Hitting the Rally, the Road, and Bacchus All in One Fell Swoop

Wow, I actually survived yesterday! And it went pretty well, considering Norman Siegel was 45 minutes late and we totally had to stall for time (he arrived just as we were wrapping up because we went through all of our speakers, grabbed a few extra at the last minute, and two of us organizers spoke without intending to - my worst nightmare - unprepared public speaking). The media show was incredibly disappointing, and metro reporting something about it being the anniversary of the arrests of some horribly erroneous number of protesters, like 277 or something like that. I wonder what rally they were at? The reporter was there through almost all of it - where the number over 1800 arrestees kept being repeated over and over again. Hmmm, 1800 + vs 277...oh yeah, I see how easily such a distortion could be made. Puh-leeze.

But the best thing is that the rally, and the overwhelming anxiety I was feeling connected to it, is over and done with. And hell, at least we did something to say that the assault on civil liberties is not going unnoticed, and will not be taken lying down. We are not handing over our first amendment rights to the highest bidder and they can take their entrapment tactics and shove it up their asses.

Next up is the huge anti-war march in DC on the 24th, where thankfully I will just be along for the ride; no planning, no stress. Lady Alice and I are going with the Code Pink crew and perhaps a Lady of Liberty or two, if we can convince them to actually participate. But no more rally planning on our parts for a while; we need sleep.

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I am thankfully running away again (yes, I try to do that as often as possible) starting tomorrow, to go with my Dad to this crazy 4 day long labor day weekend caving tradition called Old Timer's Reunion. Its basically a 4 day long crazy party for cavers, where little to no caving is actually done, as the inebriation/drug factor is generally too high at any given point in the day. There is a naked sauna and hot tub, naked and suited areas of the river, live music at the pavillion, and a crazy costumed parade called the Doo-Dah parade every Saturday morning. Sundays there is the river wine party, where everyone puts their chairs in the shallow river and proceeds to get slodhed all afternoon. I have many humiliating stories for many an OTR past, the worst being passing out in a port-o-potty that I had to be rescued from. I also once woke up on a picnic table with a cup in my hand saying "homeless, please help" because I passed out by the huge bonfire and no one could find my campsite.

Okay, so OTR doesn't really translate to those who have not attended the Bacchanalian festivities themselves; yes its a bunch of crazy freaks half of whom are running around naked and the other half of whom are racing through a zip line strung between two trees in climbing harnesses. But cavers are a rare and spectacular breed of individuals, none of whom lack for personality. I suppose it goes with the territory - I mean we like to crawl around underground and explore what can sometimes be very scary terrain, all while laughing and trying to avoid caving behind that one gassy person who keeps blaming it on the barking cave spiders. Yes, cavers cave hard and party harder, and most rules of politess are thrown out of the window. But cavers live by a code all their own, however, and despite its odditities the caving community has always really come through in taking care of their own through death, illness, accidents...you name it. When my brother died, the cavers took care of everything thta we could have possibly needed, and in some ways they were more like family than my Dad's family from New York. I guess it goes back to the whole life-risking sport thing, where you really have to be able to rely on eachother underground, so the same applies above ground.

So I'm excited to be revisiting that community and seeing many people I haven't seen in a few years. I'm also excited to be going to the mountains of West Virginia, one of my favorite places of all time.

I've calmed down in my old age, so don't expect any crazy stories of winning Ramen Noodle Wrestling Championships (which I did several years in a row at different NSS - National Speliological Society - Conventions, back when I was younger), passing out homeless or worse, or otherwise saucy tales that used to accompany my return from OTR's of the past.

No, this year I will be well behaved.

Nah, who am I kidding? I'll be wild, but I just won't tell about it.