06.11.04 - 5:15 p.m.

Last weekend we drove up with Amit and Cat to Zamora, CA (population 15, not counting the cows). Normally Zamora is not the first place that springs to mind when planning your Saturday night, but this girl Sophie was having a party up there. Amit's friends brought up a video projector & sound system, and around 40 people showed up to get down. And Sophie's house! It made me want a range life.

Out there amidst the corn fields, a bunch of us set up our tents. The nice deep pool had an integrated hot tub, and within moments I'd transformed into a seal and was diving from pool to tub and back again. On the verge of barking and clapping my hands together, but there were all these people we didn't know so I refrained.

It was a fun night, though my brain was fried from the first and only hippy flip I'd ever tried. I have a clear memory of sitting in that hot tub, talking to a girl who'd just won a Fulbright and acted all surprised when I'd heard of the Fulbright-- (was that false modesty or did she genuinely not think it was a big deal?)-- and the night sky away from the city was full of stars, Big Dippers everywhere. I looked up at the trees' leaves and vividly, tremendously clearly, they became the main map from Legend of Zelda: Link to the Past. To indicate how off our tits we were-- when I mentioned to Fulbright girl that there was a Legend of Zelda map in the trees, she took it in stride.

We stayed up all night and didn't use our tent at all, except as storage for corn chips and beer. The sunrise/sunset out there was beautiful. Hardly anything impeded the view, it was just plains and a long gradiated stripe of light that quickly became bright day. I love that feeling when you're utterly sleep deprived and you experience a new day dawning in the company of new friends. Ok new party acquaintances. I think one or two might become friends though.

If I could settle down... then I would settle down...