So. That being said.
There is a point to this.
Sometime in August, Justin asks me if I want to go east of the mountains to his friends' annual labor day gathering. We'll leave friday night and get back to Seattle on Monday. It's a semi-annual event, on both labor day and memorial day. He says it's great fun and that many of his old friends from east of the mountains go so it would be a fun time for us to get away and I could meet a lot of his friends too.
Sure, I'm in! Definitely! (See, yes person, there WAS a point in all of that jabbering...)
Um.
Baby?
Next time, let's elaborate. Elaborate in that this "event" rivals the BEER F-ING OLYMPICS OF THE WORLD, if there even is such a thing. Well, not even if there is, because if there isn't, then THIS is THAT. And that there are T-SHIRTS made commemorating the "event." Of course, T-shirts mean that it's SERIOUS, just like if you announce something on facebook then that makes it serious, right? And also, back to the beer olympics, let's elaborate next time that it's not just a "gathering" or "event" but that there are MULTIPLE "events" as a part of this whole 2 day madness in which we test our skills. Skills meaning our talent at drinking games.
Ok, ok, to Justin's credit he MIGHT have mentioned that it would be a little crazy but men usually embellish and exaggerate a bit so I MIGHT have just laughed and went on my merry way.
Women need to listen more.
Wait, did I just say that publicly?
Ok, women need to listen more sometimes. As do men. But we're not talking about men here, really. We're talking about me being a yes person and not really listening to what I was getting into.
Let's tell the story in pictures, shall we?
On Friday night, we made our way out to the middle of freaking nowhere to where Justin's friend, Jesse, owns land and a cabin. Aka: our little weekend home. We brought tents and camping gear to camp on his land. Friday night was relatively tame. We ate dinner on the road and made it to Jesse's around 9pm. We hung around and relaxed and ended up getting to bed around midnight. Tents were a good call. But I must mention: as gorgeous as it was in eastern Washington during the day (sunny, warm), it was FREEZING at night.
The next morning, we woke up to gorgeous weather. Jesse's property looks down into a valley and is absolutely gorgeous.
Another shot. I have to say, his idea of having a cabin up in the middle of nowhere is not a bad idea. Not only is it gorgeous but it's extremely peaceful. We enjoyed the views, ate a breakfast of champions, and then topped it off with a 9am beverage of Keystone light. And the fun began...
More and more people started showing up for the "events." At this point I'm piecing everything together and am on beer #2 at 10am. Good sign? I'm told there are about 15 events that will take place over the course of 2 days. And naturally we have scorecards to track our scores through them all. Beer pong, shooting (guns!), pool, frisbee golf, and tons of others. Funny that I can only remember the few events that I did when I was relatively sober... (sorry mom). The first event was shooting. Guns. Me. I KNOW. All of those years in the midwest of refusing to shoot clay pigeons was shot to hell by the effects of a) keystone light and b) trying to win these god damn beer Olympics or whatever the hell this was (you get points for every "event" you participate in and at the end of the 2 days a winner is crowned). Stupid competiviness (personality trait #3). So I shot a shot gun and a 12mm gun (I think?) There were two shooting events. And naturally they take place first when no one is that much under the influence. It's the smart people's beer olympics. Suffice it to say, I am not a natural at shooting. At all. As Justin said, "If you ever get the urge to shoot me, I'll just stand right in front of you and I'll have no shot of getting hit." Yes, I was pretty much that awesome. But hey, I got points on my scorecard for participation! 
After shooting, we had an invigorating round of frisbee golf and after that, around mid afternoon Saturday, things started to get really interesting. Starting with shots. Like the matching shirts? They say "Squalor in the holler 2010...countdown to drinking" or something like that. Told you they have t-shirts made. It's serious, guys. Was. not. kidding.
Having some fun with the camera with that boy... We're serious too because facebook tells us we are. Or actually just because we like each other. At this point, we had finished frisbee golf and Justin's frisbee golf team was actually following the drinking rules associated with frisbee golf. You can tell. I was playing with three other girls and lucky for this lightweight, we ended up just walking/chatting so I was in pretty good shape. For the moment.
Me, John (Justin's old friend), and Mr. J himself. Hi, who here thinks that bourbon pairs nicely with keystone light? WE DO!
More fun with the camera....
And yeeeeehaww! Feeling pretty good.
As the night went on, after bourbon, keystone light, and some rather intelligent shots of 151, along with god knows what else (but definitely NOT water), someone was not feeling too hot.
Oh no, no, no. That boy was NOT feeling good. AT ALL. And he was in such a um, funny, state that he kept mumbling, "I don't NEED water, Jenn, come on, who needs water, not this boy...." And on and on. I tried so hard because I knew with water, he would feel better. But, since he's as stubborn as me, he wouldn't listen (SEE men need to listen too, AHEM). So I laughed at him and took pictures. OH COME ON. I did genuinely feel bad, too.
At this point in the night something thought it was a great idea to jump over a dog gate. This was a rather entertaining game for the observers (me), especially when someone wouldn't make it and effectively tried to de-ball themselves. Too bad it wasn't an "official" event. Maybe next year. Even Justin participated...and, to my benefit (and truthfully probably his too), he made it and there was no de-balling. This was after he eventually drank some water and wouldn't you know it, within the hour he felt better...enough to jump over a dog fence. CRAZY!
The next day, we felt like ROCKSTARS. Or maybe only like rockstars in the most sarcastic sense of the word... We ventured down into Wenatchee, the biggest/closest town and went to a health food store to stock up on some much needed healthy food and, more importantly, electrolyte enhanced fluids. Most people (who were even more hungover than us!!) were already drinking keystone light at this point in time but on that day even just the thought at that moment was enough to make me gag. On the plus side, it was a beautiful day in Eastern Washington.
Once we got back, which, by the way was TOUGH to do given the fact that I felt like asshole, we started to feel about 1000% better and started in on more events. Above- two of our friends' puppies who are oblivious to the happenings.
Since I still couldn't stomach keystone light, I switched to a hometown brew. KC boulevard brewery wheat beer. Yum.
Justin playing in another event complete with his keystone light (and, as an aside, he and his partner, Bryce, won this one!)
Later that night, it was beer pong time! Who doesn't love a nice game of beer pong? Here we are just watching and waiting to play. By this point in the night, I was back to feeling friendly with keystone.
And more pictures...
Justin and his old friend Jesse (the mastermind behind all of this and the man of the house) started wrestling. Boys will be boys.
The (almost) winning team. They came in 2nd place. My partner and I got destroyed the first round. Boo hoo. I used to be good at beer pong! What happened? Oh yeah, maybe those year long hiatuses between the times I play?
There might have been more wrestling that went on that night....
And a gorgeous shot of the sunset to wrap up day #2. Night #2 was complete with about 100 mile hour winds. It was exciting since we were sleeping in a tent. We almost blew away. I do have to say, day #2 was MUCH more tame than day #1. Thank god. Because that meant that waking up and realizing I was still alive on day #3 was bearable.
On Monday, we got up, showered and hit the road. Since it was labor day weekend, we had no plans that we were going to make it back to Seattle in record time (traffic is typically horrible). So we bought some snacks and just rambled around eastern washington...stopped at a park in Wenatchee to enjoy the sunny weather, then in Roslyn we stopped to walk around and ate at a little pub...
called the brick saloon. There's something about northern exposure (maybe it was filmed here or based here??) in regards to this town (and the saloon), but I cannot remember what. Wasn't a fan of the show so it didn't really matter a whole lot to me.
And, back to GOOD alcohol. Because I didn't already have enough in my system, duh. But I needed to redeem my liver by showing it that the good, non-Keystone stuff really still exists.
Shortly after eating, we stopped at a little lake and got camera happy. It was gorgeous (the lake, not the camera).
A shot of the view. So pretty. As you can tell, we're almost back to the Seattle side of the cascades. Hello rain and fogginess, goodbye sun!
And us. We're cute. And I'm modest (personality trait #4). After 2 full days of playing hard in serious battle/competition, neither of us was victorious at the beer olympics (I believe Justin came in 4th? Maybe 3rd. I have no idea where I ended up, certainly not at the top). And, to come full circle, I'm really glad I'm a yes person. Without just being willing to jump in to whatever, I wouldn't have experienced such a great weekend. And that's what it was- a great weekend. I truly believe that people need to let loose a little more. It was so nice to sort of re-live the college days... not necessarily by just getting shit faced but more just by being free to do so and free to just PLAY. 98% of my life, I am the epitome of "health," as is Justin. But health is more than just working out and eating perfectly and doing good in your career. I think that the 2% where I really let loose and play and allow myself a bit of gluttony is the 2% that makes me perfectly healthy because it's the part that brings my mental happiness to all that it can be. I believe Justin would say the same. And not to mention: I couldn't have imagined spending the weekend with a better group of people. Justin's friends? Amazing. Speaks volumes about his character that he has such a great group of core friends that have known him forever and vice versa. And after it all, the bottom line is truly this: I believe that both of us probably are in agreement on the fact that if we so much SEE a can of Keystone light in the next few months, we will hurl. By memorial day next year, we'll be ready to crack a can, hang with good friends...and compete in the beer f-ing olympics or squalor in the holler or whatever the hell it's called...again. 
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