Before last weekend the last time I was in a cabin it was filled with several eager Cub Scouts sleeping in barracks-style bunk beds eating food prepared on either campfire or wood-burning stove. It was a far cry from the cabin-style luxury condo I've just returned from equipped with a full kitchen, three bedrooms, three bathrooms, comfortable couches, two plasma screen TVs, a pool table and a hot tub. Of all it's amenities, however, the greatest was its ability to transport me back to a simpler, easier time of my life.
The Hocking Hills getaway featured several old friends from high school and college - along with a couple of excellent new additions - and its lack of Wi-Fi and cell service was reminiscent of the days I first met most of them. Ten years ago, when cell phones were a novelty and the Internet traveled at 33.6 kbps I was just emerging from a six-year funk to discover that, yes, it was possible to make friends in high school. Several of those same friends just helped me continue my long journey out of a similar funk that started in late 2008.
There was certainly more alcohol at the cabin than there was in those early days - a fact I'm told I emphasized often on Friday night. The feeling of implicit closeness was the same, however, as was the blissful ignorance of the impending Tomorrow.
As far as I know there wasn't much talk about work or career paths or what-are-you-doing-with-your-life because for three days all we were doing was living.
This is not to say we were completely frivolous. We took our cooking and our eating very seriously. We re-lived Nintendo-64 glory days (since I left UC Davis I've never met a group of people that could match me until this weekend) and relished the hot tub and campfire like they were our jobs. Our focus on bocce ball on the shores of Lake Logan was rivaled only by our single-minded pursuit of booze into the early morning.
However fleeting, this weekend brought back not only happier days, but a happier me. Somewhere along the line i became more closed and more tentative and this small vacation from what has become my real life revealed that it's possible to be 27 and impetuous. That 30 is no closer to me today than 24. That while New York is non-stop and fiery and intimidatingly full of potential, so too was I... once upon a time. It reminded me that going back to Ohio means more than seeing old friends; it means once again seeing who I am around them. Hopefully as I flit forward, back to the pace of the present day, the great press of humanity and the insane, rabid pulse of the city I can bring that with me as a steady reminder of who I can be.
The weekend's cast of characters for the curious:
MB & R: Our two hosts. MB I met in high school, likely in Brit. Lit. R I met in college in an Asian-American studies course. I met each of them at the exact time in my life that I most needed to and am lucky to still know them. They now date, live together and own two cats together in Columbus.
B & MP: B I also know from high school. He spent many hours watching movies in my basement and generally making senior year worthwhile. MP is his wife that he met at the University of Dayton. I've only hung out with her a handful of times which is sad, because she is fantastic. They currently live in Tennessee where B is finishing his doctorate in Chemistry.
MW: Another high school friend. We were acquaintances in freshman English, frequently bumping into one another at the top of the curve. Later he served as DM in my first foray into D&D for which I've only recently forgiven him. He currently lives in Cleveland freelancing and making killer hummus.
D: MB's friend in college. I met him a handful of times and was always impressed by his quiet intelligence and affable nature. He is a lawyer in Columbus despite not liking the legal profession.
S: MB's high school girlfriend. I only knew her in passing in both high school and college which is a shame because she is pretty hilarious and awesome. She is a champion drinker who will soon start a job teaching fifth grade in Columbus.
K: A friend of my old college roommate's ex-girlfriend who was later pulled into MB's social circle. She apparently thought I hated her because I always acted awkward around her due to aforementioned roommate's strange, strained relationship with the aforementioned girlfriend. Which is crazy because she's incredibly open and frank and totally refreshing.
A&A: The only people on the trip new to me. They went to high school with R, are together now, and cooked the finest meal of the weekend (which is high praise) with their roasted leg of lamb two ways. He plays the Movie Game with deadly intensity and encyclopedic knowledge while she delights in Lady Gaga almost as much as D and myself.
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