Día del Campo

Saturday was the Lewis & Clark College "día del campo." It was an abnormally sunny day, and also a late start. I was supposed to round up the family to arrive by eleven but at eleven we were driving around the city for what, I had no idea. We stopped at a costume shop a milllion miles away that decided to be open half a year away from Halloween on a Saturday, when any other place that ought to be open was closed. I was going to become the Incredible Hulk. Our team name was "Los recontra fantásticos," meaning the super awesome heroes, more or less. No one else was going to be dressed up like me, but I figured what the hell. Might as well help first impressions with the other families by beefing up in green muscles. So we finally did arrive, after missing the exit. It seemed like we weren't going to ever get there at that point. But the party hadn't started. How could it without the Incredible Hulk? It was unbelievably awkward for the following thirty minutes until I took off the straight jacket. In the growing heat we had a parade to celebrate the three teams, only for photo opportunity sake. Then the games began. There was a three-legged race, beer chugging (always good on the first day of starting the malaria pills), musical chairs, limbo, water balloon toss, and much much more. Games I've never even heard of. I didn't really win at anything. Not very close to the victor of the beer drinking competition, a father who had shown his history under the glass. I nearly won the musical chairs, but a greedy teammate swipped my seat so I was the second to last out. And surprisingly nearly won limbo, falling short (literally) to one of the teacher's daughters who was about a foot shorter than me. I let her win. Finally the games came to a close. It was time for lunch and dancing. I won't get into much of that, because I needed the rest after soaking in the sun's rays, but the dance floor was one large game in itself. With a broom, a solitary person, and the rest coupled in dance, the solitary person took hold of the broom to dance with until clank, he or she dropped it on the floor. Then it was a crazy rush to find another couple so as not to be the solitary person. I kind of embraced that role though, as you might expect. Taking it a little over the top, probably. When I got home after a long, long day, I went kaput on my bed. Out till the next morning. A morning without the first book of Harry Potter to keep me up because I finished after becoming hopelessly attached. I am planning to finish the Golden Compass series in the coming weeks and I can't say I'm not excited about it.