In Response To: HBOBP 2011: The Other End is in The Creek *IMGS* (CortanaVII)
Well said =)
: Hello HBO!
: This past weekend was the amazing HBO Beach Party (formerly the IBO BP).
: There are truly no words that can describe exactly how much fun it was (at
: least for me), so I'll do my best to describe it and do the whole event
: justice.
: For starters, for the official galleries (hosted by Wu :D) go here . If
: that's not enough for ya, then go here here and here
: Alright, onto the actual writeup...off we go.
: Thursday Night/ Friday morning, approximately midnight sometime-ish, I
: arrived at La Guardia after a long day of traveling. After spending about
: 10 minutes standing about 40 feet away and deciding to wonder, I met up
: with Retsamolah, Schooly D and BoneKin. From there we began the nearly two
: hour journey to Rets' family's house. Rets was silly and gave me his iPod
: to play DJ, I played Lady GaGa....iPod was taken away within seconds. ):
: After what felt like forever in the car due to New York traffic and Rets'
: iPod no longer under my control, we arrived at the infamous beach house.
: Waiting for us, was Amonkira, who had been there long enough to watch all
: 4 of the Die Hard movies. At this point it was very late....or early,
: whichever you want to call it.
: We quickly got settled in to the point of setting up the TVs, I guess we were
: overtired at this point. While in the process of trying to get connected
: to the wireless and find an outlet, we found a strange note.....
: (And thus the tagline for this writeup was born). No, we did not actually
: ever try plugging anything into it, and we still have no idea what it
: means.
: I decided to go to bed after a little while and fell asleep rather quickly. A
: few short hours later I was woken by the sound of people practically
: stomping around the kitchen and slamming the door.
: Hellmitre and Infinite Se7en (Eye7) had arrived (around 5 am apparently) and
: had apparently made breakfast by the time I wandered downstairs. Schooly
: and Rets were locked in an epic battle of chess while I attempted to make
: a pancake and turned it into charcoal.
: Once the game was over, Rets took BoneKin, Hellmitre, Eye7 and myself out on
: the boat and to the beach.
:
:
: There, we drew/wrote in the sand, and skipped rocks.
:
:
: (This is one of many things that was written, but most of the pics didn't
: come out)
:
:
:
:
: We then decided that we needed to go grocery shopping. So, we split into two
: group, BoneKin, Amonkira and I went to the local grocery store while the
: others (except Rets, who hadn't slept) went to a sports shop to get boxing
: When we returned attempts were made to clean up....they only went to well.
: While Rets was still resting we headed outside to enjoy the weather. We
: watched Eye7 climb a tree...
:
: And then we moved onto tossing the football around. I nearly killed the tree
: and people by throwing it too hard, so we moved out onto the street. We
: broke into teams and played for somewhat realzies.
:
:
: (Tactics)
:
: The game didn't last too long sing my team was barefoot and our feet were
: hurting. The day progressed on and we were either chilling outside or
: playing videogames (nerds!). We loaded up Rets' car and picked up Vector40
: after he got off the ferry. We then patiently waiting for the one and only
: Miguel Chavez to arrive.
:
: And then finally he pulled into the driveway and we pretty much attacked his
: vehicle.
:
:
: Once Mig had gotten settled in and such, he almost immediately began making
: dinner, but then again, we were all pretty hungry.
:
: We resumed talking and sitting outside while the food was in the oven or on
: the stove. Mig told us stories about PAX and we of course shared some of
: our best Halo stories.
:
:
:
:
: After dinner and Mig nearly killing me with the habanerno sauce that he
: brought along and while several people when to go get NartFOpc from the
: ferry, we played some Rock Band.
:
:
: Shortly thereafter, Elessar arrived. Shortly thereafter that, we proceeded to
: the beach for a camp fire. This fire, however, did not want to start and
: it took close to 30 minutes and a lot of paper towels to get it going.
: Under the moonlight and the light of the various smartphones, Rets and the
: others worked diligently to get the fire alight.
:
:
:
:
: I suggested that they all tried blowing on it at the same time....I had a
: hard time breathing afterward.
:
: Finally we got the fire going and enjoyed marshmallows and s'mores. ("I
: got white stuff all over my hands!")
:
:
:
: We also enjoyed watching Youtube videos on Mig's purple phone.
:
: And then we lined up for this year's official group shot while Mig was still
: gracing us with his presence. It took several tries to get right, but the
: end result was rather awesome.
:
: The guys got a little silly with this idea, but Rets got some amazing shots
: of this:
:
: We doused the fire and went back to the house not long after playing with
: said fire.
:
: Upon our return, more videogames were played.....nerds. (Yes, I'm a
: hypocrite)
:
: We said our farewells to Mig and proceeded to play even more videogames until
: it was bedtime (for me at least). Saturday morning rolled around and I
: tried my hand once again at making pancakes....another burn victim was
: added to the list. We realized that we needed even more food and sent some
: people out while those of us that stayed got ready to head to the beach.
:
: The normal tube had a hole that we were unable to fix with our current
: resources so we had to use the alternate.
:
:
: We got loaded up into the various kayaks, canoe, rowboat and regular old boat
: and headed out to the beach.
:
: With me in the middle and Hellmitre and Schooly rowing the canoe, we slowly,
: but rather surely made it to the beach. However, there were points where I
: was rather scared for my camera due to the fact that Schooly and Hellmitre
: were incapable of steering....(I volunteered to row, but noooooo)
:
:
: Logistics win.....?
:
: The fleet reached the beach and set up camp, I mostly watched and took
: pictures (someone had to, right?)
:
:
: After setting up with the grill and getting it warm, the guys took to either
: swimming, kayaking or relaxing. We also played beach football. All of us
: played so I didn't actually get any pictures of it (*sad face*) . However,
: due to it being pretty hot and humid outside, we went into halftime when I
: declared that everyone needed to hydrate.
: We're still in halftime, will resume in 2012.
:
:
:
:
:
:
:
: Eye7 loved his protein.
:
:
: Schooly took on the roll of Grill Master this year
:
:
: And then there was this picture....
:
: (Rets has a been shot, I'm just too lazy to chase it down, check his
: gallery!)
: We goofed around in the water for awhile, I towed Hellmitre and Eye7's
: rowboat with my kayak, the guys flipped the canoe over and had to carry it
: ashore and other crazy stuff, like Eye7 almost hitting his head on the
: edge of the boat.
: And then......tubing (choobing) time!!! Nart kicked off the first group which
: consisted of BoneKin, Elessar, Nart and myself with Rets of course
: driving.
:
:
:
: My turn (pretty sure I lasted the longest)
:
:
: And then BoneKin and Elessar got pretty crazy.
:
:
:
: We returned to shore and the next group was off, however they weren't out
: there as long because "it was getting cold" pansies.
:
: While they were out those of us on land fired up the grill again and prepared
: more food. I made a delicious grilled cheese sammich with hamburger buns.
: Once the second crew returned they dove into the food.
: Vec, Schooly and Nart then initiated a beer chug-off.
:
: Nart took the win.
:
: And this confused Vec greatly.
:
: We took yet another awesome group shot.
:
: (One of these things is not like the others)
:
: Exhausted, bruised (Rets managed to kick Hellmitre's jaw while trying to dive
: during football), only a little cut up, tanned, soaked and still a little
: hungry, we used our brilliant logistical skills to get back to the house
: and unload the boats. We got changed and went downstairs to the basement.
: Boxing matches ensued. I've got video of these matches which I'm still
: working on compiling, I'll post them later. Rets has more than a handful
: of pics from the boxing matches, check his gallery.
: The guys pretty much beat the crap out of each other. But of course, after
: every match they hugged it out.
:
:
:
: After boxing and being rather tired, we ordered pizza (what's a party without
: it?). Elessar and Schooly duked it out in chess while we were waiting.
:
: Once they had concluded their game we had 4v4 Halo:CE games. Probably the
: most hilarious was when we played Chiron as well as shotgun CTF on Battle
: Creek. Lots of lols and screams of anger as well as Nart yelling "U
: Mad?!" could be heard.
: We went on a midnight ice cream run at 7 Eleven and probably scared the poor
: people. I spilled my vanilla coke all over the place (myself included)
: while there. When we went back to the house we played a round of #truf
: while eating ice cream (Schooly finished his pint in one sitting; 1000
: calories) and watching Elessar try to keep the fire going by squirting
: unhealthy amounts of lighter fluid into it.
: After that....bedtime zzZZzz
: Sunday morning! Elessar had apparently left rather early in the morning (*sad
: face*) and when I went downstairs the guys had actually cleaned up a
: little and Schooly was making his horrifying "mancakes"...I was
: extremely sore and like most of the crew...did not eat breakfast. Can you
: blame us? Oatmeal, eggs and cottage cheese
:
:
: Amonkira left us around 1 or 2 ish in the afternoon and not long afterward we
: got in the boats to head toward the sandhill. Problem was, we couldn't fit
: everyone onto just one boat. We "voluntold" Vec and Nart to get
: into the rowboat so we could tow them, of course, we had no idea what was
: going to happen if we did this. (Vec was also in my UNSC hoodie because he
: was cold apparently)
:
:
: To our surprise the little rowboat survived the journey, however it made said
: journey across the bay to the sandhill take that much longer, but still.
: "I think Vec's mad." "Yeah, Vec, mad"
:
:
: Schooly took some videos and entitled them "updates" while we were
: on the boat for what felt like forever, lol.
:
: Finally we made it to the beach, however it was pointed out that we didn't
: have enough gas to get back to the house, so BoneKin and Rets went off to
: a nearby marina to get some gas while Schooly and Nart had a race up the
: hill, but with Schooly carrying Hellmitre.
:
:
:
:
: Nart was of course the victor, no surprise there.
:
: However after a long time and many breaks, Schooly made it.
:
: I explored while the guys relaxed/tossed the football and we were waiting for
: Rets and BoneKin to return.
:
:
: I took a short nap when our group was whole again, but when I awoke...I was
: in shock.
:
:
: Poor BoneKin
: And then the had to move Vec and make a sand chair for him.
:
: Another group shot.
:
: We departed the sandhill after this on account of being hungry and thirsty. I
: think Schooly covered it quite well:
: This time on the way back though, Vec refused to ride in the rowboat so
: BoneKin took his place with Nart.
:
: Got some interesting shots on the way back, Hellmitre cleaning a soda can off
: in the ocean and tasting the yummy salt water. Schooly being comforted by
: Rets because he was scared of something.
:
:
:
: Our return to shore was marked with most of us getting pretty muddy, and me
: almost losing a flip flop in said mud.
:
: We got cleaned up and such and were off to the town for dinner at The Loft.
:
: Now, as an appetizer, Schooly ordered Merlot wine and a spinach salad, he
: didn't hear the end of it. The other media that Vec mentioned is here:
: Eye7 put a whole lemon slice in his mouth....
:
: And then there was just overall goofiness.
:
: We paraded around town (1 girl and 7 guys, I'm sure it looked just awesome,
: lol) to get ice cream and hit up the pier. It mostly consisted of Vec and
: several others complaining that it was cold and being babies about it.
: Eye 7 managed to fall asleep.
:
:
:
:
: Due to several complaints of how "cold" it was, we went back to the
: house to play the infamous Scrabble game. We played in 4 teams of 2,
: however Hellmitre fell asleep so Rets was all by himself.
:
: TLC-The lifting crew-Vec and Schooly
: Rets
: TCL-Crew lift or something like that-Nart and Eye7
: Sibs-Myself and BoneKin (We were wearing red shirts so apparently we were
: siblings for the day.)
: There were lots of arguements and many lost turns from challenges over words
: like "geat" and "zag" (which is actually a word). And
: then Rets played a 35 point word that screwed all of us over.
:
:
:
:
: Somehow Rets managed to claim victory by 2 points over BoneKin and I despite
: being by himself. Almost immediately following Scrabble was another game
: of #truf, of which I cannot discuss.
:
: It was closer to 4 am when most of us went to sleep. I was so tired that I
: didn't want to climb up the stairs so I just grabbed my fleecey blanket
: and fell asleep on the wooden bench for about 30 minutes before I moved
: upstairs.
: In the morning we were all dragging our feet from both fatigue and lack of
: wanting to leave. We finished our clean up operations and packed up.
: Before we knew it, the time had come for emotional goodbyes.
:
: "Hugging Spree"
: We lined up and took one last photo before we broke up and went our seperate
: ways. Nart, Hellmitre, Eye7 and Vec went for the ferry while Schooly,
: BoneKin, Rets and I went for LGA and JFK airports.
:
: After my final goodbyes to Rets, BoneKin and Schooly the journey home
: consisted of relfection and many attempts to catch up on my sleep, which I
: still have yet to do.
: To say that it was an awesome weekend would be a huge understatement. It was
: definitely the most fun I've had in awhile and I'm looking forward to next
: year.
: I would like to thank Retsamolah and his family for being insanely brave and
: hosting this craziness as well as everyone else that joined us, not matter
: how short the time.
: I began my weekend with handshakes and ended it with hugs.
: Until next year,
: xoxo,
: Cortana
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