My streak of blogging nearly everyday for the month of August (a personal unspoken goal I had) was broken this weekend as Cameron and I headed up to visit the Robot Coop in Seattle.
On Sunday afternoon Cameron and I hit bumper to bumper traffic essentially from the Washington/Oregon border all the way to Seattle. A three hour trip turned into a nearly five hour trip, but the conversation was lively and worth it.
After meeting Erik at his house we went to a Mexican place for dinner. While waiting for a seat, Erik told the story about how he saw a man drop dead while walking down the sidewalk. I can’t remember if it was before or after Erik’s story, but as we were waiting on the sidewalk a woman carrying takeout home tripped on a crack in the sidewalk and crashed to the ground so hard I felt the cement shudder underneath me. She wasn’t injured but walked away from the scene shaking the pain out of her limbs and probably feeling a bit embarrassed and grateful for not having ruined her dinner at the same time.
Afterwards, Cameron told a story about a fight starting between two strangers over one of the men’s desires to walk backwards, and another one of the men’s desires to yell “Don’t walk backwards!”. While telling the story, Cameron stepped backwards a bit and threw his hands up to give us a visual interpretation of the event and (he doesn’t know this, I don’t think) nearly slapped a woman in the face. Her boyfriend looked as if it wouldn’t take much provocation to start a fight. A fight over a story about a fight that started from a man yelling “Don’t walk backwards”. I had fantasies of a huge sidewalk brawl starting over Cameron’s enthusiasm, and how if it had happened there’d be an epic story of bravery and physical combat prowess (on my part) to tell for years. We’d recount the moment in the battle when I climbed a tree for a strategic impression of the melee and then proceeded to use flanking formations to keep the enemy (those who didn’t like Cameron’s story of people getting in brawls over walking backwards) at bay. We’d be victorious, and they’d call our name at the Mexican restaurant where we’d eat Enchilada’s Rancheras while comparing our wounds. It could have been glorious.
The rest of the trip had similar near glorious and truly glorious moments that will remain mysterious to the reader. I’m paying for the weekend/beginning today as I count up the total hours of sleep had between Sunday night and last night and realize it’s in the single digits. In the end though the exhaustion was worth it. That kind of fun can only be had in the company of others, and while the Internet didn’t hurt in forming and maintaining these relationships, it can’t hold a candle to being able to share experiences in the same physical space.