MOOP!

WELL THEN!

So, I'm spending the weekend at a resort. The word "resort" is dubious enough, add in the fact that driving instructions included "drive alongside our beautiful golf course for a bit before arriving at the building" does not make me feel any more confident about this place. Mix in some formal-type dinners, and I seem to have determined that "resort" is a fancy word for "suburbia on a lake"¹.

So, I look around, and I determine that I have a few options for my time spent not with the family. I can play golf. I can find a cute normal boy to flirt with. I can soak in the hot-tub or lounge in the pool².

Or I can take out one of the canoes and have myself an ADVENTURE!

(If you haven't figured out what option I picked, we really ought to get to know each other better.)


So, I spent the early evening tooling around in a canoe, which was pretty damn sweet. By the time Alys and I stumbled inside (after yes, we did play in the pool some, but that's mostly because I was sopped and wanted to warm up in the hot tub), I was ready to just internet a bit, and be silly. We had a rough plan --to "sneak out"³ late tonight and go take a canoe and paddle to the middle of the lake and look at the stars.

Alas, the internet proved frustrating, and Alys proved tired. So she went to bed, and I tried to process some feelings that are very difficult to process --nausea at humans fucking up other humans is a difficult emotion to sort out. As time went on, it became increasingly apparent that I wasn't really getting anywhere.

It was time for me to go look at some stars and see if that didn't help any.

So down the stairs I go, peeping in the lobby to see dad waaaay in the back of a crowd of folk watching some basketball game. I determine that finding him to tell him I'm going out in a canoe on a pitch black lake would be too much of a pain in the ass, and I make my way out to the boathouse.

Let's take a quick moment to sum up the situation here. We have me. I am twenty, impulsive but clever. I am wearing a pink dress that goes a bit below my knees and makes me look like a hippie. My hair is tied back, but not braided or bunned. Around my shoulder I have a purse containing my room key, a cell phone that doesn't have service up here, a plastic whistle made by my Atlanta boy, and my ipod.

Oh, and before today, the last time I was ever in a canoe, I was thirteen.


*Luckily*, my tooling around in a canoe earlier today gave me mad canoeing skills. I grabbed a life jacket and an oar, hopped into the canoe that I have declared mine⁴, and faced my way out to the open lake. There was only one problem, as far as I could tell.

The resort has REALLY FRIGGIN BRIGHT lights out facing the lake. If I was going to do some star-gazing, I would have to get pretty far out to avoid them. So I shrug, and start paddling, until finally, I'm probably somewhere close to the center of the lake, honestly. The resort is far behind me, and I let myself lean back.

Oh
My
God.

I like stars. A lot. I wish on them every night, as multiple people can attest to. Unfortunately, I don't get to go a lot of places where I can see a LOT of stars. Such is the peril of the city girl.

Middle of a lake?
In the middle of Vermont?

You can see a LOT of stars. Thousands of thus, and I just stared, happily taking them in. I made some wishes, and thanked mama nature like a good little worshipper, and generally just felt all the tension of life disappear.

After gazing for a few minutes, I decided it was ipod o'clock, and popped in the Dar Williams. Gotta have my feminist folk-rock to counteract the people are BAD thoughts from earlier. It worked, and as I shut off the last remaining sounds (it's pretty damn silent when the canoe's not working) I saw a light far off across the lake, in the trees. It flashed once, and disappeared.

I stared hard at the spot...nothing. I decided that I was insane, and went on being mellow for a bit. Then, a little to the left --another flash.

It's about here in our story that we should note that the Sorcyress is easily spooked. Very *very* easily spooked.

So I start watching that side of the lake like crazy, and yes, sure enough, the yellowish flash of light comes a few more times. And as I watch it flash in and out of the trees, the obviousness of the situation strikes me:

It's just a car driving the road around the lake. The trees in the way made it seem to flash.

That seemed as good a point as any to turn back, and so I did, struggling a little to 180 the canoe. It started bouncing suddenly, on some unexpected waves --we're talking like four inches high here, but still startling-- and I freeze. Waves like this are left by speedboats. I don't have a light, or any reflective material on me. If a speedboat comes at me, I am *boned*.

But I don't hear a speedboat --and I take the headphones out to be sure. I start to paddle back, cautiously. Man, why is the lake surface so rough? And when did the wind...pick...up.

Oh.

Did you know that wind can totally affect canoes? I did not! I learned right then and there, and I learned it good. It was a hard trip back, thoroughly indicative of my relationship with mama nature --she plays rough with me, which is okay, since humans play rough with her, and I can take it. In fact, her being harsh on me is one of the things that best boosts my mood --there's something wonderful about throwing yourself into a rainstorm, or letting your legs numb in a New England ocean. So fighting with her to get across half a lake?

Yeah, I had a smile brighter than the lights guiding me home. It wasn't *really* all that much of a fight anyways-- more a challenge. Three times, I had to figure out how to turn sixty or so degrees, and determined that the easiest way to do so was to turn 300 degrees instead. I made my way to the shore, alternating hard strokes with leaning back and letting the wind sway me from my goal, in order to stare more at the stars and hum along with "Are You Out There". I made it back before the adventure had a chance to even contemplate becoming unfun (this is the other half of the me and Gaea thing, she keeps it entertaining and happy for me, not straining), and wandered my way back upstairs, to "sneak" back into the room.

Altogether, it was an extremely satisfying adventure. And you can bet your *ass* that I'll be doing that again tomorrow night.

~Sor
MOOP!

1: With fewer wal*marts.
2: srsly, why do you have a pool when there is a lake RIGHT THERE?!
3: With our mother's blessing. werewulf is so cool.
4: It looks the same as all the other canoes. But don't argue. It's a "thing", okay?