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Wednesday 28 March 2001 // 0442 EST Seeing: The road to Florida Hearing: Lustral -- Everytime Touching: Caramel colored skin Tasting: water that costs way too much money, but not as much as the other stands.. Thinking: We picked up the rental car on Thursday the 22nd, it was a 2001 Ford Taurus, hada CD player inside, it was phattie, I was really impressed, and the car drove like a dream. We fondly named her Ivy. The cruise control system rocked my butt, and it was a lot of fun to drive, especially driving as long as I did...and I did drive. I drove the whole way from Columbia to Miami, stopping only for snacks, bathroom breaks, and gasoline. With Christina Felix(Vixen) riding shotgun, Kristy(Freak) and her boy Zach in the back, the four of us went south to places I haven't seen in years and hardly remembered, drove through towns and on highways that I remember faintly as though they were a dream, but I could never quite put my finger on it...we left maryland at about 830-9PM, and we drove through the night and the morning all the way south. I remember it being all kinds of dark and then it being light again, and then it starting to get dark....we stopped for gas at about every state, since apparently fords guzzle gas, but it is an american car, after all. We finally made it to Florida, and I drove all the way to Miami...we were in Miami city, and we stopped for gas and something to eat when we looked at the directions and found out that Jamie, the guy we were staying with actually lived in Clearwater, Florida, about 4 hours back the way we had come...so we decided to loop around the Florida coast, drive through the everglades, and up this teeny little redneck highway towards Tampa...the only thing on either side of the road were places to get airboat rides and fishing and hunting shacks...no bathrooms, by the way. Eventually, we got off that little highway and onto a larger interstate where I could actually DRIVE, and that's when the rental car broke down. A 2001 Ford Taurus....the transmission started slipping, and it wouldn't shift into 3rd gear, so we were stuck somewhere around 25 miles per hour. Luckily, Zach knew how to trick the car, and we managed to get to Clearwater, where we dropped our stuff with Jamie, showered, changed, and I called to make arrangements to get another car. Jamie had the night planned for us, we drove our busted up car into Ybor, where we went to this awesome music and clothing store, the only place I've seen where i can get Hook-Ups shirts(you know the ones with anime girls on the fronts doing very obscene things or just looking very sexually provocative), but they were 21 bucks each for a short sleeved shirt, so I was content to buy a LOT of vinyl and be on my way...we hung out in this big mardi gras style street party they were having down there, running between clubs and stores and coffee shops and whatnot..it was a fabulous night...we made fun of people who were dressed silly and looked ugly and things, and came to the conclusion that christina, kristy, zach, jamie and I were the most attractive people there, and we were from out of town...we eventually headed home, where my darling christina had arranged for us to sleep in Jamie's walk-in closet with her, on the floor on her comforter and VERY vuzzy blanket, and more importantly, with her...we retired for the night while everyone else stayed up and chatted or did something illegal. We laid down and went straight to sleep, and eventually someone closed the closet door for us....... The next afternoon we all slept in, and by the time we got up, we were late to get to Ultra3 in time for gates opening, but it was okay...we drove into Miami, thanks to a very sleepy Christina(indeed, she hadn't gotten much sleep the night before) and when we parked, for some reason, being in the party brought my energy level through the roof...I felt like I was on fire...the weather was gorgeous, the skies were clear, the sun was setting and the people were all smiling and dancing...there was a light breeze, and walking around the place all the music was fabulous...the jungle rocked me, the twilo arena threw out phat beats, and the gatecrasher tent pounded bass that we could hear sitting on the beach. The music got to me and I had to dance, it was awesome...eventually Christina and I struck it out on our own, looking for a good time, and we wandered around, exploring, finding the main stage and spending some time around the twilo arena for sasha and digweed's set..hanging out at the main stage for DJ Dan's set, and always always going back and forth to and from the Gatecrasher tent...every so often we wound up standing at the fountain in the center of the place making eyes at each other and smiling and talking about how wonderful we were....and eventually we wandered back to the gatecrasher tent for the most fabulous trance and house I've ever heard... For the first time in years, my body ached, my lungs burned, my muscles screamed to stop, but my brain told me to keep dancing, to keep going, that I couldn't stop, the music wouldn't let me stop, it was too much for me to bear, and it all of a sudden became spiritual for me again...I could feel myself lifting off the dancefloor with every beat, I could feel the bass in my chest and the vocals soothe parts of my soul that hadn't been caressed in so long... and I danced...and christina danced with me...and I think the scene in florida is so devoid of real partykids that seeing us dance was a big deal...we drew spectators and smiles, cheers and applause...it was wonderful...we eventually retreated from the gatecrasher tent for Paul Van Dyk's set in the main stage...the highlight of the night...I haven't heard him spin before, so I knew I was in for a treat, but I wasn't expecting everything he did...his set was so fabulous I can't possibly explain in words...he spun Darude's Sandstorm for goodness sakes...like I said before, it felt like the music was inside me, filling me with energy, making me move and filling my heart with love...it was amazing. We closed the party, we left when they kicked us out, and we stood on the corner outside until they told us to cross the street...even with the little things that went wrong over the course of the party, I still don't think it could have been more perfect...I don't think I could have had more fun...it was the best party I've ever been to, and the more I play it back in my mind, the more I love it. We retreated to Jamie's place after Ultra at about 4 or 5AM, and we all went straight to sleep. We woke up at about 1PM, showered, cleaned and packed, and prepped to leave in the NEW rental car we had gotten before the party, another Ford Taurus, of unknown year(most likely 1999 or so), which we fondly named Shiver, and was thrilled that she had the same cruise control system that Ivy had, and we said our farewells to Jamie, and made our way back to Maryland, stopping for gas as we needed to, but this time, with me leading us out of the state, stopping and letting Christina drive, and then having Kristy drive, while Christina and I sat in the back... Our only chance to sleep over the course of the whole trip back to Maryland, and we didn't. We sat and stared into each other's eyes and we laughed at Kristy's attention defecit DJing of the radio(we had listened to all the mix tapes I had brought just in case we didn't have a CD player), and we sat there, with her head in my lap looking up at me, and me looking back into her beautiful brown eyes, singing Lifehouse's Hanging By A Moment(a song I previously hated, but for some reason, singing it to her didn't seem so bad..) and Shaggy's Angel(which I always liked, but it was cute and ghetto enough for the two of us). We laughed and whispered and giggled and wasted the time away driving north.... I think I'll take this time to mention that we have some interesting laws up here...things that prohibit billboards from advertising highway-side porn and sex toy shops...I can't count how many Cafe Risque billboards I saw, for a total of 2 actual Cafe Risques...I think it's a chain...and then there's South of The Border...what used to be a little gas and food and souvenir shop just south of the North Carolina Border has become an amusement park of sorts with hotels and shops and attractions that span both sides of I-95. A lot of things have changed since I've been south...but Florida has never seen anything like us when we hit it... Kristy finished her turn and Zach was in no shape to drive, having driven us back from the party the night before and having not slept that night, so I took the last shift into Maryland and taking us safely back to Christina's apartment. Kristy quickly unpacked and went home to try and sleep before class, Zach crashed in Christina's apartment, and Christina hopped in Shiver and we went home, filled up Shiver's tank, and then she followed me to BWI where we dropped Shiver off and came back home...we stayed in her parking lot until about 930AM talking and whatnot, not wanting the trip to be over, not wanting me to go back to school, not wanting the moments to ever be over...and eventually her retiring to her apartment and me to my house in Columbia, knowing I wasn't going to make class or work that day. I ran around my house naked trying to do my laundry(mom wasn't home, it's okay, I was alone), and eventually went upstairs and called Christina, who was being forced to go to work after literally no sleep in the past 20-30 hours, and I fell quickly asleep until about 6 where I got up, hung out with my parents, ate some real food, and came back to campus. Since then, I didn't go to class Tuesday either. Spring Break 2001...so good it took two extra days. It was beautiful. Spiritual. Fabulous...I could go on sounding cheesy, but it's how I feel. It's more than the party, the party was awesome and wonderful and reaffirmed my faith in the scene and my desire to be a partykid, but ultimately I came out of my vacation with new friends, new experiences, and a lover that took me 6 years to discover...she and I had so many chances to make each of us the other's, but it never seemed to happen...it could have happened in high school, it could have happened in college, it could have happened several times....but I'm glad it didn't, so it could happen now...I'm happy that it's happening now...I can hear how she loves me in her voice, I can hear how she needs me in the way she says she misses me...and I love her just as much. I'm serious, where else am I gonna find a girl as sweet, charming, sexy, intelligent, funny, and amazing as her...who also is a partykid, loves videogames as much as I do(that's right, I have a girl who plays as Ivy in Soul Caliber...I KNOW you're jealous! Too bad, she's MINE! She plays RPGS, she plays fighting games, she plays PC games...::sigh::), loves music, loves to dance, loves to talk...she's amazing...and as much as she doesn't want me to put her on a pedastal, I do care for her a great deal, I respect her, and I love her. Enough gushiness..suffice to say that my trip was eventful in more ways than one, and I'm happy about it...I'm glad everything happened the way it did...everything was heavenly, and I sit back and flash the days and nights over again in my mind, and I revel in it again...and know that I have to road trip more often, I have to travel more... And I have to be with her. |