So tonight, my older brother, Nate, and his girlfriend Lena came over for dinner. Just like my normal family dinners, there was a lot of laughter and story telling. At one point Emma Lou was running around the table yelling, while Dad was nearly sawing through the table in an attempt to cut our ice cream cake, and Nate was telling a story that was making everyone break into hysterics. You can imagine how hard it is to concentrate on anything when activity like that is going on. You get so enraptured in the stories and laughing along with everybody that you forget to even think. You just are. Being there, at that moment.
At least, that's how they feel to me.
Now however, I'm going to take you back a couple years, when I was still in elementary school. In the middle of the Wisconsin farmland, surrounded by corn, in a small log cabin built on a hundred acres. This is my summer home. Sure, it's not the Hamptons, but it fits my families personality. The sun beaming on the golden field stretched out in front of the one room cabin, an icy river running right through our property, and wildlife everywhere. I have so many fond memories of this magical place, completely secluded from the rest of the world.
The one I'm going to tell you about though, is the Bottle Rocket story. (Yes, we've actually labeled these stories.) See my uncle has a problem with buying tons of fireworks every year we go up there. Even though he vacations there before us, he always leaves a bunch for us to set off, cause he's so awesome.
So Nate, Erin, Meghan, and I got a great idea to see how many bottle rockets we could set off at once.
We set them up where the road split into a V, making its overall shape a Y. Now the problem with our innocent idea was that the canister holding all the bottle rockets wasn't very wide, so when we crammed fifty of them in there, they didn't just poke up. They were at all angles.
I don't quite understand why my parents thought it would be okay to let us try it, but they did, and when we lit the fuse it was all in good fun.
Then of course, it exploded.
Naturally all of us hit the turf, but as I was lying there tucked in a ball, I got a bad feeling and immediately afterward a rocket exploded right next to my leg and burnt me. It didn't hurt but it scared me so bad that I got up and took off running, straight down the road, away from the cabin. And I swear, it felt just like a movie, with bullets whizzing past you as you ran and felt explosions at your feet. The feeling was identical as all fifty of those bottle rockets shot into the air and lit up the sky.
I also remember thinking that it was the coolest feeling I had ever felt.
So naturally we did it again and this time I got my siblings to run with me. They thought it felt awesome too, so we did it over and over again until we finally ran out of bottle rockets.
Crazy that no one stopped us sooner, I'm surprised we didn't light the field on fire. But I'm glad no one did, because that's one of my favorite memories from the Cabin, shooting off the bottle rockets.
Isn't it weird how some of your most memorable stories can be the most insignificant ones?
Like, in the long run, there is no grand purpose for setting off all those fireworks. It was just a lot of fun, and definitely good bonding time with the siblings. I also learned not to do that again, unless you're prepared for the consequences. Like getting your leg nearly blown off.
Unfortunately I don't see bottle rockets in my future anytime soon though. I'm almost positive the state of Wisconsin has permanently banned my family from setting them off. Ever.
So anyway, I've started gathering quotes from the people around me, because sometimes they say things that are way more funny and clever than celebrities. Like for instance:
"You've got a little bit of Spaghetti, all over your face." (There's the Spaghetti reference again)
And: "What's that movie called again? Justin Bieber: Just Say Never?" (My dad said that and he was not joking.)
So it'll be interesting to see what I come up with. I'll try and keep remembering them so I can put them in this blog too. After all, I talk so much about my family and the people around me, it's only right that they should get a direct quote in here somewhere.
Right now I'm sitting in Meghan's room, probably bothering her by being in here when it's so late, but she's reading a book called Something Borrowed, so I guess she's fine with it. For now.
Just like everyone in my family, it's hard to tell when she'll suddenly turn on you, teeth bared and claws out. In fact, she did that once when I scared her coming out of the bathroom. The hallway was dark, so I couldn't actually see how badly I had spooked her, but when I felt her nails clawing at my face, I knew I was in deep trouble. Meghan was always the terrorist in my family. The one who would tickle you till you puke or suffocate. So when her hands reached for my face, I ran for my bedroom, even as she football tackled me through the door. After that, all I remember is being dimly aware that she was sitting on me and Erin was looking up from her book and asking what had happened.
Luckily I came away from that night with only a couple new scars.
We get along though, so don't you worry.
And since we were talking about pranks, here's a hilarious compilation that I just had to add.
Scaring people is a lot of fun.............
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