Well, after sitting in almost two hours of traffic on the 55 South, I was finally able to relieve Emperor Wandrey from the night shift at around 8:45 AM. I thought I'd try to be as productive as possible, so I brought down a bottle of 409 to clean up after everyone (seriously, did you guys all throw up on the T.V. and refrigerator, or is it just my imagination) and my research paper, which is due this Friday, so I could work on it down there.
The paper was going well until some retard thought it would be a swell idea to blast "(I Hate) Everything About You" by Three Days Grace, over and over, as loud as possible until his speakers sounded like they were about to explode. Now, don't get me wrong... I like my music as loud as the next guy, but not at 9 in the freaking morning when people are still trying to sleep. However, if you insist on blasting your music so the whole world can hear it, at least change up the song for crying out loud.
But I digress.
Met one of our tent-neighbors, Ralph, and talked with him about life, his job, the campout, and people who play their music too loud, before he had to go to work up in Seal Beach. Now that's a fun drive. Ryan stopped by for a quick visit, since he was in the neighborhood for work. After he left, I met my friend Stan, who works nearby, over at Hard Rock for lunch, where our waitress appeared to have been sniffing glue just prior to serving us.
Meanwhile, back at the campsite, a camper whose name I can't remember for the life of me was diligently working to correct our collective power situation. Amazingly enough, it seems that rigging up dozens of televisions, stereos, fridges, lights, space heaters and video game consoles, all on the same circuit breaker, will result in certain undesirable things like oh, I don't know, a blackout to the movie theater in the middle of a business day. Thankfully, this intrepid camper took it upon himself to re-route everyone's power strips so that they were allocated to several different power sources. This way, Big Newport doesn't have any more blackouts, and we get to avoid spending our last week reading books while shivering in the dark. Whoever you are, resident camper electrician guy, I salute you.
I was soon joined by the Emperor, Novi Wan, and later Chewdumma (that would be Nate), who despite my best attempts to lead him to the Dark Side, remained strong in the Force and refused to watch any of the movie spoilers contained in the Episode III Playstation 2 game. Novi Wan's girlfriend's kid brother and Padawan Learner, Jamey, came down to check out the action at the campout. Jamey proceeded to take on Nate at the video game, and gave Nate what can only be described as the mother of all shellackings. Nate then cried himself to sleep on his huge pillow.
As day turned into night, more and more moviegoers and looky-loo's wandered past our campsite, reading our FAQ's and asking us questions. One old man with a cane mumbled that he respected our dedication, "even for something totally immature, ridiculous, and asinine." I smiled and said "thanks... I think" as he then hobbled away.
Just as I was about to leave, two girls asked to interview us on video for a news service that Sprint PCS is doing. Should be interesting. I am especially looking forward to the part where Renee (Ryan's pregnant wife) berates him for saving his childhood Star Wars toys, and calls him a nerd on film for saying that he would go to the Star Wars Convention were he not married. This is interview gold, people. We'll keep you posted on when and how you can see that interview (they said it might be syndicated, so who knows), and whether or not Ryan and Renee's child ultimately turns out to be a Star Wars fan.
