I Sting Dead People

I doubt many people have gone camping, found a dead person, came back, and saw Sting at MacArthur Court last Sunday; but I have.

On Friday, a large group of us went camping at Deer Creek. I went out Friday night with Sami and Rachel. I had never met most of the participants, but they were a cheery bunch and we all were having a grand 'ol time. Late Friday night, we decided to go on a walk and visit "dead guy" (he had been named that earlier by some of the campers because he was in the same spot, lying down, all day). When we approached the person, we found out that he was not only dead, he had been there for a very, very long time. Mud was thickly coated half-way up his body (from rain splashing on the muddy ground beneath him) and he wasn't breathing. Rachel, Tej and I were clutching each other, in no mood to see his face or other features. We stood behind the corpse while others, including Sami, (GO SAMI! YOU'RE SO FUCKIN' HARDCORE!!!!!) studied his mangled visage. He was holding a .22 caliber under his side, beneath his head. Not that any of us are forensic scientists, but it was clear he had committed suicide. His corpse was swollen and white, more evidence that he had been there for quite some time. Does it get creepier? You bet...

While visiting dead guy, Abba (another camper) was noticing d.g.'s car, a red Mitsubishi. He saw a suicide note in the passenger seat, and although he didn't feel like reading it (awwww, come on! It's a superfun suicide note!) he remembered a story in the paper last month with these factors - red Mitsubishi, missing, emotionally troubled man, blah blah. Not only did he remember the story, he had the paper with this story AT OUR CAMP. When the Rangers came early Saturday morning, they were questioning Tej, Andrew and Abba about the incident. I heard one of the Rangers was confused as to how we could know so much about d.g., until Abba pulled out the paper and said "here".

Needless to say, finding a dead person opens a frightening realm of thought to any person. How did they die? Were they murdered? What about their family? Is the killer still out there? These and many more were rushing through my head as we went back to camp. One of the campers brought his son for the night. Of course, none of us uttered a word about d.g. near the 6-year-old.

I feel terrible that I can't remember his name, but for the sake of clarity I'll call him Matt. There we sat, completely stupified and unable to make even awkward conversation. At that moment, Matt burst forth with one hell of a story only an imaginative 6-year-old could tell. The story went on for a solid 2 hours, all of us were involved, and he had special parts for each of us. Tej and I were "Number One's", so if he ever left we would be in charge of "taking care of people". The story included blond werewolves, marines, among other imaginary and slightly imaginary and non-imaginary creatures. We all had to participate in an initiation ceremony, which involved lighting a stick on fire, blowing it out, and having everyone in the party clap for you. The stick would be passed to the next person and the rite would continue. Though I couldn't erase d.g. from my memory, or sufficiently push him into the backround of my mind, I was thoroughly engaged in Matt's story. I was experiencing the explosion of life through Matt to such an extent that d.g. wasn't an all-consuming presence. Matt was encouraging all of us to watch out for one another and take care of one another. We had assigned priorities and duties should he leave. When he went to bed, we were all blisfully sad.

Then on Sunday I went and saw Sting at MacArthur court. He rocked. He's 500 years old and COMPLETELY AMAZING. If yoga makes you have a body like Sting, I'm all for it. DAMN. He rocked so hard diamonds were spewing out his back end. Well, not literally because nothing was spewing out his back end... thankfully. He prefaced the concert by saying he'd be playing a lot of his old stuff. That totally rocked because I know all the Police stuff, but I haven't followed his recent albums at all. We heard "Roxanne", "Every Breath You Take", he even did a couple of Beatle covers.

Cheers to crazy weekends.