"I didn't think things like this existed anymore."

I'm feeling restless, which I know is autumn, and yet at the same time it's a restlessness for wanting to stay still, not move around too much. It's...hibernation. Winter.

But first it's fall, and this weekend was the best of it! :)

Chuck's Harvest Festival was more or less what I thought it would be...that is to say, more than I'd had in the past and less than I'd expected, but in a very good way. I dunno...I think it's just age and the history of it all. I expected it to be what it was for us all 10 years ago - a big, drunken, rowdy, up-all-night, druggy haze of 48 hours of music, campfires, dancing and hippies twirling around everywhere. I have to admit, maybe I just didn't have the energy for that. I *wanted* to have the energy for that, but I think I'm happy that I got to relax instead.

I overheard some guy say that this weekend: "I didn't think things like this existed anymore." They don't. Only because it's on private property, not really advertised, and has grown slowly by word-of-mouth more than anything else, has the festival even lasted this long. It's at risk though - every year it's a little rowdier, the crowd seems a little younger, and the mess left for Chuck to clean up afterwards is a little more difficult for one guy to manage. Will people continue to respect it? I think so...but they need a little coaxing from some of us who've been going there for years. It's worth the effort it takes to make it happen.

What's crazy is that the people I saw there are some of the people who I've known the longest in my life, although there have been some huge gaps in my contact with them. Funny how that usually doesn't matter. I met quite a few of the people there about thirteen years ago; some of them ten, nine or eight years ago. Some of them - only a year ago! But what was crazy was how little the whole picture of these people has changed, even if they've changed a lot as individuals. Maybe they're married, have kids, live far away, cleaned up their acts a bit since freshman year...but the sense of humor and the jokes and the randomness are all still the same. I think that's why I was a little disconnected from everyone all weekend - I had a great time, but I was also just taking it all in from the back of our Volkswagon Van. Ummm...I mean, our rented U-Haul. :) Which, by the way, is a GREAT way to camp! We fit so much crap in the back of that thing and still had plenty of room to sleep, and it blocked out the frigid air and the noise much better than a tent would have done. Good times.

Kinda hard getting back to reality after a weekend like that. Part of me didn't want to leave there. It made another part of me want to pick up and leave and move on to some new adventure somewhere else. It's really, really time to start thinking about that.