Sue-point-oh

Hey people. So, interesting weekend in Suelandia...
The mountain bike race Sat got canceled -- too muddy, so I wound-up going up to my sister and brother-in-law's cabin with Dan for a big family get-together. Some of you who know me, know this is the kind of thing that makes me incredibly crabby. I have a weird aversion to family gatherings. It has nothing to do with the folks involved or anything. They just trigger this weird "must escape" anxiety in me and I'll do about anything to avoid them, or at least make them as short as possible. BUT--

In the interest of Sue-point-oh and the possible shift further out of my box I seem to be undergoing, I decided to try to reprogram myself about this and "be different." ( If you're going to break-down, at least try to break OPEN.) I thought about a couple of things I've learned from guys in my life lately. (You never know who will teach you something new.)

I've really had a blast over the last year working over at the trail with that crew-- pretty much all guys. The thing about hanging-out with guys is, it's like how you made friends when you were a little kid. "I like playing in the woods." "Yeah? Me too!" "Awesome. Want to blow off this potato gun with me?" "Okay." --Simple. No psychoanalysis, no politics, no personal over-sharing. "Let's just go play." There's a relaxing level of acceptance, a joking camaraderie that's really refreshing, especially to a girl.

Then there is my sis's hubs. Sometimes the people who drive you the most nuts are the ones who have the most to teach you. I've been thinking about what it is about him that makes him such a stress-fest. Sure there's all the ways in which he's a big ass at times, but even when he is being super cordial and trying to extend himself and being nice, there's always a bunch of tension around him. I decided it's because even when he isn't being difficult, it's because he's making a concentrated effort to "go along' with stuff-- being magnanimous about it, not actually enjoying it. The stick is never actually removed.

I don't want to be, but I know I've been that person-- the difficult one, the one sitting there judging everything and being a big pain in the ass. This family gathering was a chance to shake things up. I decided to try to be more like the guys I like hanging out with-- to be in the moment and just take things for what they are, and try to get as much fun out of everything as possible. It worked, and man-oh-man, did I get out of the box!

One thing about Dan's sister's family, whose cabin this was, is that they are BIG hunters. As most of you know-- I am NOT. Normally, our ideological/political differences would shade everything about this day for me (even though I like all the people) (I know, me = head case), but today I was determined not to let it. So when we got there and were being given the tour and saw this on the way to the giant pole barn, I just thought, "Cool! How funny someone would go so far to rock-out a trailer." And it is pretty bad-ass and cool.

First order of business was to go on a tour of the property, over 100 acres of Wisconsin woods. Cool-- I love walking around in the woods. Turns out, this was to take place on a whole slew of gas-powered contraptions. This was the first one out of the barn-- yes-- it's a motorized bar stool. Note the flames painted on the plywood floorboard.

Rednecky? Yeah-- but look how fun!

That turned out to be my ride. It doesn't look like it, but that thing went pretty darn fast, not to mention it was super top-heavy (tippy), and had no suspension what-so-ever, and whenever you turned the barstool swiveled, so it was a bit of a job to stay on it-- but SUPER FUN!

After everyone else mounted-up, we hit the series of trails through their woods-- a rag-tag zoomy parade consisting of a fat tired dirt bike, an old-school honda trail bike from the 70's (I totally want one of these now), 2 atv's, a go cart that had to be driven with 2 feet and one hand because the throttle stuck and you had to pull the gas pedal up by hand to slow it down, an old state patrol electric golf cart, and the flying bar stool.

We raced, passed each other dangerously (okay, mostly me on the bar stool, Dan on an atv, and our nephew on the go cart did this), and whenever we got to a clearing (there were a bunch of these they've cleared for hunting purposes) everyone would zoom all over like maniacs before zipping back into the trees. Green? No. Fun? YES!

After that, and some sandwiches, my Brother-in-law and his son began dragging these out. Yes, you're not seeing things, that's a dinosaur on the right.

Then they got out a whole bunch of bows and arrows and anyone who wanted to could learn how to shoot arrows at the rubber animals. I did not think about how anti-killing I am, or how playing around with weapons is toeing the line of savagery. I just saw it as a chance to try something new and went for it. No rubber animals were actually harmed after all.

Well, okay. That is not true. These things were bristling with arrows many many times over the next couple hours. I shot the larger pig in the butt, but mostly killed the grass just beyond all these critters. Eventually people began improvising. That's a beer bottle on the deer's head.

Wow, how much more out of the box could I get huh? Oh, I've only just begun people. After all the arrow shooting, they brought out a bunch of GUNS. Yes-- you heard me-- guns. I punched stop on the tape that automatically begins playing in my head, about how anti-gun I am and "what is wrong with these people?" etc etc, and instead I said, "I've always kind of wanted to shoot off a handgun."

WHAT?????? Yeah, that's right. Do I want to own one? No. But I have always wondered what it felt like. Here was a chance to find out. So we all headed off to one of the clearings where they'd made a little shooting range tucked up against a hillside piled with old tires. I shot off this 22 and a 9 mil that jerked up hard when you pulled the trigger. It was an interesting experience, and everyone laughed when I squeaked every time I shot.

Earlier in the day, I was talking with my nephew's wife-- talking her into trying out the barstool. She'd been just riding behind him on an atv. I said, "It's all about regret aversion today. You know if you don't try it, tomorrow you'll be mad at yourself. Just do it! If you try it and it's not fun you're not out anything." After that it seemed like a couple of the girls got a little more darey, and were all trying all the stuff out like me. ~svengalli-like vibes~ Gotta luv it.

While everyone else was trying the guns, I went back to the archery area to find my two brother-in-laws who'd stayed behind to see what they were doing. As usual when guys are left to themselves-- hijinx had broken out. They were standing across the large front lawn from each other, shooting arrows into the sky trying to see who could get closest to hitting the other guy. I freaked-out at first too, but the arrows they were using were these special kind of blunt tipped ones that I'm sure were still dangerous, but probably not deadly.

I watched for a while, laughing and going, "oh my god", then screwed up the courage to try a thing that I've been too scared to try my whole life-- riding a motorcycle.

The first time I saw it when John wheeled it out of the barn I was drawn to it-- the little '74 Honda Trail 90. Isn't it adorable? (I TOTALLY want one now you guys!)


He showed me how to work it (kind of-- I never did really shift it), and I took off around the yard at first, laughing my butt off and squealing like a girl, then I rode off down the dirt road and cruised the shooting range waving and hooting. On the way back I buzzed my niece and nephew who were now fooling around on the golf cart and flashed them the metal horns. I felt uber bad-ass.

After this all the girls of course had to try it out. My sister-in-law Mary, who survived this funky kind of brain cancer last year, freaked-out and rode it right into the woods and crashed into a tree, but thankfully neither she nor the bike were damaged.

When I recounted all this to my sister she goes, "did you start running around barefoot and playing the banjo too?" (smart alecyness is a family trait) -- and she's right-- everything about this day was way out of the box for me-- but i had a great time, and everyone was really nice, and for once I felt pretty comfortable. It helped how there was a lot going on, and I could keep moving, but it also helped to just take it all moment to moment.