Stranded.
The Tuesday Top Ten is back for a quick look at some of my favorite moments over the years at the lake house (aka the Hydra). While I kinda wish these were more detailed (I'm not sure how interesting these short anecdotes will be to outsiders), I really just wanted to make a short and light-natured post after the drawn out Road House epic. If you need more info on the Hydra...here's a shameless plug for an older post.
Honorable Mentions
- Cale barrel rolling off the roof to the ground.
- Blake to Heather: "I'm cold...can you give me your socks?"
- Nick: "She's mine tomorrow night."
10. Ghost Stories
-On special occasions (New Years, boredom) we build bonfires down by the lake. With a little help from some Color Flames (also talked about in an earlier post), the bonfire quickly turns into an Are You Afraid of the Dark world where we can tell stories while throwing magic dust into the flames, turning them cool shades of blue and green. There's something about being able to tell ghost stories in the same mold as a classic '90s Nick at Nite show that makes me content with my life. I guess it's the little things...
9. Sneaking into the Neighbor's Hot Tub
-For as long as I've visited the lake, our next door neighbors have always been a giant condominium. The mysterious strangers that live over there have been more secretive than JJ Abrams and the only thing I know about the place is that a hot tub is located in the center of the complex. Ever since I was six, I've wanted to jump in it. Not until New Years' Eve 2010 did we finally gain the courage and idiocy to trespass and use the vacant tub. We were 22-24, the weather was cold, and the tub was awesome.
8. The Ghost-Riding Jet Ski
-The summer before our freshman year of college, about seven of us went to the lake house for our first trip together. My friends Alli, Janisch, and I were riding a jet ski when we all flipped off of it. Normally, the key is strapped securely to your life jacket in order to kill the engine in situations like this. Long story short, the key was not securely attached and as soon as we emerged we watched in horror as the jet ski headed straight towards rocks. However, in a miraculous twist of fate, the jet ski did a 180 and headed straight towards us. The three of us swam steadfastly towards the jet ski. While Janisch and I might as well have been bowling balls in the water, Alli pulled an Indiana Jones and grabbed on to the passing craft and saved the day.
7. The Sink Picture
-There is a picture online somewhere with my friend Jessie and I. While our friendship is completely platonic, the photo says otherwise. We've recreated it for fun countless times, but it is by far the weirdest photo I've ever seen involving a guy, a girl, a kitchen sink, and a bottle of WD-40. Sorry, not gonna upload it. I promise it's classy.
6. Cliff Jumping as Superman
-This is actually a memory from high school, but it's absurd enough that it needs to be noted. For my 16th birthday my friend Max gave me a Superman costume. (Those were the days). Within minutes it was decided that I should put the costume on and jump from our cliff into the lake thirty-five feet below. Cliff jumping as a regular person has never been the same since.
5. Rickesh and His Wrath
- Several chairs, small life jackets, and rafts have seen better days after my friend Rickesh, a bigger guy, wrecked unintentional havoc on them. Some highlights:
a) "Snorlax." - T.Whitt's nickname for the sleeping giant.
b) "This is a child's vest! I'm drowning!" (That life jacket was never the same.)
c) "Heather, stop being immature and let's play hide and seek."
d) Literally fell three-forths of the way down a spiral staircase, crashing into a bedroom door like a battering ram.
e) Getting on name-to-name basis with local BBQ cooks...more on that in a bit.
4. The Male-Bonding Trip
- Graduation has made me lament about the end of meaningful pick-up basketball in my life, but it also signifies the end of trips where my friends and I can leave on a Tuesday and go to the Hydra for several days. My friends Blake, Rickesh, Nick, David, and Janisch joined me on this trip, which happened spontaneously from a Tuesday-Thursday and involved several trips to Lee's Burgers, discovering the mythical Strangely-Attractive Girl, cliff-diving, and card games involving a gentlemen's amount of air humping. Don't ask, don't tell.
3. Spring Break 2011
- This may have been the last stand. Not only because of graduation but because there is a chance my parents may rebuild the Hydra in order to live there after retirement in a few years. This week had it all- a great group of friends, some great stories (the failed shotgun on the dock, throwing live matches at each other, a day full of Community, 3 AM trash disposing, to name a few), not to mention plenty of frustration from real life knocking on the door, but I think what sticks out most is the finality I got out of it. If that's the way the Hydra went out, I think I can live with it.
2. The Impromptu USA Weekend
-On 4th of July weekend 2010, my friends and I decided to head up to the Hydra for some fun and fireworks. What we got was Rickesh making friends with the local BBQ people ("What should we make for you tomorrow, Rick?"), Janisch shooting Roman candles at me, friends yelling at the moon, and one of the greatest shows of American patriotism I've ever witnessed. I was on the hammock with someone while a few friends played a game inside. Normally, after one team wins with my friends there is incessant but unintelligent trash talking. Not this time though. On cue, a raucous chant of "USA! USA!" emerged from inside the Hydra, which lasted for what seemed like an eternity and could be heard over the fireworks blasting from across the lake for all our mysterious condo neighbors to hear. I jumped from the hammock and left her behind, because anytime you can win a game and demean your opponent by yelling your shared nationality at them, you've gotta do it.
1. The Stranded-on-the-Lake Fiasco
-MLK weekend 2008 may have been the game-changer with my friends. It was that weekend that we realized that the Hydra was a place where we could always go to to reconnect, no matter how far away we lived. This is the same weekend where I came down with what I am pretty sure was walking pneumonia. I felt deathly sick. Rickesh, always looking to complicate things, demanded that he go out in the freezing January water on jet skis. Since I was the only one who knew how to get them off the dock and into the water, I went out to help. As the jet ski started to drift away I jumped on it, thinking I could drive the it back to the dock with the keys. Little did I know that the machine's battery was dead. In a matter of moments, I found myself a hundred yards away on the other side of Lake Travis as the rest of my friends pointed and laughed from either the dock or the cliff above. I felt the icy water with apprehension, knowing I had to make a decision. I took off my sweatshirt, shoes, and jeans, yelling at my friends "Don't look at me!" (Except for the girl I was interested in... she could look. Kidding.) I jumped into the water, positive that I was going to die embarrassingly in my underwear, and pushed the jet ski back towards the dock. Here's the best part though: Rickesh and Janisch jumped in foolishly to help. While Janisch actually swam like a normal human being, Rick, who threw a life jacket over his clothes, thought that he could magically float towards me. He looked like a human buoy. Together, we acted like human seals and moved the jet ski like a beach ball while the rest of our friends mocked us from above. And THAT is what friends are for.
(I'm sure I'm missing on some better stories, so if you guys remember one, post it below!)
-PB (this song has been stuck in my head for days)
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