She looked up from her phone and a smile slowly crept across her face.
"Based on your pictures it looked like a blast; kind of jealous actually. Were there any other college kids there for Spring Break?"
"We were actually probably the youngest people at our hotel by like ten years, so no," I laughed, "I didn't mind though, all I wanted to do was hang out with my boys. I didn't feel like meeting anyone anyway, I already have enough friends."
Day (6)
"You and your friends out there better not be throwing those cans in the lake. I don't have time for that bulls**t."
Dan slowly turned his body away from the jet ski to face the man on the shore.
"Don't worry, sir, we're putting the cans in the bottom of the raft. We would never think of littering in such a beautiful lake."
"What a polite response, Ranger Dan, I didn't realize you were such an environmentalist," chuckled Lucas from the far side of the raft.
"I mean we are throwing them into the raft, it just probably looks like we're throwing them straight into the lake from over there. Better to be polite anyway, the last thing we want is –"
"Do I have to swim out there and drag you f***ers out of the lake?"
---
Before we ended up getting harassed by a strange old man standing on the side of the lake, I had spent the better part of the weekend at Deep Creek getting to know everyone. Besides my friend Justin, there were four other guys at the lake house: Dan, Colin, Lucas and Evan. While they had known each other since high school, I had never met any of them before. Where they each had long histories together, I barely knew their first names. The last thing I wanted was a weekend of me awkwardly third-wheeling a bunch of guys that I might not even want to hang out with.
But after drinking, playing copious amounts of ping pong, darts, and video games, drinking, watching sports center, drinking, horsing around and drinking some more, I realized that I had nothing to worry about.
After we were all ping ponged out, we decided to take advantage of the gorgeous summer weather, move our activities to the beautiful lake, and set sail on our own booze cruise. And what would any booze cruise be without some terrible beer and light drama?
---
"Well that escalated quickly. I guess he isn't into that whole 'polite' thing," said Colin as he cracked open another Natty Lite.
"Whatever man, if he wants to be a jackass, let him. It's not gonna stop me from enjoying these beers," replied Evan.
I'll admit, even after turning 21 and experiencing beer that actually tasted good, there is still nothing like cracking open an ice cold Natty. And whether it was the good vibes, the desire to have as much fun as humanly possible to spite the old man on the shore (or a combination of the two), everyone grunted in agreement with Evan and started downing beers like it was our job.
We did our job well. In only a brief hour we had destroyed more beers than any of us thought possible. The beautiful weather and good laughs were making our Natty taste like the best beers we had ever had. Unfortunately the numbers began to add up.
Not long after we hit the hour mark, Evan began to transition from soft-spoken and eloquent to a frothing, flailing man child. After struggling to get back on the raft after tumbling off, he began to elaborate on his screen play ideas (Jurassic Park mixed with the Matrix), whether we wanted him to or not. This slowly developed into incoherent conversations with himself and screams of "WAHOOOO" every other sentence.
Eventually we dragged ourselves, the raft, and mainly Evan ashore and moved the festivities to the hot tub. Let me tell you that there is nothing quite like five grown men piled into a hot tub with a sixth screaming and occasionally passing out with his face in the water. Luckily he had some responsible babysitters who could handle their Nattys with the eloquence only seasoned college students can maintain.
"Evan, Evan, stop trying to drink the water – someone needs to make sure he remembers to pick his head up," said Justin as he grabbed the back of Evan's head and tugged it out of the water.
"I feel like this is like what having a baby is like, just constantly preventing it from accidentally killing itself. Isn't that right, Evan?" said Colin.
"Yeeeass, I do."
At that moment, Evan sprung up from the hot tub and – with a surprising level of dexterity for someone so drunk – climbed up onto the bench near the hot tub. We all immediately tensed up. The hot tub was on the deck of the cabin, and the bench Evan was standing on overlooked a ten foot fall to the ground below.
"Evan, you big dumb idiot, get down from there," said Justin as he slowly stretched out his hand.
He blearily looked over at Justin, flashed a big, doofy smile and fell backwards off the bench. We all jumped out of the tub and looked down over the bench to the ground below. Evan's limp body lay in a miserable little pile of leaves and broken sticks.
"S**t, dude he looks dead," I said.
Perhaps hearing me, Evan slowly turned his head towards us.
"WAAHOOOOO!"
"Alright, he's alive. Anyone want another beer?" said Lucas, who had resumed his place in the hot tub.
The four of us standing by the bench looked down at Evan, who had started rolling around in his pile of leaves and sticks, and then back at each other. After a brief pause we all gave a collective "yes" and jumped back into the hot tub.
After spending so much time with the same people – whether it's in high school or in college – it becomes harder and harder to branch out. Maybe it's because we are getting older and more set in our patterns and habits. Maybe we just get tired of putting ourselves out there time and time again, only to meet people who could never become our friends. Maybe it's because seeing the same faces all the time gives us comfort, and we figure "we don't need any more friends." Whatever the reason, we can't stop meeting new people and settling for who we know, especially at such a young age. If I had settled, I wouldn't have made four new friends that weekend (even if Evan doesn't remember any of it). With any luck, I've only met around 20% of the total people I'll meet in my life time. Who knows who I'll meet tomorrow?
Next week, I'm headed to Pittsburgh. And with that, a preview of Day (12).
"I think it's safe to say Mel Gibson hates that uncle of yours."
Stay tuned.
