Merrit Mountain Music Festival. The jig is UP!!

What an AMAZING weekend! I feel rejuvinated, without a stress in the world. I went to bed at 7:30 last night and JUST woke up. Two solid days of drinking, dancing, and country music. Wow. Even our cousin Chantel, who is not a country fan, was dancing all night.

Wanna hear my weekend??? I'm gonna tell ya!

We left town at 3:30, hitting Starbucks & filling the gas (which when we broke it down between us ended up costing $18 each plus $5 each for toll... WOOT!!). We hit Chilliwack to find huge car accident that had happened at 1pm. Just before Vedder road, the traffic is crawling. But being the experienced commuter I am, I'm watching taillights. I realize that the ones AFTER the exit are not moving. Time to get off the number 1. Sam phones Andrew at home and asks him to mapquest how to get from the #1 to the #7 from Yale Road. He tells us (he's so fabulous!) and we are on our merry way. Beautiful drive through the country, then we get to Hope and we're off to Merritt!

We got up there 7:30, found our camping spot, realize we are less than two minutes away from the river. Niiiice. Set up camp takes 45 minutes, because Cindy bought the most skookum canopy I've ever seen. It folds out like an acordian. Sweet! Shade is our friend.

So we get all dolled up, and go hit the fairgrounds at about 9ish, and danced and danced and danced! We noodled back to camp, and Cindy says that she could hear them calling last call just before she fell asleep. We know it closed at 4:00am. Good long night!

Up at 8 because the sun does NOT let you sleep in! Fortunately, we don't wear watches up there so it's always a random time checking situation. Time for doghair! Mine this year was instant hazelnut coffee, with a scoop of coffee whitener, kalua & malibu. YUM!! Two of those to bring the blood alcohol level back up and I'm good to go! Go to the river, that is. We all get ourselves SPFed with the 50 stuff as a base and pack up our chairs, food, and booze and off we go. Cowboy hats and sunglasses & bikini's. I'll send you a pic later when I get them from Chantel (email me if you want)!

The river was... omg awesome! We were in it for about six hours. Laying in chairs, watching the wildlife (I love wildlife in cowboy hats, don't you?), drinking our faces off. Man I was HAMMERED in the river. I can't even begin to tell you how cathartic it is.

Back to camp for naptime. However, it turns out that even there I'm not a napper. So off I went for a drunken hike through the campgrounds. Then, in my brilliance I decide I need to climb the cliff, which has stairs cut into it. We did it last year and it was a huge feat to conquer (being 30 lbs heavier last year). I did it TWICE and felt FANTASTIC. And that was after dancing five hours the night before, having four hours sleep, and drinking for 24 hours straight! Yeah, baby!!

Back to camp and time to rouse the nappers. Dinner! And more alcohol. We meandered our way through eating, drinking, and getting ready for the party. Because Saturday night is the reason everyone is there. It's the motherload of parties.

Cindy and I were ready first and decided to go down to the fairgrounds and have a look around, maybe grab a bite. She had a hamburger, and I had a corndog that I bought from the most gorgeous boy... omg, he was so yummy. The corndog was, too! We realize that the party is about to start. Sarah Evans is onstage, and she is playing some pretty good dancing tunes. Looks like around 3000 are in the beergarden and it's starting to rock. Time to go wake the girls.

We get back to camp and Sam is ready to rock. Chantel is ready to lose her lunch. Her body is NOT liking the heat and dryness. She has been fighting naseau since we arrived. She goes to puke, comes back and says to go on without her. If she's feeling it, she'll join us, and if not, she'll just sleep. So after a few shots of crown with some cooler chasers, off we go!

Sam buys the best goddam $9 perogies she's ever had, lol. The energy returns, time to party!! Oh the dancing! Oh the drinking! Oh the fun!! It was probably around 10pm when we started dancing. Midnight, who should appear beside us on the dancefloor? Chantel!!! She woke up and felt better and came to join us! Awesome!!! And we danced and partied until the sun came up. Literally. The beer garden on Saturday night is the party to end all parties. After the concerts on the mainstage were done at midnight (they show them on a huge screen in the beer gardens), the live bands kick it up. Cindy's cousins LESTER were the first band and they ROCKED the house. The live bands stayed until 4:30, and then they just played tunes and we kept on dancing! It was about 6:30 when I finally made it back to camp.

Little bit of sleep, lots of water, and we packed er in. Loaded up the van and headed for Hope and the Home Restaurant. I had the best chef salad, a vanilla milkshake and coffee. omg it was SO good. Then headed for home. As soon as I got here, I cracked a cooler and unloaded the van.

I still have not unpacked a damn thing. My husband washed all my clothes... he's so awesome! I'm now so incredibly hung over I can't even tell you... water and sleep. Maybe laying in the sun and baking the alcohol out. Not sure.

Good times. This is the one weekend (formerly week) that I get to go out and spend quality time just being a woman. And this year it was a sexy woman who attracted a LOT of male attention. It was AWESOME!!! And it rejuvenates me so much. I think we all need to have that. That place where we can go and NOT be a wife or mother, but just be a woman, feeling like a woman. I cannot even begin to tell you what this weekend did for my self esteem. I feel like a hot, sexy bitch.

I like it! THE JIG IS UP!!!!