Being off on a Friday and Saturday consecutively is something almost foreign to me in the last 6 years. I’ve enjoyed brief weekends off during a vacation, but to take two of the busiest days off in a week for fun is uncharacteristic of my life.
I went up to Deep Creek Lake in McHenry, MD for a friend’s bachelor party. It was great to spend time with high school friends that I haven’t seen in months, it was also fantastic to just hang out with the boys without wives, children or significant others. Retelling old stories and planning new adventures was a welcome relief to the everyday hustle of my life. I found myself losing myself in a euphoric haze of personal happiness.
Friday I had a couple of beers while playing beer pong, I know we are all 5 years old. I distinctly recall drinking the National Bohemian Beer thinking really I’m 32 drinking Natty Boh?
The next morning I got up early thinking I had to get to work, and realized I was hungover, being the type that can’t go back to sleep once he’s awake I went to the grocery store where I bought some eggs and made omelets for everyone staying there after the 15th one I didn’t want to make one for myself. I was egged out.
Around 11 AM, my buddy Gustavo and I went for a hike in the State Park portion of the Lake. We did a trail called Indian Turnip Trail which was 2.5 miles, but we got lost at the beginning and added a really nice uphill “bonus” hike which added at least ¾ of a mile. The entire trip we went over 8 K and did it in about an hour and forty five minutes.
Gustavo’s a runner so we jogged a bit of the downhill parts. I of course loved the uphill climb I felt nimble and powerful. When we finished we headed back to the rental house, changed and headed to Wisp to meet our other friends for a game of paintball.
If you haven’t played paintball, before it’s awesome, especially when you get to shoot your trash talking friends in the face with a high speed projectile. I think I tagged a couple of people in the head after they said they were out, I know I’m an asshole.
I enjoyed crawling around on the ground; it was awesome how quickly I could move on just my knees and elbows. We played for a little over an hour, at which point we went back home to get cleaned up and have dinner.
Originally they guys who rode with me planned on staying until the early evening on Saturday as we all had obligations on Sunday, but decided we would stay another night especially because two of our closer friends didn’t show up until late Saturday afternoon. It was well worth staying the additional night.
This morning on the drive back from Deep Creek Lake my friend Gustavo and I had a near death experience. While we were driving on highway I-270 going south from Frederick Maryland a Toyota Avalon whose driver was on his cell phone and not paying attention nearly clipped my car, I saw him coming with his hand up against his ear and making no attempt to single or look in my direction, he swerved into my lane.
I honked, and swung out to the shoulder which scared the crap out of him, causing him to swerve across two lanes and hit a Chevy Tahoe which he caused to flip. We stopped and ran over to the car which appeared to be on fire. All the passengers were alive, in shock, and only one person injured. I realized once I was over at the car that the vehicle wasn’t on fire but the rear tire was still turning and rubbing against the rear bumper causing smoke to appear.
The car was turned off, and a dozen people came from the other side of the highway to help out. Once I heard two women say they were nurses I backed away, and waited for the police. I’m sure I will be called as a witness at some point.
Moments like these make you realize that life is too short to be angry or upset about meaningless things. How quickly it can all end is palatable, the family in the Tahoe didn’t see this crazy asshole coming or could have prepared for the impact until it was too late. The driver of the Avalon only had to be going 2 mph faster, or cut his steering wheel another degree further in my direction and I wouldn’t be typing this right now. I was going 70 mph.
Perspective is easy to attain when involved in something like this, all of a sudden the extra bit of food I ate, or the alcohol I drank didn’t matter because calories don’t mean anything when you are dead or in a hospital bed.
I plan on enjoying my life as much as I push at it, otherwise what’s the point of pushing so hard. Finishing the race isn’t so great if you forget to enjoy the view.