt a lot better; by the time I was taking that in he pulled the shoot and we began the float down to the landing pad. My tandem jumper gave me the cords to steer for a while, but my arms began to cramp up and he took them back and we slowly made so arcs as we came into the landing zone. We landed and all was well, but when people came up to me they said I looked sick.

I told them all that I was just afraid of heights, but that was never the whole truth. Yes, I was/am afraid of heights, but what really got me so sick was when, looking off the edge of that plane, looking for my girlfriend, looking for her shoot, and not seeing any sign of them; all the horrible thoughts that I had, that I had lost her, that she had died, that I'd never see her again, witnessing something that horrible, it all scared me so sick, but I could never and never did tell her...

Now, I'm suddenly interested in diving again and I just may have to pursue that if I get any time.

How would you spend your time?

This question was emailed to me by a friend at work:
Living in a realm where anything is possible, if you were now living in the big city of your choice (NY, London, Dublin, etc.) and you earned enough money where your bill were paid with extra spending money, what kind of activities would you be doing? How would you spend your time?

My answer:

Sorry, this is all kinds of scatter brain.

Ok, well, I’d definitely try to get a lot of culture, ie theatre and the arts. I really do enjoy being active, so that would be a big part of my life. I realize I gravitate toward more counter culture activities, so I’d do things like that, but I’m also interested in traditional sports so I’d like to do those. In addition to theatre and arts I’d go to sporting events, but mostly with friends as a social activity. Music of course is a given, I’d try to stay as on top of music as I do now and go to shows, but still remain selective and not just go for the sake of going, as in, I like the Rolling stones, but I don’t need to see them. I would travel for any of the activities mentioned above. I would celebrate birthdays in grand style. I would drive fast all the time, not reckless, but you know. I guess I would really try to be a “renaissance man,” and try my best at many things, concentrating on a few. Being a gentleman is important to me so I’d do my best at that. Ultimately I’d be at home as little as possible but have as much fun as possible. Along the travel lines, I’d definitely try to do epic type of trips, like snowboard vacations to Russia, scuba in the Caribbean, etc etc.

This all makes me think about a phrase that’s been circling my head for ages now: “everything, all the time” as in I’d like to do everything all the time, but it’d best be stated as “anything, anytime.” This is of course within certain constraints, I’d don’t want to engage in anything base or morose. I also wrote a blog about how I want to do many things but not get mired down in all the politics/lifestyle that seems to come with them, and that is speaking to me now, as in I’d want to do many of these things, but don’t want to make it a constant. If that makes sense.

Google apps is super

I've been geeking out for the past couple of days on google apps. I'd been threatening to put some pictures on Picasa for sometime... I finally followed through, it's easy and seems secure also. I only posted one album of my roommate Jon, friend Mark, and I hiking the Multnomah Falls area. It was one wet trip; had been totally clear on the drive down there and as soon as we got there it started raining...for the whole hike. The other cool goggle app I've been impressed with is reader. All I can say is, 'slick!" I never realized, 1. how much stuff I read on the interwebz, 2. how much other stuff I want to read. I'm such a consumer of information. I subscribed to my friends blogs, several music blogs, and several news sites esp New York related(call me crazy). Now if Google can just come up with a calorie calculator, workout tracker, food journal, and etc etc... Maybe I'll send them a note

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