#NerdsUnite: Tried and True Backpacking Hangover Cures

<editorsnote> Nerds, meet my buddy Lindsay. She's crazy ... and bat shit ... and I love her for it! For reals, she hitchhiked across various African countries!!! HARDCORE!!! The girl is a whackadoodle noodle, but not at all a nerd. That is where I come in handy- I'm Lindsay's navigator on adventures. See, I show her how we get places via google maps, and she reminds me to stop tweeting and look up every once in a while. It's a match made in nerdy/non-nerdy heaven. That being saiiiddddddd ... she lives her life on the road and wants to share some of her experiences to all the nerdy folk out there that may be looking to do the same. Hit it Lindsay!!! </editorsnote>

So I heard this past Labor Day weekend was a blast. A few of my friends went to the lake, my best girlfriend invited me to a raging rooftop party and my roommates played beach volleyball all day in Venice... I would LOVE to be able to post about all the fun times I had too but my ass spent the ENTIRE WEEKEND nursing an out-of-control hangover. Literally, I wrote this while lying on my bathroom floor in between dry heaves. I don't know what the heck happened when I turned 26 but body ain't kickin' like it used to but I'll be damned if remember that when I go out with old friends (my snowboarder friend, Jared, I blame you!)

Two days on your floor wanting to die while everyone one else is out having fun blows. The pool for the apartment complex is right outside my window, I could hear all the happy children and smell the yummy BBQ, plus my cellphone was dinging off the damn hook from friends calling, texting and Hey Telling to see where I was and what I was up to... yeah, needless to say I had a lot of time to sit and think (and curse vodka sodas.)  

I decided that I wanted to write a post on my personal hangover cures however, because at this point you know how I am, I had to throw traveling in there somewhere. So, with no further ado- here are my hangover cures while on the road.

Drinking comes with the whole backpacking thing, everyone knows that. Rowdy nights with other travelers in youth hostels, bonding with locals over a pint, scoping out local watering holes or night clubs are all great ways to learn about whatever town or city you may find yourself in and sometimes it's just plain rude to not accept a beer or a glass of wine as an act of hospitality. But let's face it, even the best of us can go a little overboard (and usually, a lot overboard) and traveling with a hangover just plain sucks. It's one thing to waste a day under the covers in your own hometown but that's a completely unacceptable thing to do while on the road (and probably impossible if you are staying in a hostel.). The whole point here is to make yourself feel better for real so you can sightsee all day which means these tips are a little different than they would be if all you had to do was zombie through work or have a movie marathon with your roommate. 

Here are my personal, tried and true Backpacking Hangover Cures. Please be warned, they are not for the faint of heart, they are for the desperate in transit.

Make Yourself Throw Up.

This is hands down the best (and sometimes the only) way to fight a hangover while on the road. Lots of times, you'll wake up in a hostel or guest house and will have no access to food or drinks without having to actually go out and get them yourself which is obviously extremely annoying and painful. I recommend getting your ass into the shared bathrooms, pick your favorite stall and try to get it all up. Don't be a pansy about it, if you need to stick the back of your toothbrush down your throat and wiggle it around for a bit, so be it but just get something up. I profusely yell apologies to anyone unfortunate enough to have to use the bathroom or showers in between dry heaves as well.

Drink My Not-So-Secret Secret Hangover Drink.

After getting up whatever booze or late night munchies you had left over in your stomach from last night it is now time to fill up on fluid and lot's of it. My Go To is half water, half cranberry juice. A lot of people say sports drinks are the best because of the electrolytes but my tummy can't handle all that sugar when I'm hurtin' (and it's hard to find Gatorade in say, Ghana) so I like whatever juice I can find diluted with water. Getting (and keeping) liquids down is absolutely necessary to begin feeling better so take tiny sips and man up. 

Eat Something HEALTHY.

I know all you want is some big greasy cheeseburger or an overload of bacon and eggs but DON'T DO IT! That stuff is fine at home, where you can cuddle up on the couch and veg out for hours but overeating and grease is not your friend while on the road. Eat something bland, HEALTHY and light. Think a small serving of plain eggs and toast, steamed veggies or plain pasta with garlic and oil. The idea is to get something in your stomach that will settle it but not settle YOU down. This is also a good time to say, DON'T DRINK YOUR REGULAR COFFEE IN THE MORNING. Wait until after you liquid up and get some food in there before you throw in some acidy coffee in to the mix so you can get the caffeine kick without wrecking yourself even more.

If you are in the UK, Track down some BEROCCA.

This multivitamin is the best I have found and after you've done what you've could by eating and drinking, these will fill in the crucial B vitamins that you lost with your 17th vodkasoda. Any vitamin (or sports drink) with B6 and B12 is beneficial but this particular brand is the booomb. Matter of fact, I need to hit up my friend in England and ask her to send me a few more packs of these.

If you are in Morocco (or maybe any other desert climate), Track down some PRICKLY PEAR.

They sell them on the side of the road for 2 cents in Morocco and these babies are like natural Pepto Bismol. Eat a few and feel your tummy settle quicker than you can say "I will never drink again." Another way to settle your tummy while in transit is by picking a window seat and staring at objects far off in the distance, snack on carby-salty foods like Saltines or pretzels and of course, have a barf bag always near. 

Get Out!

After you baby yourself for a little bit in the dark comforts of the hostel, force yourself to get out for some fresh air. So today might not be the day to finally try skydiving in Vegas for the first time but you don't need to waste any time either. Look into cheap Hop On and Off bus tours where you can just sit and relax but get off at your leisure, check out a mellow, airconditioned museum or art gallery, hunt down an internet cafe and get up to date on your emails to home and post photos to Facebook, lay around at a park or the beach or even just take a long, lazy lunch and people watch. Take it easy but don't take it lazy, you can't get a day back on the road.

DON'T FIGHT FIRE WITH FIRE (also known as Hair of the Dog)

Please listen to me on this one (and not to your fellow hostel friends who are tempting you with Bloody Marys). Don't try to fight fire with fire by drinking again the next day. No matter how crappy you feel, chugging a beer or sipping a Bloody in the am is like putting a band aide over a broken arm (okay, a broken finger- let's not get dramatic.) Sure, at home that Bluemoon is the perfect breakfast beer after a long night of drinking but on the road, that Bluemoon is gonna kick your ass in about an hour when it wears off during your Seven City hike or climbing the stairs of the Washington Monument. Hair of the Dog only works when you continue your drinking throughout the whole day so unless you want to spend the day drunk instead of sightseeing, put down the damn booze (and that's how you got yourself in this whole mess in the first place, isn't it?) I love Bloody Marys just as much as the next backpacker but unless you're okay with only remembering your travels through photos because you were too drunk the whole time, Man up, nurse your hangover and go explore!

BTW... speaking of EXPLORING- I just got on www.mobli.com

It's a super rad website that let's me upload videos and photos in almost real time and I am LOVING IT  (it sounds like Twitter but it's different, promise.)

Please check it out and if you do, give a look at my page.
http://www.mobli.com/lindsaymc

Thanks so much and see ya'll soon (check out my cross country trip and let me know if I will be by your hometown!) :)

#HappyTravels

Click here to follow Lindsay on Twitter!

#Fact: The Most Important Trip is Out of Your Own Mind

<editorsnote> Nerds, meet my buddy Lindsay. She's crazy ... and bat shit ... and I love her for it! For reals, she hitchhiked across various African countries!!! HARDCORE!!! The girl is a whackadoodle noodle, but not at all a nerd. That is where I come in handy- I'm Lindsay's navigator on adventures. See, I show her how we get places via google maps, and she reminds me to stop tweeting and look up every once in a while. It's a match made in nerdy/non-nerdy heaven. That being saiiiddddddd ... she lives her life on the road and wants to share some of her experiences to all the nerdy folk out there that may be looking to do the same. Hit it Lindsay!!! </editorsnote>

#TalkNerdyToMeLover's @LindsayMC

As I'm following Jen's amazing Adventures in Adventuring on her 4 Cities in 30 Days stint and I couldn't help but think of a little article I had written a few years ago after I had just gotten back from Africa (that I just recently posted on my new blog too!) I was in a really reflective and an extremely appreciative point in my life and although I think this relates perfectly to backpacking, the ideas and suggestions can absolutely be pertained to 'real life' too. 

Happy travels to wherever you end up!!

No, I am not endorsing the use of psychedelic drugs here but really, the most important trip you can ever take is out of your own head. It doesn’t matter where you go or what you do, if you are in your mind the whole time you really haven’t gone anywhere. Traveling is about freedom and exploration- if you drag around only your own thoughts, you are diluting the experience. Worries of work or home, future plans, even daydreams only distract from the culture and countries that you have traveled so far to see. Let go of your thoughts, judgements and expectations and really explore. Take the time to quiet your mind and deeply observe all that is going on around you as often as you can remember. Close your eyes and listen. Break down and hear the different sounds individually- crickets, traffic, waves, conversation. When you meet people on the road, listen to their stories, let your reeling mind rest for a minute and truly give your focus to another person. You will be surprised how much you can learn and how quickly you can make a new friend. That is the most wonderful thing about backpacking. Everything and everyone is new and so effortlessly engaging. There are no schedules, no tethers, no real obligations. You can really take the time to appreciate every thing around you. Many people travel with plans and itineraries, ‘Reservations’- which is fine if that is all you would like to experience but letting go of your big, important plans, going with the flow and getting outside of a timeframe is where the real essence of backpacking lies. Anyone who has wandered can relate, there is something amazing about simply taking things as they come on the road. Backpacking is about exploring a world much bigger than you and understanding the wonder in this. Embracing the uncertainty, giving up the need to understand and instead continuing to remain in awe and making the conscious effort to remain outside of your own mind- that is backpacking.

#thatisall

click here to follow Lindsay on twitter!

#WTF: No, I can't come with you to the #VMA's after party, my friend just won CupCake wars

<editorsnote> Nerds, meet my buddy Lindsay. She's crazy ... and bat shit ... and I love her for it! For reals, she hitchhiked across various African countries!!! HARDCORE!!! The girl is a whackadoodle noodle, but not at all a nerd. That is where I come in handy- I'm Lindsay's navigator on adventures. See, I show her how we get places via google maps, and she reminds me to stop tweeting and look up every once in a while. It's a match made in nerdy/non-nerdy heaven. That being saiiiddddddd ... she lives her life on the road and wants to share some of her experiences to all the nerdy folk out there that may be looking to do the same. Hit it Lindsay!!! </editorsnote>

#TalkNerdyToMeLover's @LindsayMc

Last night I worked the VMA’s and it was AMAZING! I was literally 15 feet away from Britney Spears the whole time, shook hands with Dave Grohl, got a high five from Kid Cudi and tossed a smile to Katy Perry and Russell Brand. Whoohoo.

And now is a great time to say that I really don’t care about that kind of shit. I listen to Phish, not Pharrel (is he even relevant anymore?) and you would find me at Burning Man over a Beyonce concert any day.

HOWEVER, I am honest enough to admit, it was still pretty freaking awesome to be so up close and personal with so many of today’s hottest music artists. Side Note- I had actually booked the gig and forgot about it until the night before. I was watching TV with a friend, debating whether or not we wanted to go out and party and I saw a commercial for the MTV’s VMA’s the next day and I was like ‘Oh shit, I can’t go out, I have to work that tomorrow!’ Haha, yeah, really not the kind of thing I get excited about. Only in LA…

The show itself was PHENOMENAL. I’m not sure how it played out on camera as I still haven’t seen the taping  (I haven’t seen a taping of the VMA’s since I was 14 for that matter) but actually inside the venue, it was a crazy bumping good time.

I had no idea who was performing or who was going to be there so the entire show was a surprise to me and I have to say, the biggest surprise was who I thought rocked it the most that night. Never in a million years would I have ever thought I would even see any of these three guys perform live let alone say that they were my favorite but Kanye West, Chris Brown and Lil Wayne KILLED IT that night.

With the magic of camera angles and fake cheers, Hollywood (and MTV producers) probably made every act last night stellar but from my position, right in between the main stage, the awards stage and the front row of celebs, THOSE three guys were the stars of the night.

And quite frankly, that surprises the shit outta me. Honestly, I thought Kanye was an idiot from the little I have heard about him and his emotional outburst, Chris Brown was some dude who made indefinable Top 40 shit who beat his girlfriend and Lil Wayne (“WHATTT?!!?! YEEEAAHH”) was just annoying as hell… but oh my goodness, can these guys put on a show. 

I was mesmerized, I was engaged, I was floored. Kanye was so intense, so real and raw, he put it all out there on stage and it was incredible to watch. Chris Brown was sang his heart out while flying around stage in freaking trapeze gear and Lil Wayne rocked the fuck out with a full band, completely revamping the image of him in my own mind.

It was nuts.

Besides that, it was a really cool perspective to see such influential people in such a real light (I don’t care how much you may or may not like Britney Spears or Katy Perry, you can not tell me that they are not influential.) These larger than life celebrities were sitting there, all dressed up watching other performers do what they do best (perform) and loving it. It was really cool. There wasn’t a feeling of competition or stuck-upness, just honestly, a feeling of comradery and even support between the artists.

And that actually, honestly shouldn’t have been so surprising. I’m going to really quick talk about the Hollywood I know. I moved out here from Virginia to play around in television production and enjoy the fact I can live two hours from the snow and still live at the beach. I love it here, I really do. That being said, people love to talk shit and make it seem like such a fake and scary place (I even talk shit about LA but for different reasons, like how people can’t drive in the rain and how there aren’t gas station signs on highway exit ramps.) There are a bunch of douchebags in Hollywood, that is absolutely true- but there are also a lot of really genuinely nice and fun people here too. It is an EXTREMELY competitive industry but not in a cut throat way, but in a ‘the numbers just sometimes aren’t in your favor’ way.

Concluding my tangent, I had an unexpectedly rockin’ (and eye opening) time at the VMA’s last night. I was even planning on going to the after party and sweet-talked my way into an extra credential to bring a friend. I texted her after we wrapped and told her to throw a black dress and heels and come party but she said she couldn’t because she was celebrating with her friend who won Cupcake Wars last night.  

Seriously, my girl couldn’t come with me to the VMA’s after party because she was celebrating with a friend who had just won Food Network’s Cupcake Wars. Only in LA…

#thatisall

Click here to follow Lindsay on Twitter ... cause like, she'd really appreciate it. kthxbye

#TrueStory: I Accidentally Took Acid... Twice.

<editorsnote> Nerds, meet my buddy Lindsay. She's crazy ... and bat shit ... and I love her for it! For reals, she hitchhiked across various African countries!!! HARDCORE!!! The girl is a whackadoodle noodle, but not at all a nerd. That is where I come in handy- I'm Lindsay's navigator on adventures. See, I show her how we get places via google maps, and she reminds me to stop tweeting and look up every once in a while. It's a match made in nerdy/non-nerdy heaven. That being saiiiddddddd ... she lives her life on the road and wants to share some of her experiences to all the nerdy folk out there that may be looking to do the same. Hit it Lindsay!!! </editorsnote>

#TalkNerdyToMeLover's @LindsayMc

I love music festivals. LOVE them which is why I had traveled across the country and down the coast to go to Bonnaroo in 2009. Bonnaroo is a four-day, absolutely amazingly insane music festival in the Middle of Nowhere (actually, Manchester) Tennessee. I hopped a flight across the US from California to Virginia to a bus to a train to North Carolina to meet up with an old college buddy and roadtripped from North Carolina to Tennessee.  By the time we got to Tennessee, I had been in transit for over 17 hours and it was POURING rain. A torrential down pour only the southern east coast could muster… and Soto (my college bud) and I were trapped in his 2002 Camry. Not the way we were hoping to start off our four day epic adventure.

It stormed the entire first day –note, the festival camp grounds open a day before the music starts and close the day after so it’s actually six days of camping- which destroyed any tent assembling efforts and soaked what little clothes we had for the whole trip. However, due to sheer determination (and a thirty minute break from the rain) we managed to throw up our not-water-proof-at-all tent and crack open a few beers right before we blew the fuse of the charger box for the car, therefore rendering our cellphone chargers useless and having to go without phones (but more importantly, time-keeping devices) for the rest of the festival. Ah, Welcome to Bonnaroo.

Albeit our admittedly rough start, the rest of the festival was AMAZING. Absolutely, words-cannot-explain incredible. Because it was just the two of us, we floated around and made some new, fantastic friends, got to see some out-of-this-world musical performances (this what the line up, I still tingle when I look at it http://www.inquisitr.com/17160/bonnaroo-2009-lineup/) and generally just had a great fucking time.   

It was the last set of the last day of the festival and Soto and I were rocking out with these guys who had somehow managed to sneak a bright green couch past security and actually into the audience on the lawn.  This was amazing to me because you couldn’t even bring in foldable beach chairs or sneak a water bottle full of vodka on to the festival music grounds but these guys somehow had a freaking couch AND a cooler full of booze. Legendary.

At this point, Soto and I were music fest veterans. We had sustained ourselves off of shakeable pancake mix and beer for the past five days and after flash floods, extreme heat, our half-standing tent and insane partying, we had pretty much gotten this festival thing down.

Phish (one of my all time favorite bands) was closing up the festival but I was keeping it kind of mellow because I knew that after Phish was done at midnight, I was going to have to hitchhike 11 hours back to my parents house in Virginia the next day and any backpacker knows, there are few things worse in this world than hitching with a hellish hangover.

 Enter the Coconut Ice cream Incident.

We were jamming out and enjoying our last festival night when one of the totally fried-out-of-his-mind couch guys handed me a pint of deliciously refreshing, oh-so-yummy coconut icecream. After a full day of drinking (or more like a full five days) who wouldn’t love some coconut icecream? I started mowing down on the pint when his not-so-fried-out-of-his-mind friend comes up to me and goes

Stoner Dude: “Whoa, you should like slow down, that shit’s really strong”

Me: “What?”

Stoner Dude: “Strong, there’s like- a lot of acid in there”

Me: “What?”

Stoner Dude: “Acid, in the icecream. Dude, you’ve musta eaten like three hits already”

Me: “WHAT?!”

WHAT THE FUCK? Acid? In the icecream!? God dammit.

outside the portapotties (drug free, kinda)And this is the beginning of ‘The Time that I Accidentally Took Acid’ (I know you are wondering about the ‘Twice’ part, just wait.)

For one second, I completely panicked. I had taken acid before in high school and I had HATED it. Although there were some parts about it that I had really liked, all and all it was way too intense of a drug for me. For anyone who hasn’t dabbled in recreational drug use, acid is nuts. It’s super intense, super visual and super conditional (as in it can turn on you any second) and, not to mention, it’s a huge commitment as a trip lasts anywhere from six to ten hours. The last time I did acid (which was meant to be my first and last time) I wouldn’t say that I had a ‘bad trip’ but I had a ‘really-not-good’ trip towards the end. Things got weird and scary and I felt extremely anxious and freaked out the whole time. Not cool. Not fun. Not how I was intending to spend my last night and morning at Bonnaroo.

The scariest part to me was how much I may (or may not have) consumed. That, combined with the fact the festival would be ending, how drained I already was and the fact that I was totally not prepared for this at all- conditions were looking pretty prime for a seriously bad trip. Shit.

I started weighing my options. Trying to throw up the icecream wouldn’t work as the acid had probably almost immediately seeped into my empty stomach. I had heard that alcohol decreased the effects of acid but really, how much booze was I going to have to drink to combat three hits of acid? I’d probably just end up wasted and still tripping. It’s times like these that all you want to do is completely lose your shit. Panic and fly off the handle, scream and yell about the injustice of the situation until things are made right.

Unfortunately, it’s also times like these that that is absolutely going to do no good (and actually, a whole lot of bad.) The only thing to do is stay calm, stay positive, stay ‘Dude.’  

So what to do? What to do?

E!

Of course. When in doubt, just do MORE drugs.

And this was the exact moment that I considered ‘candyflipping’ for the first time. “Candyflipping” is when you take acid and Ecstasy together at the same time. If that sounds crazy to you, that’s kind of because it is. Never in my life would I have ever even considered this but when in Rome… or at Bonnaroo…

As intense and as much of a commitment as acid is, ecstasy (or E) is just as well.

Except ecstasy isn’t conditional. At all. I would say it’s probably impossible NOT to have a good time on E. It’s call it ecstasy because it’s suppose to make you feel like that and keep you in that mental space… which is why, when I realized I had just taken three hits of acid, I decided it had to be the perfect (and only) remedy to the situation.

Okay, now where to find it?

I asked the couch guys if they knew anyone and they felt so bad about the coconut icecream mix up that they said to just go over to their friend ‘that dude in the bandana’ and ask him for it for free.

And this is where shit gets silly.

I go up to ‘that dude in the bandana’ and say that his friends asked if he could give me some for free. He says ‘Sure’ and hands me a de-labled Visine bottle.

Weird, I’ve never seen E in liquid form before. But then again, I am no drug expert so who knows?

I drop a drop on my tongue, say Thanks and walk back over to the couch boys.

Me: “Thank you guys so much. I was totally about to freak out… That’s crazy though, I have never seen ecstasy in liquid form before.”

Stoner Dude: “Liquid? Nah, he’s got pills.’

Me: “What?”

Stoner Dude: “He’s got little green pills, E’s not liquid…”

Me: “What?”

Trying to find the communication breakdown in a sea of newly massacred brain cells is like trying to find a needle in a hay stack.

Me: “That dude in the bandana –pointing at the guy with the Visine bottle- he’s got pills?”

Stoner Dude: “Huh? THAT dude in the bandana? Nah, -pointing at ANOTHER GUY IN ANOTHER BANDANA- THAT dude in the bandana, he’s got pills… I don’t even know that other guy.”

Ohhhhh my goodness. Holy freaking shit.

And here is ‘The Time I Accidentally Took Acid… Twice.’

Wow, am I dumb. Of course, E wasn’t in liquid form. Of course, anything coming out of Visine bottle that isn’t Visine is acid. OF COURSE. And of course, my brain was so scattered from partying all weekend and in a tizzy over taking accidental acid that I didn’t put it all together until it was too late. Of course.

New friendsThis time the couch guys walk me up to the CORRECT dude in the CORRECT bandana and he gives me a whole pill and splits one with me (are you calculating the amount of drugs in my system now? Mom, please don’t be mad.)

Ah, situation controlled (kind of.)

As will all of my stories, this one has a happy ending too. The acid kicks in while I’m watching Phish and it is THE MOST OUT-OF-THE-WORLD performance that I have EVER SEEN. Seriously. Words-can-not-describe amazingness. The lights, the jam sessions, oh my God. What I would give to be able to be able to record and relive what I experienced… ah!

But as soon as the set ended, the festival ended too. The ‘ugly lights’ blasted on, lighting up the tired crowd, surrounding trash and beginning-to-be-disassembled vendorbooths for the first time in five nights. Cops on massive, stoic horses lined the walkways, looking down on everyone and making sure no one got rowdy or out of line. Our little community, our little world was ending and no one wanted it to be over just yet. I felt like I was in a scene of Pink Floyd’s The Wall and was starting to lose control of my trip.  

Soto and I walked back to our campsite without saying a word. Soto had never played with drugs before (plus he was totally wasted) so he couldn’t relate what I was going through and drank a quick beer with me and went to bed. I stayed up, chugging beers (remember I said alcohol decreases your trip) and watching the moon pixilate and shift.

Sitting by myself in the dark as everyone stumbled by in groups was starting to trip me out (and trip other people out too, I’m sure.) With my only friend fast asleep, what the heck was I going to do with myself all night in this condition?

The first one is the couple I met at the end during our late night adventureThings were starting to get weird and really ‘real.’ I have been racking my brain about what it’s like to be on acid and what I’ve come up with is that everything feels vividly and weirdly real (which may or may not be ironic depending on how you look at it.) Everything around you and surrounding you has a noticeable energy or vibration. It’s like you are seeing and feeling a reality that our normal senses are not equipped for and honestly, it’s very overwhelming.

I have no doubt that acid can be used as a consciences expanding vehicle in the right circumstances. I also have no doubt that being bored with a few friends in high school or being drained after a five day long bender are absolutely not the right circumstances.

I was starting to get creeped out by the realness of it all when I suddenly realized that I really had to pee. I had been drinking water and beer for hours on end and I had been so concerned by what was going on in my head, I had completely ignored my body.

I booked it across the campsite to the portapotties and made it just in time.

When stepped out of the portapotty, like a ton of bricks or a gust of wind, the E kicked in.

Things changed from overwhelming and weird to magical in an instant.

When I had gone into the portapotty, the campground lights had looked harsh and sterile, like sad lights on a cold movie set. It felt hospital-ly and surreal. When I stepped out of the portapotty (and the E had kicked in) the lights were soft, glowing, sparklely even, guiding the way to where ever I may have needed or wanted to go. 

No joke. The change was that profound.

I could go on forever about the implications of perspective and the influence of our own minds on reality but I would rather just say, as soon as I stepped out of the portapotty, things began to get awesome.

I immediately met a couple standing right outside the bathrooms who were also all sorts of fucked up on God know’s what. We instantly hit it off and ventured together all over the darkened festival campgrounds on what still is, one of the most EPIC adventures of my life.

All and all it was an incredibly epic and expanding (even though completely unexpected) experience. Looking back, my ability to handle and make the best out of a potentially insanely shitty situation gives me a strong sense of gratification and confidence in dealing with life in general. 

Drugs, backpacking and life have a lot in common. You have no real idea what you are getting yourself and all you really can do is- do your best, hope for the best and make the best out of whatever comes out. Life’s a rad trip… candyflipped or otherwise.

#safetravels

Click here to follow Lindsay on twitter!

#NotANerd: Examines a life held together by dreams and duct tape

<editorsnote> Nerds, meet my buddy Lindsay. She's crazy ... and bat shit ... and I love her for it! For reals, she hitchhiked across various African countries!!! HARDCORE!!! The girl is a whackadoodle noodle, but not at all a nerd. That is where I come in handy- I'm Lindsay's navigator on adventures. See, I show her how we get places via google maps, and she reminds me to stop tweeting and look up every once in a while. It's a match made in nerdy/non-nerdy heaven. That being saiiiddddddd ... she lives her life on the road and wants to share some of her experiences to all the nerdy folk out there that may be looking to do the same. Hit it Lindsay!!! </editorsnote>

#TalkNerdyToMeLover's @LindsayMC

So up until now you know me as Jen's crazy friend who she goes on adventures with as well as a whiny little girl who had just had her heart broken but I'd like to take a moment to reintroduce myself to you if you don't mind. Hi, I'm Lindsay and I live a pretty interesting life. I somehow manage to talk my way into insanely epic situations and even though I am the first to admit that my life is "held together by dreams and duct tape" (a phase I made up and routinely over use) I am always always on an awesome adventure.

Part of always being on an adventure for me is never having a 9-5 job. This means two things, I never know where my next pay check is coming in from (or if it's coming in at all) and I get to pick up some pretty random and stellar ways to make money.

The job I'm on right now is no exception. I am working as a "talent assistant" on a hugely popular singing competition show... and it is a freaking blast. I get to work with four incredibly talented musicians, not to mention the other behind the scenes crew who are probably some of the raddest people I have ever met. Our show has one host and three judges, one of them being someone who I have listened to religiously since I was 14 and they also happen to be four of nicest and most interesting people I have ever had the pleasure to work with, famous or not. The other four members of our " talent team" and I basically work as the liaisons between the "talent" (the host and judges) and the various facets of production on set (hair and make up, script writers, producers, etc.)

If you haven't worked in television before, you're probably calling bullshit on the importance of our jobs - but we are actually totally necessary and here's why... On set at any given time there can be about 10 to 20 people representing various parts of production that need to interact with or relay messages to the on screen talent. Each persons need is absolutely important and most likely crucial to the flow of shooting and they all know it (IE wardrobe needs to fix a lapel, makeup needs to retouch, scripts needs to go over new lines, producers need them to walk in a new direction.)

On top of those differing needs, each person has their own personality and way of handling things and if we had all those people trying to communicate with the oh-so-very important on screen talent, they won't be able to focus on their sparking personalities shining on screen. See how that works? Plus, we are also totally there as barriers for when shit hits the fan (and believe me, shit always hits the fan.)

There is a lot of money invested into a super tight amount of time so when things get behind or are misunderstood it's like being inside a pressure cooker. People start yelling and freaking out and it's our job to be able to gather all the information, decide what most important at that exact second and calmly and happily relay that to talent. When shit isn't hitting the fan, we basically hang out, Facebook on our cellphones, eat amazing catered meals... and flirt.

Production is a male dominated industry (like every industry I seem to work in) and being in Hollywood, a lot of the guys on set live up to the stereotype of being fun, young and good looking. Let me reiterated the "production" part, as in the behind the scenes guys. This ain't my first rodeo on set (I've worked in production on a few shows on varying networks) and I know well enough not to mess with talent (on this show it is not even an issue because all three guys are happily married.) It's not because I have or because I've been told not to or anything but honestly, once I saw inside of that kind of lifestyle, it's just something I wouldn't be interested in being involved with in anyway (its absolutely not bad and really seems just as fun and as wonderful as the tabloids make it out to be but still, just not my thing)...

But the wise-cracking, Vans-wearing, kinda grungy production boys- now that's a different story.

There are two guys in particular on this set who have caught my eye. One guy, let's call him D who works in stage production and the other guy, hm, let's call him J (I am so creative, huh?) who works in scripts. D and J are super different from each other and I have managed to separately but equally flirt with both since our first day on set. D is the tall, goofy guy who everyone loves (and not just because he is in charge of fixing our walkie talkies and finding missing power cords) and J is the hot new guy all the girls are going for, who may or may not know it.

This is a good time to say that I'm not one of those girls who has shitty taste in guys. Honestly, I date really really great dudes (my most recent ex included even though I totally trashed him out of petty emotional devastation in my previous posts) and the "desirable" guy that every chick wants just doesn't do it for me unless he is actually genuinely really rad. So where you might expect a chick to bypass the "nice guy" and go for the hot, possibly more challenging one, that just simply isn't the case for me. I don't see love or even just hooking up as a game or way to validate my hotness or value, I just don't. Okay, so with that being said, D is not the easy choice either but for a different reason. Me and D were chatting earlier about how he bounces out of town every chance he gets and does all this fun stuff and he was totally making me laugh the whole time and he kinda seems like a dude I would have a really really good and easy time with... Which is really freakin' scary.

I just had my heart ripped out by one of those "nice, fun guys" and it fucking sucked. I never thought I would have fallen for him but then I did and then when didn't work out, I went fucking crazy and I'm not down with being that kind of girl. I just put myself back together and there is no way I am subjecting myself to anything like that anytime soon.

Not that I think me and D will even get to that point, but I am not allowing it and putting myself into the position of being completely and fiercely protective of my heart and I don't want to be even impacted emotionally in the least by any dude... So D might be a dangerous choice for me right now.

Regardless, this is how today went with D and J. D and I chatted over breakfast in the morning and said Hi when we passed each other three times, maybe four times during the day. He was swamped all day and kind of stressed, things were super mellow in talent world so I had a lot of time on my hands to play around (and write this, on my iPhone, seriously on that small ass screen) so we didn't get to hang out as much as we usually do- lame but whatevs. With J-boy however, today we made some strides. He completely fabricated three different reasons to come visit me by the talent trailers. Really. There was no reason he needed to be anywhere near the trailers but he happened to walk by, "run" into me (he knew I was there) and stopped to chat. He's a cool dude. He seems really nice and is not nearly as scary to me as D. We also have the same taste in music, well at least I know he likes Phish so that's rad too.

So hm, I donno. They are both fun... and flirting with new boys is always fun too. It's tough when you only see someone once or twice  a week on a pretty demanding show, even if it is for 12 to 16 hours. By the time we wrap for the night, everyone just wants to get the hell out and during the day its not completely appropriate to get digits yet (they would have to ask me, I don't ask for boys numbers.) but as the weeks go on, things seem to be getting more interesting so I wonder if anything is going to happen... I guess we will have to wait until the next episode to find out... Not literally, I won't see either of them until we shoot episode number 306 next week ;)

#thatisall

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