venusianthunder

What an amazing weekend this has turned out to be. I had the weekend off of work, so it was full of possibilities. Had plans to go out to Olive Garden for lunch on Friday to take advantage of the soup, salad and breadsticks. Ended up going up to Sweezey Lake instead with the purpose of spreading some of my father's ashes since that was the place that we vacationed for the majority of our childhood. A lot of memories from that place, both good and bad- Dad almost having a heart attack and mom having to drive him to the hospital without a lisence and with two crying kids and a dog in the car, almost sinking the pontoon boat that is not ours, almost blowing up the cottage (also not ours) while trying to light the gas oven, Dad tipping Mom off of the canoe and into the mucky lagoon, Dad tossing the dog off of the boat and into the water, Dad trying to make us fall off of our tubes while tubeing, Steph and I paddling the paddleboat all the way out to the lillypads and then making the chain fall off, the many Halloween parties, the summer Carissa and I started writing slash and of course the many, many fish that were caught. Anyway, we swam out to the far middle of the lake past all of the muck and seaweed to the very small area of 20+ feet deep water where I thought that I felt an arm hit my leg and Carissa found an old Pepsi bottle. Later on, we took a ride on the pontoon out to the lillypads and spread some of Dad's ashes with a can of beer. It was one of the most difficult things I have ever had to do. It was probably just as hard, if not harder on me than the actual funeral, probably because this was actually putting him to rest, setting free his soul in my mind. Came home from the lake and saw that I had a call from Alex, so I called him back and we decided that it was a good time to play some cards, so despite knowing that I had to wake up at 6:00 in the morning to go to Wampler's Lake we played cards with my sister and mom until about 3:00 in the morning.

Woke up the next morning, surprisingly not groggy. Aunt BeLinda came to pick me up at 7:30, half an hour later than she had said, went to Grandpa's to await the arrival of my other aunts and uncles and after waiting yet another half an hour we departed for Wampler's Lake. The drive was quite boring, because for some reason her radio was not working (along with CD player), but Bob, her boyfriend tried to entertain us with his cheesy jokes, but I had heard most of them before, so that didn't really work. It was okay though. It's only a little over an hour drive, so it wasn't too bad. Got to the lake around 9:15. Started pouring down rain just as we pulled into the parking lot and got our stuff to the picnic tables. Bathrooms were still locked. So, instead of standing around waiting and getting soaked, we made a redneck tent out of the tarp and some cables that Grandpa had in his truck by having my cousin's boyfriend climb the tree and hang the tarp from the branches. It was halarious. It rained for a good two hours and then finally around 11:30 cleared up enough for us to make breakfast. Didn't get in the water until about 1:00. Forgot to reapply sunscreen. Swam until about 5:00. Had fun diving for mussels with my younger cousin and trying to dunk the older (but not older than me) cousins and tip them off of the raft. My one cousin and I tried to get the barrier bouy to sink. We were almost successful, but really ended up riding it like a bull more than sinking it. Came back in from the water. Took forever to dry off, so after that did not want to go back in. Had a good time people watching, trying to figure out if these two women were a couple or not. Decided that they were when I walked into the bathroom and one was hugging the other from behind and kissing her shoulder. It was cute. They were not attractive at all, but it was still cute. Spent some time on the beach looking out at the sun getting lower on the water, thinking about my dad. Uncle Tony saw that I was looking kind of down and we talked for a while about things and then the entire group of my aunts and uncles and distant cousins (the older ones) and I sat and talked about my grandma that ran away and how life was like with her and how it is so much better now that she is not around. It sounds terrible, but if you only knew what she put this family through, you would understand why we all feel that way. Headed back home around 8:30, arrived back at Grandpa's around 9:45. Stayed there for a bit before heading home. Got some Starbucks on the way back. My aunt's first time. I think I got her addicted to something else. My sunburn felt like hell the rest of the night. It was so bad. Felt like flames licking my back, yet I was shivering. I think I may have gotten sun poisoning. It's okay. It will turn into a tan in two or three days time. Hopefully I won't get skin cancer.

Have today and the next two days off, maybe the next three. Depends on if they call me in on Wednesday or not. Either way, best weekend I have had in a long, long time, despite the sunburn.