Sea Of Sorrow

Wow, where has the time gone? I can't believe it's been two weeks since I last posted.

Really the only thing worth mentioning since then was my brother's birthday. Last Saturday he turned 23, so we and a group of friends went up to the cabin to have a party. It was me, Erik, Demian, Yogi, BooBoo, and Gander. Yes, our group has weird choices in nicknames. Others, not related to the story, include Tripper, Stormy, Swamp-swamp thing-or swampy (my brother), and Mmmmmmbop (me, reluctantly). Anyways.

Erik took Friday off from work, and we were going to head up later that night once everyone else got off work. So we spent the day running around doing errands and whatnot, and also looking for a present for him, from me. I didn't know what to get him, and he said he wanted a new hat, so we looked at a few different stores trying to find a good one. Sadly, we couldn't, so I still owe him something. He wanted a fedora type hat, but couldn't find one that was right.

Six o'clock rolled around and everyone was done working. We picked up Demian, while the bears met at Gander's house. One of their friends is in the hospital in a drug induced coma from a brain hemorrhage, so we made a stop there first to go visit him. Since I didn't know him, and we didn't want to pay for parking, I stayed in the car and drove around while they were inside. It was pretty sad and hard for them, but we continued on. We met up with the other guys and started the drive north. It was me, Erik, and D in our van, and then the bears and Gander in his car.

After all the dicking around, we finally got to the cabin around midnight, and then the party commenced. We unloaded everything, started playing some music, and the alcohol and other 'substances' started flowing. I won't go into too much detail, but let's just say, they know how to have a good time. We played a couple games of Farkle, an interesting dice game, and then went outside and had a bonfire. It was great to just hang out and shoot the shit with everyone and have a good time. Since I only had caffeine to fuel me on, I went to bed around 5:30 in the morning. I don't know how much longer they stayed up at the fire.

I woke up around 11, and heard a lot of noise upstairs. Somehow, they were all up and cooking breakfast, looking relatively good. I was expecting them to be slow going that early, but they were in better shape than me somehow. We ate our eggs, bacon, and sausage, and then went to get the boat working. We still hadn't put it in the water since we re carpeted it, because the lights didn't work right. So after Erik ripped it apart, we went into town to get the parts we needed. Got back to the cabin and wired everything up. Got them working pretty painlessly. Next, we had to drive the boat to the landing and put it in the water.

Since it was his actual birthday, they had already been drinking for a while, so I became the designated driver for the whole weekend. OK. Except I had only driven with a trailer once before, and it was in my truck, not the mini van. Erik's directions to the landing weren't exactly right, so I had to make a fair amount of u-turns with the trailer. Trying to turn around a 25 foot pontoon boat on a trailer behind a mini van on a road that's only 1.5-2 lanes wide sucks. But needless to say, I got very good very fast at backing a trailer. We finally found the landing, and got the boat in the water. Erik and D went in the boat back to the cabin, and I drove the van back.

Once there, we loaded everything up on the boat, food, pop, beer, brandy, cigarettes, and the ever important stereo setup from Demian's trike. I can't remember if I've described that yet, but it's a nice cedar box he made, with a car battery, car cd player, and two 6x9 speakers. It is louder than most cars when on land, and even more so when on the water.

We set off, with nowhere in mind. We spent an hour or so just cruising around enjoying the beautiful weather and good music. We decided to go to the island and go swimming. The island isn't really that big, just big enough for one campsite. We beached the boat and jumped in the water. Surprisingly, the water was really warm, around 70-75 degrees. Normally the water is around 60, so we were pleasantly surprised. We spent another couple hours there, before slowly making our way back to the cabin for dinner. After dinner we had another fire, but they were all struggling from the night before, so we went to bed around 2.

Sunday, again they were all up before me making breakfast. After that, we loaded up the boat and went fishing. We didn't catch a single thing, but just being out there was fun. Although, I'm sure the loud music and drunken singing didn't help. We ended up going to Famous Dave's for lunch. Now normally, that isn't a big deal, but the first, original Famous Dave's is on the same lake, and has a wonderful view of the lake from the patio, so it was a great experience. My family doesn't usually go there, because we like to cook ourselves, but every once and a while we'll go, and it's great every time.



Not my picture, but the same view.

After that, it was more fishing. Still didn't catch anything, but we were too full to care. Around 6 we headed back and started cleaning the cabin up. The bears and Gander had to leave early, so they left around 7. We stayed up a little longer and enjoyed the rest of the day. We finally hit the road about 9.

Since Erik and D had been drinking, doing other 'things', and not sleeping much, they slept the entire car ride home. Leaving me to listen to music, drink Mountain Dew, and try not to hit any deer or anything else on the way back. We dropped D off at his place, and then went home. We got there a little before 12 AM. We quickly unloaded the car, and then went inside and straight to bed.

Overall, it was a great weekend full of great times and memories. I can't wait to get the pictures from D.

Now just to clear things up a bit, Erik and his friends aren't huge druggies, or addicts. They like to smoke pot, and occasionally do other things, but only on special occasions like this. So I don't want you guys freaking out about all the drug use or anything. I'm comfortable with it, and they all keep it under control.

Anyways, that's about it. The only other thing I wanted to say is that it seems like my body is falling apart. For the last 2-3 weeks my migraines have been getting worse. I've suffered from them my entire life. For a while we had them under control, where I was maybe getting one once a month. But these last few weeks it's been every 2-3 days I get one. So that is driving my out of my fucking mind. Also, one of my fillings fell out last night, so I have to go to the dentist to get that fixed, which sucks.

I haven't been on good terms with him since January 2009, when I had my wisdom teeth out. He gave me vicodin after, but it wasn't working. So then he gave me percocet, right after the vicodin. I had 4 pills of vicodin in my system after 6 hours, and then 20 minutes later he gave me 2 percocet. Well that didn't end well. I started throwing up, and continued to 8 times over the next 5 hours. It got to the point where my mom was force feeding me teaspoons of warm water, and I couldn't keep it down. My dentist said if I couldn't get any amount of water in me within the next half an hour, I would have to go to the hospital. Great. Finally I was able to start keeping minuscule amounts down, and he wasn't worried. I still probably should have gone to the hospital though.

Of course, since I was throwing up so much, I got dry sockets. Where the blood clot in the socket of the tooth comes out, and it is extremely painful. But I couldn't keep any pain pills down. So I went through the next 48 hours with no drugs, hardly any water, no food, horrible sleep, and LOTS of pain. And I lost 15 pounds in 3 days. Was not what I wanted to do. So after I recovered from all that, I went in, he took the stitches out, and I haven't been back since. But now I have to. So we'll see how that goes. I'll let you guys know.

I still have a lot of back pain, although it's slowly getting better. And it feels like I have no energy the last couple weeks. So I think my body is falling apart, and with the headaches, like I'm dying. It hasn't been fun, but fortunately, I was fine over the weekend. I started to get a headache Sunday night on the drive home, but got to bed early enough where it went away.

Wow. That was a lot. And I feel like I just did a lot of complaining. Oh well. It's my blog, and my life. Sorry if I just bored the hell out of you.

Well it's almost 4 AM, so I should probably get to bed. I had a headache tonight, so I took some Excedrin. Usually works pretty good on the headache, but the caffeine keeps me awake for a long time. Which is funny, because caffeine in pop and coffee doesn't really affect me, unless I drink a LOT. Well coffee does more, but whatever. Either way I knew I'd be up late, and figured I'd jump on here.

So I'll leave you with some AIC, or Alice In Chains. Besides the music as a whole being awesome, I love the way Layne Staley and Jerry Cantrell's voices harmonize with each other. If you don't know them, I highly suggest checking them out.



What the hell, I'll give you two.



This was from one of their last shows with vocalist Layne Staley. No Excuses.

I hope everyone out there is well, and those having difficult times can get through them. And remember, there are people here who care for and about you. You are not alone.

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_Kevin