-Sunday, July 29, 2001-

7:22 a.m.

I had a dream last night with a good idea in it. But now that idea doesn't sound so good.

Sam and Leen just left to pick up the vans, and Amy is in the shower. We're all rather tired, but I know I'll wake up after putting cold contacts in my eyes. Oh, and I again woke up early this morning and peered at the clock. Yesterday, it was 5:40 and today it was 5:44.

8:15 a.m.

We're packing up, and I'm again resisting the urge to make the bed. Feeling a need to make the bed is just one of those weird quirks of mine.

8:45 a.m.

Sam, Leen, Heidi, and Dave are finally back, after having all sorts of troubles getting the vans. Sam and Leen reserved them plenty of time in advance, but apparently the rental place called their house yesterday to get credit card information. We weren't home, so they figured we didn't want the vans anymore and rented them to someone else. The original plan was to get two 12-seat vans, but they were lucky to get a 15-seat van and a seven-seat van. Amazingly, we had 22 people, so that fortunately worked out. Heidi is driving the big van, and Leen is driving our van. Sam's in the front seat, Dave and Jake are sitting in the two individual middle seats, and Amy, Cynthia, and I are in the back seat. I'm in the middle as usual, but I don't mind at all. I think it works out better that way, and it gives me a better view of everyone in the van.

8:55 a.m.

We're on the road after stopping to get gas. Leen was worried that Heidi might not be able to keep up because her van is bigger and she's not used to driving in New Hampshire, but that's apparently not an issue; Heidi just cut off a car with apparently no difficulties. After all, she lives in Los Angeles and drives a convertible Mustang.

Sam just asked for mints and accepted my offer of Wintergreen Certs. I've offered mints several times during this visit, and it's become a running joke that Sam will decline, then change his mind almost immediately and ask for one. I offered mints to the others in the car, and Jake wanted one. He then proceeded to open the box the wrong way--which amused me--and then accidentally swallowed his mint whole almost instantly. From what I've heard about Jake from Sam, this is not a surprising thing to happen.

9:50 a.m.

We are still on the road, and we're telling stories about teachers.

10:25 a.m.

I have finally seen the Old Man of the Mountain, New Hampshire's best-known landmark. It consists of a group of rocks on the side of a mountain, and they happen to resemble an old man's profile. It's a natural formation, but now wires and supports hold it together just to be on the safe side. The old man's profile is on all state route signs and is featured on tons of other promotional information and tourist souvenirs. If the rocks fall down, there is no telling what will happen to the morale of the state. We also saw the Old Woman of the Mountain, which is much lower than the Old Man and not quite as impressive.

We spotted a large rock, and of course Sam had to climb up on it. I think people took as many pictures of Sam on the rock as they did of the Old Man. Then I decided that I had to climb on the rock, too. (Thomas snapped a picture of that part and later gave it a caption of, "Sam helps le petite reporter up on the rock.")

10:35 a.m.

After a bit of looking, Leen found a museum for us to stop at. The primary interest, however, was the bathroom, as there had been no bathroom at the scenic Old Man viewing place.

10:50 a.m.

We're still at the museum because we decided it would be a good spot for a group picture. We all posed around a rock while Tamara took pictures with oodles of cameras. The only drawback was that Ticia and Don didn't get in the picture, as they opted not to go along with us. We are also missing Rebecca, Tim, and Joann, although we do have baby Jonathan along with us today.

I was jotting notes on my single piece of paper just now, and Stephen grabbed the paper out of my hand. Before this new development had fully registered in my brain, Sam had snatched the paper from Stephen and was handing it back to me. Stephen seems to be so paranoid about my note-taking, even though he's a journalism major.

After waiting anxiously for a very long time, I finally found out what Happy Games are. Dave and Leen sat down on a bench, one on each side of me, and then proceeded to bump into me while saying, "Happy Games!" It seems so silly, but it was actually a lot of fun. Dave's the only one who thinks it's ridiculous, even though originally invented it as a way to cheer up Leen in college.

10:57 a.m.

We're on the road again, talking about dorm life at the University of New Hampshire. I love being able to picture the things they're talking about. We just passed a store called "Earl of Sandwich," which seemed rather funny, as we had been talking about how to say "URL" earlier.

11:25 a.m.

We're at Loon Mountain now, and a train is sitting on the tracks to our right. The engineer blew his horn, probably because he saw a large group of people heading toward the building, and scared some of us half to death. I looked over at him, and he was laughing very hard.

11:40 a.m.

Sam, Leen, Dave, and I are in the gondola, heading to the top of Loon Mountain.

12:30 p.m.

We stopped at the top of the mountain to take typical tourist pictures, including one of Stephen and Stephanie in reverse roles. At noon, we saw the Mountain Man show. We went to a spot near a cabin where quite a few people were already sitting on wooden benches. Instead, we stood up on a wooden walkway with a railing overlooking the scene. Soon a man with long hair and a beard emerged from the cabin and proceeded to tell us that he lived in the cabin during the summer months and that we could ask him questions about his living conditions. He was an intriguing man, and it soon became apparent that he wasn't an act; he really does live in the cabin. He carried a walking stick that he carved for himself, was wearing hand-made leather breeches, and lives predominantly off the land. Basic supplies such as flour are supplied by the people at Loon Mountain, as is the cabin. For the most part, though, the man provides for himself by hunting and gardening. He sometimes goes on treks over the mountains in search of crystals, which he then trades for other items he might want. He has no need for electricity or most man-made items but seems to be very intelligent. One of his pastimes is to read books, mostly ones about nature and stars. When asked if he kept a journal, he said no, he did not.

The man's accent is intriguing, and we eventually learned that his mother came from Scotland. He has no known family, although he was born and raised in the nearby mountains, where he still maintains another home. In the winter months, he leaves Loon Mountain and spends the time at his other home.

He has a wonderful sense of humor and had comebacks for many questions asked of him by the audience. "Are you married?" asked one female audience member, to which he replied, "Are you interested?" That brought laughs, but then we learned that he is not married. Most women today would not accept his style of living, and I agree. While he's intriguing, I don't think I would like to permanently live that way.

"What will you do when you get old?" asked another audience member.

"Oh, I'll probably shrivel up and die," the man responded, bringing more laughter.

Leen was wondering if he had a Social Security Number, Sam asked him, and the man said that he does not. Sam and I are still wondering if the IRS knows about this man. However, the best question came from a young boy sitting on the benches: "What's the strangest question you've ever been asked?" The Mountain Man didn't have a concrete answer, but I imagine that boy's question was probably it.

1:33 p.m.

We ate lunch, which was relatively uneventful, except for when they put water on the grill and caused a very loud noise accompanied by billowing steam. Cynthia ate the pickles that people didn't want, and I was brave enough to taste Sam's banana milk. It wasn't nearly as bad as I thought it would taste.

And then we headed for the caves, where we proceeded to have lots of fun. Leen didn't go in the caves, so she watched baby Jonathan for a while. A few other people stayed behind, and the rest of us split into natural groups. Sam, Amy, Jake, and I tended to stay near each other, and claustrophobic Amy actually went through the caves with us while Jake encouraged her. At one point, Sam peered over a precarious ledge, while David froze in apparent shock. And I naturally had to stop and glance twice at a funny sign near the entrance to one of the caves.

All in all, the caves were a lot of fun, and Stephen, Stephanie, Darien, and Amber seemed to be very excited about them. Sam was so glad they were enjoying themselves, probably in part because Stephen is such a city guy that he scorns most outdoor activities. They, along with a few others who included Thomas, Tamara, and David, labeled themselves the "Hardcore Group" and conquered everything in their path with great gusto.

Eventually, it was time to go, and we rode back down the chairlift. This time, I was in a car with Sam, Leen, and Rivikah.

2:15 p.m.

We are back in the vans again, but before we left Loon Mountain, David and Darien struck a pose from "Sinbad." David pretended to be breaking a chain with his chest, and we all snapped pictures. (Some innocent people passing by didn't really know what to think, and we later had a good laugh after the photos were developed. The photo basically summed up RinkWorks: People have fun, become friends, share personal jokes, while others pass by, look, then continue on their way.)

2:35 p.m.

We're at the flume gorge now.

3:05 p.m.

We had the option of taking a bus partway up or hiking the whole way. The Hardcore Group naturally hiked, while a bunch of us waited and took the bus. That turned out to be rather silly, as it was a very short trip. We came to a bridge, where the driver suddenly stopped and began speaking into his radio, saying something about people being below the bridge in an area where they are not allowed. Sure enough, it was our Hardcore Group, and, yes, they were also waving happily up at us. Our bus driver then got on a loudspeaker and told them that people are not allowed down there because the water has been known to suddenly rise three to five feet in five minutes. Those of us on the bus pretended we didn't know the people who were in trouble, but I don't know if the driver noticed that nearly all of us had matching shirts with brown turkeys on them.

3:23 p.m.

I've been taking in as much of the view as possible, and it's absolutely breathtaking. We're walking in a gorge, with sheer rock immediately to our left. To our right, over the railing, a clear river runs parallel to the trail we're on, sometimes going over rocks and causing small waterfalls. On the other side of the river, more rock rises straight up, with green trees above. Words cannot do it justice, and I fear that my photos will also fail to capture the true beauty of the place. This is one of those places that must be experienced and then treasured as a memory. I can only attempt to take mental snapshots of the sparkling water rippling over smooth rocks, reddish moss-covered rock rising on either side of the trail, and brilliant green trees high above me, with spaces in between so that I can see the amazingly blue sky beyond.

Matthew just made us laugh by asking, "Is this the Mountain Stream?" (The two rooms in RinkChat are called Mountain Stream and Forest Glade.)

3:50 p.m.

We split into groups again, because we came to a point where we could take the longer path or the shorter path. The Hardcore Group took little time in deciding to take the longer way and set off at once. We lingered a bit longer, as we didn't have to hurry to make it back to the main building by 4:30, but then Sam asked me if I'd go along if he took the longer way. I immediately said yes, and Rivikah also came along. We knew we'd regret missing out on the scenery if we took the shorter route. We set out with the goal of catching up to the ones who had gone ahead of us, but we never did catch up. A minute later, Jake came running up behind us and scared me half to death (yes, another reaction from me), so the four of us continued on together. Sam spotted a penny in the water, and, as is his custom, he carefully retrieved it without falling in. I made a mental note to tell Dave about that later, as Dave thinks it's great fun to throw a couple of pennies on the ground and watch Sam scramble to pick them up.

4 p.m.

We just walked through the covered Sentinel Pine Bridge that was built in 1939. The views are amazing, and I'm so glad we took the longer way.

A little while later

The four of us never did catch up to the Hardcore Group, but that was OK. Sam found lots of rocks to climb on, and Jake followed suit while Rivikah and I mostly watched in amusement. At times, it seemed to be a bit of brotherly rivalry. We came to Glacier Rock near the end of the trail, and it was basically a very large rock. It had a crack running all the way around it, and I wondered if it would eventually break up. That rock was so big, even Sam didn't climb on it.

Back at the main building, I splurged and got some ice cream, and we got an impromptu group picture.

4:50 p.m.

We're in the van again, headed back to Manchester. It's been a fun day, and now we're talking about various things, including the fact that the only part of the whole weekend that Sam videotaped was the bottle game. When he shows footage at next year's RinkUnion, it might appear that we only did one activity this year.

5 p.m.

I was just looking over my notes, and Dave jokingly tried to take the paper from my hand. He wasn't really going to take it from me, but I shrieked, "No, no, no, no!" in an increasingly high-pitched voice. Yes, my reaction had once again reduced everyone to fits of laughter.

5:05 p.m.

Jake just performed a whole train song from "The Music Man" and did an amazing job. (Later, after seeing the musical, I realized just how good of a job he really did.)

5:50 p.m.

We've been chatting during our drive, and Jake just said, "Weren't we talking about getting into a brawl?" We all thought he said "bra," and that thought made all of us laugh. (To make it even funnier, Heidi later peeked over my shoulder at my notes before I noticed, and all she could see was, "said 'bra.'" However, she thought it read, "sad bra," and was very curious.)

6:30 p.m.

The RinkUnion is officially over now, as we're back at the Comfort Inn in Manchester. We met up with Don and Ticia again and learned that they found a Mormon temple in Maine. Don had been there 10 years ago and actually recognized some of the people there, so I imagine that was a neat experience. John, his wife, and Jonathan were the first to leave, but David made sure to do something first. "My goal for this trip was to bump chests in a manly way with an orc," David said and then proceeded to do just that.

We just went to retrieve things from Dave's room, where we had stored them so they wouldn't melt in the hot car, and the room smells absolutely horrible. Darien and Amber didn't get rid of their leftover Chinese food but instead left it sitting in the closed room all day. It's the most foul odor and wafts down the hallway when the door is open.

6:50 p.m.

Led by Heidi, several people decided that they wanted to eat at Newick's, a highly recommended seafood restaurant. Even though it was an hour away in Portsmouth and we had just wandered around much of New Hampshire all day, most of us decided to go along, since we still had the vans. After a lot of standing around, trying to figure out the logistics of the number of vehicles and passengers going to Newick's, we were on our way, with Heidi taking the large van full of people. I rode in Sam and Leen's car, and we made sure we had everything loaded into the car, as we would not be returning to Manchester. David and Jacqueline followed us in their car, as they were staying in a hotel in Portsmouth that night. Heidi followed David, and Jake came at the end of the procession, with Amy in his car.

8:20 p.m.

We're in Newick's, waiting for our food. I wondered how it would work to take a group of 19 to a restaurant and expect to be seated, but it turned out that Newick's is a huge restaurant that almost resembles a cafeteria. Long rows of tables are covered with plastic-coated table clothes, and we eat with plastic utensils on paper plates. I didn't expect it to be like this, but I actually like it, especially since our huge group can be seated at one very long table. Ticia is to my right, with Don beside her, so I've been able to actually say a few words to her. She's playing a game on Don's Palm Pilot. In it, you're a firefighter attempting to rescue babies from a burning building by catching them as they fall. I suppose the game could seem rather morbid, but it's very funny when Ticia says, "Oh, I just killed a baby!"

Sam is to my left, with Leen on the other side of him, Jake beyond her, and Amy across from them. Darien and Amber are across from me, with Rivikah, Stephanie, and Stephen diagonally to my right. I haven't spent a lot of time talking to them either, so it's nice to chat with them a bit. Maryam, Matthew, and Heidi are further down the table, sitting near David and Jacqueline.

I think we're all a bit worn out, but that's making things more fun. Sam just attempted to wear my purse my putting it over his head and over one shoulder. That works perfectly fine with many purses, but the strap on mine is too short to successfully accomplish such a thing. However, once Sam started, there was no turning back. He got it on and then informed me that this was the proper way to wear my purse, saying that if you're wearing a big shirt, you should wear a little purse so that the shirt would bunch out around the purse. At this point, Mina showed him her purse, which had a very long strap so that, when worn over the head and one shoulder, it would still have plenty of room. As should have been expected, Sam draped the purse over one shoulder only, saying, "Clearly, this purse is to be worn over the shoulder." He then demonstrated how handy it would be to reach down into the purse and whip out a can of mace. Those of us in the vicinity were laughing throughout Sam's stand-up comedic performance.

9:10 p.m.

I nearly died a few minutes ago, but someone pointed out that at least it would have been a "hardcore" death. The waitress brought my Sprite, I took it from her, and set it down on the table. Unbeknownst to me, I happened to set it precisely on a crack where two tables were joined together, and the cup began to tip over. Rather than simply right the cup and continue on with life, I proceeded to react in my typical, unplanned fashion. I gasped audibly, which caused me to inhale the fry that was in my mouth at the time. It promptly became lodged somewhere in some bodily passageway not designed for fries, and I began to choke. Miraculously, I did not die.

This whole meal has been extremely entertaining. Our meal started with drinks, served in paper cups with individually wrapped straws. I was caught in the crossfire as Ticia blew straw wrappers past me, aiming for Leen. Once we had exhausted our supply of straw wrappers, the waitress brought little plastic containers filled with coleslaw. Considering that I don't like most coleslaw, I thought it was pretty good and even hate half of it. I then set my fork down into the container, picked up my cup, took a drink, and then nearly set the cup down on the coleslaw container. I missed but hit the fork handle, which then launched the coleslaw container. It whizzed past me and landed in front of Sam, scattering fork and bits of coleslaw as it went. Sam missed the whole thing until coleslaw suddenly landed in front of him, and the look on his face was priceless. Fortunately, that mishap was only very minor, and also rather funny.

The food came, and they brought me my chicken. Stephen was relieved to see that he wasn't the only person who was not eating seafood while in a seafood restaurant. The red lobsters shocked me and I sat there sputtering in astonishment. They looked so real, and reminded me of large spiders. I was both fascinated and repulsed by them, but my fascination ultimately won the upper hand, and I actually tried the juice from the leg of Leen's lobster. It was quite tasty, so she gave me a taste of the meat. I decided it was tolerable but preferred chicken. A long time ago I had promised Sam I would try a bit of Haddock if he ordered it, so he held me to my promise and gave me a bit of fish from his Haddock sandwich. To my surprise, that was actually very tasty. I am certainly not a seafood eater, but I would order that if the occasion ever arose again. In fact, it was better than my meal, which was called a "chicken sandwich."

Later

As we were wrapping up our meal, Leen had the idea to get some pictures of herself with the people she hadn't been able to spend much time with. I followed suit and enlisted Sam's help in taking pictures with my camera. I posed with several people, including Darien, Amber, and Rivikah, Ticia and Don, and Cynthia. Naturally, I had to get a shot of Sam, Leen and me in our turkey shirts. When I posed with Dave, he naturally made the open-mouthed face that he kept making at me, and someone talked me into making the same face. I'm sure that photo will provide my descendants with hours of laughter and entertainment.

We settled our various tabs, then left the restaurant. This was where we would part ways, but we weren't quite ready for that. It was a nice night, most of us were hyper, and we proceeded to have a great deal of fun. It was completely unplanned, but that turned out to be one of the highlights of the whole RinkUnion, in part because we were able to finally interact and laugh as a whole group. Stephen's explanation, though, was that it was more fun because Thomas wasn't there. "Good riddance to bad trash, I tell you," Stephen said.

I'm not sure of the order in which things happened, but I know a lot of very funny things happened in a short amount of time. Ticia showed off the way she can punch Don, and we all winced, even though he said it didn't hurt. I am still not convinced. Ticia and Stephanie both began to get cold, so at one point they each put one arm in a sweater, then zipped it up and posed for a picture. We all engaged in a huge group hug initiated by David, and then we drew in so tightly that everyone moaned. This started more hugging, and David made the rounds. When he got to me, he swung me around, which was great fun.

The hugging continued with a "manly" hug involving Sam, Stephen, Dave, and Darien. Dave was very reluctant but got roped into joining in the hug. It didn't last long, but when it ended, Stephen pretended to give Darien a big kiss on the mouth while bending him over backwards. In the midst of this mayhem, we were taking a few more pictures, and someone mentioned the old idea of creating a "/huge" command in Chat to match the "/shrink" command. The idea caught on, so when one person yelled, "Huge!" everyone ducked in order to make the remaining person appear bigger. Stephanie remained standing, but she's so short that it didn't even matter, and this led to another photo opportunity. Several people all lined up from shortest to tallest, making it appear that Stephanie was taller than the others.

At some point, somebody started a game of "Ring around the Darien," and we all joined hands and danced around him. It was around then that I saw our waitress going home. I'm sure she was scared for her life at the sight of a large group of people singing, holding hands, and moving in a circle, especially since she thought they had left the restaurant much earlier.

There wasn't one person leading in the fun, but Sam was the instigator during some of our mad antics. Stephen was shouting about the idea of creating a "/HA" command in Chat, based on an extremely funny line from the Sinbad movie. When used, it would result in the words, "And Jaffar, wizard of all that is evil, shouts, 'HA!'" Someone said that would be a good way to keep newbies out of Chat, and Stephen loudly shouted, "YEAH!" David noticed that even though Sam was laughing, he was backing away a bit. He commented that maybe Sam was hinting that people begin moving toward the vehicles, but Sam said he was simply blown away by the volume of Stephen's voice. Sam then walked over the Stephen and said, "Go ahead, shout as loud as you can."

In a normal volume, Stephen said, "I don't think you want me to do that." Sam suddenly recoiled in mock pain, clutching his ear and stumbling backward in exaggerated moves.

"Hey, you're acting like Darien does all the time!" cried Amber, and we all burst out laughing.

Heidi, who had perfected her humorous imitation of a Boston accent, headed toward the van in an attempt to get people to leave, as she had to drive an hour back to Manchester. However, nobody moved, and Stephen voiced everyone's thoughts when he said that he didn't want to leave. We began to make the last rounds of hugs, and Ticia made sure she tickled Sam and Amy as she was hugging them. As I was hugging people, I got to Stephen and didn't hesitate to give him a hug. This seemed to be a bit of a challenge to his reputation, so he decided that he was hugging people as a way of feeling for kidneys so he'd know where to strike people and kill them. I went along with it, but I did get a genuine Stephen hug out of the deal. (Maybe that was to make up for earlier, when he held a plastic knife to my throat.) Leen was the next one to hug Stephen, and they both stood there staring at each other for a moment. Then they, too, hugged.

All too soon, those riding in the van had piled back into it for one last ride. As the van slowly pulled out, many of them had their faces pressed to the windows for one last look. Ticia and Don, seated in the back of the van, reached their hands out through the cracked window for one last physical touch before we'd once again be forced to communicate through text. We ran alongside the van as it left the parking lot, and Sam and Jake continued to run beside it down the street, with Sam and Heidi blowing kisses along the way. And then they were gone.

David and Jacqueline left soon after that, and Sam, Leen, Jake, Amy, and I were left in a very empty, very quiet parking lot. Sam and Jake went in Jake's car, and Leen, Amy, and I took the other car. Yes, the RinkUnion was over.

10:55 p.m.

We're home now, and Jake's hanging out for a little while.

11:15 p.m.

Jake went home, so we're down to four people. Leen got online, where she discovered that someone had spammed the Message Forum with over 30 posts of nonsense. Sam deleted the posts, watched as the person posted more, then banned that individual from continuing. We had been gone since Friday, but the spam had only started within the previous hour. Even a weekend-long RinkUnion wouldn't prevent Sam from quickly and neatly dealing with any and all RinkWorks problems.