Escape to Key West

I imagine that if you follow me at all on Facebook, you have been inundated with photos and comments about my recent long weekend vacation to Key West, Florida. It was, without a doubt, one of the best vacations I’ve had in a long time, but it really was so much more than just a vacation. For me, it was a series of daily adventures as well as a few personal breakthroughs.

The whole trip started off as just a half serious conversation on Facebook almost two years ago.  You may or may not know this, but I have enjoyed playing a few of the Facebook games over the years. I‘m not much of a gamer, normally, (Skyrim not being included in this assessment) but occasionally, a game strikes a chord with me, and in this instance, it was Castle Age. I started playing as a solo character, but soon realized that people set up social groups and teams in order to be able to beat the various tougher monsters in the game or to get scads of loot. I began chatting with a few people on line and eventually I was invited to join a group. From there, some great friendships blossomed, although sadly a few others fell by the wayside. A Facebook day, after all, is like 3 months in real time.

After a few incarnations of various groups and guilds, we found that there was a core of us that always seemed to stick together, who really enjoyed each others company, in or outside of Castle Age. We formed a group jokingly called Socks from one night’s goofy online shenanigans of posting all our feet in socks. The group purpose was still Castle Age oriented, but there was an element of the local pub included, it was also just a place for the lot of us to get together on line. One night, we were chatting about how cool it would be to all get together sometime and meet in person, in some fun, tropical place. Key West came out as a destination, and before we knew it, there were a bunch of us who really wanted to get together… although at this point, we were just planning to make a plan… a something to do “someday.”  If you read a few of my blogs, you know my views on what “someday” really means. As it turns out though, thank god, not everybody in the group shares those views on “some day's” nebulous existence, and a couple people really started making plans. I was willing and excited to go down that road, but it still seemed like a castle in the clouds and though the group started off fairly large, there were already people who felt reality’s bite and decided that probably Key West should stay in the realm of “someday.” By the time we got down to brass tacks and credit cards, the group had dwindled to about 5 core members, spouses and a couple friends. Plans were made, flight tickets purchased and a fantastic pair of cottages reserved.

 

As it always happens, there were a few changes made as the final days approached. Some group additions and some subtractions from the core. In the end, there were 9 of us descending on the Keys and staying in the cottages; Tracy & I, Charlie, Lisa, Christi, Kimmy, Amy, Amber & Cicely. I can’t tell you everything that happened, I’m sworn to secrecy by a blood oath….and the truth of it it is I may not even remember everything that happened,  but I can tell you, with out a doubt, that we fully enjoyed every minute of our adventures.  

Best. Vacation. Ever. You’ve seen a few pictures. You know I don’t lie.

 

There were a few Breakthroughs

There was much more to it for me, though, than just an adult spring break, reliving old college day type shenanigans. One huge thing, as you might guess from reading earlier blogs, is that I get a bit anxious at times… I have been learning to overcome anxiety,and it has been a forward progression. But the crux of it was that this time, we had to FLY to Key West, and more than anything, I have an irrational fear of flying… I’m prepared to die any time I board a plane. For the weeks leading up to the flight, the adrenaline was building more and more every day, so that by 6 am Thursday morning, when we boarded the plane, my whole body felt like it was vibrating on some high frequency super drug with all the little associated peaks and tweaks. We had 3 different plans to catch and I was terrified. Just really slowly walking toward the hangman's noose and waiting for it to be done with.

Well…. I didn’t die.  In fact, after we took off for the first time, I found that I was ok with it…. just saturated with the Hulk’s portion of adrenaline to get rid of. By the time we landed in Boston on the return set of flights, I was ready to head off into the wild blue yonder on yet another adventure, completely relaxed and happily drained. I think I burned up all that adrenaline in that 1st 36 hours of the adventure (with only 2 hours sleep on the first day travelling from my house, even after climbing Mount Monadnock), finally calling it a night on the first evening in Key West (around 1 am I think).

 

 

 

Fear Conquered!!

Another breakthrough was meeting everybody. For all we all knew, the others were serial killers, mother stabbers and father rapers. I obviously knew Tracy, and had spent a couple days prior with Charlie, here in New Hampshire before the trip, but even so, you just don’t know. It could have been the worst nightmare of a vacation if we all arrived, were nothing like our personalities on Facebook and all hated each other. As it turned out, nothing could have been further from the truth. It felt like we were all old childhood best friends reunited. It was hugs and laughs from minute number one. I was thinking about it while we we there, and I guess it stands up, because, as I said,  a day in Facebook world is like 3 months in real time, and we had all stuck together through various games and groups, conversations, chats and e-mails for quite a while, some for almost 3 years.

 

There were a couple of brand new faces, but of course, the odds are always pretty good, that if you are tight with someone, you’ll probably at least get along with their friends, that is if they think you will. I think almost everybody had at least some small bonding moment with every other person there…some of us had lots of them. The tactile experience, enjoying food, drink, laughs, hugs, hot tubs, tattoos, sunburns etc, converted the Facebook experience into a friendship reality. And for my money, I’d say we made some life long lasting friendships.

There was one more facet of the experience that I hadn’t expected, but I think affected me more profoundly than even conquering my fear of being air born. Once I came home, I realized how much I really missed these people. I can honestly say that for a about a week, I feel I was starting to succumb to some serious depression. I’m not usually prone to depression, so it really caught me off guard. Part of it was thinking that once again, I had given my heart over to people, making them my real friends, and now chances were, I would never see them ever again. That really kind of sucks. I don’t make friends lightly, but when I do, its from the whole me.

Well, perhaps I just needed a few good nights rest after my vacation to get my head together again. Or maybe the fact that I can still talk and share experiences, stories, photos etc on Facebook with the Key West Gang, and they are still around, made it better. We have all talked about doing it again, and it comes to mind that its no different than friends anywhere that you don’t actually live with and see on a daily basis.

Suffice it to say, I’m not depressed anymore. Maybe it has something to do with the idea of going back again in a year or two…and just how really feasible that is… and how it’s not a once in a life time experience after all… its not a I’ll see you again “someday,” its “ until next time”