really obnoxiously long entry about senior trip

written at 9:54 p.m. on 05.24.04

Because I will undoubtedly, at some point in time, want to recall some memories of this class trip, I will "stoop" to dayblogging for a little while. Of course, I "stoop" to dayblogging almost every entry, so this shouldn't be much of a surprise. (Beware, this is REALLY long, so you might want to read it in chunks, if you plan to read it at all.)

Monday

Two in the mornng. I'm still packing. Pack, pack, pack. I've been packing since eight or nine the night before! Gag! I had managed to find the checklist I made from my trip to Texas back in February. I modified the list some and used it to make sure I wasn't forgetting anything. ANYTHING. I had everything a girl could possibly need and more. I had food, clothes, accessories, toiletries, games, movies, and more food. I was ready to rumble. So ready, I fell asleep with a feeling of peace flooding my heart. I had done my part to make sure this trip was gonna be a blast. If anything went wrong, it couldn't be faulted to me. That's an important factor for peace in a perfectionist's mind... being blameless and all that good stuff.

Four hours later. The handy dandy alarm clock is screaming. Ok, more like beeping in an irritating manner, but in the haze of not-quite-ready-to-embrace-reality sleepiness, it might as well have been screaming. Screaming bloody murder. I muttered evilness that rivaled that of the infamous sailor, stumbling blindly through a mess of pokey and prickley objects on my bedroom floor. Ok, that's assuming there really is a floor beneath all the mess. Honestly, one would think that, considering how anal I am about everything in life, my room would be clean. Hmm.. definitely not. Looking at the path between my bed and my alarm clock right now, I'm going to probably walk across these items tomorrow morning: two empty water bottles, a pile of discarded socks (cushy, not so bad), a spiral-bound notebook or two, an upside-down, high-heeled shoe (ouch), a quilt (more cush), and a metal, Spongebob lunch box. Oh, and a pair of scissors. Looks like it will be quite an exciting morning! Anywho, back to 6:00am on Monday morning. I shuffled around and managed to get ready on time for once. By seven o'clock, I was seated in the passenger seat of my mom's van, ready to sleep the whole hour-long drive to school. My brother was groaning in the backseat about who knows what. He likes to grumble, but he hasn't quite learned to vocalize his complaints as well as I have. Oh well. He has time.

Five minutes down the road.. and I realize that I left my hairbrush on the counter of my bathroom. Unfortunately, Mom's Taxi Service only goes one way.. whichever way she wants to go. Rawr. No last-minute turn-arounds with Mom in the driver's seat. So, knowing that I was no longer packed to perfection, I found myself unable to sleep. Instead, I spent the whole trip telling my mom which lane to get in next, being that I travel the route daily and am therefore an expert. She asked for my advice. Don't worry, I wasn't being the unwanted backseat (actually, frontseat) driver.

Eight o'clock. We finally arrived at school. I was livid when I discovered that the bus wasn't scheduled to arrive to pick up the seniors until 9:00am. An extra hour that I could've been sleeping! But, I understand that it was a precaution against having to wait for late seniors. So, I spent some time chatting with classmates, then headed off with a few people to go brighten up Mrs. Wright's morning. (Mrs. Wright was my AP English teacher. Most students love her dearly, and almost everyone is sad that she is retiring after this year.)

9:30am. Ok, so the bus was thirty minutes late. I was probably complaining about it at the time, but really, no big deal. I was minorly disappointed to find that, instead of a nice Greyhound type bus, like my youth group always rents and like the school rented for the choir tour two years ago, the seniors were stuck on a typical, bland, yellow school bus without TVs and without cushy seating. Oh well. The trip to the Wisconsin Dells is about three hours, so we wouldn't have had time to watch many movies or do much sleeping anyway.

I won't go into much detail about the bus ride. I basically chatted with the people around me, and when my seat was unoccupied (except for me, of course), I whipped out my brand new Marian Keyes book, Last Chance Saloon. I tried to listen to my new CD, the mix from the OC, but it was a little too noisy for such quiet music. Oy. The worst part of the bus ride was when we buddied up next to a semi full of pigs. Ew ew ew. The stench was wretched!! Seriously, I felt a little sick after ten minutes or so, and when the bus driver refused to pass the truck, I was tempted to shove the old man out the window and take over control. Seriously, we stayed next to that truck for probably the better part of an hour, if not longer.

Lunch. Oy. We gave the poor people at Subway a run for their money. They were swamped. Almost every single one of the thirty people on the trip bombarded Subway in search of good, healthy food. A few stragglers wandered over to get pizza from the joint next door. I was one of the fools at the back of the line at Subway, complaining for half of an hour as person after person took their sweet time preparing their precious deli concoctions. We should've called ahead and ordered a party sub. Would've saved me a lot of impatient grumbling. Good rants should be used sparingly, like gasoline. (Ok, I waste gasoline, and I love ranting nonstop. Bad philosophy.)

Paradise!! My goodness. Our rooms were like paradise! Ok, not really, but they were pretty freakin nice for a class trip. I was all freaked out about staying in "The Wilderness," being that the name reminded me of outdoorsy, woodsman stuff. I probably mentioned before that I have nature problems. I love the cutesy side of nature, with the flowers and the butterflies, but the bugs and the pollen and the potential dangers (scraping your knee climbing a tree.. hey, that rhymed!).. well, I don't dig things named after the wilderness. I haven't up til now, that is. We walked down what looked to be the hallway of an ordinary hotel, only to open the doors to massive suites loaded with goodies. Two queen beds in a guest bedroom, complete with a guest closet and guest TV. Tessa, Grace, Shannon, and Allison bunked there. They had their own bathroom too. The bathroom was almost as big as a small bedroom. The master bedroom, which Mrs. House claimed for herself, also had its own private TV and had a door leading to the Jacuzzi. Yes, each room had a sun-room/porch-type thing with three big comfy chairs, a fireplace, and a Jacuzzi. Mmm. That room also had a TV. The living room had a couch with a hideaway bed, which I shared with Heidi. Melody pulled up the cot next to us and we partied into the night with the only TV+DVD/VHS player in the condo! Whoo! We were also right next to the full-sized kitchen, both a bonus and a downside. We did get to share a humongous bathroom with Mrs. House. Seriously, it was probably as big as my room, and my room is not small. (My room was originally the master bedroom on the floorplan, but my parents chose to add on the optional, jumbo super-sized master suite at the other end of the hallway.) Anyway, there were two girls condos and two boys condos. There were supposed to be rules about not entering the condo of another sex until after five and only if a chaperone was present. Umm.. yeah, doors were open from dawn til dusk and pretty much until the midnight lock-up curfew. We're trustworthy kids. Heck, the most provocative behavior was probably buddying up in the hot tubs, but since there was no guarantee of privacy ever, nobody bothered to do anything wrong.

Free Time!! Every single person, except Melody and I, wanted to go swimming... immediately. Before I had even decided whether I wanted the cot or the hideaway, Tessa and Grace were already suited up and ready to go. Melody didn't even bring a swimsuit, uncomfortable with the idea of getting wet and even more uncomfortable with the prospect of having to don a swimsuit in public. I had reluctantly packed two swimsuits, not really looking forward to getting wet or getting exposed either. So, we solemnly vowed not to go swimming the entire trip. Fortunately, we're really good friends and were therefore guaranteed to have a fun time, regardless of whether or not we were by ourselves for most of the trip.

Melody and I did run into a minor fiasco the first day. Heidi, our fellow living-room bunkmate, had decided she would not join the swimming crowd quite yet. Of the three of us who were not going swimming, Heidi seemed the most responsible, so we gave her a key. The three of us went to find the arcade (not the Arcade, which we'll get to later), where we met a few other non-swimmers. Melody and I got really involved in a match of Skeeball, but when we turned around, everybody else had left. Including Heidi. And the key. Gah!! We had no way back into the room. We had no way back to our food, to our music, to our movies, to our anything! Heidi!!! So, Melody and I resolved to spend the next several hours exploring, in hopes of finding all the swimming people. After exploring every inch of the indoor premises, we ventured outdoors to the lake. However, the path we took to get to the lake did not take us to the lake. Instead, the path led us to the outdoor swimming pools, which were closed. We spent a few minutes admiring this really cool pool that looks like it drops off into the lake behind it. Then, we met Mr. Sexy Italian Lifeguard. He must have seen our confused faces from the indoor kid-friendly water park. He meandered out to find us skirting around the "Pool Closed" signs. He asked in his sexy accent, "Are you lost?" We tried to convince him that we knew exactly where we were, but he wasn't buying it. So, we let him show us the way back to the Front Lobby. Heck, the more time we got to spend with his sexy self, the better. Anyway, he finally got tired of leading us, and pointed across the waterpark to the door we were supposed to walk through. I pulled on the right-hand door, only to find it locked. So, Melody and I shamefacedly approached Mr. Italian to tell him that the door was locked. His eyes fluttered open in surprise. Well, at least, that's what I'm assuming happened. He was wearing sunglasses.. indoors.. cuz that's what sexy people do, I assume. He looked at us like we were idiots, strolled over to the double doors, pulled on the left-hand door and flung it open with surprising ease. "Err.. Thanks!.. ha.. we.. look.. stupid." I grabbed Melody and pulled her through the door, wishing for that stupid hole in the floor to arrive. You know, the one that never does come?! Or if it is there, it's only big enough to grab onto the heel of your shoe, making you trip and fall and wish for a bigger hole. Sigh.

Well, it took Heidi a while to return, so Melody and I spent more time cruising around the hotel. Fortunately, the main attraction of the building was the (small) indoor water park, so a lot of the hallways featured windows that looked down upon our sexy lifeguard. We could drool safely from a distance. After what seemed like an eternity, Melody and I finally gathered up the courage to wander to the Front Lobby, with the intent of getting a new room key. We had no idea where everyone had gone, but we were hungry and tired of walking. On our way there, we bumped into Mr. Funkhouser, our P.E. teacher and one of the chaperones. He told us where everyone was and even had the Front Desk call the shuttle for us to get there. Melody and I arrived to find that everyone had left, so we bought a hairbrush for me at the gift shop and then called a shuttle to go back. Who else would be on the shuttle than the majority of our classmates?! Including Heidi!! I took the key from Heidi and there were no more issues with room entry from then on out.

-~-Laser Tag-~- Yes, the dreaded "lazer" tag. Up until the trip, I had never played before. So, when I wasn't worrying about getting the key back from Heidi, I was worried about having to play laser tag at seven. Well, it turned out to be pretty fun! I don't think I would ever voluntarily play again, but I did enjoy myself. I wasn't great at it, but I wasn't horrible. Being a perfectionist, I'm not a big fan of activities which I don't rock at, therefore.. no more laser tag for me for a while. One minor rant about this. The guy who collected the tickets would stand at the entrance to the laser tag maze thing and would shoot us! He had a vest on and a working gun, and he wound up getting the highest score every time. Brat! We intended to gang up on him for the second round, but nobody was paying attention to time, so that plan failed.

Other stuff.. A few girls from my room, myself included, and a few guys from Mr. Funkhouser's room went grocery shopping and picked up enough stuff to make lunch and dinner for the next few days. (Quite a few people went out to eat, while others just meandered about the hotel, I guess.) The guys went a little balistic, spending over a hundred dollars. The girls managed to spend about twenty-five dollars. The girls did manage to eat all the food we bought, with the exception of a few hot dogs. I was proud of us, since for about four bucks a piece, we managed to save ourselves a lot of money by eating in all the time. Those who chose to dine outside the condos found themselves forking out ghastly amounts of money to do so. Umm.. what else did we do Monday night... Oh, a few of the girls from my room made pasta, which was scrumdidliumptious. We ate that while watching Superstar, which I had never seen before. It brought new meaning to the term "treehugger." Ah, good clean humorous fun. Oh man, then quite a few people crammed into a circle in the hallway for the most outrageous game of Spoons I have ever played. I was bleeding in three places by the time I was eliminated. I had also managed to get my nail snagged and almost ripped my fingernail right off of my finger. Yeah.. it was violent, but a whole lot of fun. That's the last thing I really remember, besides trying to crawl over Melody's bed to get to mine. It was an adventure, since she didn't want me walking over her bed, so she would trip me on the way past, leaving me with several bruises and a stomach that was sore from laughing. At last, we managed to fall asleep.

Tuesday

7:30am.. no wait, 8:30am. I looked at my watch wrong when I woke up on Tuesday morning. (Probably because it was butt-freezing cold. The night before, we had turned on the fan and opened the back door to the outside, since it was roasting. Seriously, it was probably fifty degrees when I woke up. Not a happy way to begin the day.) Anyway, this really threw me for a loop, since I thought I had walked into the bathroom at 7:40, so when I walked out at 9:30, I was rather frightened. I know I take a while in the bathroom, but.. almost two hours?! Yeah, I eventually figured things out and calmed my panicked heart. Melody, on the other hand, warned us that she would take almost two hours in the bathroom. The scary thing was that she wasn't exaggerating. Heidi learned her lesson quickly and tried to squeeze her bathroom time in before Melody got there. Breakfast the first morning for me was grabbing a muffin from the food stash and shoving it in my face. Mrs. House, being super-prepared, had brough snack foods of all varieties and had split them evenly between the four rooms. The chocolate snacks didn't last too long in our room, so I was constantly wandering from room to room, raiding whatever was left of their snacks. Everyone ate food from every room, so it probably evened itself out at some point down the line.

After breakfast, what do you suppose everyone wanted to do? Sleep! No.. wait, swim!! I knew it started with an 's.' Fortunately, Allison, Noel, and Guy wanted to go check out the fitness room, so I took the rare opportunity to bond with some of the swimming herd on a non-swimming adventure. Of course, I had already showered and was not in the mood to get all sweaty, so I half-heartedly tried out the elliptical machine, deciding that burning 22 calories was more than enough fun for one morning. Guy and Noel left abruptly after about twenty minutes of "exercising," and Allison and I were left to critique everything from the lack of good TV channels to the swarm of our guys who were swimming below. (The fitness room, like most every other room, had a view of the pool.) Good fun. Oh yeah, the soccer girls took off early that morning to compete in regionals, leaving Allison, Heidi, Melody, and I in one condo and not many more in the other girls condo.

Lunch!! The soccer girls missed out on a lot of fun on Tuesday, the first thing being lunch. Somebody managed to get a few grills going out on the outdoor patio (next to the pool where Melody and I met our lifeguard), so the guys dug into their mountain of groceries, grilling up hot dogs, hamburgers and brats, while the girls brought a few hot dogs of our own. It was bloody good food.. ha, look at all the double-o words in that sentence. Ok, moving on.. Oh wait. At some point, Patrick managed to put the wrong soap in the dishwasher in his room, making a lovely, sudsy mess that had everyone laughing. It's pretty darn hilarious to see guys standing around in a puddle of bubbles, helplessly grabbing onto mops, looking as if they hadn't a clue what to do with them.

"Extreme park." Yeah, I was looking forward to the adventure to the "extreme park" with as much enthusiasm as a person going to the electric chair.. for the fourth time. I don't do "extreme" things any more than I do "lazer" tag. However, after one look at the go-kart track, I knew I was going to have a good time. I'm pretty sure anyone and everyone who knows me is aware of my obsession with speed. The idea of getting in a vehicle and making it go as fast as it possibly can go was a thrilling prospect. My adrenaline was pumping just thinking about it. Each student was given three tokens to use throughout the "park." Actually, as far as I could tell, the tokens were good for the go-karts and the haunted house. Everything else (a bungee jump and some other high-in-the-sky adventure thing) cost extra. I had planned on using all three of my tokens on the go-kart track, so I hopped in line. The first eight people took their seats and sped off, leaving me to wave and cheer from the sidelines. After their three laps were up, Noel and I dashed off to get the first two cars. (Noel is a car fanatic. He loves the cars and I love the speed. In either case, we were both psyched to race.) As soon as the guy waved us out of the gate, we were off. Not even thirty seconds later, and Matt was bumping up behind me, trying to pass both Noel and I. Mark took advantage of my momentary distraction and busted through everyone. I tried my best to follow him, but his kart was faster than mine. I kept this in mind, making a mental note to get #3 next time around. I finished second, which was decent for a girl, since I'd noticed that most of the other girls who had raced in my race and the previous one were far behind the guys. But.. the perfectionist in my reared it's beautiful, Narcissistic head again and demanded first place.

I needed a little time to lick my wounds, as Mark was already getting patted on the back for his victory. Fortunately, plenty of people had seen him mercilessly push me out of the way like a lifeless ragdoll, so his victory pats were accompanied by a few wagging fingers. I made sure to congratulate him, though I made equal effort to let him know that it was slightly unfair and that it wouldn't ever happen again. Anyway, from here, a group of us decided to go check out the "Castle of Terror." To make this story short.. well, to make it less long, I'll save you the details and just say this: I screamed both times through, I mostly laughed. It was the cheesiest haunted house type thing, but it was scary nonetheless. Most of the guys were wusses and wanted to go in the back, but Jordan later informed us that the back was worse than the front. One of the guys followed behind the group and would whisper to the person in back, "You're going the wrong way" and other more creepy things that I can't remember. Anywho, the first time through, we made people take pictures, just so we could use the flash from the camera to see where we were going. It was fun.

The second time around the track, I nabbed number three, even though it wasn't the first vehicle in line. I floored it immediately and passed everyone up with ease. I kept a victorious smirk on my face through all three laps, enjoying the feeling while it lasted. I wish I had a million dollars so I could get a nice car and build a private race track. It's so nice to go fast without having to worry about cops. Granted, the go-karts weren't going 120mph, my preferred speed in my real car, but they felt fast, and that's what matters.

Downtown somewhere. After the "extreme park" adventure, we were dropped off at downtown somewhere to go visit hundreds of identical tourist-type shops. Boring. I really wanted a henna tattoo, but every single tattoo place was closed or the artist who did the tattoos had the day off. I was cursed. Erik did manage to find a cool pen that has a battery at the end that buzzes you when you go to click the pen. Quite entertaining. I found the first cowboy hat to ever fit my head properly. A lot of people said I looked cute in it and that I should purchase it, but it was twenty-five dollars. How much money did I have left? Twenty-five dollars. Future food.. cowboy hat.. future food.. cowboy hat. I definitely opted for the food. As far as I know, cowboy hats don't taste too good. Plus, it was one of those cheap ones that wouldn't have lasted long anyway. Oh well. Somebody got pictures of my glory. I'll have to ask for doubles. I did buy a postcard for Silky, since he didn't make it up to Illinois to visit when his brother Scott came. I should probably send it to him tomorrow.

Free time was relatively boring, since Melody and I again found ourselves wasting tons of money at the arcade. Kate finally convinced us to go to The Arcade (a bigger version located next to the bigger water park where all the swimmers frequented), where Melody and Kate wasted tons of money. I was savoring every last penny, all too aware that I might still have to pay for meals in the future (still).

Dinner consisted of pizza, pizza, and more pizza. We had a pizza party out on the patio, with delicious, home-made brownies for dessert. Kate had a minor breakdown when she discovered that she was missing the finale of Gilmore Girls. She called like thirty people, trying to get someone to tape it for her. Her cousin finally agreed, but called back twenty minutes later to say that she never figured out how to work the VCR. Poor Kate. She was devestated. Jess, meanwhile, was counting down the minutes until the finale of 24. She and Kate left the pizza party early to go watch that, and after that, people kinda left in twos or threes, just meandering about rather lazily, probably worn out from losing so many rounds of go-karts.

Later that evening, after the soccer girls returned, not at all victorious, I wandered around, trying to find a group to settle down and do something with. I tried umpteen times to start various movies, but someone always wanted us to wait for "five minutes" for them to do whatever before we started. In the end, not a single movie got played. Earlier, Allison and I had spent a good deal of time walking around the hotel, talking and trying to avoid getting shot. Jordan and a few other guys had gotten pellet gun things earlier in the day and were using the hotel hallways and stairways as their personal battlegrounds. In the process, they did wind up pouncing on a poor old lady who about had a heart attack. Jordan mistook her for Brian (who knows how) and jumped in front of her at the elevator, gun poised at her head. Poor lady. The whole class bust up laughing as we heard about this, but the old lady insisted that somebody give the boys a talking-to and remove their weapons from them. So, World War III was put on hold for the rest of the trip.

Meanwhile, Allison and I ended our walk when the soccer girls arrived, and I split off to go find Melody and Heidi, who were sitting in "our chairs." When Melody and I went exploring the day before, we found a spot on the lower level, right next to the arcade and the entrance to the swimming pool/water park. Four unbelievably comfortable chairs were placed around a coffee table at the bottom of a grand staircase that went up all four floors. Sitting in the chairs and looking up, you got an amazing view of the bottom of the huge chandelier that hung from the fourth floor ceiling. Anywho, it was a nice quiet retreat that no one else bothered to use except for Melody, Heidi, and I, and occassionally a few of our mutual friends. We sat down there and chatted for what seemed like forever and a day. When we finally returned to our room, it seemed that the three soccer girls from our room had spent some time with Allison, and now all four of them wanted to bond with the living-room girls. By this point, I had downed two bottles of Mountain Dew, and I was quite giggly but still exhausted. The three of us who had just returned wanted to go to bed right then and there. A minor catastrophe occured when the four guest-room girls wouldn't evacuate the living room, claiming that it wasn't our bedroom, that it was the living room,.. that they had the right to be there and bond with us. Being that the tired trio wanted to sleep and were getting crankier by the moment, we forcefully shoved them off of our beds and told them to basically get out of our hair. Shannon wouldn't leave, rather, she wanted to watch a movie. So, we grudgingly let her watch some of a movie, until everyone got too tired and cranky and mean. She kinda wound up a tad grouchy and left to go to bed. Everyone was in a foul mood after that. At least, that's how it seemed to me. We were unreasonable and tired and cranky, and we were making mountains out of molehills. Somehow, Heidi, Melody, and I managed to sooth ourselves by getting all giggly again, sending Heidi and I into bouts of hiccups. Eventually, however, we did get to sleep.

Wednesday

::Insert noise of many pots and pans banging together, mingled with the sound of several female voices chattering.:: Then, insert the sound of me waking up and going, "What the &%$#? Get the #$%% out of my room! I'm trying to sleep here!!" Nobody heard me, which is probably for the best. I was more than just early-morning-pissed-off-at-the-world angry. I was livid with rage. I am not a morning person. I have murderous, evil thoughts when I open my eyelids in the morning, especially if I am not ready to greet the morning quite yet. I've probably threatened to kill my dad thousands of times for his morning, "Rise and shine, sweetheart!" shenanigans. There isn't anything shiny about my rising, and there most definitely is not anything sweet about my heart. Needless to say, waking up to clattering pans and chattering, giggling girls was not my idea of a happy morning. It turned out that Ally and Kari, who had volunteered to make regular and chocolate-chip pancakes for the whole class, had moved into our kitchen to make said breakfast. I really wish they had done it in their kitchen, since nobody was sleeping in the living room over there. However, going to bed in a foul mood just led too perfectly into waking up in a foul mood. Fate couldn't resist.

I somehow managed to fall back asleep, only to wake up a short time later to the smell of bacon and pancakes. That was pleasant. For all of a split second. Then I realized that half of the class was in my room eating breakfast, while I was probably drooling all over the place on my pillow for their entertainment. Actually, I wasn't drooling. I checked. My shirt was halfway up my back, but I was deeply entrenched in sheets and blankets, so I think I was safe. Still, waking up to find teenagers of both genders standing around in my bedroom, talking and laughing and eating and whatnot.. well, I'm not used to that. At all. Torn between screaming bloody murder and waking up gracefully, I finally flopped out of bed, grasped around blindly for some clothes, and made a mad dash for the bathroom. After a shower and all that good stuff, I reemerged to find Melody glowering cheerfully at me, waiting for her turn in the bathroom, and Heidi still fighting off the last bits of sleepiness. I hadn't had a chance to blowdry my hair, but I figured that I could survive for a few minutes with wet hair.

Before I had a chance to find out how to get some breakfast, somebody gave me the opportunity of a lifetime. I think Ally or someone mentioned that Jonathan needed something from the guest bedroom in my condo. The girls were still asleep, and nobody wanted to wake them. (Why nobody cared about waking us up,.. well that's an unsolved mystery.) Anyway, I jumped at the idea, explaining how "cruel" they had been the night before, trying to keep us up until dawn. Revenge is sweet! Melody and Heidi, who were still lolligagging around, cheered dazedly in the background. "Do it! They deserve it!" Pumped by their enthusiasm and encouragement, I made my way slowly to the door. Grace had just walked out, which was a blessing, since they had apparently locked their door the night before. With their protective lock gone, I was free to make my move. I cautiously opened the door, looking upon their sleeping forms with glee. FLICK! The deed was done. I had poured all my bitterness into that one single flick of the lightswitch, and my energies were not wasted. To my utter delight, three blissful forms twitched to life in a very agitated manner. I couldn't surpress my laughter. I ignored their complaints and told them that I had found my revenge. After finding what I came for (the hat and the revenge), I left, once again in a good mood, my chest swelling with victorious glee. I turned off the light, shut the door, and entered the kitchen with a heartfelt "Bwa ha ha." Ah.. I still get all tingly inside thinking about it. Mmm..

Umm.. My memory gets a little fuzzy here. What the heck did I do? I remember waiting for Melody for longer than the day before. Oh yes, Melody and I got dragged along by Allison, Shannon, Heidi, Larissa, and Bethany, who were all pyshced about going back to the water park place. Melody and I, intent on keeping or vows of non-wetness, tagged along for good reason. Melody was saving up tickets to get as many samurai swords (plastic ones) as possible, since she's a huge fan of Kill Bill. I wanted to play in the DZ/Leapin-Lizards/Chucky Cheese play place type thing that was in the same building as The Arcade and the water park. We bumped into Mr. Sexy Italian Lifeguard, who had disappeared on Tuesday, so that was exciting. Melody and I got to show him off to the others. (Actually, we have no idea what his nationality is. He had dark hair and a cool, non-Spanish accent. We assumed he was Italian. Nobody is allowed to burst that bubble.)

Wait, wait, wait. The shuttles were ridiculously slow on Wednesday. The parking lots around several of the Dells buildings were blocked off as they had wet tar on them. So, the shuttles had to find unusual routes to get everywhere. By the time our group had finished raiding The Arcade and tearing up the play place, we found Brian, Kari, Jordan, and Tessa waiting for a shuttle. They had been waiting twenty minutes already. With them, we waited ten or fifteen minutes. (Usually, the shuttles arrived five minutes after they were called.) We were all irritable from waiting around so long, and those who had gone swimming were particularly angry, since they wouldn't have time to take a shower before we left for the day's activity.

The activity of the day on Wednesday was a jet-boat tour of some big lake in the Dells. The tour guide tried to be funny, but he mostly got pity laughs. He did get hearty cheers when he did fun spins and stuff like that. Everyone wanted to get a little misted, so we kept chanting for him to speed up, then stomp on the brakes and turn into one of his signature twirly things. He was really good at maneuvering the boat into neat little spins. Other than that, he wasn't of much use to me. I really wasn't in the mood for staring at rock after rock after tree after tree. It was interesting in a Discovery Channel kind of way. Interesting only because there wasn't anything else on. Ooo.. look at Rachel, ending sentences in prepositions. How daring! Something to be proud of. (Ok, something of which to be proud. Happy, Sean?!)

Dinner!! The class went to some restaurant called the MooseJaw. Melody affectionately dubbed the place "The room of death." Deer heads were everywhere, antlers covered every lamp, the coat hangers were bent hooves.. dead stuff everywhere. The food was decent, though I spent well over an hour being made fun of by Melody and Heidi for various things. Even the waitress laughed at me at one point, when I couldn't decide whether or not I wanted a doggy bag or not. I was humiliated and mildly irritated at the end of it, but I had downed two bottles of Mountain Dew that day, plus I had Mountain Dew with my meal. I was pretty drunk, for me. Honestly, I don't know why I react to Mountain Dew like it's alcoholic, but I do. I get all giggly and goofy, and my judgment goes out the window. By the time we all boarded the bus at the end of dinner, I was laughing obnoxiously at just about everything. Of course, I had a stockpile of inside jokes with Melody and Heidi by then, so I was usually laughing for a good reason, even if nobody else picked up on it.

::Drools:: Ok, at this point, people had a choice. Either A) go see Troy or B ) go back to the hotel and do something else. I was eager to give myself a few hours to snap out of the giggliness, so I jumped at the chance to see Troy. Of course, the fact that Brad Pitt's butt was featured was a wee incentive, too. Melody and Heidi also went, of course, as did Ally. I teased Patrick about the whole thing with him and Ally by waving Ally's purse in front of him and saying, "Hear doggy! Good boy!" At this, my senses, which had been held captive somewhere by several liters of Mountain Dew, burst out of their bonds and came to the rescue. I apologized profusely to Patrick several times over, and I still feel horrible to this very minute. He had scowled at me and got all grouchy.. I feel so horrible.

Anyway, I originally was seated next to my equally giggly friends, Heidi and Melody, but Ally wanted to move up a row with the other half of our group, so I went with her. Halfway through, the Mountain Dew got to me, and "I had to pee like a mother," as Kate would say. Fortunately, Ally was also at the crossing-the-legs-and-shifting-uncomfortably point, so we decided we'd go together during the next battle. Heh, lucky for us, there weren't any battles for a long time. We finally just left during a part that didn't have Brad Pitt in it. Anyway, she claims that I was making little noises during the movie whenever Brad Pitt came on screen.. little gasps and whatnots. I probably was. I was in heaven!! I would definitely marry Brad Pitt any day of the week, sorry Elijah Wood, but you'd both have to share me. I'm not against polygamy in that case, though.

Come to think of it, Brad Pitt could make me do a lot of things I normally wouldn't do. After the movie, Melody, Heidi, and I found "our chairs" and discussed the movie. Melody dissed Briseus for being a slut, but in her defense, I said, "Honestly, who wouldn't lose their virginity to Brad Pitt?" She raised her hand, hesitating when she saw neither of us were raising ours. I was shocked. "You WOULDN'T"?

"OH!! I thought you said would!! I definitely put my hand down then."

The relief that passed over my face and Heidi's was obvious. Anyway, that night, the locked-in-the-rooms curfew was extended until 1:30am, but everyone wanted to play Catchphrase. Not seeing the appeal in such a lots-of-people-being-loud-and-obnoxious type of game, I opted to play cards in the hall. I was joined by, of course, Melody and Heidi, as well as Bethany. We sat in a little circle in the hallway, eating brownies and playing poker, which only Melody knew how to play. At some point, Guy came stomping out of the noisy Catchphrase room, complaining that the group had been mean to him. His room was the one being sabotaged by the majority of people, so he moved into the other male condo to play Game Cube. We moved the poker game in by him and actually decided to play Yahtzee instead of poker. I don't remember much outside of that, except asking Mrs. House to wake me at 8:00am the following morning. We had to be out of the rooms by 10:30am, and I wanted time to shower and stuff. To bed I went.

Thursday

8:00am. I'm still sleeping. Mrs. House did not wake me up.

9:40am. Ah, I finally woke up. I wasn't cold, and there weren't people in my room. Of course, the one morning I wanted someone to wake me up.. but that's just my luck. I managed to get packed and ready on time, though the whole shower thing never happened. Oh well. Not many people showered that day, so I didn't feel bad. Everyone posed as a group in front of the bus, and every single person made sure to put their camera (and probably three or four extras just to slow things down) in the pile of to-be-used cameras. I held my smile only long enough to get to my camera. After that, I let it slide into the fake, cheesy smile that will probably end up in the yearbook, but who cares.

It was imperative that we make one last stop at The Arcade so that Melody and I could cash in our tickets. Everyone had heard of Melody's quest to get Samurai swords, so everyone (except me and Larissa, since we actually had enough to get semi-decent prizes for ourselves) gave their tickets to Melody. She wound up getting ten or more swords, two for herself and the rest she gave away. In fact, I tripped over the red one she gave me this morning. Anyway, then commenced the three hour trip back home.

Arby's?! Well, I've seen the bloody commercials for Arby's as many times as the next bloke, but I certainly wasn't buying the whole "nice, sit-down restaurant" gig until I saw it in action with my own two eyes. Instead of bombarding Subway again, the gang decided on Arby's for lunch. As we finished our meals, some dude who worked there came around and collected our trays and threw out our trash for us. Then, he came around with a basket full of mints. He was at our table more often than the waiters and waitresses at the MooseJaw. It was one of those jaw-dropping experiences that left me with a little tingle of hope for the world at large.

But enough tingling. Enough rambling. I'm bloody tired. Bloody tired enough to be saying bloody. Marian Keyes, the author I've been obsessing about, always writes about Irish chicks living either in Ireland, or London, or New York, or wherever.. but the characters always say things like "bloody." One book is even described as "a bloody good page-turner." I think this is my cue to leave.. and sleep.. oh wait, my grandma and grandpa arrived today.. for my graduation.. Must be polite. (This has taken me three days to write. I'm exhausted.) Well, off to socialize and then off to sleep. The end!