This week started off very eventful, and then I spent the next two days recovering, not just resting some sore muscles but watching my arms become increasingly black and blue. If you're expecting some saucy story about some sort of BDSM event, however, you're out of luck. My bruises are the result of some tree climbing! ...now it went from a seemingly spicy story to a seemingly childish one, so let me just take it one step at a time and fully explain.
So, in a couple of my previous blog posts, I've mentioned a group I've joined, called A-Larm, which is a sobriety group for both former addicts and those who have been directly affected by addicts; growing up in an alcoholized (and generally traumatizing) home, thus having made the choice to be straight-edge my entire life, I'm in the latter category. A-Larm aims to have a weekly program of 1) outdoor activities, 2) al-anon style group conversations, and 3) social gatherings with coffee and food at their HQ.
Since a lot of people in general are enjoying their summer vacation this time of year, A-Larm arranged a little mini vacation of its own, where we drove to this huge camping area, where the most modern cabins were rented out (only the best for this motley crew!)
So, during the first day, Monday, after getting settled in our cabins, we got right down to business and got a little BBQ session going at these public tables that had built-in grills. Pretty neat, with lots of room for meat! (...a forced rhyme there, but hey, I firmly stand by it)
The barbecue area was also nearby a swimming area, complete with a floating swim platform for kids (I say for kids, but there is a strong possibility me and some of the other guys - four grown men, to be exact - acted like a bunch of 8-year-olds by heading out to the platform and engaged in pretend fighting, pushing each other into the water, and generally giggling like morons)
The rest of the evening, we were outside our cabins again, playing some games, having random conversations, and enjoying some more food. Truly a solid start to our tiny vacation. But I still have to say, the second day was unquestionably the main event!
After breakfast, we headed out to Helgøya Klatrepark - a climbing park in the middle of the forest that had several trails categorized into various levels of difficulty, as well as a super long zipline (roughly 470 yards long) that went over some farmer's field.
We were all handed helmets and security equipment, and a park employee gave a quick tutorial on how everything worked. Then we were basically let loose in the woods to do whatever we pleased.
Having never done anything like this before, I blindly followed a few of my friends over to one of the trails. It turns out that this was one of the higher-difficulty trails, so it turned out to be quite the trial by fire for me, but I pushed through it, and got some cool photos and selfies to prove it (...and to play it more cool than I felt!) It's because I fought my way through that trail I am currently black and blue as mentioned above!
When we came back to the camping area, we had another BBQ session, and then to conclude the evening, we roasted some marshmallows. I mean, if you go camping, you're pretty much contractually obligated to roast marshmallows at some point, right?
On Wednesday, we got up, had some breakfast together, then we packed our stuff and went home. I'm genuinely happy I came along on this trip. It was a wholesome time, and a bonding experience. I've had a tendency to isolate myself in periods, so it feels nice to gain more irl friends whom I can experience things with!
So there you go! That was the highlight of my week. What has everyone else been doing this week, and do y'all have any weekend plans?
While you consider your reply, let's get the weekend started by listening to Opeth, who has just released a new single that seems to hold much promise that they are partly going back to their roots, mixing the old with the new to give us the best of both worlds!
🤘🏻 OJTheViking - 2024 🤘🏻
