Captain's Log: 2005.08

08.21.05: Freaking Creeks

Ah, I did not update much this summer. Still though, quit e-mailing asking if you can take over the site. As far as I can see, I will not ever turn my site over to anyone. It would unbalance the cosmic scales and kill you all. So just lay off it, okay now?

School starts again so very soon and I think I am in some type of denial about it. Sometimes I think I am in a denial about most things. I go and think too much and block it out at the same time. My fingers have not been in sync with my keyboard lately. That reminds me, I am getting cable internet installed on Tuesday morning. HOO-HAH! My, how out of character... I believe I may spend my whole day downloading things just to watch the bars move quickly. How lame can I be, huh? The sun must have gotten to me. When I dozed off on my deck I woke to a massive robin staring at me. I named him Akko because that is how I address all birds. Do not even try figuring about why, because no one knows and you are not supposed to ask.

Today was full of unusual events for me so I will use them to fill the screen. We shall say that it began with me falling out of bed, which is not all that rare. It still hurt though because I added a rug burn to my already sunburned right arm, but I digress. Skip ahead a few hours and I am late for a tea party and running around trying to find my dark blue comb, which I found later in my transforming bag. What does it transform into, you ask? That is not relevant to this story, so shut up and eat your chocolate sundae, fool. Ahem, yes, story indeed, where was I? Fast-forward to a lovely tea party with cameras, honey, chocolate chips, a pink hat, powdered sugar, cherries, pearl necklaces, vanilla Oreos, cookies, some tasty bread things, chocolate frosting and a Dove chocolate commanding me to "wink at someone driving by." Oh, and also iced raspberry green tea. Just so you learn at least one thing from all this, some tasty bread things do not taste good when dipped in iced raspberry green tea. So only try it when I am watching. Even I need a hearty laugh once in a while. Oops, I forgot the setting. Most of this story takes place in a Pecatonica forest park that I do not know the name of.

You know, I am not sure if the other people in this story want me to use their names or not. Gee, I suppose this is alias creation time. Um, for the sake of the tale they shall be called Pelican and Canary. Pelican... I do not quite know why that is your name. It is just that I thought Canary was a good name for the other person and I wanted the names to match somehow and a pelican was the first bird that popped into my head, so Pelican it is. Heh, just re-reading that makes me smile a bit, but yes, back to the telling of the day's events.

After the tea party we loaded all the necessary accessories and various foodstuffs back into Pelican's car and went about looking for trail that Canary had seen before and wanted to traipse about on for a while. That took a few tries but eventually I spotted the thing and we drove through a bunch of grass before realizing there was a parking lot about twenty yards away. While walking back to the path we met a tiny snake on its way across the road and we named it Pedro and gave him a lift over to the side of the street. After that we wandered about in the forest for a spell, which was fun but I wish I had been wearing jeans and not a knee-high skirt with sunburned legs. Eventually we came upon a field with rather tall grass but no other amazingly defining features. By now the path had split a hundred and four times and we were about to run into the hundred and fifth choice. We headed back into the forest and I found a pink rock that a liked, but it was too big to carry around and was half buried so I left it there. Now figuring that we were somewhat lost we came up to another field filled with moths, butterflies and a winding creek that looked like a horseshoe at one point. here the creek had some possible crossing points but they all smelled like horse poop, so after Canary and Pelican got their feet in it we decided not to cross, heh. After this point things get a little blurry and we went through more forests and fields until we came to this one field with a lot of corn. For all the movies where people are running through corn, it hurts like hell, so I would suggest that you refrain from such activity. At this point we concurred that we were lost and may perhaps be in either Ireland or Sweden, which may or may not exist, but we saw a road off in the distance so off we went again.

Then there was that cursed creek again. We had to cross to get to the road and ask directions, even though I was none too thrilled about it. I will admit that it seemed like a fine point to cross at, but bah. Pelican had for the most part already gotten to the other side so I took off my shoes and followed when a rock under me shifted and I fell in. I was soaked up to my neck and, as is commonly the case, I was wearing a white spaghetti strap shirt. Needless to say, I felt a strong desire to search out Poseidon and kick him in the shin. Honestly, that freaking creek could not have been deeper than a foot and still... ah well, some way or another I managed to avoid any injury other then a sulking mindset. Honestly, that was more so because my socks got wet, and wet socks bother me. They just do.

The ground always seems sharp when you cannot wear your shoes. When we came to the street we shuffled up to a nearby house to ask for directions because darn it we were lost and I was wet and Pelican was not particularly dressed for traipsing around a forest. Well, none of us were, but feel like typing the word Pelican as much as I can today, so doom on you. No one seemed to be home except for some loud dogs so we went to the other nearby house, which oddly enough had a llama in the yard, to ask. Again, no one was home except for some more boisterous canines and the llama. I cannot even remember what was going on in my head then because I was quite cold, sunburned and still so very, very wet. And yet it was still fairly fun. Although next time I am wearing pants and a non-white shirt regardless of weather. Man, always a white shirt.

Since we ran out of houses Canary flagged down a passing car and it turned out to be a kind older couple. We lucked out, since they were going to the park entrance for their son's Eagle Scout ceremony or what have you and they offered us a ride there. I had to sit on a mat because I still had yet to dry but it beat the heck out of walking. That was a rare occurrence where getting into a car with strangers paid off. Oh boy, if my mum hears she would probably murder me. On the way back to the car we met another snake, recently deceased, in the road. I named him Giacomo and Canary and Pelican held a brief burial. That, kiddies, is why you do not walk down the middle of the road. Then the sweet, green station wagon with a Loyola sticker came into view. I kind of wanted to hug it but the metal burned my skin like an active crematorium. Anywho, how we managed to walk all the way from the entrance to the park boundaries escapes me, it was a nice way to spend one of my last summer days.

How did the story end? We all went out for iced coffee drinks. I have told you before; Rockford is boring. Do not ever come here without a reason. Like getting me out of here, for instance. My clothes are still drying and it is almost tomorrow, so I had better be going.

Don't knock the weather. If it didn't change once in a while, nine out of ten people couldn't start a conversation.

Kin Hubbard (1868 - 1930)

All ramblings of Erica Feggestad 2000-2008