*caveat: i am writing this in a haze of antihistamines and generic sudafed, thus it may be a bit disjointed. if it's good, i may consider writing this way more often.

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after lunch i went back down the hill, helped ali pick out a cute little doumbe drum, and ate pasta with fresh red pepper pesto. yummy yummy yummy. found a hose and wet my head, causing a stream of red hair dye to run down my back and face for a good half hour. then we discovered that you could take a bus up and down the hill. whoopee! we did that and gathered sweaters and such in order to not freeze during the evening concert (it's such a strange thing preparing to freeze at night when you're getting sunburned all day). then we found some good ground space to watch the nields. who are so wonderful. the harmonies are just spellbinding, and the one who's not larissa (god i'm so bad with names) dances like a funky alanis morissette but sounds so much better. (i always wanted to be tall and kind of gawky so i could dance all cool like that, but what am i gonna do?) they had guests coming out all night long, like jian gomeshi and the kennedys and dar williams...their last song was so full of happy bouncing performers that it looked like the end of a muppet movie, when everyone gets together to sing that one last song.

dar williams played after the nields; her voice is really spectacular. it was the first time i'd heard her and i'm really impressed and need to get an album. for her last song (hills of iowa) she asked us to all hold up lighters or glow sticks or what have you, and the whole hillside lit up, showing the contours of the land and looking like a mirror of the sky (did i mention that the stars in upstate NY are breathtaking?). she told us that we were the hills of iowa for her song, and the whole hill filled with the sound of singing...it's one of those experiences that will give me goosebumps forever. things like that can't be planned.

so then we took the bus back up, and ali and i walked to our campsite singing "frank mills" which for some reason has been in my head for over two weeks. and we sat under the little tent awning and sang songs all night in defiance of the nasty yelling woman who should have been in family camping. eventually i fell asleep while the other people were still partying.

we woke up onscenely early sunday morning (the sun in the morning was heinously bright) and started to pack up all our stuff and break down the tent. three girls got the tent back down in less than 20 minutes. and packed. hung out with the conneticut boys for a while, i flirted a little with one (whose name i can't remember except that it's one of those 90210 type names, like brent or luke or shane). said our good-byes and "meet you back here next year"s and took off. went to the chief what's-his-name diner for some solid food and running water, and drove back to our regular lives.

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it was like spending a month someplace really wonderful, all in a three-day vacation. the vibe of the whole place...the peaceful energy. happy hippies and real activists and middle-aged women with technicolor hair...it was like a planet where i finally felt like i fit in.

ok it's time for waking up and shaking off this sudafed fog, so i'll see you later kids.

-beatpoetgrrl

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