Yeah. It's a good story. ;)
A couple of days ago, spontaneously, some friends and I decided to camp out for some Ms Hendrix tickets. Ms Hendrix is a drag competition put on by the school, and all the profits go towards charity. We were told that the tickets ran out like crazy, and if you wanted some, you had to camp out the night before.
At around nine at night we decided that we should camp out. Things just fell into place; one friend randomly had a tent, the other a sleeping bag. As one person could only hold the place of three others, and our group was five, we had to have two people at our spot at any given time.
So, my friend Anna and I decided to spend the night in the tent.
We started to set up the tent. Rather, they started to set up the tent and I took pictures with my iPhone thus the awful lack of quality.
Though I like to think it lends a retro vibe to the photos ;)
There were tents are far as the eye could see. It was a loud, rowdy, interesting atmosphere. Kids were studying for tests next to kids playing beer pong. Ah, the paradox of Hendrix.
We tried to get some studying done. I did my cal, and then quizzed my friend for her religion test.
So far, everything seems normal right? Well, granted we were camping out not for sports tickets but rather a drag competition ... Other than that, the night was going well. Around one we decided to try to get some sleep. Not an easy task considering that the beer pong table was right next to our tent.
I kept getting distracted listening to the conversations around me, their voices floating through the tent before passing through. It was the most interesting environment; rowdy but entertaining. I felt like this was what a hostel would be like. Everyone's conversations were interesting to listen to, most of them were far different from me. Someone grabbed a guitar and it was to the surprising well sung songs that I tried to fall asleep to.
Even though there was just a flimsy layer of plastic between me and everyone else, I felt safe. It was Hendrix after all, it wasn't like we had any crime on campus. And somehow, through all the noise I managed to fall asleep.
I don't know exactly what caused me to wake up. All I know is that there was some rummaging, some noise, and sleepily I blinked. There was a shirtless guy, pulling a blanket over him, laying down next to me. The tent was rather roomy, and Anna and I had just enough space between us for another person.
I lay there for a moment, looking at his face. He was playing on his phone, the dim white light barely illuminating his features. He was cute, and had some abs but I couldn't make out much more than that. I lay there, closing my eyes. I was exhausted, and just wanted to sleep. The fact that a completely random shirtless guy was laying right next to me floated through my mind. I opened my eyes, as if to make sure he hadn't disappeared, a figment of my sleep deprived mind.
He was still here, his phone off, and his eyes closed. I glanced over to see Anna. Our eyes met, sharing a look of incredulous surprise. Through gestures I realized that she also had no idea who he was. I shrugged, and then lay back down to go back to sleep. He appeared harmless, passed out between us. I was exhausted. We can just worry about it in the morning, I thought.
Though as I lay there it kept hitting me how impossible this all was. I had no clue who this guy was. Not only was it a tad bit creepy, I was also worried that Anna would be uncomfortable with this little sleeping arrangement. I sat up, and shook the dude.
'Hey, you're in the wrong tent' I said, shaking his shoulder.
He groaned. 'It happens,' he mumbled before going back to sleep.
'No, it's not okay!' I said, though he was gone. Anna and I crawled out of the tent, trying to figure out what we should do. We kept laughing at the whole surrealism of this moment. We wanted him out, but shaking him and telling him to leave wasn't helping.
We finally decided to text one of Anna's friends for help. It was 3:30 in the morning but luckily for us he was up.
'Hey, hypothetically speaking, if there was a drunk guy in your tent and he wouldn't leave, what would you do?' she texted him.
He replied he was on his way, and after perhaps ten minutes arrived at our tent. I felt rather foolish; this was my problem and I should be able to fix it, not need a guy's help. Still, it was three in the morning, I was exhausted, and didn't want to try and drag the guy out.
The drunk dude thought the guy friend was the campus security, and reluctantly began to get up, with much complaint. While my friend and I were waiting outside the tent, feeling bad for no sensible reason, some high dudes came through the tents. They had a cardboard flag with 'Ms Hendrix' written on it, and the scaled a nearby light pole where a Hendrix banner was hanging. Like monkeys, they strung out the flag, which was made out of a 12 pack of beer box.
Behind us a dude randomly appeared to set up a tent. At three thirty in the morning.
To say that the entire situation was surreal would be an understatement. The dude finally left our tent, but only after much prodding and light shinning in the face from the guy friend. He stumbled down the sidewalk and my friend and I crawled back into the tent, trying to get some sleep.
So yeah. Good college story ;) Haha it was just so crazy! Not that I can blame the guy; all the tents looked alike to me, and I was sober.
Anyway! I'll post later about the next day, which was spent in line. Tonight is the fruit of our efforts, Ms Hendrix :)
We better get good seats.
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