Day 7

Epic.

Rose at about 10:30 after a surprisingly restful night's sleep. I really do enjoy air mattresses.

And then it all just sort of runs together. Especially the day-time hours. Ate, drank, took a couple trips to the local gas station (which amazingly had Boca Burgers) etc. We also took a pontoon ride out on the lake. Mostly it was just a great time conversing with old friends and getting to know new ones.

Bill brought four bottles of Andre to the cabin. We drank the first couple of them during the daytime hours. We passed them around the circle and each person would tell some type of story involving Paul before taking a swig. It was an absolutely wonderful time of the weekend.

Then, around sunset, came Beer Pong, which seems to be about where most of the group started to lose it (and by "it" I mean their sobriety.) This was evidenced by the fact that the religion conversations started to break out. For some reason, within our group (and apparently the other group as well), drunkenness has always seemed to lead to discussion of spiritual matters. Before it could get too far, however, we decided that a good plan would be to head back out onto the lake and kill the third bottle of Andre. And that's what we did...more stories...and coldness.

We returned about twelve and a Texas Hold'em game broke out. I did not play. I passed out. The end of my day. Except...

EPIC REBOUND!!!

Yup...I slept for two hours and woke up with a gigantic headache to Bill's announcement that he was going outside to the fire with the last bottle of Andre and anyone who had anything left in them was welcome to join him. I didn't have it in me. But I gave in to peer pressure (particularly from Ellis who seemed to have taken up the role of pushy asshole by this point of the evening.) I bundled up in a blanket, popped some Tylenol, and joined in the fun.

Round about 3:00 somebody proposed that we go out on the boat one last time, mainly to look at the stars. Well, this seemed like an absolutely terrible idea to me. But once again I gave in and Bill, Ellis, and I closed out a long day on the lake. Shit, it's Summer of Fun. Summer is about the joy of life and the joy of life is about doing things like going out on a boat at 3AM to look at the stars. And it was fantastic. Best idea ever. And the moon was rising. A red moon. Everything was quiet and perfect with the world. Bill talked about experiencing God on a starry night on the lake being much more meaningful to him than experiencing Him inside a church. And I don't think anyone was in a position to disagree. Everything was just so big and small and real and beautiful. We spent an hour on the lake and then returned to fall into a very happy sleep.