HIGHLIGHTS and REFLECTIONS of EL CABINO 2004

-Booze Central. There was a large supply of liquor at the cabin every day... it was insane...each day, it seemed like a new bottle of liquor magically appeared. Well, I was too drunk to realize that people kept making booze runs whenever it was necessary. Y'know... I swear my piss turned into a very unsettling color most of the week.

-Video gaming. It kept me from truly being bored before the the weekend came. Soul Calibur 2, anyone?

-Monday night/early Tuesday morning. Let's just say that this particular night shall be forever etched into my memory. January 6th, 2004 will be added to the growing list of "Defining Moments" of my young life, where it will join the ranks of August 13th, 2003 and December 27th, 2002, February 14th, 2003, etc., etc. Essentially, the entire cabin trip to the Lake Tahoe became COMPLETELY worth it on account of that night, although the rest of the week paled in comparison. Shit, I'd probably smile some kind of goofy grin if I were to recall that night step by step. Awwwwww.

-Tuesday's snowboard session. It was coo, especially since I believe it will be the only time I will board this year. The entire moment that I coasted down the mountain watching Ron do spirals (and fall), watching Ryan fall, seeing Anthony do the spirals AND hit a small kicker in the mini-terrain park. Not to mention seeing Diana improve in snowboarding (no matter whether it was little by little) made my heart soar. Oh gawd, I want to snowboard so bad.

-Tuesday night. Another fragmented memory to add to my lexicon of records, where this night shall earn the, "Most HAMMERED" privilege. After upping the stakes to the last draw of a crazy game of 'Kings,' (in which I raised the ante with Anthony, saying that loser empties out every drink on the table that was not bottled), I downed nearly 10 half-finished drinks, not to mention the 'waterfall.' 10 drinks, 10 pukes. I'd say that works out just about right.

-Friday night. A new category to add to my database of experiences, where...let's see...you can say that I was seriously afraid of ELEVATORS. Paranoia, near-schizophrenic, overall psychologic hell.

-Fighting the urge to kill my cabin-mates and guests. Yeah, I'm semi-serious. The previously mentioned experience could have nearly made me briefly go insane. Emotions run high when your own sense of reality is out of control. Yeah, scary shit.

-Plague is a Horseman of the Apocalypse. Really though, it was pretty scary how many people got sick in that cabin. Hell, Van couldn't even go because he got pretty sick the day before. Orlando carried a slight cold with him to the cabin, and I think one of the Gali's might have harbored a vile sickness with them as well. Nolan and Anthony came down with really bad fever/flu's half-way through the week, which put them out of commission the rest of the trip. Rob ended up getting sick the very last days, and Jaime was fighting infection the whole time. Eventually, the Anthony/Orlando room became dubbed as the "Quarantine Room," because most of the sick kids would end up in there sooner or later. Thank goodness I didn't show any symptoms of sickness...only in the OTHER ways. Alas, Fate has a wicked sense of irony, because I'm fighting a bit of the cold as I write this.

-Sunrise at the Lake. That was great, smoking a Cohiba while chilling in the morning cold and shootin the breeze...as well as other things. They say the Eskimos have plenty of ways to say, "snow."

-Toboggan! That was the fun part of staying at the cabin, especially after all the work I had put into molding and icing down the snow mounds in the front of the cabin. I'm glad Nick and Jon actually took the effort to toboggan at least once. The rest of yalls was pussy.

-FRANK THE TANK. Orlando Barcena, Jr., you sir, impressed me immensely at the cabin. Not only did you outdrink me most of the time and NOT yak (that I can attest to), but you epitomized the whole concept of a week away from home in a cabin at Lake Tahoe. It was great that somehow, the whole lot of us started drunkily chanting his new 'nickname' in the middle of a drinking game. Not only that, but he beat the shit out of us at Omaha, Manhattan, Heaven & Hell, Anaconda, and Cowboys. That's quite the feat.

-The Screamer. Even though we never did get to do much as a group (other than get faded), I had hoped we could all go to the casino just to have everyone do what Anthony did an try out the "Seat of Terror," a chair that sends intense electrical pulses through you. Brief torture for $1.00... GENIUS!

-Sailing on the Friend-Ship. Awww. In truth, the cabin became a place where my relations with the people there became more clarified and defined. I could go off on how much some people there let me down or disappointed my expectations of them, but I'd rather realize how much more cool I became with Nick, Kiel, and Anthony.

-Dippin the 'cha. HAHAH.

-The Sunday Morning Buzz. 10 am and already buzzed? Whaaaaa? That was GRRRREAT.

-DRAMA. Oh man, that cabin had its fair share of drama. Too bad I had passed out for most of it. Fights, scuffles, jealousy, secrets, confessions, lust, it was nearly a soap opera in that house. Come to think of it, Jen brought up the idea that the next cabin could be filmed in as much of it's entirety as possible, so that we could pull off some kind of reality TV episode. I had also thought of this concept, but now the idea of pulling it off has taken precedence.

-We MUST finish all the Liquor! Gold Rum, Jack Daniels, Butternips, Baja Rosa, 'Irish Cream', 'Caramel Temptation,' we decided not to bring any booze back home, to finish as much as we can Sunday night and that night alone. Too bad Nick and Eli took the brunt of it.

-The ride home. It was ONE BIG TRIP. Serious. I was fighting sleep, but everytime I slipped into a quick nap, I went through a vividly wild delusion. CRAZY.