Have You Experienced Madness?

The last week or so has been full of climbing and meeting new people. I decided to start my first project, a 5.12a called Ro Sham Po. I flashed my first 5.11b, and celebrated with some beer and pizza. I spent the fourth of July in Lexington. I made my way back to Miguel's and hung about for the last half of the day. At about 10pm someone (Spencer) started launching off fireworks on the back-end of Miguel's property. A large group of us made our way back to the scum-pond where the fireworks were being sent off. After some blind nighttime-hiking, we emerged from tall underbrush to a small field where a van full of fireworks. spencer was slowly unloading the van and lighting the sky. Other pick-up trucks full of other Miguel locals were lined around the small field. Everyone drinking beer, whiskey, moonshine, and/or smoking cigarettes.

Spencer would narrate each and every firework. He'd read out the name of the explosives, and describe the pictures on them. Most of the narration had to do with "titties" and bulldogs, or monster trucks. At times he would shout "this one is for Americans, so all foreigners should look away" which would be followed by people shouting "'merica!" The banter among the spectators revolved around how Spencer seemed to get off on the crowds jeers and jests, but mostly from setting of mini-explosions. After the fireworks were gone there was some small cardboard-tank fireworks that went off like tiny sparklers. An American and a foreigner would battle their tanks, and the one with the most damaged tank was the loser. A group of people gathered around a small piece of plywood seated on the ground. The tanks were ignited, and after the fray someone's foot would just stomp down on the foreigner's tank, and then quickly toss the flattened char it into the fire pit a few feet away. America won every time.

Slowly the crowd dissipated and the few of us remaining found ourselves jumping into the scum-pond in a drunken stupor. The remaining minivan had it's headlights blaring on us in the pond. The layer of algae on the water's surface was broken by the first person to dive in. Then the two more people dove in and slowly there were about eight of us in luke warm pond.

We got out, dressed, and piled into the minivan. Those of us who couldn't fit into the van found ourselves standing on the bumper, desprately hanging onto the racks bolted to the roof. The entire ride back to around the road that lead to the pizza shop, I was barely hanging on to the rack. Twice I was almost flung from the bumper. Looking straight ahead it seemed that we were only going five miles an hour. But when I turned my head to the side I realized we were  going a lot faster. The gravel road offered the jostling of a lifetime. Someone had then jumped onto the roof of the car and slowly crawled his way down the windshield, at which point a hand came up out of the passenger side window and started shoeing him away. Then the passenger door opened and the bust of someone rose out of the vehicle. We had a bit of a conversation, yelling and such, cursing one another, all-the-while holding on for dear life. We hit the main road and the van sped up, but no sooner were we at the parking lot. We hopped off and hung around the rest of the night. I went to bed at about 230am. By that time I had met some more people, and the next morning I found myself lending out books to various climbers introduced from the previous night. For some reason I'm more likely to lend out books to these people, knowing full well I'll get them back dirty and destroyed.

Since then, I have only climbed and worked at the gas station. Some days in between I had a bit of a reclusive mood, and I stopped going out of my way to interact with people. But now I'm back. Most likely because Cathy returned a few days ago, and she just sort of has a way with making other people gregarious.

I can't quite recall much else. I've so far climbed with people who had crag-dogs, which is always awesome. The company of dogs at a climb increases the positive vibes of the people around the cliff.

This is Cassie.